Mormonism in England and America -- Embraces Mormonism -- Is ordained and preaches -- Goes as a missionary to France -- Leaves England for America -- Visits Carthage and Nauvoo -- the Smiths -- Icarians -- The plains -- Indians -- Arrives at Salt Lake -- Initiated into the Mormon Mystreries -- Efforts to leave Salt Lake City -- Appointed a missionary to the Sandwich Islands -- Leaves for California -- Doubts and dificulties -- Pacificocean -- Arrives at Sandwich Islands --Renounces Mormonism -- Brigham's certificate -- Motive for act -- Conduct of the Church toward him

Books require to be instructive and credible. These qualities altogether depend on the opportunities of the author to obtain correct information, and the purity of his motives in imparting it. To have been a Mormon, is to be an object of suspicion. To be an apostate, is to be regarded with distrust. To be an apostate Mormon, is to be doubly suspected. As the weight of testimony entirely depends on the credibility of the witness, I therefore commence my evidence with a statement as to myself. Who I am, how I became what I am, and why I write, are questions every one should ask. I endeavor to reply. Mormonism in England and Mormonism in Utah are two very different systems. In England all its objectionable principles were not only ignored, but denied.
 

-----   14                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

Its Apostles and Elders not only uttered negative but also positive falsehoods, in order to induce belief. They not only denied many things that were true, but stated many things that were utterly false. As a sample of their falsehoods, I will instance polygamy. This was practiced by Smith in 1838, and the Mormon Apostles knew it. Yet, when the Church was charged with its adoption, Parley P. Pratt, in Manchester, England, before the general conference of the European churches, and in the Millennial Star of 1846, thus publicly denounced it: "Such a doctrine is not held, known, or practiced as a principle of the Latter-day Saints. It is but another name for whoredom; and is as foreign from the real principles of the Church, as the devil is from God; or as sectarianism is from Christianity" (Millennial Star, vol. vi., p. 22). And yet this man knew that Smith and others had children living who were the offspring of this very practice! John Taylor, another Mormon Apostle, in a discussion held at Boulogne, France, in July 1850, was charged with the belief of this doctrine, to which accusation he thus replied: "We are accused here of polygamy and actions the most indelicate, obscene and disgusting, such as none but a corrupt heart could have conceived. These things are too outrageous to be believed; therefore I shall content myself with reading our views of chastity and marriage, from a work published by us, containing some of the articles of our faith." He read in the Book of Smith's Revelations, p. 330, the marriage covenant: "You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife; observing all the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              15   ------

wholly for each other, and from all others during your lives!" And on p.331: "Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again!" And again, on p. 124: "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her, and none else; and he that looketh on a woman to lust after her, shall deny the faith, and not have the spirit, and be cast out." "There," exclaimed Elder Taylor, triumphantly, "that is our doctrine on this subject" (Taylor's Discussion at Boulogne, p. 8). And this man had four wives wrangling and quarreling at Utah, and was paying attentions to a girl at Jersey, Channel Islands, at the very moment he uttered these willful, intentional falsehoods!

The illustrious examples of such pseudo-inspired Apostles were industriously imitated by similarly inspired Elders. Where the former were content with mere affirmation or denial, the latter blasphemously called on God to attest their veracity; and challenged the Almighty to disprove their statements. Some of them denounced their accusers with bitter curses, and threatened them with all kinds of spiritual horrors. From the lips of such men, and others who had been deceived by such men, did my father and myself first hear of Mormonism. The character of Smith, his many mighty miracles, his profound sagacity, his inspired teachings, the love of the Saints, the purity of their Zion, their frequent tribulations and sufferings, their uncomplaining submission and uncompromising
 

-----   16                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

virtue, came forth resplendent from their testimonies. Such statements, repeated constantly, and by different individuals, accompanied by vigorous attacks on the divisions, dissensions, and acrimony exhibited in too many sectaries, spiced by the empty bombast and cant of all pretended moral, political, and religious reformers, apparently sustained by positive practice; added to these incentives, a bewildering method of using, and an extensive acquaintance with passages of Scripture; novel dogmas sincerely believed and enthusiastically taught, for which they claimed special revelation as their origin; all this, heightened by the most barefaced assertions of predictions accomplished, of singular healings certainly performed, of positive promises of conviction following obedience, of the ancient signs, and of the old priesthood-all this uttered by men who hesitated at almost no falsehood "which should convert a soul," could not but arrest our attention. "To doubt is to be damned already," said Paul; and he was right. Into this whirlpool of enthusiasm we, with many others, were insensibly borne. Very little attention was paid to the subject by the conservators of religious truth. Despised, it was neglected; and because neglected, it continued to, grow. With little or no contradiction, and the little that was made, readily silenced by these men, they made themselves believed. All that was known of Mormonism was known from their statements; positively thinking it something holier, purer and truer, it was embraced by hundreds. To fervently embrace a delusion, is to more sincerely believe it. They clothed it in the drapery of warm emotions; and good men, in their desires for something more exalted and God-like, viewed it
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              17   ------

through the distorted medium of their own wishes; not knowing it as it was, they thought it was what they hoped it to be. When they began to see the difference between their conception and the reality, many were too enmeshed to forsake it. Men always strive to make that appear true which they conceive it their interest to be true; because they like to have for their actions the sanction of their own consciences. Nor is this mental process very difficult; and it easily and satisfactorily accounts for glaring absurdities, and yet actual sincerity. It is thus with many of the Mormons. They were sincere in embracing Mormonism; and when their minds began to doubt, if they ever had sense enough to doubt, the weight of interest crushed down the resistance of conscience; and, although ceasing to be true to themselves, they became true to their system. The dread of being called inconsistent induced sincere consistency to their religion, while sacrificing the only real consistency, that of man with himself.

I had an ideal of what religion and the worship of God might be; I imagined that this system, as I then heard it expounded, realized that ideal; and, in the love of that ideal, I embraced it and was accordingly baptized, on the 4th of September, 1848, being then a boy of fifteen years. Since proving that that ideal religion is fallacious, and that the reality of Mormonism is depraving, I have abandoned it. That I was sincere in my faith and conscientious in my conduct, I believe no one will attempt to dispute. In the December of the same year, I was ordained a Priest, and commenced to preach Mormonism as I had received, and then
 

-----   18                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

believed it to be. This I continued to do in various places in England till, in June, 1851, I was appointed to join the French mission, as it was called, and then under the direction of Elder John Taylor, who had, in 1850, left Salt Lake, expressly to commence preaching Mormonism in that country. On the 1st of August, 1851, I was ordained, as the following certificate shows, to be "one of the Seventies," an office of equal power but inferior jurisdiction to that of" one of the Twelve."

CERTIFICATE To All to whom these Presents shall come: This certifies that JOHN HYDE has been received into the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, organized on the SIXTH DAY OF APRIL, 1830, and was ORDAINED into the EIGHTH QUORUM of SEVENTIES, the First day of August, 1851, and by virtue of his OFFICE he is authorized to PREACH THE GOSPEL, and officiate in all the ordinances thereof, in all the world, agreeable to the authority of the HOLY PRIESTHOOD vested in him; we, therefore, in the name, and by the authority of this CHURCH, grant unto this our BROTHER this LETTER OF COMMENDATION unto all persons wherever his lot may be cast, as a proof of our esteem, praying for his prosperity in the Redeemer's cause. GIVEN under our hands at Great Salt Lake City, this Fifteenthday of June, 1854. JOS. YOUNG, President.     ROBET CAMPBELL, Clerk.

I remained engaged in the French mission till January,
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              19   ------

1853: a portion of which time I was in the Channel Islands, and a portion I spent at Havre-de-Grace.'

On February 5th, 1853, I sailed from Liverpool, in company with nearly four hundred passengers for New Orleans. The passengers were exclusively Mormons, and all bound to the Great Salt Lake Valley; indulging high hopes of there realizing all that is desirable in holiness, purity, and brotherhood. We were organized in the Mormon fashion, with a President and his two Councilors, one of which I was chosen to be. After an ordinary passage to New Orleans, we ascended the magnificent Mississippi, to Keokuk, Iowa. From Keokuk, I paid a visit to Nauvoo, in company with an estimable and talented gentleman, then a Mormon, but whom a view of Salt Lake doings has since caused to apostatize and return to England. The Temple that the Mormons had built and completed in 1845, was in ruins, a savage specimen of modern Vandalism. (See engraving.)

I spent several days conversing with J. Smith's mother, wife, and family, and heard many charges against Brigham and his associates for actions in which, according to the Smiths, they had disobeyed the injunctions, contradicted the teachings, and maligned the memory of their late Prophet.

From this place I visited the Carthage jail, where J. Smith and his brother, Hiram, were assassinated in cold blood; and the wall against which he was placed, and barbarously shot at, after his death. (See engraving.)

The camp was thronging with life, there being nearly two thousand five hundred Mormons preparing to start for the plains. It presented a very pleasing view, and was delightfully
 

-----   20                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

situated on a hill overlooking the thriving city of Keokuk on the one side, and the majestic Mississippi on the other.

On June 1st, the company with which I traveled left for Council Bluffs City, crossed the river Missouri, on the 12th, saw the last civilized habitations that we were to see for months, and were fairly en route for Salt Lake. The scenery on the road, the incidents of camp life, with stampedes of cattle, toiling along by day, uncomfortable watchings by night, bad roads to mend, bridges to build, the sense of freedom exciting the mind, till the monotony becomes tedious and wearisome; all this has been so ably and so often described, as to be familiar to every one. We met a large party of Pawnee-Loups, on the Platte. They had just come from a battle with the Sioux; they were decked in all the glory of Indian warpaint, were well mounted and armed, and with their ferociously-daubed faces, heads shaved bare except the feathered scalplock, their threatening gestures, screaming tones, and insolent conduct, were very formidable fellows. We made them a large present of flour and other edibles for their "hungry papooses," or, strictly speaking, they levied the tax, and we paid it.

We arrived at Salt Lake City, in October, just in time for the Fall Conference. I married a young lady to whom I had been engaged in London, and began to teach school. Of course I was not long at Salt Lake before discovering the difference between what I had been taught to expect and what I saw. It may be asked why did I not immediately leave Salt Lake, and forsake Mormonism? Convictions received in boyhood, and that have been maturing and deepening
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              21   ------

with one's development, are not to be overturned by one disappointment or by one discovery. Inconsistency and contradiction do much to destroy belief; but these inconsistencies might be imaginary. Every tie that could bind any one to any system, united me to Mormonism. It had been the religion that my youth had loved and preached; it was the faith of my parents; of my wife and her relatives; my mind had been toned with its views, and my life associated with its ministers. I knew little or nothing of any other faith, and I clung with desperate energy to the system, although I repudiated the practices.

On Friday, February 10, 1854, I was initiated into the mysteries of the "Mormon endowment." What was the nature of those mysteries, none, before initiation, could have an idea. To understand, it was necessary to receive them. His is a strong mind over whom a mass of ceremonies could have no influence, in which representations of the most august beings are made to move and talk, and which included the most solemn oaths, accompanied by frightful penalties. The obligations of Free-masonry and Odd-fellowship exercise no small influence over the initiated; nor am I surprised that a superstitious terror, in many instances, enchains these endowed Mormons, at Salt Lake, in complete subjection to their Prophet Brigham, and his coadjutors.

