News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1903-02-04

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MORMON TABERNACLE AT MESA, ARIz.
saints should begin to separate them
selves from the gentiles, going hence
to some locality where the laws are
not so stringent and where they may
assume entire control of every bust
ness enterprise. This has ever been
the policy of the MOrmons, who are
distinctly gregarious. They prefer to
manage their own schools, their irriga-
ton systems and their cooperative
stores as well as practice without in
reference what they believe to be a
divine command.
So the Mormons are leaving Mesa.
If they were Mohammedans fleeing
from Mecca, it would be called a hegi-
"a, or were they Hebrews escaping
from Egypt it would be an exodus, but
out here in the wilds of Arizona their
departure is referred to as "vamoosing
the ranch" Many have gone already,
and more are preparing to follow. Sew
eral of the principal Mormon families
and a Mormon family numbers any
where from fifteen to twenty souls
have gone to Mexico to join the colo
MES already established at Colonia
Juarez, Chuichupa and Casas Grandes
in Chihuahua, and a score of other
families, with a following of poor
white converts from the south, have
started overland in their great white
covered wagons, pressed down and
running over with towheadeCf children,
to join a band of their coreligionists
from Utah at the Colorado river. From
thence they will go ON to Alberta,
B. c., where each settler may take W
$50 acres for the filling.
Since the passage by congress of the
Edmunds antipolygamy act many of
the Mormons have chafed under it's
restraints. Though they have nomi-
nally given up their polygamous prac-
tees, it is no secret that many Nor
IuOpS nave IuOIc llldu OI1C
wife, and some of them have half a
dozen.
According to the Mormon faith, the
more children q man can show the
higher will be his standing in the
hereafter. The universally of this be-
lief is practically illustrated in every
Mormon churchyard when the most
glowing eulogy that can be paid to the
departed lies in the number of chill
dren, grandchildren and great-grand-
children craven on his monument. AS
case in point witness a shaft i'll the
little cemetery at Mesa, where a de-
parted patriarch gets credited for
thirty-two children, a hundred grand
children and forty great-grandchildren.
A still better showing will be made
a little later when Patriarch Johnson,
who has peopled an entire section
known as Johnsontown, gets his re-
ward. Mr.. johnson has had seven
wives in days past, three of whom
were sisters, but his temper and other
personal characteristics were so I'M
pleasant that none of the seven will
now live with him. A few years ago
number of the prominent MormOns in
Mesa valley were arrested and SEN
fenced to Yuma. After serving their
terms they all came back.
The gentiles view with some degree
of satisfaction the exodus of the saints,
though they are not after all such bad
neighbors. They are as a rule courte-
GUS and inoffensive, though clannish.
They are frugal, industrious and pros
farmers and stock raisers. Any Nor
mon who has twenty to forty acres of
land in alfalfa, with water enough to
irrigate, may be assured of a comfort
able living as people live in Arizona.
1t is no small sacrifice that these
Natter Day Saints make in leaving this
fertile section, which for fruit culture
and alfalfa raising is counted as one of
the choicest in the west. They leave
behind comfortable homes and an as
sured means of livelihood, but what Isl
more than this to the devout Mormon
is the breaking away from the associa-
tons of the tabernacle where for near
ly a quarter Of a century they and
their fathers have worshiped.
FRED L. CUMMINGS.