The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-26

regions around. The structure is $50
feet long, has semi-circular ends, and
the ceiling is 10 feet high. The roof
rests upon A pillars of red sandstone,
nine by three feet in diameter, and |
fourteen to twenty feet high. At the |
west end are the stand. the orchestra
seats, ard a large organ of fifty stops
and about 1900 pipes. This organ is
thirty-three by thirty feet and fifty
eight feet high.
Assembly Hall is handsome granite
structure, which will seat 5000 people.
It is used for religious meetings, espec-
tally every Sunday afternoon, when
the principal service of the day IS he'd.
On these occasions it is packed to over
flowing. Sunday Schools are held in
the different Ward Assembly Halls.
in the morning. as also services in the
evening, but all gather in the same
building in the afternoon. The lesser
Assembly Halls in the various wards
serve not only for services on Sunday,
but are used for school purposes on
week days. The Mormon schools,
however, are by no means to be COM
pared in thoroughness and general eff
ficiency with the Gentle schools
which have been established by the
different religious denominations
These are all in a fiourishing condition.
and considerable number of children
from Mormon families are attached to
them. These Assembly Halls are also
used, one evening each week, for dane
ing parties, which are carried on under
the auspices of the Mormon church /;
they are opened with prayer, and closed
with the benediction
Then there is the incomplete Temple,
also, within the Temple Block enclos-
ure. If ever finished. it will be mag.
nificent edifice. It's walls of grey gran
lite have been very slowly rising for a
number of years, and nobody knows
how many years more will be neces-
sary to complete them. Some of the
wicked Gentiles suggest that it is no
part of the plan of the Mormon
authorities to have the Temple com
pleted right away, as its unfinished
walls afford constant basis of appeal
to the people for funds, which, once
secured, they will devote to such pur-
poses as they see fit, or as some new
revelation" may indicate The
Temple is designed to be used for bap
tisms, combinations, ordinations, mar
riages. priesthood prayer-meetings, and
priestly purposes generally.
At the northwest corner Of the
square is small building called the
Endowment House, or Marrying Estab
lishment, more properly. Here, every
Thursday, the elaborate, secret, absurd
blasphemous, marriage, or sealil.g g
rites, are gone through with for al
such as offer themselves, and theil
name is said to be legion. It believed
that more polygamous marriages have
been solemniZed" here within a year
or two past than ever before. The de-
tails of this service, which have been
published by one who has been through
it, but has since renounced the faith,
are both ridiculous and revolving in the
extreme.
i The population of the city is made
up mainly of MOrmons, who constitute
perhaps four-ffths of the whole. This
includes very large foreign element
principally Scandinavian, and not Of
J the highest classes either. Recruits
are brought in from time to time from
the lower classes of the British Isles
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and else
where, as we'll as from our own south
ern states, and scattered through thi!
and adjoining territories Mormon
missionaries are kept in these foreign
| fields constantly.
The generality of the Mormon popula
ton is far from comparing favorably
with the Gentle element. in enterprise
thrift, or intelligence. The women
especially, fall far below their Gentle
sisters in these respects. They are
on the whole, a rather hard looking
set. Of course there are exceptions
, but | speak now of the people in gener
al. / am told that in the Mormon
villages and settlements through tn,
country ignorance is dense, and deg
radiation is in some cases appalling
But GENTLE schools are now multiply
ing and are exerting most wholesom,
influence, which, in few years at
farthest, must tell powerfully uFon th,
solution of this yexed Mormon prob
lem.
l have not been here suffcientl,
long to feel prepared to speak intelli
gently and wisely in regard to thegener
al situation of affairs in Utah, although
; many, know, are able to take il all il
during visit of two or three days
and then return to the East prepared
to lecture on the subject!-to say moth
ing of instructing Congress how tt
legislate! But this institution O
Mormonism, with its practical work
ings its spirit, and all about it, is not t,
be learned in day. It has Aistor,
behind it which must be understood
before its present condition aid op
eratlons can be fully appreciated.
have learned much of course 1urin,
these two months, but to hear OLE
residents talk, l feel that my knovledg,
is very limited, and that have hardl,
begun as yet to gain an insight into
the system. 1t is safe to say, however
that the further one penetrates toward
the inner spirit of it the less he finds
in it to commend, the more is his pity.
awakened for the ignorant and super.
; stltious people who are made the dupes
of the leaders, and the greater his dis.
gust at the. blasphemous assumptions
of the latter that they sustain specially
; intimate relations with the Most High
The revelations which they receive
and which are law to the people, are
conveniently adjusted to every enbar-
RAISING emergency, or to their own
selfish schemes. Not that there are NOT
some commendable features to the
system,-it would be strange, indeed,
of there were not, but if we Judge il
by its fruits, it is unquestionably bad
The prevailing spirit of it's teachings,
so far as can learn from personal at
tendance upon their meetings, and
from the testimony of others who are
familiar with them, is bitterly inioler-
ant toward all of differing faith. hostile