In the spring of 1854, I determined to leave Salt Lake for California, but had not, neither could I obtain the means to do so. I candidly wrote and stated my views, however, to Orson Pratt, one of the Twelve Apostles, with whom I was in timate, and we frequently conversed on the subject. I had
 

-----   22                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

then resolved to leave in 1855, if possible, but was still prevented by poverty. At the conference held in April, 1856, I was publicly appointed, without any previous intimation, to go on a mission to the Sandwich Isles, and was instructed to leave by the May following. I accepted the appointment. I thought that perhaps, as I was told, I had "grown rusty;" that my waning faith was the result of inaction; that to be actively employed in the ministry might waken up my old confidence; that in the effort to convince others, I might succeed in reconvincing myself. The religion of my youth was still so enwrapped around my habits of thought, that I was desirous rather to prove it true, than demonstrate it to be false. I tried hard to believe it true, endeavored to act as though I did believe it, in the hope of producing conviction. In renouncing it, I have done so in spite of my prejudices.

In May, accordingly, I left Salt Lake City for the Sandwich Islands, having been chosen as president over the missionaries destined for that location. None of the missionaries to the Sandwich Islands were allowed to take their wives; this and other reasons compelled me to leave Mrs. Hiyde with her relatives at Salt Lake. Besides this, my mind was at sea, floating in darkness and indecision. Ignorant of my real position, I knew not whither I should go if I were to turn; I therefore went straight on. I had to leave, for to remain was to abjure Mormonism; and I was not fully prepared for final and permanent apostacy. "I had seen Rome, was disgusted with Rome, and still tried to disconnect Romanism from Rome;" and as it was with another, to some extent it was with me, it needed time, it needed thought, it needed collating
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              23   ------

my recollections, that I might feel the force of their sum. The opportunity for this thought and collation could not be obtained at Salt Lake City, nor in the business of crossing the plains. I endeavored to view Mormonism objectively, for theoretically it assumes to be the religion of human progress, apart from Mormonism subjectively, as it was then existing. I tried and failed. On the Pacific ocean, in communion with God and my own soul, the darkness of doubt that had blinded my eyes, and the mists of indecision that had paralyzed my energies, left me, and I resolved not only to renounce Mormonism, but also to tell the world freely, fully, and fearlessly, as well my reasons, as my experience.

To this end I have labored in the Sandwich Isles, California, and elsewhere; and to this object do I determine to devote-myself. If Mormonism as it is be true, the better it is understood the better will it be for the world. If it be false, it is the duty of every man to endeavor to manifest its errors. To deter persons from embracing delusion, and to rescue from complete self-sacrifice any who have already embraced it are my only motives for adopting my course.

My opportunities for knowing Mormonism as it is, will not, I think, be disputed by any of its believers. My motives for revealing that knowledge are open to God and the world. Ever since my first connection with the Church, honors and authority have been heaped upon me. Increased and increasing honors were before me when I abandoned it. I could not have been actuated by disappointed ambition, therefore, because they never gave me any neglect to avenge. Nor could it have been from personal pique, as I know of
 

-----   24                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

antipathy felt toward me. That my secession was entirely voluntary, and my reputation unquestioned, the subjoined document, handed to me immediately previous to leaving Salt Lake, will prove.

The tone adopted by the Mormon authorities toward me, subsequent to my secession, may be judged by the following extract from a sermon, preached by H. C. Kimball, at Salt Lake City, January 11, 1857:

"There is a little matter of business that we want to lay before this congregation in regard to John Hyde, who went to the Sandwich Islands on a mission. There are a couple of letters that the brethren have received; we shall read a little from them, and give you to understand the course he is taking. (The letters were read.) You hear the letters and the testimony of our brethren in regard to John Hyde. Such matters, many times, have passed along, and we have not noticed them, but have let men deny the faith, speaking against it, and deliver lectures through the world. Many times we have let them run at large, but the time is now passed for such a course of things. By the consent of my brethren, I shall move that John iyde be cut qff from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I will put the motion in full; that is, that he be cut off, root and branch; that means pertaining to himself. When this motion is put, I want you to vote, every one of you, either for or against, for there is no sympathy to be shown unto such a man. Br. Wells.has seconded the motion I have made. All that are in favor that John Hyde be cut off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that he be delivered over to Satan to be buffeted in the flesh, will raise their right hands. (All hands were raised.) A motion has been put, and unanimously carried, that
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              25   ------

ELDER'S CERTIFICATE To All Persons to whom this Letter shall Come: This certifies that the bearer, Elder JOHN HYDE, Jun., is in full faith and fellowship with the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, and by the General Authorities of said Church, has been duly appointed a MISSION to SANDWICH ISLES to PREACH THE GOSPEL, and administer in all the ordinances thereof pertaining to his office. And we invite all men to give heed to his teachings and counsels as a man of GOD, sent to open to them the door of life and salvation -- and assist him in his travels, in whatsoever things he may need. And we pray GOD the ETERNAL FATHER to bless Elder HYDE, and all who receive him, and minister to his comfort, with the blessings of heaven and earth, for time and for all eternity, in the name of JESUS CHRIST. Amen. Signed at Great Salt Lake City, TERRITORY OF UTAH; April 10th, 1856, in behalf of said Church. BRIGHAM YOUNG HEBER C. KIMBALL J. M. GRANT FIRST PRESIDENCY.

 

-----   26                                THE AUTHOR.                                -----

John Hyde be cut off root and branch; that is, himself, and all the roots and branches that are within him. This has no allusion to his family. He has taken a course by which he has lost his family, and forfeited his priesthood; he has forfeited his membership. The limb is cut off, but the priesthood takes the fruit that was attached to the limb and saves it, if it will be saved. Do you understand me? His wife is not cut off from this Church, but she is free from him; she is just free from him as though she never had belonged to him. The limb she was connected to is cut off, and she must again be grafted into the tree, if she wishes to be saved; that is! about it." Deseret News, January 21st, 1857.

Not only was I not influenced by prejudice, pique or disappointment in my secession from the Mormon Church; but, in spite of all prejudices, at the sacrifice of all friendships, at the hazard of breaking every tie that united me to happiness and the world, and at the risk of life itself, I have acted as I have. That I have done right I am convinced. God knows I have done it in the love of right. To be able, in how slight degree soever, to expose error and yet to remain silent is to connive at and share the responsibility of that error. While deploring that my best years for improvement have been squandered in delusion, it is a duty I owe to others similarly circumstanced, to endeavor to convince them of their true position. Less than this is less than right. For as the subject is of paramount importance to the world if true, and to the Mormons themselves if false, so its correct exposure must therefore be equally important, and consequently, so far obligatory.

If in the succeeding pages I may have been guilty of exaggeration,
 

------                                    THE AUTHOR.                              27   ------

I am not aware of it; I certainly do not intend it. Mormonism licenses too much corruption under the name of religion, to need any exaggeration to make it atrocious. The Mormons are guilty of too many crimes to need any addition to them to render them abominable.

"The big mountain" -- Emigration kanyon -- The benches -- Great Salt Lake -- The city wall -- The city -- The inhabitants -- The houses of the leading men near Temple Block -- Kimball's city property -- Brigham's Lion house -- The Mansion and White House -- Mormon Theater and dancing hall -- Public buildings -- Tithing office and system of tithing -- Communism and consecration -- Public lands -- Temple block -- The soil -- Capacity to support increased population -- Starvation -- Manufactories -- Liquor making and consuming -- Iron and coal for the Pacific railroad -- Minerals-- Weapon manufactories -- The Mormon census and lying -- Mormon prosperity and purity.

BETWEEN the western border of the States on the Atlantic side, and the Pacific States of this great continent, there are vast prairies, dreary and treeless, sand-hills, mud flats, rocky mountains, and rapid rivers. Sixteen hundred and sixty-seven miles of travel from St. Louis, Mo., vid Council Bluffs City, brings one to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. A journey through tortuous mountain defiles, crossing creeks with precipitous banks, over roads that terrify even expert Jehus; wearied with a monotony more fatiguing than a sea voyage, any valley would seem lovely, and any respite would be hailed as a paradise. This fact accounts for the joy with which travelers hail the first glimpse of the barren and bare-valleyed home of the Saints. Will the reader make the tour with me? We have just climbed up a steep, rocky hill. Three or
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           29   ------

four teams to each wagon have at last dragged them all safely to the summit of the "big mountain." The cattle are panting and puffing and lying down for a rest, while we gaze at a very imposing scene. We are now standing on an eminence of the Wahsatch mountains, over eight thousand feet above the level of the ocean, surrounded by peaks that rise majestically above our heads, and in the deep nooks of which continually glitters the eternal snow; beneath this, fringed and shaded by dark masses of balsam, fir, and pine. Behind us are receding ranges of hills, streams sparkling like silver threads, the trembling foliage of the quaking aspen, and narrow gorges looming like abysses in the distance. Before us, mountains growing lower, till a strip of valley relieves the sight, in the south-west. This is the first glimpse of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Mormons fall on their knees and pray; some shout hosannas and hallelujahs; many weep; husbands kiss their wives, and parents their children, in their paroxysm of joy, and the very faithful declare they feel the Spirit of God pervading the very atmosphere, and they enthusiastically declare that all their toils are repaid, for they have at length come home, where the "wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." Poor people -- poor deluded people!

We are not so overcome, and prepare to descend the "big mountain;" glad to remember only 18 miles now separate us from rest and society. We neither break our necks nor our wagon axles, and wind up a very pretty "kanyon" -- a mountain defile. We are met by many a team and wagon crawling up toward the big mountain, for fire-wood. We
 

-----   30                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

cross another mountain ridge, and are in a most delightfully picturesque gorge, "the emigration kanyon." Admiting the beauties of its rocky heights, the slopes covered with shrubbery and painted by the sun in all sorts of rich colors, as though a rainbow had been wrecked on the hill side and had left its beautiful shades on the grass and ferns; forgetting every thing but the scene around us, we suddenly turn an abrupt point, and the valley is stretched before us. To our right and left is the continuous range of hills from which we have just emerged. We are on the rolling brow of a slight decline, and observe that for several hundred feet above our heads, there are long, level lines of ridges, which are deeply and evenly indented on the mountains, as far as our sight can reach. We notice also that there are other such before us till they form a narrow flat surface through which a river flows, and that the ground rises similarly up the mountains before us, 30 miles away. These are called "benches;" they extend throughout the entire range of valleys, are plainly visible, exactly level, and are the ancient shores of the Great Salt Lake. Like a blue tinted mirror reflecting the sunshine, we remark the lake about 35 miles to the north-west. It is now about 70 miles long, from north to south, and 30 miles wide, from east to west. It once filled, and most probably formed the entire "Great Basin," as it is termed, extending 500 miles from north to south, and 350 miles from east to west, hemmed in by the Sierra Madre mountains on the east, and the Goose Creek and Humboldt ranges on the west. Mountains were then jagged islands, ravines the straits, sweeping hollows the gulfs and shores of this vast and silent
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           31   ------

sea. It has shrunk away to its present dimensions, and is the immense reservoir into which all the streams and river, of the "Basin" pour their melted snows.

