The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-05-18
THE LITTLE MORMON MAID-sERY.
ANT.

household, was in finding servants.
The first cook we hired, at exorbitant
wages, was a Chinaman ; but as these
Celestials have neither godliness nor the
next thing to it, my wife soon discharged
him, and / came home one evening to
find that he had packed up his things
and q good many of ours-and was
gone.
We had q young China-boy for house.
maid, but he allowed himself to be in
huenced by his discharged fellow-serv-
ant and took French leave the next day.
Misfortupes W come singly, nor go
singly.
Ny wife now began to walk the town
over in search of a girl. Women-serv-
ants, especially young girls, it is diff
cult for Gentle families to procure in
some parts Of Utah, particularly in
towns off the railroads, where the Nor
mons retain their great prejudice against
the "foreign element" as the Gentiles
are called, and rarely allow their
daughters to go out to service in Gen
tile families, for fear the young saints
will be estranged from the church, or
Contaminated by the worlds people,"
as the Mormons express it. Besides,
there are not many young girls in the
Mormon church. They are advised to
marry young, and Mormon men are en-
couraged to marry a number of wives.
The o wives each man takes the
greater his power in the church.
But my wife's search for a servant
repaid by introducing her to the
quaint interiors of a number Of Mormon
houses to which she had been advised to
go, and for several days we had little
conversation at meals beside a descrip-
ton of these interiors; and they were
not always a~ppetizing.
Some of the houses to which her
search led her were the homes of Scan
dinavian converts to Mormonism, houses
of n room, built either of rough, red
granite boulders, or of dull adobes ;
inside carpeted with loose straw; the
little square windows curtained with
short white ~conyentual curtains, gather
ed on rods at the top and bottom.
In many instances q shelf is hinged
against the wall, and serves as a cloth
less dinner-table, and can afterwards be
dropped fiat against the wall by folding
its prop, thus making more room in the
hampered quarters.
Some of these houses are enclosed
by rush-woyen fences, made of switches
braided horizontally between upright
posts. These fences, looking like the
woven willow cradles In texture give a
foreign appearance to the streets they
border, and are SO close-weft that o child
could not find an aperture large enough
TO thrust its little hand through to pluck
the flowers inside.
But the queer fences seemed also to
guard the young girls in the families as
well IS they did the flowers, and my wife
was unsuccessful in her search. The
Mormon mothers all told her there had
been O rule recently made in the church
that all young girls under the age of
sixteen, instead of going out to service,
must go to school, for the Mormons have
educational establishments, but they are
schools where knowledge comes, but
wisdom fingers, being mere instruments
for the diffusion of Mormon doctrine.
At last, after days OF fruitless effort,
we found at our very door that for which
we had searched far and wide. It
chanced that the Mormon Bishop, from
whom we rented our house, lived
in q rambling house of rough and red
granite, next door to us. He had built
his houses on adjoining lots, and had a
wife and family living in each house /;
but jealousy sprang up between the two
wives, and the Bishop removed the
youngest and favorite wife to the coun-
try. and rented to us her vacated house.
One morning, while we were still with
out q servant, my wife CHANGED to step
into the Bishops first wife's house, next
door, to see about having some repairs
made upon our house. Nothing but an
errand aver takes q GENTLE lady into one
of these Occidental harems. While there
she happened to remark her greatneed
OF Q servant, and vas much astonished
mt the novel experience of having our
landlords wife offer with a~lacrity one
Of her numerous and Unsupported
daughters for the situation. Her first
thought was that the woman made the
offer simplyto oblige us temporarily, and
she was about to decline it with thanks,
when, after q glance over the poverty
stricken room, she concluded that the
offer came from pecuniary necessity in.
stead of pure kind-heartedness, and al
once closed the bargain. Apparently
this Bishop pinched his first wife's fam.
lily to indulge the second wife's, for he
was q man of some consideration in the
church, and must have had means tc
support one family well.
When / returned home that evening ]
found o young "Saint" established in
the place of our departed Celestial.
It seemed to give our little Mormon
girl delight so disproportioned in effect
to the cause that she was questioned
by one of the children, why she seemed
80 happy. She answered that if she had
MOI rOt n hnrnn u-skh n ohn v-o ohAr1
to have been obliged by her father to &C
to live with his second wife, where she
would have had hard work +; would have
lived in the country. which she disliked,
and would have received no wages. In
the poorer Mormon families it is custom,
airy for the first wife and her children tt
become virtually servants to the second
wife and her children. The children o.
one wife call all the other wives of thei
father "Aunt."
Our little Mormon maids name wal
Julie. She speedily became a great
fayorite with the children of our family
who ate with her at the second table
f, and learned from her some primitive
table manners. At dinner, on her first
evening In our service, the children dis
covered that it was against the rules O
the Mormon church to drink either tel
or coffee, and Julie never tasted either
while she lived with US.
On the first Sunday night Julie wal
, with us, she was undressing the younger
children in the nursery while thei
mother was hearing them recite thei
catechism. One Of the children wa
asked
"Paul, who made your"
And he answered "God."
The next question in the catechismis
"Are there more Gods than n ?"
And again he answered properly, "No
there is but one God"
At this Julie looked up astonished
and as if thinking Paul's catechiser wa
ab~stracted and allowing him to recit
wrong, Julie said, timidly: "Paul an
swered that question wrong, ma'am."
what must I say?' lisped Paul, be
wildered.
Julie answered. "You must say, yes
there are many Gods"
Paul's mother protested against he