The great West., 1889-12-06
MANY WIVES ABOUND.
The Reign Of the Mormon Coming
to an End in Utah.

The Reign Of the Mormon Coming
to an End in Utah.
The reign of the Mormon is almost
at an end in Utah, so a writer in the
New York World thinks. Polygamy
has not been crushed out and the Nor
mon religion has not been suppressed
to any appreciable extent, but the
Gentle is pervading the beautiful val
leys OF this terrestrial paradise in a
way that leaves little doubt in the
minds of the followers of Joseph Smith
that their possessions are menaced and
that they must look up a new Zion in
some other realm more friendly to
their primative practices than is the
United States. Some years ago
Gentle would not dare to say that
there was any future for Utah of free
dom from the thraldom of polygamy.
He was afraid of the Mormon power
pf the DANTE band which, it is claim
ed, has never wholly disappeared-and
he would content himself with simply
hoping in solitude that the cursed re-
lgion of the golden plates would soon
vanish and go out in the darkness
which it deserved.
All the white Mormon politicians
were urging the admission of Utah,
polygamous marriages were being
solemnized quietly in the temple at
Logan, and polygamists who passed
their wives in the street without so
much as giving them recognition were
paying them secret visits in their
homes. Polygamy, like the apostles
and bishops, was only in hiding.
Mormons did not flaunt their wives as
they were wont to do before the eyes
OF the Gentiles, and practically many
Mormon homes were broken up, for
where man before had four or FIVE
living with him in the same house he
was now obliged to put away all ex-
cept the first wife.
He could not retain a favorite wife
and exclude all the others; the law
recognized no valid marriage liz any
but in the case of the first wife, and
whether she was old and wrinkled or
young and beautiful the Mormon hus-
band had to cling to her. His other
wives he bestowed in other hou ses in
the city or placed them in punches of
two or three on his ranches in the
country, where he visited them until a
deputy United States Marshal swooped
down and arrested him for unlawful CO.
habitation, This was the charge upon
which Mormons were brought to trial
and punished. 1t was the .only charge
that could be substantiated, as Nor
mon wives were mo re than willing to
perjure the mselves to save their hus-
bands. Often Mormon woman has
stood at the bar with child in her
arms and sworn that she did not know
who her husband was or who was the
father of her baby. With this con-
dition of affairs obtaining and with L.
500 prominent Mormons ''on the UNDER
ground" because they would not come
forward and abjure polygamy, it did
not look very mu ch as if the Mormon
Church intended to abandon this one
of it's tenets. The same view of the
matter was taken by congress, for the
scheme for Utah's statehood failed.
The most curious thing about poly
gamy is the steadfast manner in which
polygamous wives cling to it. They
profess to believe that it is the best
thing in the world for womankind
Nothing like jealousy, they say, exists
among the wives. Under the order of
things when four or five wives lived
with one husband under the same roof
jealousy was not permitted: any woman
who began to pout would soon be
taught that there was no room for that
sort of business in Mormon family.
The other wives would sit down on
her, and probably the husband, too,
would take a hand in surpressing her.
Every woman was boss of the house in
ACI OSul0A ouAH, 0uAS W0SA LlILsa
would have the direction of affairs,
next week Mary Ann would WELD the
sceptre, the week after Matilda ruled
the roest. The household employ
ments were partitioned among the wo-
men according to their tastes and ca
pacities; one had charge of the kitchen,
onother the ousework, and so on.
All this time Mr.. Mormon did as he
pleased: he gave his attention to wife
No. l, or No. 2 or No. 40, just as the
fancy took him; indeed, he might have
a new wife to whom he gave all his
time, and the other wives would have
to simply say nothing, but endure his
neglect.
1t is rather curious that the intel
lectual women of Utah, of whom there
are MANY. take such a favorable view