It has no apparent outlet, although gradually dimiinhing apparently more rapidly than can be accounted for by mere evaporation. Many flats of black mud with an incrustation of dazzling salt crystals, were covered with water when the Mormons first went there; and their flat-boat was pushed easily over long stretches of now baking and cracked soil. Its bottom is very flat, however, and a very slight increase of water would again submerge miles of now exposed surface. The density of the water varies necessarily in different seasons from the quantities of fresh water pouring down into it. It averages from 1.16 to 1.18 of sp. gr. It is the strongest natural brine in the world, holding in solution over 22 per cent. of different salts.

Its dark sluggish waves forcibly recall the Deal Sea to the mind of the gazer, and were it not that this is 4,200 feet above, and that lies 1,000 feet below the level of the ocean; and that this is completely locked in by abrupt and surrounding mountains, while that rolls over the "cities of the plain," it would be easy to fancy one self away in Palestine, and on that scene of human corruption and divine vengeance. The water is. extremely buoyant, and it occasions a singular feeling to be unable to sink in, and very difficult to swim throug-h it. Its water produces immediate strangulation, excessive smarting in the eyes, nostrils, and ears, and on coming out converts even negroes into crystallized white men.

Numerous salt boileries are erected on the shores; from
 

-----   32                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

four gallons of water they obtain nearly one gallon of clear dry salt. Nature, in her great laboratory, however, produces thousands of bushels of coarse crystals, and deposits them on the shore. Teams and wagons come from the cities and shovel it up, and it sells often as low as 50 cents per 100 lbs. From an analysis of the water, made by Dr. Gale, it was determined to contain by weight 22.422 per cent. of solid substances, in the proportions of 20.196 chloride of sodium, common salt; 1.834 of sulphate of soda; 0.252 of chloride of magnesium, and a trace of chloride of calcium.

We turn our eyes from the Salt Lake back to the city, which is just peeping from under the hill. We are stopped by a mud wall 12 feet high, 6 feet wide at the base, 2 1/2 feet on top; in front of it, is a wide, deep ditch, and it is defended by semi-bastions at half-musket range. These are pierced with loop-holes to afford a front and flank fire in case of attack. It was pretendedly built to keep out Indians, but as it encompasses the city, which covers an area of six square miles, all its male population could not thoroughly defend it. The hills rise abruptly round it, and there are abundance of eminences where a rifleman could kill persons in the city, and the wall be but as a thread paper beneath him, It was built in 1854; its design was to give the people something to do, as to keep the mind and hands occupi(d is the best means to prevent impertinent inquiry and leave no time for rebellion.

We enter at a gate of the wall, and are in the city. We remark that it is divided into blocks, of ten 10 acres each, intersected at right angles by streets, running due north and south, and east and west, 130 feet wide; that the roads in
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           33   ------

them in wet weather, are almost impassable; that there are very few houses in the suburbs, although they grow closer toward the center; that here they are mud hovels, with dirt roofs, or mere log shanties. We observe, too, that the sidewalks are 20 feet wide, and they have a stream of water at times flowing down each sidewalk: that on some of these streams, cotton wood, and other rapidly-growing trees are planted; that the houses are all built on the edges of blocks, leaving well-cultivated fields and gardens in the center. We notice that every thing bears the impress of work, and when one looks back at the bleak mountains, and forward at the barren valley, without spontaneous vegetation higher than a willow bush, we realize that it must have been hard work.

There are about 15,000 inhabitants at Salt Lake City. They consist of a very few Americans, and the large majority English and Scotch; very many Welsh, and numerous Danes. I think certainly not one third of the whole would embrace all the Americans in the city, and not one fourth of the whole in the entire Territory. These are principally from the western borders of the States. They have all the power in their hands, fill all the offices, ecclesiastical and civil, and receive all the emoluments. They are almost without exception polygamists, and are singularly full of prejudice, intolerance, and boasted fidelity to Mormonism.

Here we are at the Temple Block, in the center of the city. We have come up a street full of stores. There are some very excellent business premises here, and enormnous stocks of merchandise are yearly imported across the plains,
 

-----   34                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

in huge ox-drawn wagons. The merchants make money very rapidly, profits on some articles amounting from 150 to 600 per cent. We remark that all the stores, etc., are built of adobe6, sun-dried bricks; and from their slate-white color, make the streets very lively in appearance. On these streets there are some good houses. A very pretty house on the east side, was occupied by the late J. M. Grant and his five wives. A large barrack-like house on the corner, is tenanted by Ezra T. Benson and his four ladies. A large, but mean-looking house to the west, was inhabited by the late Parley P. Pratt and his nine wives. In that long, dirty row of single rooms, half-hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden, lived Dr. Richard and his eleven wives. Wilford Woodruff and five wives reside in another large house still further west. O. Pratt and some four or five wives occupy an adjacent building. All these are "Apostles;" they are well known among the people, and their names are inseparable from Mormon history.

Looking toward the north, we espy a whole block covered with houses, barns, gardens, and orchards. In these dwell H. C. Kimball and his eighteen or twenty wives, their families, and dependants. Strange scenes disturb the serenity of this Mormon Paradise. Walking toward the east, we pass three or four low cottages. In that seraglio D. H. Wells has some six of his "feminines" installed. Passing these, we arrive at Brigham's Lion House. This is of stone to the first story, on the ridge of which, in front, is a very excellently sculptured lion, "resting, but watchful." It is a tangible compliment to Brigham, he being called "the Lion of the Lord." The
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           35   ------

peaked gable, narrow pointed garret windows projecting from the steep roof, attract our notice. That house is occ upied by some seventeen or eighteen of Brigham Young's wives (see chapter on Brigham at Home). This house cost him over $30,000, and would have cost more but for his method of building it. It was completed and ready for shinglinig in 1845. The shingles were ready and waiting. At a Sunday meeting in the Tabernacle, Brigham announced that he had a mission for all the carpenters, and demanded if they would accept it. They raised their hands, and were then coolly commanded to "shingle the Lion House in the name of the Lord, and by the authority of the holy priesthood." So Brigham's Lion House was shingled, for although the carpenters grumbled still they obeyed. A range of neat offices next please the eye, and speak well of Mormon architectural taste; and we arrive at Brigham's mansion. This is a large, handsome adobe building, excellently plastered, and dazzlingly. It is balconied from ground to roof; on the top is an observatory, and surmounting all is a bee-hive, the Mormon symbol of industry. This cost over $65,000, and is the best edifice in the Territory. It is occupied by Brigham's senior wife and her family. Orchards and gardens lie behind and around it On the hill to our right is the "White House," formerly Brigham's. This and its adjoining grounds he lately sold to a rich Englishman for $25,500 in English sovereigns, and presented the money to liquidate an old Church debt, due for money borrowed in emigrating the poor Saints to Salt Lake City from Europe.

Struck with the fact that all the eligible property appears
 

-----   36                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

to be in the hands of "the authorities," we continue our walk to the Social Hall. This is an adobe building, 73 x 33 feet. In it is performed dramatic representations, from Shakspeare's tragedies to Colman's farces, by a company of unpaid Mormon amateurs. James Ferguson, one of the stars, says "they excel any thing he ever saw in Europe." Faith works wonders! In it, too, Brigham and the other leaders "teach the young idea" to dance. Cotilions, contra-dances, and reels are in vogue. They repudiate waltzes, mazourkas, schottisches, etc., because disliking to see their wives and daughters so "intimate with other men." A Mormon genius has invented a "double cotilion," giving two ladies to each gentleman, something of which kind is necessary, too, as I once counted over three and a half females to each male in a ball-room.

The Council House, a two storied building, 45 feet square, attracts our notice. It is used as the printing-office, and thence issues the Mormon weekly and weakly paper called the "Deseret News." The Court House, a large adobe structure, is pointed out to us from the roof of this one, into an observatory on the top of which we mount to get a good view. The Arsenal, on the north hill overlooking the city, also arrests the eye in its passing glance. On the north-east corner is the Tithing. office, a large spacious building, with cellars, store-rooms, and offices attached. Each person on entering the Mormon Church is required to pay the tenth part of his or her property to the Lord's servants for "building up temples, or otherwise beautifying and adorning Zion, as they may be directed froin on higb." Having tithed their property, they must tithe their yearly increase for the same purpose. This tenth part
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           37   ------

is really a fifth part; for each man is required to work every tenth day on the Temple, or hire a substitute, and as well pay the tenth of the increase on the other nine days' labor. It is even more than this in many cases, amouting nearly to fifty per cent., as the ladies pay the tenth part of their fowls, then a tenth part of the eggs, and then a tenth part of the chickens that may be hatched, irrespective of loss. This law of tithing, however, is only the "milk of the gospel;" and was the preparative to a more rigid system of property-holding. Smith, in the beginning of the Church, attempted to establish Communism, each giving their all to the Bishop, and only drawing out of the office sufficient to live upon. This, however, was not more practicable for Smith than for Fourier or Cabet, and it was silently permitted to glide into the payment of tithing. In 1854, however, Brigham attempted to revive the old law in an improved shape. Hie commanded the people to consecrate by legal transfer all right and title to all personal property. A law was passed through the Legislature making such transfers strictly valid; quit claim deeds were drawn up, and from their land to their wearing apparel, the majority of the people transferred every thing to Brigham, or his successor, as trustee in trust for the Church of Latter-day Saints; and some, in the exuberance of enthusiasm, threw in their wives and families. The property of each is retained by each person only at the option of Brigham Young. He can eject any person who has thus "conseerated," for he becomes strictly a trespasser by toleration on Church property. Each is permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labors on condition of his paying a net tithe for immediate
 

-----   38                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

purposes, and to be ready to give up ALL should it be required in any emergency. Thus in fact Brigham is the positive owner of almost all the property in the Territory, and is one of the wealthiest men in the world, holding all at his unconditioned will.

He frankly stated the object of this policy at the conference. It was to prevent Gentiles from purchasing any property without ecclesiastical sanction; to hinder departing apostates from taking any property from the Territory; to make it the interest of every man to be submissive, and thus to more completely rule the people. Said he, "Men love riches, and can't leave without means; now, if you tie up the calf the cow will stay." Some distressing circumstances have already resulted from the operation of this law. Brigham was in earnest at its devisal, and will be in earnest as to enforcing its execution. Hle thinks of re-establishing Smith's system of ecclesiastical communism by degrees, and by using the mace of the priesthood, to drub refractory individuals into the practice of obedience. The tithing contributed by the people is paid to the employees of the "Public Works;" and, as the authorities are engaged on public duty, of course they have the first selection, the tithing clerks posting an open account between them and the Lord. Favoritism the most glaring is exhibited in the distribution of the articles. They pretend to pay very large wages to artizans, and salaries to the clerks, but charge equally exorbitantly for articles paid; and while the leading clerks, etc., have an abundance, the poor artizan is half starved, half clad, wretchedly housed, almost insulted on applying for any thing; and; by a
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           39   ------

. singular system of book-keeping, are always found heavily in debt, should they wish to quit and find other employment. I an give instances of these things by dozens. It is universally known at Utah, and almost universally reproached. I have seen many tears, heard many groans and curses on D. H. Wells, the Superintendent of the Public Works, general business man, third President of the Church, and a prophet, seer, and revelator forsooth, for the misery endured by the suffering "hands." In some cases such pretended balances of account have been collected by law with monstrous officers' fees, from persons who were disgusted with Mormonism, and who were leaving Utah.

