The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-09
BLOOD AToNEMENT.
Popular Mormon Doctrine Which Has Been Often Utilized in Literature.

New York Times.
 The doctrine of "blood atonement'' att tributed to the Mormons in connection with the Pulitzer murder has figured prominently in English literature for more than half century. It seems to have sprung mainly from the incidents connected with and following the Noun tain Meadows massacre in 1S57.
 Scores of books and pamphlets on this subject have been written, most of them by the pens of those whose opposition to Mormonism in any form was intense and uncompromising. The opposition to the doctrines of the Latter Day Saints prior to 18H seems to have been caused main ly by an abhorrence of the doctrine of .uolygamy, because of which the followers 'of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were driven from one place to another until they finally settled in Utah.
 Up to this time little or nothing is said about blood atonsment." but after the Mountain Meadows horror the books upon Mormonism written by it's enemies teem with assertions that the term means nothing else than pretext for murder ing such persons as stood in the way of the Elders of the Church when they wanted to ''seal' unto themselves the wives or daughters of the unfortunate victims. Upon this belief is based much of the ant-Mormon literature now ex- tant.
 The story of the massacre itself forms an interesting chapter in the history of the United States. It was fully told for the first time during the trial of James D. Lee. Mormon Bishop. who was con victed in 1877 of having taken part in it. The facts as brought out at the trial showed that the Mormons had induced the members of an emigrant train to lay aside their arms under promise of pro- tection after which they, together with their Indian allies. slaughtered men. wo- men and children, leaving their bodies unburied on the plains few miles from Salt Lake City.
 Lee was taken to the scene of the mas sacre and legally shot to death. He made a confession embodying the above facts.
 The persons selected to carry out the alleged murderous mandates of the Church commonly known as "Danites'' and "Avening Angels. Sir Conan Doyle. in his novel. A Study in Scarlet" uses their alleged methods and crimes as the basis for of his Sherlock Holmes narratives. In it John Terrier. a Mormon. is made to refuse to seal" his adopted daughter. Lucy. to a Mormon Elder. and, with her lover, Jefferson Hope they try to escape from the coun-
 
 and Lucy is compelled to return and marry the man selected for her by Brig ham Young. She soon dies of brief. and Hope follows the slayer of Terrier and the husband of his former sweetheart until he finally kills both in London years afttrward.
 or the Mormons and their practices, Sir Conan Doyle says;
 The victims of persecution had now ,r.t. description. Not the Inquisition of Sc vne. nor the German Fehmgerccht, nor the secret societies of Italy, were ever able 10 put q more formidable machinery In motion than that which cast cloud over the State of Utah"
 Robert Louis Stevenson also made use of the Averaging Angels" fin his novel of that name, in which. he depicts most graphically the horrors of the alleged sys- tenn. The main feature of this story is the killing of the father of the heroine hy one Dr. GrierSon, who is also com rnanded by the Sacred Council ot Four to marry the unfortunate daughter and the grief stricken widow and mother.
 play entitled The Danites, which is stin popular. was also built around somewhat similar story.
 The Mornpns themselves vigorously deny that there is any foundation what ever for such tales. or that such things IS "Danites' or "Avenging Angels" ever existed. They say that Blood Atone mont means nothing more than the crucinxion of the Savior as an atone ment for the sins of mankind.
 On the other hand. Brigham Young is said to have used the following language n referring to il;
 ''The Lord commands you not to pity th E tO execute the aw of God upon persons worldly of death. Putting to death the transgressor would exhibit the law Uf God. no matter by whom 1t was done. There are sins that can not he attoned for by an offering upon m altar AS in ancient days. They must be toned for hvA the blood of man"
 Tie "Hook Of Mormon" upon which MorlnOnism is founded and which Is al eged to he series of divine ''revela- lions made to Joseph smith, the founder of the sect, contains no direct reference to the doctrine of blood atonement" The nearest approach to 1t appears in a "rev elation said tn have been made at Nau- yuo Ill.,. on July F. 1S43, in which polyga my is sought to be justified. and Tn which the following 'commandment" relative to sacrifices appears:
 Abraham was commanded to offer up his son Isaac, nevertheless 1t is written thou shalt not kill, Abraham did not re- fisn. and it was accounted unto him for righteousness
 Behold, l have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins.
 Go. therefore. and I can make q way for your escape, IS l accepted the offer ing hv Abraham of his son Isaac"
 This revelation" which. by the way. was the last to be promulgated by Smith