Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-05-02
1TREAN:
THE MORMON'S DAUGHTER.

LIE MONMON y DhOOll Linz
The Bishop threw up his hat, they drank,
and rose and with flushed faces went out
CHAPTER VI
SOME DECLARATIONS
The scheol-house in Mooseneck was . low
structure, so low q tall man might lay his
hand upon the caves. In this regard its
composition was strikingly Mormonesque.
Hewn pine composed the walls and med
ley of shingles and clapboards the roof.
When it rained, thing infrequent in this
region, if administering Mormonism with
an occasional pinch Of earthly information
in it CHANGED to be in progress, they simply
adjourned. 1t mattered little anyway, con-
sidering the intellectual pap offered
these unfortunate sucklings
The place was q very dirty one, indeed
quite in the Mormon way. The floor was
of Natures own furnishing, packed solid by
countless foot-strokes and, when un-
sprinkled, rising often in little smoky
which seemed always webbing about the
poor heads congregated there. Its area was
the one redeeming feature, it being rather
| wide and deep upon the ground, necessity
obvious enough when the flocks Of children
in. the settlement were taken into &C
count. Indeed in Mormondom chill
dren are ubiquitous; they literally
swarm upon and burden the eye-sight.
Their production is q cardinal feature of the
Mormon system; they vote ultimately, Of
course, and to insure the product, the
| leaders have made voman's salvation
depend in large part upon the number
Of bodies she furnishes the spirits
that wait to pass through this exist
ence to the next. The imposition is in
,;Srl% %1,oE ho<1o
coming however, the old school-heuse had
. holiday look. The seats had been re-
moved, the walls decked with greenery, and
the dirt floor swept and sprinkled. By nine
o'clock the populace was there, . hard
favored, animal-looking crowd, yet with
here and there good form and gentle face.
The ball was opened with prayer, one Of the
Salt Lake Elders offering the invocation,
and that night ere the disgusting pastime
had ceased . young man was killed upon
| the floor, and half the dancers were Keeling
with drunkenness. Quite all Of them were
members of the Mormon Church, but none
were Christians; sincere Mormons there are
in plenty, but never Christian Mormons, the
beliefs of the latter and the holly refine
ents of the former can not lie down to-
| gether in the same heart.
Mormonism is not q religion; those fine,
| spiritual laws that mankind, after centu-
ries Of sitting, have found pure gold at the
bottom Of experiences are lacking. A shut
fling and repu1sive assumption Of worship
is put forward by the priesthood on all pub
lie occasions, no matter how secular and I'M
holy. Worship is vulgarized, and life is
largely brutalized. In all the back regions,
where the contact and restraining pressure
Of the great world is scarcely felt, this
feature turns most toward one. There it is
| frightful. At the best it is home-destroy-
ing system, lust-engendering, love-annul-
ling, manipulating one, but there it is
embruiting and Supplying. There life, like
| q plant that feels upward for the sunshine
and strikes its sensitive spire against the
under side Of a reeklng stone, is doubled
back upon itself and turns helplessly about
in the darkness and the filth. Youth is
muddied through all its feelings by precept
| and example, and becomes o home-hating,
iquor-loving, lustful, profane and ignorant
phaze. Over it and about it forever broods
Q thick and heating atmosphere, impure,
animal, numbing to the brain, quickening to
passion, through which their way seems
hopeless.
At the heart Norm onism is criminal
Masonry. The Priesthood, which is all power
full, constitutes this body, and ceremonies
are passed through and oaths taken that
are frightful in aim and import. The out
lying limbs of this grave ,Theocracy are
cloaked with religion, and by its binding,
persuading agency sustenance and power
are forced back through the arteries to
the false and lecherous heart. Cords OF
superstition, fear, awe, and poor mis-
guided faith, bind these extremities to the
knavish, priestly body, which in Utah has
thirty thousand members within its oath
linked chain. This is Mormonism; white
slavery, q fabric Of injustice and deceit A
thousand stains spot its history, thousand
signs breathe over 1t, and through it trickle
| T%c I;ok1
be told much Of it is not for decent ears
God alone shall wholly treasure it up
against the future in His all-preserving
silence.
The morrow after the ball broke DIM
ly; mist, in which the mountains stood
waste deep as in q sea OF milk, lay heavily
upon the world. The air seemed clogged
and scarcely respirable,. strange thing
among the Utah mountains. When Elchard
woke Trean's father was tramping up and
down the narrow porch; he could not
breathe when lying down, he said. He had
heard Of the murder at the dance, too, and
was restless and stifled. Trean had not
been there; he was glad of that; neither
; had she been with the rest to greet the
Prophet at his coming, and he shook his
shaggy head with trouble.
After an oppressive breakfast Elchard
went out, and with . spfocating sense
climbed the slope and sat down among the
pines. The sun was o bleared spot above
him, and only for few yards about could
\ objects be distinctly seen. It was easier
breathing there, however, and he fell tc
thinking Of his uncared for affairs, and how
he must try and go on when morning came
t again; then Of this sad and beautiful CIR
there in the mist below him. Would she al
ways go onward in the mist-that Other
mist which was felt and visible only to the
opirit-and to what an endl He rose up In
is., q. i
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