But here is the Temple Block. This is a square containing ten acres; it is surrounded by a ten-foot wall, with four gates, around which are planted some handsome shade-trees. We enter at the south gate, and to the west is the Tabernacle. This is an adobe structure, 126 feet long, and 64 feet wide. It has the inside shape of an elliptic arch, the width being its span. Here Brigham and the other leaders give the word of the Lord every Sabbath to the people. It will seat over 2,000 persons, and is generally well attended. They have an instrumental band that plays marches, and even polkas to enliven the feelings of the people, and get up the spirit; besides a choir, who sing from original Mormon songs in the tune of "Old Dan Tucker," to Bach's chants and Handel's oratorios. They pretend to give to their meetings a religious form, always commencing by singing and prayer, but discourse on adobe-making, clothes-washing, house-cleaning, ditch-digging, and other kindred subjects; advertise letters,
 

-----   40                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

appoint labor days for the wards; get up pleasure excursions, organize relief companies to meet the arriving emigration, etc., etc. It is no more worship than any thing else they do, as they open their theatrical performances with public prayer, and dismiss the actors, and some of them very intoxicated too, with a benediction. This plan is also adopted in their balls, Brigham not only praying for a blessing on the dancing, but often stopping the ball to give the people a preachment; when, by the inspiration of dancing, he had got under the influence of his prophetic afflatus.

North of the Tabernacle is a frame erection, called "The Bowery," and is used for conference meetings, being capable of accommodating 8,000 persons. It is a singular scene to witness it crowded full of decently dressed people, and sitting under the ringing voice and fluent "talk" of Young, the nonsensical trash of Kimball, the enthusiastic declamation of Hyde, the calm reasoning of P. Pratt, or the abstractions of his brother Orson, swayed by every thought, and eagerly gulping all down as gospel inspiration to this wicked age, if they did but know it.

In the north-west corner of this block is the Endowment house, where is administered the secret ordinances of Mormonism (see chapter on Mormon Mysteries). On the eastern side of this square are the foundations for the famous Temple. They are now nearly level with the ground, and are 16 feet deep, and as much wide. They are of solid rock, and, with the wall, have already cost over $1,000,000, in material and labor, more than the whole of the Nauvoo Temple when complete. The proportions of the proposed building are very
 

 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           41   ------

imposing. It is in shape a parallelogram, 193 feet long from E. to W., and 105 feet wide, having an octagonal tower, 40 feet in diameter on each corner. The main building is to be nearly 100 feet high to the ridge of the roof. It is intended to build it of cut stone, and the Mormons for the last three years have been unsuccessfully digging at a canal along the benches to boat instead of carting the stone. Its architecture is symbolic and original. On some buttresses will be representations of globes in all positions, on others the sun in its various phases. On others Saturn, with its rings and satellites, and in the pompous Mormon style, "every stone has its moral lesson, and all point to the celestial world." Its entrance will be on the east side, and will consist of another tower. Surmounted by pinnacles, it will "point upward continually." It was intended to build it of adobe from the first story upward; but they have now determined on erecting it entirely of cut stone. It is going to be the chef d'oeuvre of all human architecture, and is expected to survive the conflagration that will some day enwrap the world. The accompanying view is accurate, being the copy of the extended drawing at Salt Lake. Its designer, Mr. William Ward, who was also the sculptor of the Lion on Brigham's house, has seceded from the Mormon faith, and left Utah. This will probably occasion some delay and changes in its erection.

Alt the ground has to be irrigated very extensively, in order to produce even cereals. As the water privileges are very limited, there is consequently but little cultivated soil, and often very slight crops. Along the benches there is a
 

-----   42                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

strip of alluvion, and by using the mountain creeks for irrigation, the people can avail themselves of this narrow strip. Hence, all their settlements are on the western inclines of the mountain ridges. The vast portion of Utah is sandy and alkaline deserts, dry dust in summer, impassable swamps in winter. Much interest attaches to the question of its capability of sustaining a large increase of population. There are now about 50,000 inhabitants, at the outside, in the Territory; and they are perhaps, with the exception of 500 persons, exclusively Mormons. Their pursuits are chiefly agriculture and stock-raising. The unwatered ranges during the spring, and mountain gorges in the fall, supply excellent pasture for their stock. This strip of alluvion affords all their tillable land. They have not, however, sufficient water, even now, for irrigating all they attempt to cultivate; and there is more quarreling and positive fighting about the water than all other subjects. With the assistance of more engineering capacity than at present possessed, however, canals might be dug, and they would treble the quantity of available soil by affording more water. One difficulty, however, they labor under, which can not be obviated. Timber is very scarce and uncome-at-able. It requires two days for mule teams to fetch a load of fire-wood from the mountains, and, with the increased consumption, grows necessarily daily scarcer and dearer. Cutting down the timber, by exposing the soil, dries up the spings, which materially lessens the creeks, and this diminishes the water supply, while the increasing population demands a greater abundance. This inevitably dries up the ground, and makes stock-feed very scarce and expensive.
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           43   ------

which augments the price of fire-wood in the ratio of time and expense. Although they have discovered coal in the southern portion of the Territory, the badness of the roads and distance to Salt Lake City, make it cost $30 per ton; it is only used by blacksmiths for forge purposes. The scarcity of wood for fuel and building purposes tries the patience and perseverance of the Saints excessively.

Another disagreeable consequence of thus stripping the mountains of their fringes is painfully felt. While the summers are a continual drought, the winters have deep snows and violent storms. The trees used to retain much on the hills, which, melting gradually in the spring, produced full creeks. It is now blown in clouds into the valleys, burying up feed and killing off stock frightfully. Hence it is that at every succeeding winter they have increasingly deep snow. In that of 1854-'55, many thousands of animals perished with hunger and frost, the snow being four to six feet deep. It was naturally followed by very little water in the streams in the spring, because the snow had been deposited in the valleys instead of on the mountains. Last winter the snow was still deeper, and this spring there is still less water in the creeks. Add to this, for the last three seasons the crops have been eaten up by grasshoppers and blue worms, or filled with smut. The harvests have been light, and many starving persons were compelled to subsist on wild roots during the winter. The future promises nothing better; but with the continual influx of population, they must either constantly find new valleys to settle, or starvation and removal will be inevitable. The Mormons, in selecting Salt Lake, chose it as a place where no
 

-----   44                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

others would wish to come; and where no others would remain if they did come. Their desire was only to get out of the world: for their object, their selection was good. They have fiercely battled with obstacles thus far in their strife with nature. I think that even Mormon energy and hardihood will not be able to maintain the unequal combat much longer. A few more seasons such as their last three will effectually starve them out; and to judge physical probabilities by appearances, there is little else before them.

The Mormons are an extremely industrious people. Remembering the short length of time they have been at Utah, their utter poverty when they arrived, their many difficulties since, and then viewing their present condition, all must admit their steady industry. They have various maniufactories. Wool-carding machines, cloth and blanket factories, tanneries, a pottery for coarse brown-ware, machineshops, iron and brass founderies, beside all the ordinary avocations. In 1853 they brought some machinery for the manufacture of sugar from beet-root. It is now in the hands of the Church. They have not yet been able to produce any sugar, through incompetent management; for in Utah as elsewhere, personal friendship, far more than proper capacity, induces many appointments, and principal of the sugar works is not an exception from the general rule. The whole affair has almost been useless, except to afford the Saints something to boast about. I forgot, however, one very important operation it produced. In 1854 some hundreds of gallons of syrup were spoiled by the charcoal through which they were endeavoring to refine it It was, of course, very wicked, according
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           45   ------

to Mormon economy, to destroy so much property. A luminous thought struck Brigham in 1856. It could not be converted into sugar, it could not be used as molasses, he would distill it into RUM. Accordingly, this bad molasses was converted into worse liquor; and, after coloring it with burnt sugar and flavoring it with green tea, the delicious compound was sold by Brigham's adopted son, W. C. Staines, at the very reasonable price of eight dollars per gallon. By this ingenious operation quite a little sum was clearly gained, and it was slyly hinted that the proceeds were expended in helping to build the Temple. If it be true, and I confess I doubt it, it was cementing the walls of the Lord's house with human drunkenness and human degradation!

Nor was this by any means the only distillery in Salt Lake City, although, in order that the Church might regulate such matters, and perhaps to prevent competition, all the other distilleries were prohibited from making any liquor during the above saintly speculation. A Dr. Clinton had a distillery producing the most infamous decoction of wheat. He was sent on a mission, and the Church purchased his distillery from his wives for its own private working. A Hugh Moon has quite an extensive one in operation at Salt Lake. During the life of Dr. Richards, a prophet, seer, revelator, and editor, his little cart used to make daily visits to Moon's distillery, and take thence from a quart to a gallon of liquor; and J. D. Ross, now preaching in England, was sent away from Salt Lake as a missionary, almost entirely because he was overbold in asserting that Moon made the spirit that inspired the leaders in the "Deseret News." There is also another distillery
 

-----   46                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

in the city, and several in other parts of the Territory. Brigham has a city named after himself, on Box-elder creek, sixty miles north of Salt Lake City. Even in this holy place, a man named Clarke produces a liquid he calls and the people buy for whisky. At Ogden City there is another such distillery; another at Provo, and so on throughout the whole Territory. Added to the hogsheads of wash produced at these Mormon factories, each of the merchants imports hundreds of gallons every year, and, as a general rule, although not arriving till June, all is sold out by Christmas. Besides these, there were seven breweries in active operation at Salt Lake alone; and hundreds of gallons of something called beer was consumed weekly. Of course, the other cities of Utah could not be behind their elder brother of Salt Lake in the necessity that demanded, or in the skill that supplied these delectable compounds; and "cakes and beer" stared us full in the face, go wherever we might, through the cities of the Saints.

The Church, however, has several times endeavored to prevent the sale of these things. Stringent city ordinances were passed by the Council, prohibiting all sale except by order of the mayor. Still all who so applied succeeded in obtaining these orders, and all who could make, made; and all who had, sold. In 1854, that was attempted, but the "Church" getting out of supplies, the ban was taken off from Moon's distillery and he produced some "just for the Church." In 1855, it was again resuscitated, preached about, and enforced. Several poor brewers were fined, their utensils destroyed, themselves threatened, etc., etc. A Mr. Nixon boldly said that it was a shame to punish the poor beer makers only,
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           47   ------

when there were far more important men equally transgressing; for which manly and honorable speech he was mulcted in fine to a considerable amount. Messrs. Williams & Hooper, an extensive business firm, had a large quantity of liquors the same season, and they obediently refused to sell any, but as it would have much afflicted the authorities to have so much money lost, Brigham got possession of it for a mere trifle, and himself and his adopted son, W. C. Staines, entered into partnership. Staines took the liquor home and sold it very discreetly. They, however, watered it down till it was very weak and charged a very high price for it, so that it was difficult for the people to purchase it and almost useless, for intoxicating purposes, when they did obtain it, and thus they appeased their consciences. Of course, some unbelievers dared to suggest that this was profitable as well as expedient, and were astonished the city ordinances about sale of liquor were not enforced in their case. Perhaps the evil did not last long enough, for, although watery, weak, expensive, and only to be bought with cash, it was all sold in an incredible short space of time. A similarly discreet disposition was made in another case of some more liquor. Its owners were forbidden selling it, but the Church made the purchase of it, early in 1856, and Joseph Kaine, one of Brigham's pets, was permitted to vend it. Some scandalous persons said that water came in at the back, as fast as liquor went out of the front door; and hinted that the liquor was only a little less inebriating by passing through the saintly hands of Mr. Kaine, but the money was in Church coffers, and that made all the difference.

