The Red Cloud chief., 1894-01-26
T. III.


Three weeks had passed since Jeffer-
son Hope and his comrades had depart
cd from Salt Lake City. John Terriers
heart was sore within him when he
thought of the young mans return,
and OF the impending loss of his adopt
cd child. Yet her bright and happy
face rcconciled him to the arrangement
more than any argument could have
done. He had ais ~ determined,
deep down in his rcsolutc heart, that
nothing would ever induce him to
allow his daughter to wed n Mormon.
Such n marriage he regarded us no
marriage at all, but as n shame and u
disgrace. Whatever he might think of
the Mormon doctrines, upon that one
point he was inflexible. He had to
seal his mouth on the subject, however,
for to express an orthodox opinion was
n dangerous matter in those days in
Land of the Saints.
Yes, n dangerous mattcr-so danger
Gus that even the most sanity dared
only whisper their religious opinions
with batcd breath, lest something
which fell from their lips might be
misconstrued. and bring down n swift
r~ctribution upon them. The victims
OF persecution had now turned persc-
cutors on their own account, and per-
secutors of the most terrible dcscrip-
tion. Not the in1uisition of Seville,
nor the German Vchmgcricht, nor the
secret societies Of Italy, were ever able
to put n more formidable machinery in
motion than that which cast a cloud
over the territory of Utah.
Its invisibility, and the mystery
which was attached to it, made this
organization doubly terrible. IL APP
pcared to be omniscicnt and onnipo-
tent. and yet was neither seen nor
heard. The man who held out against
the church vanished away, and none
knew whittier he had gone or what had
bcfallen him. His wife and children
awaited him ut home, but no father
ever returned to tell them how he had
Jared at the hands Of his secret judges.
A rash word or n hasty act was fol-
lowed by humiliation, and yet none
knew what the nature might be of this
terrible power which was suspended
over them. No wonder that men went
about in fear and trembling, and that
even in the heart of the Wilderness
they dared not whisper the doubts
which oppressed them.
At first this vague and terrible power
was exercised only upon the ~rccalci-
trants, who, having embraced the
Mormon faith, wished afterward to
pervert or to abandon 1t. Soon, how
ever, it took n wider range. The sup
ply of adult women was running short,
and polygamy, without a female popu-
iation on which TO draw, was u barren
doctrine indeed. Strange rumors be-
gan TO be banded ubout-rumors Of
murdered immigrants and rifled camps
In regions where Indians had never
been seen. Fresh ome appeared in
the harems of the elders-women who
pined and wept, and bore upon their
faces the traces of uneXtinguishable
horror. Belatcd wanderers upon The
mountains spoke OF gangs of armed
men, masked, stealthy, and noiscless,
who fitted by them in the darkness.
These tales and rumors took substance
and Shupc, and were corroborated and
re'corroborated until they resolved
themselves into n definite name. To
this day, in the lonely ranches of the
west, the name of the DANTE Band, or
the Aycnging Angels, is Il sinister and
ill-omcncd one.
Fuller knowledge of the organiza-
ton which produced such terrible re-
suits served to increase rather than to
lessen the horror which it inspired in
the minds of men. None knew who
belonged 10 this ruthless society. The
names of the participators in the deeds
Of blood and violence, done under the
name of religion, were kept profound
~ secret. The very friend to whom
You communicated your misgivings as
to the prophet and his mission might
be one of those who would come forth
nj night with fire and sword to exact n
terrible reparation. Hence, every man
feared his neighbor, and none spoke
of the things which were nearest his
heart,
One fine morning, John Ferricr was
about To set out to his whcat-tields,
when he heard the click of the latch,
and, looking through the window, saw