The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1883-10-16
1DALIA WEEKLY BAZOO. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16 1883

thought of than the implied dispar.
aeement of polygamy which might b<
found in q rich mans following thu
gentle fashion.
However that may be, this young hus'
band found cause for following the
patriarchal custom, and in the second
year of their marriage informed biz
wife that he was about to we'd two
others. The shock was terrible. But
sne was dumb. She had married with
her outer eyes open; this wac the Gus.
tom and she would 60 through with it;
and she did-even to the extent of the
cynical Mormon form of requiring q
FIRST wife to attend and distribute, as
it were. to the next her portion OF
their husband. She appeared in the
endowment-house, gave away success
fully to the two other brides their
thirds Of her husband, and vent home
with her third and--a breaking heart.
1t took some little time for the wife
to analyze her feelings. to the tremen-
dous change that had overcast her
young life, and to form a clear con-
clusion.
But after q year or two she-Or
rather universal womanhood in her
did reach a clear conclusion. She
told her husband that she loved him
as dearly as ever, that she had made
up her mind to bear the burden of the
present situation, but t.iat she could
bear no more. and if he should take
a further step in polygamy he must
take it without her.
Thirteen more years elapsed /; the
first wife got on pleasantly enough
with the second and third. Each of
them had a pleasant and well-provid-
ed home to herself, and children nest
ling to her heart gave each some of
the feeling ola home.
But, under exceptional circun-
stances, the husband then thought it
his duty to marry a fourth wife.
Thereupon his first wife separated
from him. After fifteen years of mar
ried life, the English lady still young
and handsome, is now prepared to
leave her home and work for q liveli-
hood.
Her husband acted with strict hon.
or. He persuaded her that it was but
just that she should keep her house
and her three children, and that he
should support them nor did he deny
her the right to live separately from
him.
With his fourth wife the husband
travelled to Europe and elsewhers.
When he returned to Salt Lake it
was to find things somewhat changed.
Had there been a revolution? Yes
the parting look of the ore woman
who had held his whole heart had con.
sumed the paradise of his youthful
dream. She had all along represent
ed the womaniy spirit-the Madonna
principle in the universe, before which
the barbarisms of primitive man had
for ages receded. Her woman's heart.
so alone, had beaten with trip-hammer
strokes-strokes of fate. The visions
of Prophet Joseph Smith sank to the
mediumship of Joe Smith ; the taber
nacle, with its patrisrchal institution,
became as a child's footstep on the
beach where tide is swelling.
This man now saw the whole thing
as through a rift in the cloudy hori-
ION. He began to preach and to
prophesy a ne Mormouism, latter
day broad church-polygamy lett
out. The reforms he proposed seem-
ed mild to the gentiles, but tine elders
have instincts keen as the senses of
Moroni, or any of his Indian descend
ants ; they laid their ears close to the
ground and heard the tramp of revo-
luiionary battalions marching behind
this man of gentle speech. They ex.
communicated him.
They were not mistaken hardly
was his word of reform spoken ere it
flashed from keart to heart, passed
from tongue, to tongue gathering to
it the best non-oficial heads of the
tabernacle.
Other accommodations followed,
which of course meant only the plant
ing of q new idea and cause in Utah,
one that still grows and whose fruitage
is not doubtful. And this is just what
bas come out of this little tale l have
been faithfully telling from the lives
of the two persons in whose beauti-
full and happy home a, Salt Lake
City I am writing it down.
For these lovers wouldtnet really be
parted. Four dreary years of separa-
ton brought him again to the bride Of
his youth-in the laws eye his only
wife. They to whom he had been