Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-09-02
MORMON WOMEN COMPLAIN.

The recent jubilee in honor of the
fiftieth anniversary of the founding
of Salt Lake City has stirred up the
mormon element ID a renewed interest
in plural marriage. Although the law
forbids it, still o0lygamy exists to a
certain extent. And, strange as it
may seem, it is the women of the
valley of the Latter Day Saints who
grieve particularly for a return to the
old institution, which they claim ben
cago Times-Herald.
1t is not excess of religious fervor
which induces the women of mormon
faith to make their discontinued and
bald statements concerning the sup
preston of plural marriage. True,
religious enthusiasm and the influence
of the church has much to do with
1t, but it is the loss of a beautiful,
unselish home life, based on a rare
Utopian plan, that they decry. Ii is
! the loss of a kind of domestic life
where silly sentimentality, where petty
jealousy and hatred has no leeway,
but a life made attractive by practic-
ability, self-sacrifice, love, kindness,
/ self but for others.
Il 40 longer take the same interest
in life which did once" said a beau
tiful, white-haired mormon woman,
now well advanced in years. She
lives in her littla matched cottage
with its quaint p.astered walls and
tiny rose garden, the same little cot
tage which she occupied in the hcydey
of her young married life. was the
first wife Of a mormon husband. There
were three other wives. But / have
cutlived them all. | have outlived
even their children. | had none OF
my own. There is just my husband
and | remaining. We are getting old,
and we miss the cheerful cries of our
once happy home and our big house
hold. Oh, yes, gentiles do not know
. what the beauty of plural marriage
is. They imagine that it is very at
tractive for the husband, perhaps, and
they fancy that the wives suffer from
association with one another. That
is not so. The only person in a NOR
NOR family who ever becomes dis
c~ontented or unhappy is the husband
himself. For it takes a man of I'M
usual qualities and of good-natured
temperament to manage more h one
oman to the utter satisfaction of all
concerned. We do not look upon mar
rage as a mere selfish right. 1t Is a
religious duty. Each man must found
a family over which he will rule In lie
and over which he will continue to
rule even after death, growing larger
and broader as it does by intermar-
rage. That is the reward OF a man.
But the reward of a woman is greater
She who rears the greatest number OF
children in plural marriage receives
the brightest diamond in heaYen
Why, plural marriage is the very GIT
of heaven itself. Among us there are
no homeless women, no outcasts IN
society, no beggars in the street, no
/ s,arving children. Each woman has a
place in society and in a home. She
is not only a helpmate to her husband,
hut a helper in the community. Ana
the more wives a mormon possesses
the more prosperous he becomes. For
the women / n plural marriage are all
industrious. They weave, they spin,
49,
they sew, they cultivate their gardens.
they vote in municipal affairs. Are
gentle women so energetic ii seems
even now as if the mormon women,
deprived of an institution which ele-
waited them, are de~generating. Such
is the wisdom Of the law. Yes, from
a domestic standpoint plural marriage
has always been practicable. Each
wife greets a new wife with hospitality