Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-08-09
MORE FROM KORMONDOM.

Although the mormon people did not
seem to be SO tickled over my arrival in
Zion as had hopes they would be still
l managed to bear the affection OF their
GOODNESS with resignation. Soon after
cooling off in the great Salt Lake my
friend and went over to the Tabernacle,
the Temple and the Endowment house,
which is really the head center If double
team matrimonv of the world. These
bull lngs are all enclosed by a wall and
iron rates. about twelve or fifteen feet
high. III the evening We went to the
Tabernacle to listen to the remarks OF
the Latter Day Saints, most everyone
knows all about the temple and taber-
nacle as well as | do. The latter looks
on the outside like amudtnrte, and on the
inside Ikea big skating rink. 1t is claim
ed that the structure will hold about IA,
900 people and ON that evening it was
full. So were some of the saints. There
are three mammoth doors at each side
and several at each end and through
these numerous doors the audience came
in apparently all at once my chum and |
were shown a seat down near the front,
among a lot of old cast off wives, where
we could hear pretty well. An odor of
stale mormon pervaded the air. Its q
good thing the tabernacle is large and
well ventilated or no one could live there
while the services are gone through with.
There was an array OF bishops, elders
etc. present but none of them preached
regular sermon or gave out any text.
One big fat elder made remarks for about
an hour to open the exercises. He paus-
ed occasionally and looked up through
the skvight to think of a big word white
another brother sat near him and ate
gum drops out Of apaper bag. He was
followed by another saint who occupied
about the same lenght OF time. The
crowd satand suffered through it all with
out apparently knowing much about
what was said The elders and bishop
occasionally went to sleep and bumped
their noses on the pulpits. About 2 QUO
babies walled at intervals through the
two hours and manifested the OILY gen-
uine grief / saw there. | thought | had
seen homely women before, but that eve
ming was reserved to me spectacle that
will haunt me always. IN my opinion
polygama carries it's own punishment
for the men to stay i'll the house with
some of the women they call their wives
and the women get enough suffering out
OF living with husband who deals out
his affections in installments. After the
show in the big tent was over, it was
late and ought to have retired, but |
didn't dare to get into bed and turn of
the light because knew would be tor
tured all night by VISIONS OF q crooked
necked old mormon women who sat in a
seat near me and tepeanuts all through
the evening exercises. may have said
some mean things about the mormons,
but to tell the truth never had much
love for them and since knowing more
about them, have but little respect for
any of the polygamons outfit.
The masses are so well under the con-
troll of the mormon leaders, that nearly
all they can earn outside OF living goes
to the church, in every city and village in
office, where every mormon must bring
and give to the church, one tenth OF all
they earn or raise, fer instance ii a NOR
mon farmer raises some corn, he must
give one tenth oft, then if he raises some
chickens on the other nine tenths he must
give one tenth of the chickens and if the
other nine tenths OF the chickens happen
to lay few eggs he must also give up
tenth of those. No one questions tn
ability OF these mormon leaders to
gather in the shrieks. You had fair
sample of one / believe last winter in
Eagle River who remained only day or
two.
One of the features Of Salt Lake City is
the festive red man. He comes in there
with gunny sack full of venson and
trades it off for fire water, and has a
good time generally. The average red
man who visits Zion is not as handsome
as the steel engraving of him that you
find on the greenback. He wears a
coarse grey blanket generally and when
the wind catches up this blanket and
blows it over his head the true aspect of
the indian question is apparent to every
one. / saw two mormon women have
little domestic unpleasantness during
my stay in Salt Lake City. They were
both evidently the wives ofan old galoot
from the other side of Jordon, and the