South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-05-03
Seeing America
First
By Fred Kelly.

From Diary:
one sees so many aged people
among the oMrmons 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 80
years old, and yet fairly hearty, are
frequently 10 be seen. j talked to one
quaint old chap who said he was 80,
and he told me he had once had a
collection Of four wives He seemed
good-natured and / made bold TO ask
him how he accounted for living TO
the age of SO, Notwithstanding so
many women folk to antagonize him.
We'll" declared he seriously,
women all have their moods, and l
always found that it was a good plan
when one of my wives was not in the
very best of humor TO go and remain
at the home of a wife who was. In
that way l 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. l don't
say that anybody can live longer with
four wives, but L myself always found
it very pleasant II was so nice TO be
was cheerful and in good spirits
rather than with one who was tenn
pOrarily out of sorts"
There were many more questions
that l wished to ask, but persons
were about and 1 feared they would
regard the questions as too intimate
l yearned to have the old man tell
me what he did about his washing in
the ultra uXOrious days when he was
ii 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
hours If a husband went down town
of an evening and failed TO get home
by midnight. did each wife wait up
for him? or did each one simply as
sumo that he had dropped in at the
home of one or her associates? on
the face OF the thing, it looks as if a
man must have had a rich opportun-
ity for alibis. Still, the life may not
have been so jolly after all. Imagine
EGlAllS nc H ONtl1 DAlAS loI our sew
eral Establishments. and finding one
greatly larger than the others, with
out any apparent reason for the dis
cepancy. Doubtless there were ploy-
gamists who made themselves extreme
~ disagreeable in their more eXpen-
sive households on the first day of
each month.
POlygamy among MOrmOns is now
barred by church and state and really
seems to be a dead issue. AS one
young Mormon expressed il:
I'VE of the younger generation
would no more tolerate plOygamy now
than people down south would advo-
cate return to system of slavery"
Il wondered. too, while in Salt Lake
City. If those who practised polygamy
did not regret having TO cOnfine their
matrimonial selections 10 the Mormon
church. Beautiful women seemed TO
be in the minority about the Mormon
tabernacle the day I was there. II
occurred 10 me that if 1 were trying
TO make up a brace or a fOursOme Of
wives. l should prefer 10 do my shop
ping in New York city let US say. or
San Francisco. rather than in Utah.