Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-02-23
LAST NIGHTS DAsTARDLY WORK.

A dastardly assault on the person of
United States District Attorney w. H.
Dickson was committed last evening by
four eowardly wretches-two sons and a
nephew of George Q. Cannon, and a vii
lain named Hughes. Under pretense of
having information to impart to Mr..
Dickson in his capacity as a United States
official, two of these wretches, after night
fall, sought the gentleman at the Con-
tenental Hotel and begged him TO accom-
pany them to the sidewalk, where they
could talk out of earshot of any one
who might feel disposed to act
the eavesdropper. No suspicion OF foul
play crossed the mind of the gentleman
so importuned, and in compliance with
their request he accompanied them to the
sidewalk. Here the two accomplices in
waiting made their appearance, and
almost at the moment the unsuspectlng
mans foot crossed the threshold of the
door, one of the misbegotten wretches
dealt him two terrific blows in the face,
while his cowardly accomplices sought to
help on the brutal work by hampering
the assailed man SO that he could not
defend himself. In the scuffie that
ensued window was broken, and the
crash of falling glass attracting the atten-
ton of gentlemen near by, the scurvy
wretches ceased their cowardly attack
and sought to escape in the darkness.
So, it has come to this at last, that in
Utah officers of the United States Gov
ernment who seek only to well and truly
perform the duties devolving upon them
in pursuance of their oaths, can no longer
60 on with their work, or live in their
own houses, without running the risk of
being set upon and brutally beaten, if
not murdered outright, by ill-conditioned
scoundrels who, measuring the popular
sentiment in Utah by their own fiendish
feelings, imagine that it would be glori-
GUS thing to MAIN or kill deputy mar
shal or two, or wound unto death those
faithful officers OF the courts to whom is
entrusted the important work OF en-
forcing the law against all violators
thereof.
To say that this brutal work has the
approval OF the entire Mormon people,
would be to basely libel them. But that
there is, all over Utah, strong under
current of animosity at work against the
officials who are now bravely doing their
duty-that and nothing more-is to put
it mildly. For years and years the
people here have been taught to regard
United States officials as their sworn ene-
mics, whose mission was and is
to harass, oppress and imprison
them for their religions sake; who
look with greedy eye upon the posses
sions of the people, and whose highest
ambition is to bring on a conflict here
which shall result in a renewal of the ex-
pulsion scenes experienced at Kirkland
and Nauvoo, the better that they may
seize upon the property of the Saints.
The legitimate results of such teachings
are-what? Why, only few short
weeks ago an unnameable outrage was
perpetrated at the residences OF three
United States officials in. this city; a few
weeks later deputy United States Mar
shal, while on his way home, was
waylaid in a dark alley and an
attempt made to murder him;
now come QUARTET of ruffians
who, under pretense of giving such in
formation as will assist the United States
District Attorney to more effectually per-
form the duties of his office, decoy him
out into the dark and attempt to
disfgure him for life, if not to murder
him in cold blood. These outrages are
the legitimate outcome of evil teachings,
traceable directly to the men here who
assume to control the people of this Ter
ritory in all things, both spiritual and
temporal, in the latter case even to the
setting up of Il stocking.
The line is now reached! Halt must
be the word! Another such outrage as
that of last night and woe to the wretches
by whom it may be perpetrated.