There are vast mineral resources in Utah, which, had the
 

-----   48                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

Mormons more skill, might be made productive of great wealth. Two hundred miles south of the city is Iron county. Iron in almnost inexhaustible quantities, together with abundant coal, is found there. The Mormons have been long laboring to get up furnaces, but want of correct chemical information has much retarded their progress. Should the great Pacific railroad pass through or near Salt Lake, iron and coal for a third of the route might be obtained there. Among other minerals, they have found silver, at Los Vegas, and some lead. It is said that the Church know where there is gold, near the Valley, although I am disinclined to believe it. They have vast quantities of sulphur, alum, borax, and saleratas. They have laid down saltpetre-beds and have commenced the manufacture of gunpowder. Swords, Colt's revolvers, rifles, lances, and guns are made in great abundance, and every man is compelled to have a weapon, to be well supplied with ammunition, to enlist in a military company, and regularly drill.

There are some very singular springs in Utah Territory; chalybeate, sulphur, salt; boiling hot, and very cold; deep sink holes, rivers losing themselves in the sand, small cataracts, remarkable rocks, and other natural curiosities. The atmosphere is astonishingly clear. Optical illusions are very remarkable, and often lead to ridiculous mistakes. Mirages and deceptive distances puzzle many a new comer.

It is reported by the Mormons that there are over 76,000 inhabitants in the Territory. This I know to be a palpable falsehood. Cache valley, with only a dozen Church herdsmen, at most, is given a census population of over 700 persons.
 

------                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           49   ------

They named the oxer and cows. In Battle creek returns they report many whomr I know to be dead, some who died before leaving England, many who are still in England, but who purpose coming to Utah when they can; and, in some cases, all the children that courting couples might expect to have, if they were married, and if they should have offspring; and all that old married people ought to have had in the estimation of the census agents. These outrageous falsehoods were sworn to by the different agents. The object of the whole affair was to present a more imposing appearance at Congress on demanding admission into the Union as an independent State. They publicly defend lying for expediency, believing the end justifies the means. To be unwilling to approve such "evil that good may come," is to them a sign of sectarianism, and Gentilish. This practice they pursued with regard to polygamy for fourteen years, and with regard to other dogmas they still pursue it, contending there is no evil, per se, and that the intention of the act and its results only determine its goodness. How much reliance can be placed on the statements of such men, is evident, when mental reservation is advocated; equivocal expressions constantly being employed in all their preaching; they intending to convey an erroneous impression by the use of terms, that, strictly construed, are not in themselves a lie. Jesuit casuistry is not more ingeniois in the "deceiving by truth" than are some of the Mormonr Elders; but who knows not that the most outrageous falsehoods can be communicated, and yet the words in a different sense be true?

The Mormons have labored diligenfly, and are therefore
 

-----   50                           SALT LAKE CITY.                           -----

prosperous. It is the only policy by which they could be kept together, and be made contented and happy. When they begin to feel less contented, and less happy, Brigham only makes them work all the harder. To give no time for thought prevents thought; and by making them merry when not laboring, helps them to make them satisfied. Hence, the Mormons are a jovial people, hospitable, dance and song, and dram-loving. Their kindness to strangers, their general affection for each other, their devoted obedience to the authorities, their bitter animosity to all Gentiles, their rigid adherence to ceremonies, their lax code of morals, and yet precise restriction to that established code, arrests the attention of all observers.

One thing must be also remarked. There is less public drunkenness, no houses of ill fame, no public bad women, less monstrous crime among the Mormons than in any other cornmunity of equal size. These are the inevitable results of their system, as will be shown. They were far worse at Nauvoo than they are at Salt Lake, were worse at Missouri than at Nauvoo; but compared with another deluded, isolated sect, the Shakers, they are far inferior in every thing good. The Mormon community must not be compared with any irreligious community; composed exclusively of Saints, up to the standard of their own selection and boasting must they be brought. Their crimes and their degradation assume other shapes and hues than that of the rest of the world. Their sins are toned with the peculiarities of their religion. They are essentially Mormonic, but while vaunting the absence of other atrocious species (of crime from aimong them, they must be reminded of the flagrance of their own.

Family arrangements -- Favorites -- The men -- Domestic happiness -- Sleeping alone -- Making tabernacles -- Mormon salvation -- Wife hunting -- Mothers and daughters married to one man -- Half sister -- The women -- First wives -- Whisky -- Termagents -- Adultery -- Jealousy Fanaticism -- Brigham on connubialities -- Single girls -- Proportion of the sexes -- Arguments used to induce young girls to marry polygamists in preference to young men -- Why they do not leave -- The children -- Mortality -- Barrenness -- Boys -- Girls -- Early marriages -- Divorce -- Mrs. M'Lean and Parley Pratt -- Mrs. Cobb and Brigham Young -- Utah marriages.

THE only correct method of judging a cause, is by the effects that result from its operation. The most confounding argument against the Mormon doctrine of polygamy, is the Mormon practice of polygamy. The Mormons ever endeavor to conceal the real workings of their system from outside inspection. They must feel great confidence before allowing any one to grow intimate. One must be very intimate, before being competent to correctly describe their "family arrangements."

The intention of marriage was to increase personal happiness, to propagate a healthy offspring, and to secure to those children protectors, instructors, and support. What are the effects of polygamy on these objects?.
 

-----   52                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

The Mormon polygamist has no HOME. Some have their wives lotted off by pairs in small disconnected houses, like a row of out-houses. Some have long low houses, and on taking a new wife build a new room on to them, so that their rooms look like rows of stalls in a cow-barn! Some have but one house and crowd them all together, outraging all decency, and not leaving even an affectation of convenience. Many often remain thus, until some petty strife about division of labor, children's quarrels, difference of taste, or jealousy of attention kindles a flame, only to be smothered by separation. When they live in different houses, they generally have different tables, and the husband has to give each house its turn to cook for him, and honor their tables with his presence in rotation. The evenings at his disposal, his constant distribution of himself among them, has to be by rule. Jealousies the most bitter, reproaches the most galling and disgusting, scenes without number, and acrimony without end, are the inevitable consequences of the slightest partiality. It is impossible for any man to equally love several different women; it is quite possible, however, for him to be equally indifferent about any number. The nature most in unison with his own, will most attract him. The most affectionate will be certainly preferred to the least affectionate. I am acquainted with scores of polygamists, and they all have favorites, and show partiality. To feel partiality, and not to exhibit it, is unnatural. To exhibit it, and for it to pass unnoticed by a jealous women, is impossible. For it to be noticed, is for it to be reproached.

The Mormon polygamist, therefore, has to maintain a constant
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         53   ------

guard over himself. Any husband might feel to kiss his wife gladly: to go round a table and kiss half a dozen, is no joke. It is so in every thing with him. With a dozen eyes to notice at what time he retires to rest, or arises on any one occasion, and half a dozen mouths to talk about it, he must be perfectly governed by rule. Every look, every word, every action has to be weighed, or else there is jealousy, vituperation, quarreling, bitterness. For this reason, the idea of obtaining domestic felicity is ridiculed. Brigham is the model, and he to some extent adopts the dogma of the Quietists, "Repose is the only perfect happiness." He acts as though he felt, and wished others to feel, that man was the frigid master, performing every act of kindness, not as springing from his heart, but because he had reasoned it out, to be an act of duty. Warmth of feelings, tenderness of attachment, devotedness of attention to a woman, is there called, by that worst of Mormon epithets, "Gentilish." "Man must value his wife no more than any thing else he has got committed to him, and be ready to give her up at any time the Lord calls him," said Brigham one Sunday afternoon; and J. M. Grant followed the remark by saying, "If God, through his prophet, wants to give my women to any more worthy man than I am, there they are on the altar of sacrifice; he can have them, and do what he pleases with them!"

They carry this same coldness of affection into all their connubial relations. Brigham always sleeps by himself, in a little chamber behind his office. I have heard the leading men publicly advocate the adoption of this practice. They
 

-----   54                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

quote the animals as an argument in favor of polygamy, and adopt their instincts as models for practice. Marriage is stripped of every sentiment that makes it holy, innocent, and pure. With them it is nothing more than the means of obtaining families; and children are only desired as a means of increasing glory in the next world; for they believe that every man will reign over his children, who will constitute his "kingdom;" and, therefore, the more children, the more glory! Said Brigham, September 20th, 1856, speaking on this subject:

"It is the duty of every righteous man and every woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can; hence if my women leave, I will go and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have go where they please; though I will send the gospel to them." -- Deseret News, October 1, 1856.

Marriage, consequently, is only an addition to man's monster selfishness. Not only do they admnit, but they even advocate openly, that salvation is altogether a selfish matter; and Lorenzo Snow, an Apostle (!) publicly contended that "God was the most intensely selfish being in existence." To sacrifice one's self, to the most trivial extent, for a wife, is therefore esteemed as beneath manly dignity. To love home, or seek to make it your rest and heaven, is called "squeamishness;" and men [bend] your ears "to take another wife, and that will cure you," and they are right. The first effect of polygaly on tle Mormons was to force them to deny the doctrine, and disavow their famiilies. For many years after they practiced it, did the leading men indignantly deny it. Its next efiect
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         55   ------

was to make them heartless. It first made them liars, and then brutes!

"If it does not increase their happiness, and it certainly does their care and expense, why practice it?" Mormonism teaches that all salvation is material; that men's positions here determine their stations hereafter, and as a man can only rule over his family, then, no wife, no family; many wives, much family; much family, much glory; therefore, many wives, much glory, and as the selfish desire for glory is the only incentive of Mormon action, so, therefore, he tries to get as many wives as he can. They quote Paul's words, "Woman is the glory of man," and argue, the more women, the more glory; no women, no glory at all! Full of this thought, I have seen old men with white hair and wrinkled faces, go hunting after young girls, deceiving them with all sorts of professions and promises, using the terrors of Brigham's name and threatening the penalty of excommunication and consequent perdition, in order to induce them to marry them, and then to leave them, despoiled and degraded, either to the obloquy of a divorce, or to the incurable sorrows of a grieved and a wrung heart. I could menetion the names of a dozen such, who ought to be thinking of God and their graves, who instead, visit arriving trains and pester the girls with all the ardor and far more impudence than the young men.

The utmost latitude of choice is permitted to the faithful, in their selection of wives. It is very common for one man to marry two sisters; Brigham advises, indeed, that they both be married on the same day, "for that will prevent any quarreling about who is first or second!" A. R. Sharkey has
 

-----   56                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

married three sisters, one of whom was married to, and divorced from another man. A George B. Wallace left a wife at Salt Lake and went to England to preach. He made the acquaintance of a very worthy man named Davis, who had three fine-looking girls. Mr. Davis and family were persuaded to embrace Mormonism. When Wallace returned, ias he occupied a high position in the Mormon Church, he appropriated Church moneys for the emigration of Mr. Davis and family to Salt Lake City. Poor, and under obligation to this man, and, by "counsel" of Brigham, Davis gave him his three daughters, to all of whom he was married; and, when I arrived at Salt Lake, were all living with Mrs. Wallace, proper, in a little two-roomed house. Wallace kept a butcher's shop, and it was currently reported that he was engaged with others stealing cattle and selling the meat on his premises. A Curtis E. Bolton is married to a woman and her daughter. A Captain Brown is married to a woman and two daughters and lives with them all. When their children's children are born it will be bewildering to trace out their exact degrees of relationship.

