The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-10-10
AboaGIhe NTormons.

A Globe-DemOcrat correspondent
writes to his paper the following, con-
corning the situation among the Nor
mons of Utah. He says:
The hardest blow which the Nor
mon church has received, and it might
almost be called the only hard blow,
has been through the enforcement of
the Edmnnds anti-poiygamy act. Its
TACT, universally admitted by Nor
mons as well as Gentiles, that the
practice OF living with plural wives has
diminished. Mormons claim that the
contracting of plural marriages has
stopped entirely with in the past two
years. Gentiles believe that these mar
riages still take place, but are fewer
IN number and as carefully concealed
as possible. There have been up to
this time between LOO and 200 con-
victions under the Edmunds act. But
OF this number only ten or twelve have
been convictions of polygamy. At
Provo, where most of the convictions
take place, there have been only two
clear cases of the celebration of plural
marriages in the past twelve months.
The drag net which catches the vic
TINS is the offense which, by the con-
struction of the federal courts of
Utah, is committed in visiting, being
seen in company with, or in recogniZ-
ing the plural wife openly. Holding
out more than one woman as wives,
as the expression is, creates the crime.
The apostle, Lorenzo Snow, furnished
evidence against himself by introduce
ing to brother Mormon two women
as his wives while sitting in the office
OF the United States marshal after his
arrest. Evidence afterwards offered
that the marital relationship was sus-
tanned with but one woman did not
help the apostle. He was convicted
out of his own mouth. He had claimed
two wives in name.
Under such construction of the law
it does not seem that / 200 convictions
is such great number to have been
found from the time of the passage of
the act to the present. There are $780,
fOrcemeHt of the law began in 1884. In
| five years less than l ,200me have been
| convicted Of holding out more than
one woman as wives" The natural in
| ference is that there is not SO much
| polygamy in Utah as has been supposed
| Some of these convictions have been
for second offense and at least one for
the third offense, so that the total
number of convictions does not stand
for that number of polygamists. This
| inference from the number of prosecu-
tiOus only bears out what the Utah
commissioners discovered. When they
| came here first, under the act of 1882.
/ they made new registration. They
/ compiled a disfranchiSed list of Nor
mons who were at the time or had been
living in polygamy. Previous to the
men voted in Utah. In making up the
| list the commissioners included the
women as we'll as the men who were OF
had been living in the forbid
den relationship. The disfl an
chised list including both sex
es, showed $4,000 names
The smallness of the number was a
surprise to everybody. There has new.
er been attempted any census which
would classify practicing polygamists
as distinguished from non-practicinl
polygamist MOrmons in Utah. The
DISTINGUISHED list made by the com
missioners was an approximation. II
was materially changed under decis
ion of the supreme court of the United
States. It first embraced those whit
had been but were not then living IL
polygamy. The court decided thai
only those offending at the time of reg
istratlOn should be included. Undel
that decision the list of Il, 900 past anG
present polygamists was reduced Il
1000 men and women still living in thu
relationship. The average of wives il
polygamous families is said to be abou
} three. This would divide the list int,
about 1900 men $500 women. Nor
mons CLAIM to have no record of polyg
nous marriages. Leaders of thu
church have stated this under oath
J If one bases estimates upon the show
J ing made by the registration work, il
} would appear that not over 10 per cen
of the Mormon men of Utah were &C
/ tive nnlVnamISfQ in 1890 Half n
! them, It also appears, have since serv
ed six months or more in the peniten
| tiary for "holding out more than on
J | woman as wives -