Semi-weekly herald., 1915-05-20
HAVING FOUR WIVES WAS
BIG ADVANTAGE TO AGED
MORMON; IS NOW OVER 80
(By Fred C. Kelly.)

One sees so many aged people
among the Mormons in Salt Lake City
that one wonders if having several
shifts of wives may not be less wear
ing on ones nerves than is commonly
supposed. Mormons more than ninety
years of age, and yet fairly hearty,
are frequently TO be seen. talked
to one quaint old chap who said he
was 93, and he told me he had once
had collection of four wives. He
seemed good-natured and | made bold
to ask him how he accounted for liv-
ing to the age of 93, notwithstanding
so many women folk to antagonize
him.
WELL" declared he seriously, two
men all have their moods, and / al
ways found that it was a good plan
when one of my wives was not in the
very best humor to go and remain
at the home of wife who was. in
that way | always kept myself sur
rounded by an atmosphere of peace
and tranquility rather than trouble
and discord 1t is, of course, extreme
ly wearing on two people to have to
live together constantly through one
another's different moods. | don't
say that anybody can live longer with
four wives, but myself always found
it very pleasant. 1t was so nice to
be able to associate myself with one
who was cheerful and in good spirits
rather than with one who was tenn
porarily out of sorts
There were many more questions
that | wished to ask but persons
were about and | feared they would
regard the questions as too intimate.
yearned to have the old man tell
me what he did about his washing in
the ultra-luxurious days when he was
keeping four households. Did he have
it done regularly at one place always
| under the supervision of the same
wife? Or did he change his clothes
just wherever he happened to be stay
ing, and have to call there for his
clean underwear? Who did his darn
ing?
And it occurred to me that it would
be worth while getting the old mans
point of view as to the advantages of
four wives for one who keeps late
hours. If husband went downtown
of an evening and failed to get home
by midnight, did each wife wait up
for him? Or did each one simply
assume that he had dropped in at the
home of one of her associates? On
the face of the thing, it looks as if
man must have had rich opportunity
for alibis. Still, the life may not
have been jolly after all. Imagine
getting the grocery bills for your sew
eral establishments, and finding one
greatly larger than the others. with
out any apparent reason for the dis
crepancy. Doubtless there were polvg-
amists who made themselves extreme
ly disagreeable in their more expen-
| 0A'> NfC'othoiho VII iut UISL UtlN OF
each month.
Poiygamy among Mormonss is now
barred by church and state and really
seems to be dead issue. AS one
young Mormon expressed it:
I'VE of the younger generation
would no more tolerate polygamy now
than people down south would advo-
cate return to a'system of slavery"
L wondered, too, while in Salt Lake
City, if those who practiced polygamy
did not regret having to confine their
matrimonial selections to the Mormon
church. Beautiful women seemed to
be in the minority about the Mormon
tabernacle the day / was there. 1t
occurred to me that if | were trying
to make up brace or foursome of
wives, ] should prefer to do my shop
ping in New York, let us say, or San
Francisco, rather than in Utah.