The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-02-14
:ach elder receiving fifty stripes.

humorous muQ DaGlS ana SUit.u WHIP
ping bees, bus, so far as is known,
only three elders, previously named,
have been killed, though two others
disappeared and no tidings Of them
have ever been received.
Few people can be found, ifany, who
will say the conduct of the Mormon
elders IS anything but upright, honest
and clean in the larger towns and
cities, and in no case has any financial
irregularity ever been charged. They
are scrupulously honest in money mat
ters, pay their debts promptly and in
full, and a promise made is kept to the
letter. But at this point the eulogy
ceases and the speaker adds that all
this is not the result Of conscience, but
is the method of a shrewd hypocrite.
Mr.. R. c.. Hutchins, travelling man
connected with an Atlanta house,
whose trade calls him into nearly
every county Of Alabama, Georgia and
Tennessee, says, the depredations iof
these wolves cannot be measured by
figures. The numbers who got to
Utah are butts tithe of their victims
who are found in cabins of the noun
tains by the hundreds and in larger
places by scores. Their trail is seen in
broken families, estranged neighbors
and disgraced homes.
At all points where their methods
are apt to attract attention the elders
are exceedingly ,circumspect; they
ignore polygamy or freely denounce it,
say little about the sacred plates, but
become largely immigrant agents for
the Utah Eldorado. Religion is put in
the gallery, and the harvests that ripen
on the plains of Utah, its fruits and
herds, are put in the orchestra chairs,
and big apples, immense wheat yields,
and the price of the grape are made to
do service in recruiting the army of the
deluded.
But in the mountainous countries
and the rural retreat it is different.
The women are approached. Their
fears, their little ambitions, weak vani-
ties, and ever present and potentsuper-
stitions are worked upon, and soon the
wife, the mother, the sister, are con-
verts to Mormonism, and discomfort
and chickering's become frequent at the
rude fireplace where harmony, virtue
and content ruled before. fine head
of the family remains stubbornly out
side the fold, then trickery comes in.
The daughter is persuaded to seek a
place in a family at some railroad
town. Soon she goes to Utah. Judiei-
ously handled, she puHs the strings and
the mother follows; perhaps the father
! too, and the whole family feIoniously
taken from its ignorant innocence in
the mountains is as deeply buried in
the hell whose other name is Utah.
| In not few instances the Mormons
openly urge the women to leave their
husbands and fathers, but in most cases
strategy prevails. 'If,'' continued Mr..
Hutchins, "a careful investigation
! were made it would be found that three
quarters of the girls who come down
from the hill counties of these three
States to work in towns along the
railroads soon leave, with little or no
explanation, as Mormon converts,
bound for Utah. I have myself within
the last eighteen months been cog
nizant of nearly fifty such cases."
tragedies" SAID Mr.. Hutehins, "are
far from insrequent, though the out
side world never hear of them because
of the paucity of news-gathering and
transmitting facilities. Every year
there are suicides and homicides for
which ~Mormonism must some day
answer. Even now the avanger is born,
and his growth will be swift and
mighty. A secret Organization, com
posed almost wholly of young men, is
being rapidly though cautiously
formed to fight Mormonism. 1t is
founded solely on moral grounds, and
churches have nothing to do with it
doubt if a dozen editors in all the
South know of its existence. I know
that in several towns not soul out
side its membership isaware that there
is such an organization.
''The Friends Of Honor, as they cal
themselves, do not propose to resort to
violence, except in cases of great need.
But whenever they find Mormon at
work, that Mormon will be urged to
leave the community for his'own good,
assisted to depart if he does not go OF
his own volition. This is simply the
preparatory word of the Friends
Immediately the neighoorhood viii
be flooded with information regarding
the poisonous nature of Utah physical
ly, morally and socially. The orders
headquarters are at Guntersville, arivel
town in Marshall County, Ala, though
it originated in the hill countrybac Of
Brookville, in Blount County, in q
tragic affair, which is still live topic
About two years ago a Mormon
elder came into that neighborhood and
began his work. Among his first vic
TINS was Myra Hutton, the daughter
of a small farmer. She was rather
pretty, unusually intelligent, and a
great favorite. She was engaged to q
young man named Huston, who looked
with great displeasure on her belief in
the Mormon doctrine. 1t was the old
story over again. The girl left home
and with a large party left Huntsville
for Utah The lover became moody,