The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-02
Utah Congressman Finds a De-
fender in HuId ali Gum
Calls on Congressman to Cleanse
Their Hands.
POLYGAMY QUESTION
Must Be Settled Now-"It is
Notorious" She Says,
tsThat Members Live With Wo-
men Not Their Wives"

Salt Lake, Utah, Jan. 2.-Huldah T.
Gum was unknown yesterday and there
is very little known about her today,
but she is enthusiastically praised for
hitting the bulls eye in an interview
telegraphed from New York. She de-
tends B. H. Roberts, who was recently
elected to congress, and says as he has
violated no law and has the manhood
to stand by the polygamous marriages
contracted in early life, religious fanat-
icism should not keep him out of his
seat.
''Now, if Mr.. Roberts is to be excluded
from congress-" says she, why not
apply the rule generally and expel every
member who has been and is guilty of
polygamy while virtuouSly 90 profess
ing monogamy?
HAS it not been a notorious fact that
many members of congress have year
after year taken other women to Wash
ington while their wives were left at
home?
NeOnly short time ago the nation was
scandaliZed by the exposure OF the
private life of a congressman from
Kentucky, whose moral character was
proved to have been rotten during the
lifetime of two legal wives, yet no at
tempt was made to expel him from
congress.
"What would the social purity people
have Mr.. Roberts do with his wives
so-caIIed homogeneous husbands he
would send his children to public in
situations, to be thrown on the tender
mercies of the world without a name
and cast off his extra wives"
This defense has added excitement
both to the Mormons and Gentiles as
well.
The virtuous Indignation of American
women at the possibility of Roberts
taking his seat in the house is resented
by the Mormons. 1t is solidifying them.
Already the political and legal ma
chinery of the state is in the hands of
the Mormons. The laws are openly
violated, but, owing to the certainty
that no jury can be induced to convict.
since Utah was made g. state. three
years ago.
Prior to that time, under territorial
law, Uncle Sam succeeded in sending
majority of the Apostles and leaders to
the penitentiary, among whom. as
shown, was B. H. Roberts.
The burning question is.
What will congress do?"
To understand the political situation
it must be known that the church con-
trolls both political parties. The vote
can be rounded up and thrown almost
SOlidly for the man the church selects.
Roberts nomination was forced upon
the Democratic party by Apostle Henry
J. Grant and the church. Eldridge,
weak man with bad record, was nom
mated on the Republican ticket. Rob-
erts and the church were notified be-
fore the nomination and during the
campaign that the polygamy issue
would be raised and carried to Wash
ingtOn.
The church was asked to withdraw
him. The request was ignored.
Roberts was called upon a score of
times by Gentle Democrats to make a
denial of the charge of unlawful CO.
habitation. He never made 1t; he Will
not make it now.
The crying demand by the Gentiles
tn ha fad
constitution prohibiting polygamy in
the states.
There are 1000 men today in this state
living in unlawful Capitalization with
plural wives The heads of the church
sustain these relations openly. The
majority of the Twelve Apostles are in
the same situation as Roberts. The
leading educators are in the same boat
Polygamy is daily exposed to the
eyes of 700 pupils in the Agricultural
college at Logan, Utah. The same in
the Brigham Young academy at Logan.
Roberts reiterated his declaration and
declared he would never forSake the
three wives who had come to him in
good faith and not in violation of any
Louisa Smith Roberts, Celia Dibble
Roberts and Margaret c. Roberts. The
two former live in Centerville, some
distance from Salt Lake. Margaret G.
Roberts is a practicing physician in
Salt Lake.
Louisa Smith Roberts is the legal wife
of Roberts. She is a daughter of Bishop
w. R. Smith, and lives in SecluSion near
the residence of her father in Center
Vile She has a daughter about 20 years
old, a teacher in the Mormon schools.
Brigham H. Roberts is the young wo-
mans father.
Louisa Smith Roberts is 40 years of
age. She is not an intellectual woman,
and it was this lack of an intellectual
affinity that caused Roberts to seal
Mrs. Margaret c. Shipp, his third wife.
Mrs. Shipp is a physician, is bright,
brainy and several years older than her
husband. She brought to him a ready
made family of some six children Rob
is platonic. He hungered for intellectual
sympathy. and he found it in the nature
of Mrs. Shipp and her brood of young
The date of the marriage is involved in
obscurity. 1t is a matter of evidence that
Mrs Shipp changed her name to Roberts
soon after the Mormon manifesto against
polygamy was published in 1890. The pla-
tonic defense is considered good joke by
Celia DibbIe Roberts is living. evidence
against her celestial husband. She was
the ''cohab," a familiar name for plural
wives in the convictions made by Uncle
a Martyr by his church.
Celia Dibble Roberts is not more than "a
callers and lives in secIusion in Centreville.
She is the mother of the famous twins
who figured SO prominently in the cam
The twins have been born since Mr.. Rob-
erts pledged himself to quit polygamy and
be a law-abiding citizen-in other words
since the manifesto of 1890
Roberts was indicted in February, 1887.
in the United States court, for. uniawfuily
convicted. He served his term of four
months in prison. The wives then with
him were Louisa Smith Roberts and Celia
Dibble Roberts.