This may appear disgusting enough, and prove degradation enough. A G. D. Watt has excelled either of them. He brought from Scotland his half sister to Salt Lake City: took her to Brigham, and wished to be married to her for his second wife. Brigham objected, but Watt urged that Abraham took his half sister and "reckoned he had just as much right as Abraham." The point was knotty and difficult. If Abraham's example justified polygamy then it must equally iustify this action. "God blessed Abraham although he did
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         57   ------

it," say the Mormons, "and ought to bless me if I do it too." The girl happened to be good-looking, though, and so, to cut this gordian knot he could not untie, Brigham took her himself. So far so well. But she was not contented, or Brigham had reconsidered the matter, or from some cause, after a few weeks he told Watt that, after all, there was force in his argument, that it was just as lawful in him as in Abraham, and, accordingly, G. D. Watt accepted his half sister to wife from the arms of Brother Brigham! This piece of complaisance recommended him to the favorable attention of the authorities;" as a good illustration of the childlike simplicity and implicit obedience of which they so constantly preach.

What the brutalizing effects of such marriages are on the men's minds, can easily be conceived. With small houses and several wives, more than one often sleeping in each apartment, men must soon lose all decency or self-respect, and degenerate into gross and disgusting animals. Many of them frequently sleep with two of their wives in the same bed. Indeed so evident are the effects, that Heber C. Kimball does not scruple to speak of his wives, on a Sabbath, in the Tabernacle, and before an audience of over two thousand persons, as "my cows!!" This he has done on more than one occasion and the people laughed at him as at "A fellow of infinite jest."
As the Mormons are taught to believe that all their honor and "glory" in the kingdom of God, depends on the number of their wives, all their anxiety is, therefore, to obtain a large
 

-----   58                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

number. Irrespective of their ability to provide, careless too about any incongruity in disposition, careless about every thing but obtaining them, they spend their time in courting. If they be poor, it is expected that the woman ought to be able to do enough to support herself. If their temper be incongruous, the Mormons boast "great powers of government," and expect to "break them in, like horses, to the harness." This last is a common and favorite expression among them.

Whether they are on missions, away from their wives, or present with them, their care is to induce more girls to marry them. Many do not do this at Salt Lake, but their faith is considered weak; for unless they entangle themselves inextricably, so that the interests of Mormonism become necessarily. their interests, but little attention, and no honor is paid them. As future salvation is made to depend on the size of the family, almost all present reputation is made to depend on the same cause.

Such are the results of this practice on the men. What are its effects on the women?

The females are divided into two classes, first wives, and those taken subsequently. We will view them separately.

I will narrate a few instances as to the first wives. I intend mentioning names, not only to convince the reader of the correctness of my statements, but because I think men who act thus ought to be named and known. Mrs. S. W. Richards is an interesting and intelligent lady at Salt Lake City. She accompanied her husband among the early emigrants. In 1852, he went to England as a Mormon missionary,
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         59   ------

and was absent several years. During his absence, in the love of her husband, she labored for her own support and that of his children. He returned, and to prove to her his appreciation of her fidelity and affection, he took three other wives! One was his cousin and a mere girl; and one was a lady who ran away from the arms and heart of her father, in Liverpool, and whose attentions, during his stay in that city, had often consoled him for his absence from home. Mr. Richards took his wife round to her share of the balls, theaters, and other amusements; but no one could help remarking, in the wasted and sallow wreck of a woman, all the withering effects of all anguished heart, wounded in its keenest susceptibility, and sinking unloved, unpitied, and with its griefs untold.
"She never told her grief,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek."
Mr. G. P. Dykes accompanied the Mormon Battalion to Mexico, leaving his family at Council Bluffs, Iowa. On returning through Salt Lake, he was appointed to go to Europe as a missionary, which he did. During his residence in Europe, Mrs. Dykes and family toiled their way to Salt Lake, so as not to be burdensome on her husband on his return. They sustained themselves, and made some little provision for the future, hoping and expecting to welcome him on his coming home. He returned, accompanied by a lady who had run away from her husband in England. He was married to this person at Council Bluffs City, and amid the first greetings
 

-----   60                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

between himself and his first wife, at Salt Lake City, was, of course, an introduction to the woman who had supplanted her in his affections! The first wife was neglected, till her wrung heart demanded a divorce, which was readily accorded. It was an easy thing to sacrifice the wife of his youth and the mother of his children for the paramour of his affections.

A Mr. Batie was married to an amiable person, and they had a very interesting family. He desired another wife, had seen and loved a young person and courted her. Mrs. Batie, however, for a long time, had refused her consent, and had weepingly told him if he married this girl it would break her heart. To yield to her affection was to submit to be controlled. To consider her feelings was to be "ruled by petticoats." As she would not consent, he was married without her consent, and without her knowledge. Is there any man or woman who can fail to conceive her feelings?

A Mr. Eldredge had a very handsome lady for a wife. She had shared her husband's sufferings and privations. Together they had toiled, happily and affectionately. They had amassed some property around them, and were very comfortable, too comfortable for Salt. Lake City. On their dream of peace Brigham Young rudely broke by a command that "Brother Horace must take another wife!" Disobedience would be contumacy, contumacy is to be cut off, and that is taught to be perdition. He chose to obey. He married a second, who was inferior in every thing except in age, to Mrs. Eldredge. She, however, speedily weaned her husband's affection from the first wife, whom he soon after turned out of
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         61   ------

the apartments she had toiled to furnish, and installed his second wife therein. The feelings of Mrs. Eldredge can be imagined, it is impossible that they be described. I could quote a score of similar cases.

The real effects of polygamy on the first wives can be imagined, when they force Brigham Young to use this language from the pulpit, September 21, 1856:

"Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say that they are unhappy. Men will say,'My wife, though a most excellent women, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife;''No, not a happy day for a year,' says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused; that they are misused and have not the liberty that they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men, together with their own folly.

"I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things, either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world
 

-----   62                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. 'What, first wife too?' Yes, I will liberate you all.

"I know what my women will say; they will say,'You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.' But I want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners." -- Deseret News, October 1, 1856.

Even in Brigham's family, and that is the best-managed in Utah, there is still "scratching and fighting."

From all I have seen of Salt Lake polygamy, I can assert the almost universal rule -- a man does not marry a second wife, until he finds somebody he prefers to the first; and when he is married, it is not long before he exhibits the preference. It is pretended that the consent of the first wife is obtained to such subsequent marriages. That consent is asked by the husband, and who knows not the thousand petty tyrannies that a husband can use toward his wife to extort or compel acquiescence? If the consent be given, she is willing to contribute to his glory, and the ceremony is performed. If she do not consent, women must not be an impediment either in doing one's duty, or obtaining one's salvation; so, therefore, the ceremony is performed just the same, whether she consent or no, whether she like the girl or no; for her husband to will it, is for the Lord to will it, and nothing is left to her but to bend and groan. Polygamy, however, does not thus affect all the first wives at Salt Lake. That which will crush one woman into the grave, and I know more than one such case,
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         63   ------

will sink anothler into depravity, arouse another to desperation, incite another to retaliation, and by others will be regarded with the most stoical indifference. I can name a dozen families where the men and women have sunk into the most complete and disgusting brutishness. They fulfill the definition of man, "food-cooking animal," and that is almost their only distinction. If superior to the animals at all, it is only in adding disgusting talk to disgusting deeds; in aggravating the instincts of nature with the excitement of meditation; deceiving simple girls, and appeasing their own consciences by disguising their practices with the name of religion. There are many women in Utah who drink whisky to a very great extent. To drown thought, is to kill feeling. Many women who will not become depraved, try to be indifferent. I asked a lady once at Salt Lake, why she never appeared jealous of her husband's attention to his three wives? Her reply struck me painfully, "Mr. Hyde, my husband married me when we were both very young in England; O! I was very fond, and very proud of him. We came out here, and he took another wife. It made me very wretched, Mr. Hyde, but I am not jealous now, for I cease to care any thing about him!" When love dies, jealousy ceases. Nothing makes people more indifferent than does liquor; not only indifferent as to others, but also callous as to one's self. Many Utah women seeking this callous state of heart, drink very extensively. Of this no resident of Salt Lake can be ignorant. Some, however, become termagants, fiercely jealous, and furiously violent. The quarrels resulting from such matters often cause merriment in the gossiping circles of Utah. The
 

-----   64                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

constant policy of the "authorities," however, is to train the mass of the people to despise such proceedings, and to view with contempt any such woman. By this means they crush the voice of nature under the weight of their public opinion. Instead of such a course eliciting sympathy, if it be felt, it falls still-born and unexpressed; and the poor woman, goaded till she is mad, has to stand alone. To stand up under the pressure of public vituperation; to endure the coarse crimination ofthe Tabernacle platform, where on Sundays Brigham and Kimball will refer most minutely to the persons, and sometimes even name them before the whole congregation, needs a stronger mind than possessed by most women. If she be discontented, there is the divorce alternative; but to be divorced is to lose her children. If she decline divorce, she must submit. Broken and crushed, she must submit! There is yet another class of first wives. These, finding their jealousy only increases neglect, and their reproaches only serving to drive their husbands from them to others and more affectionate of their wives, fall a step lower. Neglect breeds anger; anger engenders hatred; hatred meditates revenge. They are powerless to retain their husband's affection, but they can retaliate his infidelity. The penalty of adultery is death, unsparing and bloody. It has been inflicted, is being inflicted, and yet they can not arrest the commission of the sin. Startling and frequent have been the disclosures. Brigham, in his public sermons asserts, that even in his own family, he can not preserve his own honor. For that reason, among others, he said, "he wanted to get them all in one house, under his own eye," because he "could trust no one
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         65   ------

else, and not even them." Just previous to my leaving Salt Lake City, a very flagrant case got into the public mouth about one of the wives of P. H. Young, Brigham's brother. While he was with his other wives, a young man in their employ, was consoling her for his neglect. The women are very poor; many of them almost entirely destitute. Their husbands and fathers, burdened with debts, they can not pay, and with families they can not support, are often unable to buy clothes enough for them to be decent, to say nothing of being respectable. The love of dress is just as strong there, as anywhere else; and to obtain clothes, leads to the same conduct there as anywhere else. Many of the missionaries have to leave their families in penury. No assistance is given such families, in many instances, till they are almost perishing for want. Neglected by absent husbands; knowing that in all probability they will bring home other and better-loved wives when they return; surrounded by suffering children; tempted by flattery and allured by money, it is not unnatural for them to fall; it would almost be supernatural for them not to fall. I could name several such.

It is this fact that makes the Mormons so averse to any outside inspection of their "peculiar institution." Men who are giving constant reasons to be suspected, are the most suspicious of all persons. The Mormons, who are continually wringing their wives' hearts with jealousy, are the most tyrannically jealous. The most rigid watch is maintained; and a look, passing word, a visit, above all when it is repeated, is tortured into "Proof strong as holy writ."  

