The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-04-22

wait q few weeks. make aCquaintauces
and learn the story Of each house within
tine scope of your vision, and you will
find. whatever spot you may happen
upon, that there are dwellings around
you. sometimes many Of them, whose
cheerless walls have looked down on
scenes truly hcartreudiag; scenes Of
neglect and sometimes Of abuse Of first
wives and their children; Of anger and
recrImuatious, OF sorrow, anguish and
priyation; and not infrequently, in
years gone by. on scenes Of blood whose
bare recital today chiIls one to the mar
row. ! live in one Of the better Nor
mon towns, morally and socially, and !
am far from knowing all the facts CON
corning the dwellings that surround me;
aud vet what a disgraceful array, for
the honor of our country, is presented
to the mind by little familiarity with
the scenes about me.
To begin with. the previous owner Of
this very house WAS a woman, who, while
second wife to polvgamist in another
town, fell in love O. with married
man here in Lehi and wanted to marry
{ :. him. Mr. X, the object Of her atiec-
tiOns, was not desirOus IF going into the
marrying business bv the wholesale, but
she was not to be rebutied. She induced
the Patriarch of "the church" to grant
a divorce lthe divorce system here Is
more demorallziug than anything | have
ever heard of in any section of the East,
and persuaded him TO use his influence
with Brother y. to induce the latter
TO accede to her wishes. The interces-
sion of the Patriarch was successful.
Brother" Y made the love smitteu isis
ter" his second wife, and she lived here
with him for several years, bearing him
four children who are still in town.
La course of time, however, the much
married and very religious sister again
became restless. A Bishop living to the
south Of here, had but two wives, and
Mrs (?) Y. pined to become No. 3 to this
officer in the Lords kingdom," and so
once more the divorce machinery was
set in motion, and she departed to her
new bridegroom. She now is quite
equal, it would seem, to her husband,
he having three wives living, and she
three husbands! This Is no strange and
exceptional case. 1t eXcites no commO-
ton in Mormon society. / have heard
of one woman who has seven husbands
now living.
Glancing down the street to the west,
a couple OF blocks away, | see the house
of the former Bishop, man who passed
from this earth to his reward awhile
ago, full of years, and, if the testimony
OF apostate Mormons Is to be received,
full of crimes likewise. Certain it Is
that he was the father Of Il children and
had six women as his wives, including a
mother and her daughter! Certain it Is
that nothing but a runaway match in
the night deferred him from laying un-
holy hands on a second daughter OF the
same woman. Allowing the eyes to
sweep southwark, two other large houses
loom up, but block away, each of them
the home of a polygaml st. y little
farther south and even nearer by, Is the
neat little cottage of a neglected first
wife. a woman whose husband lives IN
the upper part of the town with another
woman and has never crossed her door
sill since the house was built, years ago.
He even bOasted sometime since that he
had never been closer to her dwelling
than barely within sight of its chin
neys.
just opposite this poor woman hives a
Mormon wife who has had the rare abll-
iry to hold her in check when his mind
was set on polygamy, and the singular
good fortune TO keep a second woman
out of her home. For thirty years
and more she has fought plural mar
riage," even going so far As to inform
her husband that it if he took another
wife she would kill him. This argument,
sustained by her flashing black eyes,
prevailed, and the life long battle was
decided in her favor. Probably not half
4 dozen women in Utah have been thus
successful in fighting the relic OF bar
barism. The great mass OF them have
succumbed to the pressure brought to
bear upon them, and a saddened life, a
home filled with dissension and strife
and a FASTENED grave, have commonly
marked the fact that the man, or the
beast, has prevailed Opposite the house
last named and but a block from here
lives another polygamist whose first wife
while she lived with him used to make
his home so frosty that he was glad tC
spend his winter evenings by neigh
bors kitchen fire. On the same blocB
with Us is another polygamist, while
right across the way from this house, II
1 a little adobe shanty live two families
one OF them sooalied physician and hii
two wives. 1t will be noticed that every
/ house referred to is within two block.
Of this one, and most of them wlthir
one. Do ! need to 60 beyond this limi
and tell the status of the town at large
/ Do l need to tell of brutalities, disgrace
/ full deceptions and lying? OF men wh'
/ have ordered their first wives out o
their homes in case the latter would no
submit 10 the presence of second wo
4 man? OF two sisters married TO th'
same man. or of our bishop who, II
obedience to the priesthood, seereti,
took a woman who had been his ser
want. for his second wife, and for lon:
after ioined with her in denying th'
fact, even allowing her to pass Tor
/ common serumpet before he acknoWl
edged her? These shameful things ar
so common in this precious 'Zion" tina
nv readers are doubtless more or les
familiar with them. One can scarcei.
| nierre the surface anywhere In Utal
without finding in the life below,
Greater or less amount of baseness, cruel
~ and suffering. The cry which woul'
naturally arise from thousands OF aehln
hearts is suppressed by the strong nan
of the church. Every smothered shrle
/ which is heard must be multiplied man
times if one would get any correct ldei
i of the state of things in the inner lie
this people Advantage Is taken OF We
4 mans strong religious nature and she
kept quiet under the curse which
blighting her life by the threat that t
rebel is to lose her chance of salvatlo
and TO be doomed TO internal punisi
ment. Only occasionally does this pow
erful lever fail to keep down the strus
. gIigg passion within. Occasionally !
does fail. however, as the following inc
| dent shows. A bishop went to "labC
with a refractory wife who refused he
husband the privilege of No. :" Sh
, stiIl refused. The bishop persisted a
length, in anger, she ordered him out
!, the house; wherenpon he turned savag
{ lIy upon her, saying, you will go
|, hell and welter in the flames She r
, piled. "Bishop, ! don't know what WI
come to me in the next world, but yo
NAV be sure of one thing: I'll not hay
my hell in this life.
I have been familiar with Utah atfail
for several years and have found myse