Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-09
M0RM0NISM.
Brigham YOung's Daughter Defends
the Plural Wife System.
rand Women Become Nobler and Weak WO-
men. Who Have the Strength to Strug-
gle Up, Become Better.

i
.ba Mormon system of polygamous mar
lure. from which the following it taken:
Thave seen. polygamous and monoga-
,,ns families. I have travelled, and in
~ three years sojourn across the sea
have known some homogeneous families
If the world.
And are polygamous wives ever happy?
7e+m me first ask you question before re-
-rrfnr: Are homogeneous wTves ever
+ar.v? Generally, you answer, and
hon. as memory joys your arm, you
-farre it TO sometimes. Just so, an
.-ra- your. question, generally, some
..r-as. If q wife is good wife, kind,
,aar+fonate, and a woman who under
s.arss and respects her womanhood,
-..tsnr her husband do likewise, she
gfG De the same in mOnogamy or polyg-
any.
II Is no use saying that this order
-,sl-as bad women worse and good women
lad for I know that it does not. Good
7r.r1pu become nobler and weak women
who still nave the strength to struggle
Income better, and stronger every
my
poIrgamv doesn't make a silken purse
c-- O. a mig s ear, nor does mOnegamy so
.g- rs have seen. There are woes in
r.rrca1nous marriages; so there are in
rrauoganous. We have no letters patent
M misery out here in Utah. I don't
know of anyone who gets up and invelghs
grainst matTimOny because many people
ore unhappy IN it. Life at its best is full
fcare and anxiety. And it is just what
We make It.
think am justified in saying that l
ON and have been Intimately acquainted
with the families of most Of our leading
men. our first presidency and apostles.
Likewise my experience has led me up
and down among the masses of the peo-
ME of Utah: the people, l say, for we
have 30 higher and lower classes among
MS. for We are, or try to be- "as the
Ieart of 6pe, - and I haxe seen and
G-ovn more genuine old fashioned com
fort and content among the wives of one
man than where there is one man and
his one wife.
selfish, me8nly selfish man cannot
live in this peculiar relation.F He may
sometimes act selfshIy-men are men,
you know, eli the world OveT-but if ne
he @ thoroughly selfish man he cannot
live in it. Either he will drive away his
good wife or wives, keeping the poorest
one. OF they viii leave him one by one
until he is left alone. This I have seen.
IN ms childish days l never heard q
family quarTel-that is, a quarrel be-
tween nv father and one Of his wives, or
between the wives themselves. There
mEht have been differences and
m.sunderstandings- doubtless were
hut they weres~sYise enough to
keep them from childish ears. Seldom,
indeed. was there 5word between the
children. To be sure, the boys would
sometimes jump from dark eeFhefs, try
20 scare rs with pumpkin faces ask for a
lite Of our one pFeciouss piecesof pie,
causing. with thasjblte, al Of thespie but
the outer sheIIC crust tosdissBpe and
one was even II16aHs enough to spoil his
bread and butter lest some one would
coax MIN for it; all this and much more
like il, but nothing really low nor de-
graded Our honOred father and
mothers were too anxious to rear us
Alright 70 allow a spirit of discord to be
eugeudeTed.
When we grew older we had beaux
and parties. Only that at 10 o CLOCK
every gate was locked, and whoever
came in after that hour was severely
sgrUtinized and afterward reported by
The Waterman who kept the gate.
And whom did we marry? Most of us
girls are welded to single men. A few
30 married men. All of those who mar
ned into poIygamy have chung to their
husbands through all this recent peFse- |
cution. But l cannot say the same for
the others. Drunkenness and debauch- /
cry make more aching hearts, fill more |
4
misery than ever can this bugbear of |
roy-amy. l, who know, say this.
We were trained in the strictest |
school of sobriety and honesty.
O.r boys were taught that as men |
who were to become husbands and |
fathers it would be far worse |
..- them to commit crimes or vile sins |
than II could be for women, so that girls |
here know when they marry their COM
lar5uas are rs pure as they.
W. are an atfectiOnate, rather clan |
ltsh community. Our peculiar differ !
eauas from the world help to make us so. !
We speak of these things with quiet, pa
TENT words, for we are so used to calum- |
ly and misrepresentation. So when !
some one Who has ventured out returns |
saving the world calls all our cherries |
s..r ana bitter, we smile and 20 on pick
u- The sweet fruit, knowing that time |
|..s.me day tell the tale il all its truth, |
history viii deal more justly with us.
Such examples OF heToism and loyalty |
as these last years of judicial |
r.seeutfon have shown among |
o- womeni I could tell you
tales Of love and JOY or love and woe.
81. romance of life Is ever bright in
Utah. For the sorrows Of our people are !
q. sorrows Of innocence or ignorance, |
perhaps, hut never of vice or crime.
Like e!eaves TO like, light to light. And
FHs- one Of us allows himself to sink
Into taat which is wicked or filthy, he
soon drops from the tree as unripe or
wrw frult, and this il is which foxes
gather UP and hold ont to you rs samples
Of al the tree contains.
Talk about pOlygamy making a god of
man. A man can never hear so much
about his weaknesses and faults as when
q. has two or three plain-spoken wives
holding up the mirror of nature con-
annually before his eyes. As one lady
lHo11 laughingly remarked to me the
other day:
W by, yOu know l always insist that
Tie man has the hardest time in polvga-
my, for the woman has only one. her