-----   66                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

Heber C. Kimball refused to allow one of his wives to correspond with her friends, lest improper use might be made of the liberty. On the slightest occasion of distrust he will mount the rostrum on a Sabbath, and publicly tongue-lash his wives; and it is a common jest at Salt Lake, that his reason for doing so at such a time and place, is because "they can not reply!" Coercive measures never produce virtue. To constantly suspect, is often to suggest crime. To bitterly accuse, is frequently to instigate. These are unfailing truths, and they are as unfailing at Salt Lake as elsewhere. Were it not for the great counteracting influence of a strong religious fanaticism, Utah would be a perfect pandemonium of debauchery.

How can they permit it at all? The whole secret lies in that one word, fanaticism. The women are all sincere: their sufferings and their sacrifices prove that. They are taught that polygamy is a heaven-ordained institution; that it was countenanced by God anciently and is commanded by God now; that the instincts of their nature which rebel against it are the results of false education and tradition; their pride is flattered to think that the exaltation of man depends on thlem; they learn to sacrifice themselves to elevate, as they think, their husbands. The desire to be eternally glorious, is made to overcome the wish to be temporarily happy. The ambition to excel their neighbors is also used to induce them to submit patiently to privation and misery. What will not weik minded persons endure from a feeling of rivalry? Wliere wealth is regarded as the summum bonum, any sacrifice will be made to give wealth to their husbands. In Utah,
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         67   ------

women are esteemed that summum bonum, and therefore many sacrifice all personal feeling, and give other women to their husbands. The fanaticism that prompts it is old; it is only this peculiar development of fanaticism that is new. It is common that people be fanatical; it is growing to be too common that they should choose Mormonism as their style of exhibiting it. Some women in Utah seem contented enough. The most enthusiastic arguments in favor of polygamy are used by some of the women. That, however, is natural enough. If polygamy be not commanded by God, as they believe it is, then they would feel their fate as others see it. For them to see themselves deceived, is to know themselves dishonored. To maintain their own self-respect, they must maintain their own self-deception. Who knows not what an easy thing it is to find force in weak arguments that justify our position, and not to feel very strong ones that condemn our actions. It is necessary that these poor deluded and degraded women should debate the questions very often, for they very often feel the necessity to out-clamor the voices of their own hearts.
"Oh that some gude God would gie 'em
To see themselves as others see 'em."
The extent of this infatuation is very extraordinary. Mrs. Joseph K----e was the only wife of her husband, whose position was very comfortable; he having considerable property as well as a profitable situation in the post-office. She was very desirous to obtain a second wife for Mr. K., thereby to increase his glory, and as she could only shine by reflecting his light, thus increase her own glory too. Accordingly,
 

-----   68                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

when the new emigrants arrived from the plains, she visited their camps and invited several good-looking single young persons to come and remain with her during the winter. She treated them with all hospitality and kindness; contrived excellent opportunities for her husband to plead his suit, and, as he was a little backward, often plead his cause for him. Unfortunately for her wishes, however, her efforts had failed, and she was, when I left, condemned to be the sole satellite of her planet-master. One of Brigham's wives affords a still stronger proof of this singular infatuation. An uneducated English girl saw Brigham and loved him. She read in the Old Testament that Jacob served seven years to get a wife; and as the New Testament says; that in the last days, "old things shall pass away and all things shall become new," she interpreted that to mean, a reversal of matters; and, consequently, determined to reverse the case of Jacob. She offered her seven years' service to Mrs. Young, only demanding as her hire, the right to marry Brigham. He was consulted as to this novel method of getting a husband, and, of course, had no objections to offer. Eliza served faithfully, demanded her wages, the thirtieth share of Brother Brigham. She was married, and I saw Brigham fondle her child, and call him his "English boy." It was an attachment on her part worthy a better object.

A Mrs. Howard is an intelligent person, but madly infatuated with Mormonism. Her husband saw a young lady and admired her; got acquainted with and fond of her. He told his wife of the affair, and desired her to call on this young lady and request her to marry him. The wife wept
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         69   ------

bitterly at this singular command; she had lost her power to longer please; another had supplanted her in the affections of the man whom she devotedly loved, and to whom she had borne four children: she felt as a woman in such a position only can feel, but Mormonism was stronger in her soul than her nature itself. She went and asked this girl, who directly refused. She informed her husband of the result, and this MAN bitterly reproached his madly-devoted wife for not succeeding in persuading her, attributing the failure to his wife's jealousy. Mrs. Howard did not murmur, but only wept; while he blubbered like a boy, told her how much he loved this young woman, how miserable he must ever be without her. I believe he induced this heart-wrung woman to visit and again make this offer, but was again refused. With these women Mormonism is inwound in their hearts, every hope is centered in it; out of it they fancy there is nothing but despair. They are taught to think that God has re-established a priesthood on this earth; that this priesthood is almost immaculate and quite infallible, as a priesthood; and brought to this standpoint, they blindly believe and as blindly obey all they are commanded. Degraded into slavery by this Mormon stepback into barbarism, they are almost as submissive and as miserable as the Indian squaws around them.

The engine of Mormon power is not brute force; not attempted or threatened violence, but the lever of a skillfully combined and ably-handled system of religious machinery, operating on duped and bewildered fanatics. They feel its force, are not able to explain or investigate and discern its reality, but supinely obey its impulses.
 

-----   70                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

"While it is not very surprising that the first wife should submit, or be compelled to submit, how is it that the single girls themselves marry old men with several wives, in preference to young men with no wives-?" This is more surprising from the fact of there being, in Utah, so many single men. By the census returns of 1851, made by the Mormons themselves, the remarkable fact is proven, that there were seven hundred and ten more males than females in Utah. That is, there were nearly a thousand more marriagable men than women; and as some of the authorities monopolize from th[ree] to five wives each, and as there are a great number of others with two and three wives each, there must have been a very large proportion of the males compelled to be single, because there were no wives to be had. This proportion is materially reduced, since that time, from several causes. Many young men have left the Church and Utah; many have been sent to the States and Europe and commanded to be sure and bring back wives; many of the married Elders who have been sent out have been counseled "to bring in as many ewe-lambs as they could into the sheep-fold; though not to appropriate any till they got home." (H. C. Kimball.) There are also a larger number of females than males who emigrate to Utah. Yet, notwithstanding these causes being in operation there is not a large plurality of females, and there are still hundreds of young men in Utah unable to get wives: and many of the new-coming ladies marry old polygamists in preference.

While nothing proves more plainly their fanaticism than this, nothing proves more plainly their sincerity. Men, who,
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         71   ------

by a long course of fidelity, have "proven themselves" receive as a reward for their merit, certain mysterious ordinances; pass by secret rites into a sacred order and are finally "sealed up against all sin to salvation, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is denying the faith, exposing the mysteries, and shedding innocent blood." These men, who are thus sealed, think that they can not be lost; nor their wives, nor their little ones, nor any who shall "cling to them." Having, they believe, accomplished their own salvation, they are able, like Jesus, "to save to the uttermost all who shall come unto them." To be married to such a man, it is taught to these confiding neophytes, is to "secure eternal salvation with a high degree of glory." They have been previously made to believe that woman can not obtain any kind of salvation but through the man. "Eve led Adam out of Eden and he must lead her back again!" As her future position will be regulated by that of her husband, and as she is taught that to obtain a high position ought to be the only object of her existence, hence she is induced to desire to marry a man who has been thus sealed.

Mormon women go to Utah, zealous in their religion; they go there for its sake; they have made great sacrifices already, and are prepared to make still greater for it; they are firmly convinced that these atrocious dogmas are, the precious truths of heaven, and that these men are God's vicegerents; they swallow the gilded bait, marry, and when they wake up to the temporal mniscries of their positions, console themselves in more dogmatically believing their fanaticism and their creed.
 

-----   72                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

Not only the prospect of securing their own salvation is held out to these misguided beings, but that of entailing salvation on their children. The Mormons believe that the pure seed of the house of Jacob can not be lost: they are "children of the covenant made to Abraham." It is also believed that Brigham's children can not be lost: they are "children of the covenant made to Brigham!" It is thus with all those who have been "sealed up to eternal life." Every woman has a strong love for her children, even when they are only prospective. It is a chord that can be played upon, that will send out deep vibrations. The Mormons play on that delicate fiber of the female heart. The woman is told that by marriage with this young man, he may apostatize and be lost; she would share his fall and ruin; her children, assimilating, not to her, but to his character, would be lost too, and that thus she would barter eternal loss for a little passing pleasure. To marry this old, well-proven, and sealed man, would not only secure her own salvation but that of her children; and if not to enjoy all the temporal happiness she might with the young man, she should enjoy more of the Spirit of God and secure eternal gain by suffering a present loss.

If this be not enough to persuade the deluded victim, previously confounded by bad argument, as to the scripturality of the practice, and bewildered by pretensions to infallibility by the Prophet; then they use another and more powerful appeal. Who knows not the love that clings around the sacred memories of the dead? If these men can perform such works of supererogation as to save children yet unborn, they can also save people who are dead. This is inevitable,
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         73   ------

and hence the Mormons claim to be "saviours to the dead." The rationale they adopt is this: Mormonism is the gospel; not to have heard Mormonism is not to have received the gospel, and that is not to be saved: but the dead can hear the gospel in spirit, and their friends at Zion can receive the ordinances for them as proxies or agents. This then, say they, will be your privilege, if you take this man. Salvation for yourself, for your unborn generations, and for your dead kindred. They went there for the sake of their faith, and on the shrine of their faith, with the devotion of eastern idolatry, they immolate themselves. The sincerity of their hearts or their purity of motives, can not be questioned; whatever is said must be as to their credulity.

"But they must awaken as wives and as mothers, why do they not leave?"

Fanaticism may be strong; self-love is stronger. Many do awaken, and weep bitterly. Many would fly, but they are mothers, they would be forced to desert their children. The mother's love often overcomes the woman's shame. Besides they are dishonored, betrayed; however innocently on their part, they are still degraded. To lose self-respect is to lose the energy of a motive. They are. poor, entirely dependent, and could not leave if they would. They are a thousand miles from civilization. To solicit the protection of a company would be to subject herself to the vilest slanders from the Mormon authorities, and, perhaps, death; some shame and much curiosity from the company; and would certainly subject her protectors to arrest for abduction; a suit in a Mormon court for monstrous damages; extortionate fees for
 

-----   74                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

officers, and the property of the offender would be sold at auction, for almost nothing; as well as, in all probability, a pistol-ball through his head for daring to interfere in a Mormon's domestic arrangements.

Not only this, but having all her few friends at Utah; seeing polygamy constantly practiced, and hearing submission constantly preached; no adverse public sentiment to support, or sympathy to console, and no one to protect her; alone and wavering in mind, she sinks, and to sink is to be lost. Besides, virtue deferred is virtue lost, for the practice of vice is like the waters of a fabled river, it soon petrifies the heart.

