Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-03-13
MORMON ARGUMENTS.
Missionary Work Among the Dis
contented Poor OF the East.
The Story of One Young Woman Who Was
Induced TO Go to the Saints-Deceptive
Words Well Calculated to Capture
Poor and Friendless Women.

Poor and Friend1ess Women.
1t has become reasonably clear of late
that the Mormon missionaries are making
considerable progress among the wretched
and discontinued poor of the East, writes a
Salt Lake correspondent of the New York
I Sun. Their labor is not among the degraded
far from it. 1t is among people who fear
the degradation of abiect poverty, the men
who have failed at every thing and who
/ know not where to look, and the women
+ who for one reason or another have not
I succeeded in reaching or in holding a salts
1 factory place in the world.
( As may be supposed, the great cities
/ afford most inviting fields for this class of
work on the part of Mormon proselytes.
For many years it has been strong con-
/ tention of the saints that the civilization of
/ the Gentiles was leading them to destruc-
4 ton. They have publicly held that the
! greed of riches and the mad race for power,
/ place and distinction, to say nothing of the
unjust and unequal social conditions which
/ they have pointed out, would eventually
/ bring about snch state of affairs as would
cause the vast majority of the American
people to turn 10 the M0rmons for salvation.
They have taught also the inherent rotten
ness of Christian society, and by magnify
ing the evils of incontinence, divorce and
lntemperance, they have made their own
people believe that the country which
wishes to impose it's own morality upon
them is one of the most immoral that the
world has ever seen. This belief has led
naturally to systematic work among the
discouraged, the disheartened and the des-
perate of the East, and the results have
fully justified the forethought which led to it.
One case which the correspondent has in
mind is particularly interesting. A young
woman who had been well reared by
wealthy people in the East, but who had
| been left by them without means of her own,
made an unhappy marriage. Her husband
proved worthless, and for the purpose of
freeing herself from his prosecutions she
was induced to apply for divorce. This
was secured, but the sudden change in her
circumstances left her practically without
friends, and, being thrown on her own re-
sources, she made a rather Intellectual at
tempt to support herself. After a few
months service IN a store at beggarly
wages, during which time she was unable
to replenish her wardrobe, she was taken
i'll, and few weeks later she found herself
dependent upon the charity of such friends
as she was able to approach. While
in search of employment, and almost de-
spairing of success, she encountered the
man whose influence brought her here
Like most OF the people engaged in this
work. he was aclever talker, and it did not
take him great while to convince her that
Utah was the place for her.
The process of his reasoning was in this
line: 'There is no place for you in the So
ciaI system which holds you prisoner and
slave. You must walk circumspectly or
it will crush you. If you guard your con-
duct with all the discretion possible, it will
grant you a bare livelihood during good
hna h with limo for
provement, and no opportunity to guard
against sickness, adversely or old age.
Now that you are young and attractive you
will be suspected of immortality, and you
will be subject to insult by your so called
superiors, by your associates and by your
interiors. The influence tending to drag
you down viii be prodigious, while that
which is calculated to elevate you or to for
tify you in the paths of virtue will be so
slight and so far away as to be scarcely per-
ceptible. You have had taste of the bit
terness of this life already. You know now,
as you have told me, how closely women
such as you walk on the brink, even when
you feel that you have a place where you
may earn your living. You know that this
precarious existence can not last. Present
y you will lose your loneliness, and places
which you find 1t difficult to secure now YOU
viii not then be able to hope for at all
What are you going to dol You have bare
chance of marrying somebody who will
make you a home and who viii care for you.
Failing IN that there is nothing left for you
but perjury.
The unhappy and misguided girl felt com
PEELED to admit the force of the mans rea-
soning, and she was quite prepared to ac-
cept the remedy which he proposed. SIN
Utah. he said, E'this accursed social strife
this life-and death struggle for money, has
no place. Industry is enjoined upon all, but
there is just division of the rewards, and
no one suffers while another amasses more
than he needs 1t Is a land of brotherly
love, where women are honored, where chill
dren are welcome, where virtue Is a matter
of course, and where poverty Is unknown.
l have no hesitation whatever in SAYING that
young woman like you would find a
place in Utah which would be congenial,
and from which you could not be removed
by any temporary disaster Life there is
as placid as a summer sky. There is no
turmoil, no injustice, no sorrow, save that
which is common to all mankind. If you
will go l will myself escort you thither,
and you will receive an introduction which
can not fail to prove satisfactory"
All this occurred some time ago. The
| young woman accepted the proposition and
came to this Territory. Three days later she
became the third wife of well-to-do saint,
who gave her house by herself not too
| close to those occupied by his other wives.
She has two children, and is, seemingly, a
contented and happy woman. She is often
referred to as an example of what Mormon
ism does tor the creatures with immortal
souls whom Christianity doons to a useless,
a despairing or awretched life Manyoth-
ers like her have come into Utah within the
past year or two. Some of them might
solve cases of mysterious disappearance, no
doubt, but many have come openly, fearing
no one. Some of them are women of bad
character, perhaps, but from all appearances
the majority of them have accepted this
chance of living in preference to the hard
ships of virtue or the Indebtedness of
brief career of fragrant immortality in the
homes of their youth.