The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-05-16
SHE STUDIED MoRMoNIsM.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox gives Her I'm.
pressions of Utah.

|
The Hearst syndicate papers publish
the following from her pen:
I had met at large reception IN
a beautiful home in Salt Lake City
the representative people of the place,
from the Governor down.
The majority were members Of
the Mormon church. There were
presidents of colleges and churches,
apostles, professors and statesmen.
Among them were a few of the old
regime who had believed in and
adopted polygamy, and who still sup
port plural wives married before the
passage of the Edmunds bill in 1882.
There were, too, in the throng
men and women born and reared by
| polygamous parents, and a few wives
still living in plural marriage 1t was
with one of these | talked the follow
ing day when a party of some TWEEN
ty-five ladies (and one NAM invited
me out on a special car to view what
is left of Salt Lake-that mysterious
ly receding body of brine
The people whom / met represent
ed the 400 of Salt Lake City.
They were, without exception, cul-
tivated in mind, sympathetic, appre-
ciative and refined! In dress and de-
pertinent resembling the best So
ciety in any of our eastern cities, they
were simpler and more cordial in man.
ner and possessed OIL greater repose.
The faces of the women struck me
as more serene than the faces of our
eastern women.
Il had been introduced to a very
charming woman. Yes, you are talk
ing with the wife of man who has
six wives, the lady said to me- DO
| look unhappy or neglected. She
was handsome woman who appeared
suspiciously young to have been
married before 1882, when the anti
polygamy law was passed. Yes, wo-
mems faces in these days are not cal
endars
She was well dressed, soft-voiced.
bright eyed, cultured. There was fire
in her eye and color on her cheek
and repOse in her manner.
But you are the last and latest
wife, l said; that makes it easier
No, there are two later ones, she re-
piled, and there was an undertone of
reluctance in her voice as she made
the assertion.
Will you look me. in the eyes,
asked, and tell me as woman to wo-
man that you felt no regret, no heart
ache, no sorrow, when your husband
took the next wife after you; that
you were satisfied and happy to have
it so?'
The lady did not look at me, and
the color deepened in her cheek.
Remember, said, that you are
not talking to bigot who regards
you as lost or depraved or martyred
woman. l believe from what l have
already seen here that the cultured
class OF polygamous wives have Is
high ideals Of marriage at least as
many of our fashionable women who
marry for money and position, and
that they are entitled to as much re-
spect. But | am a student of human
nature, and l cannot believe that your
religion, however sincere, can utter
ly change your womans nature. You
must have suffered some pangs when
you found you were not the last wife
by this time l was the center of a
circle Of women and one man, all lis
tening intently. (The man told me
he had three wives and twenty-eight
children living. He was elderly, and l
believe had survived other wives.)
I'VE do not claim that we are not
human the lady replied, in a low
voice. But to us marriage is a re-
ligiOn-made sacred by motherhood.
We believe in peopling the world
and that our men have the truth of
God in their hearts, and that they
should scatter their seeds over the
earth We believe in sacrifice and
self-conquest, and in overcoming our
petty personal desires for the good
of the race
The woman's face was full of light
and her voice was deep with sin
cerity.
But if you love your husband l
persisted, in my no doubt one.wife
selfshness of view, you must long
often for more of his time, companion
ship, devotion and demonstrations of
affection than he could possibly give
you with five other wives
Another lady with clear-cut fea-
lures and intellectual eyes took up
the discussion here.
What we may long for or desire at
times has nothing to do with the
case, she said.
:" 1t is a woman's sphere to sacri-
fee her feelings and petty jealousies,
and to welcome other wives, and help
care for other womens children. l
had three mothers, and all were kind
and good to me, and they lived to-
gether like three sisters. 1 never
heard quarrel or an unkind word
among them
:" I went to live with my husbands
first wife said an elderly sweet
faced woman. She mad sons older
than l. and 1 always called her moth
er. She was very kind to me- There
were other wives in homes of their
own, but we two lived together IN
peace, and she helped me care for
my children
Were You the last of the wives?'
l asked.
q believe she took another" she
said, with just an indefinable shadow
in eyes and voice. But he was most
kind to me. I was sealed to him
long time before he ever approached
me as wife. Our men were not las
civious, as people have called them
They regarded marriage as holy, and
treated women with far more respect
than many of your men in church