Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1905-11-24
AMONG MORM0NS
Of WEST CANADA.
Eastern Writer Reviews Condl-
tons There and Pays People
A High Compliment.
LIKED BY THEIR NEIGHB0RS.
se,tlers are Earnest In Their Faith and
Live up 10 the Moralties
They Profess.

r. ". Thompson, special correspon-
dent OF the Boston Transcript. recently
visited the Mormon" colonies Of West
Canada and sent his paper highly In
testing story Of conditions there Writ
ing from Cardston, southern Alberta,
Mr.. Thompson said:
This is not wholly Mormon town.
presbyterians have minister and a
church here. Angicans are not lack.
ing. Some Methodists are reported
nresent. / have heard of no Roman
Catholics near except those of the
reighboring mission 10 the Indians.
"Mormons," though they run the prin-
cIpal stores, are not narrowly inclined
An trading, but buy and sell on business
principles. They are on good, neigh
borly terms with the people OF other
creeds In this region where the Lat
ter-day Saints are well known by out
siders. or "Gentiles," they have VAN
pushed hostile prejudices by Industry,
energy, initiative, thrift, temperance,
moral living and tolerant attitude.
This morning had the pleasure OF
close talk with Mr.. Williams, principal
of the Cardston school for $50 children.
He Is a grandson OF Brigham Young,
and so strong a Puritan that he would
not even enter the hotel billiard room,
which happened to be empty and con-
venient for conversation. Mr.. Will
liams is a graduate in arts OF Manlto-
ba university, which might reasonably
boast an alumnus so accurate, well IN
structed and frank. We outsiders are
apt to imagine that the "Mormons'
may shrink from disclosing the doc
trines Of their sanctuary, from discus
sing polygamy from reviewing the his
tory Of their Latter-day Scriptures and
revelations. In fact, they are wholly
without the furtive air. WIN reply
straight to any question, no matter how
pierclng,and are absolutely against hid
Ing their light under the bushel. The
nature OF their beliefs needs no discus
sion here, though one may observe that
their theology Is largely of the most
Biblical. As for polyg' my, they have
abandoned the practise since their pres
ident. In 1880, had a revelation recon-
mending that course. and putting plural
marriage under the ban of the Church
Polygamy never was practised by more
than per cent Of the Latter-day
Saints
THEIR MARRIAGE RELATIONS.
Plural marriage, TO say nothing OF
the revelation concerning IL which
Prophet Joseph Smith promulgated, was
practised as logical development Of
The doctrine that the Saints We're IN
duty bound TO populate the earth. They
are good at this duty in monogamio
marriage, the only sort which they now
cultivate. The Alberta stake" OF
about 200 people includes about 1000
children under eight years, and the
Taylor stake, OF about !, 500 souls con-
tains 1000 children Of like age. Bar
the theology Of these people, and bar
their view of plural marriage, they APP
pear to be hard headed kind-hearted
Protestants or Puritans, teetotallers,
abstainers from tobacco, moral, shrewd
and thrifty In an extraordinary degree
The local hotel has no liquor license.
one that was licensed by the territorial
government against the protests of the
"Mormons" has vanished. Last nights
political meeting, with two opposing
Mormon" candidates on the platform,
end Bishop Hammer OF the Alberta
stake I'm the chair, was extremely or
DERBY and attentive. By the way, po-
litical meetings in Alberta are common
" on the Joint plan" which seldom
works We'll IN old provinces because the
speakers and audiences take their pol
flies hard" Here the orators are so
amiable to one another, and the people
50 little exacerbated by party spirit,
that the meetings resemble pillow-hghts
rather than bouts with hard gloves
or bare knuckles. That Is because the
people are essentially all pioneers on
Friendly terms. devoid OF the bitterness
engendered by long neighborhood ana
perennial scandal.
PIONEER's TRIBUTE.
Tho yedettes Of the pioneers were
ranchmen. many of them English gem
tlemen. Mr.. Kent, an American ranch
or OF the early eighties had Lord Percy
Douglas the present Marquis OF Queens
hurry, as camp cook. Lord Boyle, now
MARQUIS Of Drogheda az memory does
not err i'm the title) was long a ranch
or here. The gentleman vedette who re-
mains at Cardston Is MIR. l.. y. Barker,
formerly a sheep farmer, who looks
talks and dresses like an English club
man. and. having travelled much' Is
appropriately genial and tolerant IN MS
views OF neighbors and mankind In
general. He says the Latter"day saints
are as near being the real thing as
any people he has encountered
HISTORY OF CHARLESTON.
Mr. Barker is amusing his consider.
able leisure by recording his reminis-
cences. to be published as History
of Cardston" He was here before the
native beaver had vanished. In those
early DAYS ranchers commonly wors
Jumped socks" created from the ordl-
nary kind by tying string around the
successive holes. When d heel and toe
had been Jumped" the sock was turned
around. When the Jumped Jumps be-
came too numerous for enduraole wear
the socks were reluctantly abandoned
az footwear and converted 20 patching
material. or other uses. on the iirst
appearance OF white ladies' In those
parts the gentlemen ranchers, congre-
gated three or four or five In a shack,
carefully maintained one pair OF good
trousers for the party lest ladies might
cali. There was rush for the shack
when any ladies' loomed up, and the
man who got first TO the good trousers
entertained the fair Soon the local
ladies' acquired "the COTTONWOOD habit. "
This cnsisted Of stufliug their ears with
the article by way of artificial deafness
TO the volubllity OF bullwhacker freight
ers, who continually did frequent the
trails. BY the way, Macleod, only 30
miles from Cardston, II said TO have
lost the Mormon" trade, which, 30
miles distant, Lethbridge gained and
holds. by exhibiting n moral hauteur
due to dislike OF the doctrine OF poly
gamy. Al the same time Macleod Is
reported, not by "Mormons," to have
basked In the conditions OF Roaring
Camp before the Luck, Stumpy and
Kentuck wrought there the reforma-
ton witnessed by Bret Harte. Once n
gallant bullwhacker. having to escort
q party Of ladies', found his oxen balky