Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-14


Masonry serve the low caste Swede and Dane,
| the Welshman and the Cornish cotter just n
well % highly organized heaven
| TIE PEOPLE.
Then went about the streets and peeped into
peoples front Windows, and the decorations
upon the tables were after the manner Of the
year 1850. Main street was full Of country folk
from the desert, come In to trade with the Zion
Mercantile Co-operstive Institute. The church,
fancy, looks sfter the finances Of this thing
and 1t consequently pays good dividends. The
| faces Of the women were not lovely. Indeed,
but for the certainty that ugly persons are just
| as irrational in the matter Of undivided love a.
the beautiful il seems that polygamy was o
blessed institution for the women, and that only
the dread threats Of the spiritual power could
drive the hulking board-faced men into it.
The women wore hideous garments and the
men appeared to be tied up With string. They
would market all that afternoon and on Sunday
go to the praying place. tried to talk to q few
OF them, but they spoke strange tongues and
stared and behaved like cows. Yet one woman,
that she hated the idea Of Salt Lake City being
turned into show place for the amusement
Of the Gentiles.
| "If we ave our own institutions that amt no
ss no b why people should come ere and stare
The dropped 81" betrayed her.
And when did you leave England?" said.
| summer OF "a. / am Dorset" she said.
THE Mormon agents was very good to us and
we was very poor. Now we're better of-my
Then you like the state?'
She misunderstood at first. "Oh, amt
Twin In the state Of polygamy. Not me, yet
amt married. like where am. I've got
| things o my own-and some land"
But / suppose you will"
| mot me. I amt like them Swedes an
Danes, amt got nothin' to say for or against
polygamy. It's the elders business. an be-
tween you an me (! don't think Its going on
much longer. You'll ear them in the ouse to-
morrer tslkin' as if it was spreadin' all over
America, The Swedes they think it his.
| know 1t hisnt."
.'But you've got your land all right2''
oh, yes. we've got our land an we never say
s ausht against Polysamy o courss-father an
/ II strikes me that there is fraud some
where. You've never heard Of tho roti-khana-
kiwast Christian, have you?
THE SIGHTS OF THE CITY.
should have liked to speak to the maiden at
length, but she dived into the Zion Coop and q
man captured me, saying that it was my
bounden duty to see the sights Of Salt Lake
lnese comprised the egg-shaped tabernacle,
Young, the same great rufian's tomb, with as
sorted samples Of his wives sleeping around
him Gust Is the eleven faithful ones sleep
around the ashes Of Runjit Singh outside Fort
Lanore) and one or two other curiosities. But
all these things have been described BY ADLER
pens than mine. The animal houses where
Brigham used to pack his wives are grubby
villas. The tabernacle is q shingled fraud and
the tithing house, where all the revenue re-
turns seem to be made, much resembles
| stable. The Mormons have q paper currency
| OF their own-ecclesiastical bank notes, which
are exchanged for local produce. But the little
boys OF the place have great weakness for the
bullion Of the Gentiles. 1t is not pleasant to be
| taken around a township with your guide stop
ping before every third house to shy: That's
| where Elder So-and-So kept Amelia Bather-
shins, his fifth-no, his third. Amelia, she was
took on after Keziah, but Keziah was the elders
pet an he didn't dare to let Amelia come acrost
Keziah for fear Of her spilin' Keziahs beauty"
The Mussulmans are quite right. The minute
| that all the domestic details Of polygamy are
discussed in the mouths of the people the in
| stitution is ready to fall. shook of my guide
| when he had told me his very Inst doubtful
| tale and went on alone. An ordered peace and
| perfection Of quiet luxury is the note of the
| city of Salt Lake. The houses stand in gener-
Gus and well-groomed grass plots, none very
| much worse or better than their neiehbors.
Creepers grow over the house fronts and there
Is very pleasant music of wind among the
trees In the vast empty streets, with smell Of
hay and the flowers of sumner.
PREACHING THE FArrH
On q tableland overlooking all the CITY stands
the United States garrison of infantry and artil-
lery. The state of Utah can do nearly ANYTHING
it pleases until that much-to-be desired hour
when the Gentle vote shall quietly swamp out
Mormonism, but the garrison are kept there in
case Of accidents. The big, shark-mouthed
pig-eared, heavy-boned farmers sometimes take
| to their creed with widest fanaticism, and in
past years have made life excessively unpleas-
ant for the Gentle when he was few in the land.
But today, so far from killing openly or
secretly or burning Gentle farms, it is ali the
Mormon dare do to feebly try to boycott the
interloper. His journals preach defiance to the
| United States government. and in the taber-
nacle on Q Sunday the preachers follow suit
When went there the place full of PEOPLE
who would have been much better for q wash
| ing man rose up and told them that they
were the chosen OF God, the elect of Israel:
that they were to obey their priests, and that
there was good time coming. fancy that
| they had heard all this before 30 many times il
produced no impression whatever; even as the
| sublimest mysteries OF another faith lose salt
| through constant iteration. They breathed
heavily through their noses and stared straight
in front Of them-impassive as fat fish.
And that evening went up to the garrison
post-one Of the most coveted Of all the army
commands-and overlooked the city of the
saints as it lay in the circle of its forbidden
hills. You can speculate good deal about the
mass Of human misery, the love frustrated, the
gentle hearts broken and the strong souls
twisted from the law Of life to o fercer follow
ing Of the law Of death that the hills have seen.
How must it have been in the old days when
the f0ot-sore emigrants broke through into the
circle and knew that they were cut off from
hope Of return or sight of friends-were handed
over to the power Of the fends that called them
selves priests Of the most high. 'But for the
grace of God there goes Richard Baxter" as
that eminent divine once said. II seemed good
that fate did not order me to be a brick in the
upbuilding of the Mormon Church that has so
aptly established herself by the borders of a
lake bitter salt and hopeless.
RUDYARD KIPLINa.
Written for The Evening Star.
Betrayed.
The deepening shades and shadows of Q cruel
winter day,
Thief-ike, creep DER the threshold of cottage by
the way;