The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-08-06
The .Honored" Mormon Wife.

Cor. of Boston Commercial Bulletin.
One of these women, "highly honor.
I'd and tenderly cared for," lay dying
N her husbands house. For weeks
she had been lett without medicine,
without nurse and without proper
Food. Then her mother, herself a
poor widow, hearing OF her wretched
condition. came and took her away.
She was carried from her miserable
bed to the wagon at the door by
strangers, and her husband did not
even turn his head to look at her.
She was so emaciated and in such n
condition through neglect that kind
neighbors grew sick at heart as they
tried to minister to her wants. In
her mothers house everything that
love could suggest was done for her,
but she was already beyond human
help, and in few days breathed her
last.
Now. had the husband OF this WON.
an been asked to obey the law and
give up polygamy. he would have been
the first to protest that he could not
break such sacred ties, and that it
would be the act of a coward and q
traitor to give up the women who had
coniided their happiness to his keep
ing.
Not long ago the plural wives OF one
OF our citizens complained that they
We're disturbed in the evening by a
shadowy figure fitting through their
grounds and a wild face looking in at
| their windows. The face and form
were those OF the first wife, who had
been driven insane by the miseries of
polygamy, and who, whenever she
could escape from those who cared
for her, would revisit the p'ace that
was once her home, and look in upon
the women who had usurped her place.
Who will say that the husband OF the
woman ought not to be compelled by
law to sever the endearing relitons
between himself and those to
whom he had been sealed for time
and eternity?
| One ofour neighbors, wealthy ard
influential representative OF Mormon
ism, is a gentleman who always has
an eye to business, even in his love
affairs. 1t was his custom for years
to hire an attractives servant girl, keep
her until her wages amounted to $50
or $40, and then make her an offer
Of his hand and heart in lieu OF a cash
payment. Ii she accepted, she re-
mained in the kitchen doing the work
OF the family, without wages, until her
children became troublesome, when she
was turned out to make room for a
fresh Importation. | have seen one of
the wives OF this man, one OF the
women who are "highly honored and
tenderly cared for" out in a field on
bitter November day husking corn on
shares, to earn a little food for her
children.
Some years ago I hired the second
wife of a farmer near by to assist me
in household duties. She was very
capable woman, an excellent house
keeper, and could have commanded a
good salary anywhere in that capaci-
ty. She used to go home at night,
after finishing her days work, walk
ing to town, a distance OF four miles,
| to do various errands for her husband,
then get up in the morning and feed
and water his cattle and horses before
coming over to get the breakfast for
our family. The husband always col
lected her wages, and he soon told nc
| must pay him more than Ihad done
for her services.
Because" he said, "Iam obliged to
hire a man in her place to work in the
field while she is with you"
think have heard that this man
has been indicted for violating the
Edmunds law. If so, what a sad
spectacle it will be when he is torn
from his families, and his wives, who
have been so tepderly cared for, and
] left to face the cod world alone,