The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-19
PoLYGAMoUs RomANcEs.
AS Narrated by Those Who Are
Friendly to the Mormon Faith.
From the Ogden Standard.

From the Ogden Standard.
| The following from the Argus of Salt
Lake furnishes evidence such as will be
interesting to people of the far Eastern
States, not only that there was a roman
tic element about polygamy, but that
! there is and has been, since the mani
festo, an earnest purpose on the part of
the Mormon church authorities to discon-
tinue the practice of polygamy, and to
put the church mem bership everywhere
in the United States in harmony with the
monogamic trend of the Anglo-Saxon
race:
The church edict that polygamy
should be suspended is working the cure
That the order is being obeyed, ana that
the authorities are sincere is evidenced by
pretty pathetic romance it was the good
fortune of the Argus to hear as a sequel
to a rather heated and earnest argument.
Ii appears that a young man, closely re-
lated to one of the leading families of
Southern Utah, had few years since de-
cided TO marry two sisters. They were
willing, nay anxious, to allow him the
privilege of caring for them, and he, be-
sides loving them sincerely, was a firm
believer in the polygamy tenet OF the
church. The younger was sent to school
in the east, the understanding being that
the elder should first be married to him,
and that upon her return she should be-
come his second wife. The first mar
riage was duly solemnized, ana the happy
pair settled down to a quiet and loving
domestic life, waiting in pleasant antici-
patton for the time to come when the
sister would be released from the thrall-
dom and restraints of maidenhood.
Two years passed, and the sister,
radiant with beauty, culture, and health,
returned with the joyful peals of the
marriage bells already ringing in her
ears. The young man sought his bishop,
and made known his desire, and was, to
his great disappointment, refused. He
came TO this city, interviewed several of
the apostles of whose friendship he was
assured, but again met with no encour-
agement. Finally, so the story goes, the
presidency and the apostles met to con-
slider the problem presented. The young
man spoke earnestly. He reviewed his
courtship of the sisters, stated the terms
of the compact they had engaged in, and
pleaded for the privilege of keeping it.
DE was told that consent could not be OBJ
tanned, that the manifesto had not been
issued to be disobeyed, and that should
he consort with the girl he would be
guilty of breaking a solemn law of the
church as well as the law of the land in
which he lived. Disconsolate, the young
man returned to his wife and her sister,
udub huONn 70 lleiU bQ6 COQulblOl OF al
fairs, and 1t was agreed, but not before
many tears had been shed and heart
pangs recorded, that the decree should be
accepted as inevitable and irrevocable.
The sister is said now TO be resident of
this city, her heart still true to her love,
while he and his wife are living in the
Mormon colony in Chihuahua"
The wonder TO people of the east, es-
pecially TO lovers and sweetheart, will be
To faa1izn bOtu a h1oCpafncr
could look forward with enthusiasm to a
union in marriage with her sisters hus-
band. Doubtless Utah history will go
down to future ages with this feature of
its past career standing out as an I'M
reconciled and uncomprehended phenom-
enon. But whatever the future may
bring forth. it is important that the peo-
pie and government of the United States
shall repose confidence in the present in
tegrity and trustwoathiness of President
MILFORD Woodruff and those who are as
ISOLATED with him in church government
in the work of carrying out the express
and implied pledges in regard to polyg-
amous marriages.
A stronger case, perhaps, than that OF
the Argus, transpired in a town not
hundred miles from Ogden. young
married man had contracted a second
marriage at time shortly previous to the
manifesto, and, having anticipated his
nupuals, he became extremely solicitous
for a consummation of his vows in mar
riage; but the manifesto had interviewed.
and although he was young man in su-
perior standing, and made a most piteous
plea as means of shielding the honor of
his intended polygamous wife, and as a
possible escape from the penitentiary, yet
the officers in charge were inhexible, and
told him that his request could not be
granted even though his life were at
stake. He did serve his term in the pen
itentiary, and the whole incident gives
proof of the faithfulness of those who
have the destinies of the Mormon church,
and largelysthose of Utah, in their keep
ing