Wallowa chieftain. [volume] (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909, 1902-10-30
CHAPTER Ill

the happiest girl in Utah.
CHAPTER III.
Three weeks had passed since JEFF.
ferson Hope and his comrades had
departed from Salt Lake City.
John Terriers heart was sore
within him when he thought of the
young mans return and of the i'm.
pending loss of his adopted child.
Yet her bright and happy face re-
conciled him to the arrangement more
than any argument could have done
He had always determined, deep down
in his Tesolute heart, that nothing
would ever induce him to allow his
daughter to wed a Mormon.
Such marriage he regarded as no
marriage at all, but as q shame aud a
disgrace. Whatever he might think
of the Mormon doctrines, upon that
one point he was infexible.
He had to seal his mouth on the
subject, however, for to express an
un-orthodox opinion was a dangerous
matter in those days in the Land Of
the Saints.
Yes, a dangerous matter-so dan
gerous that even the most sanity
GU only MIloDGl llltlI IGllSlOtS
opinions with bated breath, lest some
thing which fell from their lips might
me misconstrued and bring down a
swift retrihution upon them.
The victims of persecution had now
turned prosecutors on their own ac-
count. and prosecutors of the most
terrible description.
Not the Inquisition of Seville. nor
the German Vehmgericht, nor the Sc
cret societies of Italy, were ever able
to put a more formidable machinery
in motion than that which cast a
cloud over the Territory of Utah.
It's invisibility and the mystery
which was attached to it made this
organization doubly terrible. 1t ap-
peared to be omniscent and omnipo-
tent. and yet was neither seen nor
| heard.
The man who held out against the
Church vanished away, and none
knew whittier he had gone or what
had befallen him. His wife and chill
dren awaited him at home. but no
father ever returned to tell them how
he had Jared at the hands of his secret
! judges.
A rash word or hasty act was fol
lowed by annihilation, and yet none
knew what the nature might be of
| this terrible power which was sus-
pended over them.
! At first this vague and terrible pow
er was exercised only upon the recall
citrants. who having embraced the
Mormon faith, wished afterward to
pervert or to abandon it. Soon, how
| aVpr N took wi1pY
The supply of adult women w"s
running short and polygamy without
q female population on which to
drew was a barren doctrine indeed.
Strange rumors began to be banded
about-rumors of murdered immt
grants and rifed CAMPS in regions
where Indians had never been seen
Fresh women appeared in the harems
of the elders-women who mined and
wept. and bore in their faces the
trpces of an uneytinguishahle horror
Belted wanderers uron the noun
tains spoke Of gangs Of armed men
rrasked. stealthy, and noiseless. wht
fitted bv them in the d'rkness
These t"los end rumors took SUD
stance and shane. and were corro1
oratnd end re-corroborated. until tho>
resolved themselves into a definite
nave.
To this day In the lovely r'nchnS
of the West, the name of the DANTE
Pond or the Avaro'Hg Anrels, Is /:
si,icter a,d an ill-or oned ono.
Fuller tnow'od~e of the or~n,'Za
tion which rroducad such Terrible re
suits served 70 increase rathor th"'
to losson tho horror which 1t inspire.
in the r'ods of won
None knov who holonDed to thi;
ruthless society. The names of M
partio'r,tors IN the dno1s NJ hloo'
and violence. done urdor tho ramo \
RELIGION, wore koDt nroforndlv secret
The verv friend TO whorn vou com
mrnicated vour rnis~'vin~s &c tn th'
rrorhet and his rice'on might bo on
oF tNoso who would como forth {"
-irht with f're and e-'ord to e~'ct
torrihla ~eparation. Fenoe everv r'"'
foarod HE rei~hhor. and mono sro'-'
: 80 thn things which were nearest hi
heart.