Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-29
THE PRACTICE OF POLYCAMY.
1t Has Undoubtedly Received It's
Death Blow.
TiTHING SYSTEM BROKEN UP
A Strong Probability That the Great
Mormon Temple win Never BE
Completed-Hard Work
TO Prosecute.
TITHINe SYSTEM BROKEN UP.
A Bee Man in Mormondom.

n Bee Man In MORN OndOm.
SALT LAKE CITr, Utah, July 24.-Staff
Correspondence OF THE BEE: "What pity
that such beautiful city, with such splen-
did possibilities. should be held back from
the magnificent proportions it will some day
| assume, SIMPLY by the religious and social
differences" Such was the exclamation of
Congressman Burrows, OF Michigan, after
we had been driven around the environs Of
the once famous but now extinct Brigham
Young.
After spending two days in Salt Lako
City with the leading Mormons and Gentiles
and seeing every part of the city and its
vast interests. and talking with the
members Of the Utah commission and with
Bishop Canuon-the latter tho head of the
Mormon church, have come to the con-
clusion that polygamy has received its death
blow and that the Mormon church is on its
last legs. II the church did not depend upon
recruits from Europe it would make an
assignment within two years. About every
three months missionary or elder arrives
from Europe with small band of benighted
individuals, mostly an extremely ignorant
and unattractive people, who have been
proselyted and captured by the church
These are distributed around the territory
and go to fill up the ranks made vacant by
tho operation of the Edmunds law. Very
few are dropped here
The tithlng system is entirely broken up
by the law, so far as can be seen, although
it is supposed that it is carried on to a limited
degree under the guise of ''voluutary contri.
buttons" The federal government confs-
Gated the valuable property belonging to the
Mormon church and occupied by the Desert
News as printing Office. 1t is an immense
square, partly covered by a building for this
publication office and offices for clerks.
There Is an abundance of room where the
poor, ignorant people dumped the fourth Of
everything they produced, and which was
sold to regular customers, the same as
general merchandise house. Every
fourth load of wood, grain or wool or
other product of the farm or factory was
brought here and given over to the church.
Some other buildings belonging to the church
organization and used for business purposes
were contiscated, placed in the hands of re-
cejver, and they are now rented TO the
church, but they are not used for the pur-
poses they were once. Nothing tending to
the teachings of the polygamous branches of
the Mormon faith is permitted. The federal
officers at the outset of tho Edmunds law,
five years ago, took charge of the great tenn
pie, which the Mormons began to construct
forty years ago. which cost 81, 600, 900. Is to
cost as much more and be the finest religious
III Uuc ODlLcu SoDtUeS, DuU IL was soon
found that it could not be confscated. 1t was
church property, and although the business
concerns of the church could be taken, tho
edifice could not. When asked the super
intendent Of construction when the temple
would be completed he smiled softly and In
his good Mormon regulation way said
1--WE do not know. You see, sir, the
church was cut off from its regular ana hon.
est fittings by the Edmunds law, which
gave it a backset in money matters 1t may
M n npn rta nf fy1rU unf In 10 tn hn
used, not as place of worship, but as a
place for ceremonies, marriages and other
rites, ordinations, and 80 forth, and there is
no hurry about it.
never be finished by the Mormon church Or
ganization, for believe the church will fast
decay. 1t was once as powerful, tyrannical
and ambitious, in its way, as was Rome un-
der the Caesars; but it will be remembered
that the Roman empire fell The building of
railroads here was the first black eve to
Mormonism. If they could have been kept
out quarter OF century longer no one
knows what trouble or what loss of
life and property would have been neces-
originally intended an organization and en-
trenchment which would be invincible ex-
cept to the Invisible. Brigham Young op-
posed mining because 1t would tend to bring
in strangers not converted TO his practices.
He advocated agriculture, that being for him
more productive of both people and tlthes.
The railroads brought in those who exposed
him.
2. In the tabernacle at a concert the other
day sat beside George Q. Cannon, who is
Brlghem Young's successor, and whom
have known very well since he served in the
Forty-seventh congress-. He, it will
be remembered, was the very first who
thorities under the Edmunds law. He was
finally placed on trial on two indictments
unlawful cohabitation and polygamy. He
was convicted of the former. the lightest
charge. Before sentence, however, he es-
and when President Cleveland put upon the
federal bench good democrat who was not
hostile to the cause, Cannon re-appeared,
paid his bail bond, S25, 900 and stood up for
tentiary. Great guns The sentence gwen
beggars in police courts for stealing a loaf of
bread! But Cannon hao six or eight wives,
so many children he, did not
is rich, and has the millions of
the church behind hIm. He got out of the
penitentiary a short time ago, and tells me
how he occupies the pulpit at the temple and
the assembly as of yore. But Cannon has
lost old his caste. 1t is the doctrine of the
church, and when under indictment the
council ordained "that for the good of man
kind and the glory of God" he SHOULD re-
ceive his sentence and serve his term. II he
had done that he would have been cannon
lied upon his entry from the penitentiary
But he demonstrated by his actions that
what was good for the goose was not always
q relish for the gander.
One intuitively inquiries after he looks
about the city and admires the beautiful sur
roundings "Do the Mormons have plural
wives yet" i asked General Robertson, one
of the new members of the Utah commits
sion, that question, and in answering he
said:
''Oh, yes, a great many of them undoubt-
edly do but we can not easily get hold Of
them. 1t Is even more difficult than In ascer-
| tanning ordinarily who Of the respectable
married men in the eastern cities keep mis-
| tresses. Every now and then young wo.
man, living at home with her parents all
| Mormons, gives birth to a child. Nothing is
| said about the parentage. People ulder-
| stand that she is the wife of some man,
maybe prominent capitalist and we'll known
citizen, but the fact cannot be disclosed"
There is on every hand traces of the once
powerful organization Of the church. yet they
are scarcely more prominent than those OF
| the commune at Versailles, when France was
| sacked or of the independent government at
! Genoa, Pisa Milan or Rome. But there are
| evidences OF all that the church once did that
| was carnal have visited the great and
| historical store, u. c. M. I.-Zion's Cooper
| alive Mercantile institutlon-and with its
| $250,0 capital, now controlled by gentiles
| and Mormons alike, it does its old time bust
| ness managing to declare a 10 per cent divi-
| dend, and carry q handsome sum to the sur
| plus every year. 1t sells everything from a
| threshing machine down through drugs dry