San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1884-03-13
Prinssd N fAs paper ey special arraagspssnf
uiM Me asnor.
SEALED UNTO HIM.
A STORY OF THE EARLY DAYS
OF M0RM0NISM.
Bx JOAQUIN MILLER,
AUTHOR OF 'soSas OF TIE sIKRRAs," ''rHE
pANIrEs," 'rExonR AND RIME, Ero.

Br JOAQUIN MILLER,
AurnoR OF 'soSos OF TIE srKRRAs," 9TH
pAsrrEs," 'MRxonx AND nrME, Ero.
CHAPTER I. Ff
rHR rouxDAnos or THE ORDER OF DANTE,
.D.p shall Judge his peoplsas one Of sss tribe
''Dan shall be . serpent by the way. an adder .
the path. that bitsth tho horse heels, % that hi
rider shall fall bsehwsrd"--dH. tsii is. II.
Planted down in the heart Of the
continent, and "by the way" Gin the
path" of the weary pilgrims journey
ing to the remote West, you can vel
see how the Mormon elders put thei,
fingers on this text and told theil
ignorant following that they were th'
chosen people referred to here; tina
they were the children of Dan tina
they should judge the people who
came that way; that they, the Nor
mons, as the children Of Dan, were
''the serpent by the way" can adder
in the path.
In the the large reading of the text
and a liberal view and look of it all,
it seems plausible almost, even to us.
How certain then did it seem to those
ignorant and merciless followers of
the dread order of the Daaities, es-
thablished there "by the way" sin
the path" that they were, as they
sat in the heart of the desert, to be
the 'judges" of those who passed by
Back of this Bible text lay much
bitterness, induced by sad history,
much suffering and persecution. The
Mormons firmly believed the order Of
the Danites was necessary, not only
for the purpose of Judging" the
earth, but for their own preservation.
More than thirty years ago first
encountered these people. My faith
er and his little Sunday train-that
is, a train that would not travel on
Sunday in crossing the plains, be-
cause of religious scruples--pitched
tent on the banks of the Missouri at
Council Bluffs, right in their trails.
We saw thousands of caves, little
mud huts, novels, all sorts of miser-
able little habitations, where the
whole mass of Mormons had winter
ed few seasons before, in their ex-
odus from the United States to what
was then supposed to be Mexico.
When our train crossed the Missouri
and pushed west to try to reach the
Pacific, we were still in their trails,
following the marks their great NOV
ing caravan made as it drew it's mot
tied length like shining serpent
across the great deserts to Salt Lake.
was but small lad at that time,
not big enough to bear arms, or in
deed to understand much of any
thing. But this much I understood,
and understood 30 well that it be-
came a part of my life; that we were
in peril. 1t was not Indians we
feared. My father was a Quaker, and
feared no man whom he could look
in the face. But he did fear the
Danites, whom no man might see till
they did their bloody work.
Not that he or his had ever had
my part OF hand in their persecu
ion but this terror of them was in
he air, it was over all things We
snew that our road lay through or by |
Salt Lake. There was no escaping
hat. We must follow on in their
rack till we we came in our journey
o where Dan, who judged his peo-
pie, lay like "serpent by the way"
AN adder in the path"
1 forgot to mention that my faith
,r had done o little something in
his quiet Quaker-like way to help,
,r try to help. beautiful young wo-
nan who had come in great dis
;-ess 10 our camp one evening while
ented in the old Mormon winter
quarters on the banks Of the Mis-
ouri But surely he had no cause
o fear evil for good
The facts were simply these This
black eyed little lady was
me OF the ten thousand emigrants
tarting out in q long, weary line
owards the remotest West She
Eas with her people-her parents, /
Irothers and sisters, and some other (
il / remember correctly. E
his young lady Of eighteen, gifted
raoeful, good 10 her parents, full Of
fectiOn, WAS suffering from an un-
fear Of the Mormons-
Ter people. she told my father IN
srTi6ed whispers. were from the
me settlement the Mor18Ons origin
ny started from, and she knew hat
r. people vOuH Be -5ndgsd- BY the