What are the effects of polygamy upon the children? It is urged that polygamy is beneficial to increase of population. "It is not the question," shrewdly observes Paley, "whether one man will have more children by five wives, but whether those five women would not have more children, if they had each a husband?" That Brigham has more children by his large number of wives, is certain; but whether there are as many children in the world as there would have been had each of his wives been married to a separate husband, and whether those children of Brigham are any better developed, physically or mentally, is an important question. Nature, as shown in the proportion of the sexes (see chapter on Theoretical Polygamy), points to monogamy, and she will punish any infringement of her law. This is plainly shown in Utah. The proportion of female to male births, is very much in favor of the female sex. In monogamic countries, the surplus is on the male side. In polygamic countries, as in Utah, it is the reverse of this. Were the inhabitants of Utah, therefore,
 

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to grow up, intermarry without any mixture from other incoming people, and practice polygamy as they now practice it, the male race in a few generations would become extinct. I have observed, very frequently, that the more wives a man has, the greater the proportion of female to male children he has This might have been predicted not only from facts observable in all polygamic countries, but also fiom well-known physiological laws. If the Mormons were to adopt the old Arab custom of burying female children alive, when they had more than one or two, hundreds of babes would be murdered in Utah. Not only is there this disproportion, but there is a fearful mortality among the Mormon children. I think I can say, more children die in Salt Lake City, notwithstanding the salubrity of its climate, than in any other city of its size in the Union. According to their own census, the mortality of Utah is next to that of Louisiana, and the large proportion is children. Salt Lake City is therefore nearly as unhealthy as New Orleans.

This mortality, too, is particularly noticed in the families of polygamists. Brigham Young, considering the number of his wives, has but a very small family, something over thirty children. Quite a number of his wives are sterile; many others have had large families, but who have all died in infancy. His houses are filled with his women, but their childran are in their graves. Joseph Smith had many wives; no one but himself knows the number, and many of them had children, but with one or two exceptions they are all dead; and well for them, poor little ones. Many of the Mormon leading men have many wives, but their children are not
 

-----   76                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

proportionably many. Facts like these are not confined to Utah. Mohammed had many wives and concubines, some say twenty-five; he had but one son. Fatima, the only one of his children who survived her father, died soon after, and Mohammed's direct line was extinct. There are many barren women in Utah, and as this is regarded as a signal curse, it has led, to my knowledge, to more than one case of adultery. A Mr. Hawkins was absent on a mission to the Sandwich Islands; he had left behind him a wife, who had never had any family. Boarding at her house was a Mr. Dunn, whose wife was on the road to Salt Lake, coming to join her husband. Mrs. Hawkins was, however, found to be enceinte by this man, and the affair was patched up by a precipitate marriage between them; although her husband was away preaching Mormonism to the "Kanakas." When Mrs. Dunn arrived, her feelings may be imagined. Many expected that Hawkins would shoot Dunn on his return; but Brigham hushed the matter very quietly, and Mrs. Hawkins Dunn now fondles her two children.

If polygamy be inimical to the physical, it is still more so to the moral and mental developments of the children. Parents owe other duties to children than merely to beget them. Many men marry wives, quite indifferent about their means of sustaining them. It is notorious at Salt Lake City, that men have been walking about, doing nothing, and making their wives support them by taking in washing. I could name several such. With all their toil it is as much as most of these men can do to supply their physical wants. Food and clothing, and both scanty and poor, exhaust their purses and
 

------                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         77   ------

energies. They have no time, and if time, no disposition to attend to the mental culture of their children. There are always too many domestic quarrels to adjust; some old wife to scold, or some new wife to court. What they have not time to attend to themselves, they have no money to pay others for. The Salt Lake system of schools is merely a farce and a name (see chapter on Schools). Their children are impatiently turned over to their mother and their aunts, as they call them, who drive them out of their little crowded houses. They companionize with children bigger than themselves; go with them to herd cattle; become early inured to vice, and accustomed to foul thoughts and words; premature observers of the brute creation; practicing, many of them, the worst vices, and making the most sacredly private matters of their families a jest for their playmates. As soon as they can crack a whip or use a hoe, they have to work to help support their brothers and sisters. Education is neglected, and consequently despised. The habits of men are contracted at the age of boyhood. Many of their parents, themselves born in the backwoods, encourage their precocity. Their cheating the confiding, is called smart trading; mischievous cruelty, evidences of spirit; pompous bravado, manly talk; reckless riding, fearless courage; and if they out-talk their father, outwit their companions, whip their school-teacher, or out-curse a Gentile, they are thought to be promising greatness, and are praised accordingly. Every visitor of Salt Lake will recognize the portrait, for every visitor proclaims them to be the most whisky-loving, tobacco-chewing, saucy and precocious children he ever saw. It is true, however, that the Mormons have been driven from place to
 

-----   78                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

place; and to some extent this has prevented much attention being directed to the education of their children. This will account, perhaps, for the ignorance of the older boys; but this ignorance is almost universally the case, and indeed could not be otherwise. Large families of young children, and many wives, with frequent female ailments, are all dependant on the toil of one man, where most persons are agriculturists, and where they can not raise even cereals without irrigating the land several times. All are obliged to work as soon as able, women and children as well as men, in the fields and gardens. Add to all this bad school regulations, incompetent instructors, and the leaders fiercely declaiming against the Gentiles and their education; ignorance, wickedness, and corruption among the boys is inevitable.

With the girls, the routine, though different, produces nearly the same result. There is a weekly meeting at Salt Lake Tabernacle attended exclusively by women; it is called the "Council of Health," its object, to discuss the most in delicate subjects. It is presided over by an old man named Richards, whose ordinary topics of conversation make even Mormons blush. It is attended fiequently by H. C. Kimball, from whom I have heard the most disgustingly filthy talk before eighty or a hundred men and women. The subject matters of this Board of Health form staple for conversation during thie week. Marriages and births in detail are the morceaux choisies. The presence of young girls, instead of repressing, excites their garrulity. "To blush at truth," says Kimball, "is from the devil." These women copy their prophet; mock the blush of half shame and half horror; and
 

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laugh at the look of childish wonder. The consequences are certain. Children from hearing learn to repeat; from repeating, learn to understand; from realizing, learn to act! The sore begins to bloat with corruption; and as the climax of abomination, the authorities now advocate early marriages!

With snow constantly in sight, they urge the example of tropical nations. They expect to obtain the hardy bodies and sound minds of northern Saxons from the worst practices of effeminate Asiatics. The fact is, some remedy has to be adopted. Passions precociously developed will be precociously gratified. If not licensed, they will be gratified illicitly. "Boys should marry at fourteen and fifteen, and girls at thirteen and fourteen," says Kimball. "Boys should be married," teaches Brigham, "and still live under their fathers' direction." Accordingly both these men had their boys married and living at home. But as to the offspring of these marriages? "The sins of the fathers shall descend upon the children, unto the third or fourth generation." Men can not transgress nature's laws with impunity. To infringe her ordinances, is to secure her penalties.

Where marriage is thus prostituted to gratify licentiousness, either there must be a great facility of divorce, or else there must be an unmitigated hell. Jesus said, Matt., xix. 9, "Whosoever putteth away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away, committeth adultery." The Mormons are wiser than the Saviour on this subject, as well as on many others. The most trivial imaginable cause justifies and obtains a divorce at Salt Lake. Nor is any
 

-----   80                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

scruple made to re-marrying such a divorcee. One woman in Salt Lake has been married six times; four of her previous husbands are, I believe, still in Utah. Several cases occurred where people were divorced a day or two after their marriage; several cases where divorcees were married a few days after being divorced. So common did the applications for divorce become, that in 1854, Brigham had to impose a price to be paid in cash (then very scarce) upon all "bills." He charged ten dollars if married for time; fifty dollars if sealed for eternity. The money went mostly to the clerk. Not a few amusing scenes occurred, where parties who came for divorce had to return and live together, because they could not raise money enough between them to pay for the "bill." It had the desired effect: it decreased the applications.

One peculiarity of the Mormon Churches outside Utah, can not but be observed, and that is the number of mis-matches that become Mormons. Motives of interest, advice of friends, thoughtless indifference, or an act of jealousy, have united many men and women. Mormonism to them offers peculiar charms: a divorce to be had for the asking, and a free choice afterward. There are also at Utah many women who have deserted their husbands for the sake of some of the Elders. Some very distressing circumstances have occurred in consequence of this feature. One particularly is very painful. Mrs. M'Lean was married, and had several children. She embraced Mormonism in San Francisco, where she afterward saw P. P. Pratt, one of the Mormon Apostles, and admired, believed, obeyed, and loved him. She several times endeavored to abscond with her children from her husband; he,
 

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who loved her and them very devotedly, prevented her taking his children. The children were finally sent from San Francisco to Louisiana, to their grandparents. Mrs. M'Lean went to Salt Lake and married this man Pratt, where I saw her in 1855. She came with him from Salt Lake in 1856, went to her parents' house, pretended repentance and regret, promised amendment, and accused the Mormons. She ebtained their confidence, and then stole the children from their refuge; leaving the grandparents and their father nearly distracted. Mr. M'Lean has subsequently shot Pratt in Arkansas, U. S. I much regret his desperate action, however deeply I sympathize with his misfortunes. I made the acquaintance of Mr. M'Lean in California, where he was universally respected and esteemed as an honorable and an upright man; deeply devoted to his wife, and tenderly attached to his children. Another of this Pratt's wives, I understand, was a similar case, but not so far prosecuted by the husband.

Nor is this Parley P. Pratt the only one of the authorities who has acted in this manner. Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young may be cited as examples. A Mrs. Cobb saw and loved Brigham at Boston, Mass. She embraced Mormonism, and absconded from her husband, taking with her her daughter Charlotte. She got to Salt Lake, and was married to Brigham. Charlotte is still there; she is considered the belle of Salt Lake; and if Brigham does not take a notion to marry her himself, will most likely be "sealed" to one of his sons.

Marriage with the Mormons is regarded peculiarly as a religious rite, to be performed by the priesthood, wholly irrespective
 

-----   82                         PRACTICAL POLYGAMY.                         -----

of any civil authority. "Any Higb Priest, Bishop, Elder, or Priest," can perform it; and as almost all the Mormons hold one of these offices, almost every man has the right to unite a couple. In this way a great many marriages are performed that are only lawful in Utah. Outside Mormondom they would be regarded as concubinage. This is an artful means of keeping people in subjection, and of retaining them at Salt Lake.

Thus far we have reviewed the immediate effects of polygamy. The Mormons have, however, another system of marriage, in the carrying out of which there is still more of the atrocious and corrupt. This is what they term "the sealing for eternity," and will require a separate chapter.

Sealing for eternity -- Women married to one and sealed to another husband -- Spiritual wives -- Smith's death -- Smith's widows -- "Proxy doctrine" -- Marriage and sealing for the dead -- The endowment Washing -- Anointing-Creation -- First degree of Aaronic priesthood -- Second degree of Aaronic priesthood -- First degree of Melchisedec priesthood -- Second degree of Melchisedec priesthood -- "Behind the vail" -- Obedience-Examples -- Murders -- Sealing at the altar -- Initiative lectures -- Sealing to Indian squaws -- Adoption -- Selling their daughters.

THE married relationship, say the Mormons, was intended as eternal. As marriage is a religious ceremony more than a civil institution, they urge, therefore, it must be performed by an ecclesiastical dignitary. All other marriages are mere contracts sanctioned by law, but dissolvable at the option of both contracting parties. As marriage, ordinarily administered, is only "till death;" it is perfectly null and void for any period after death. As they believe that unless married, the saved will not enjoy any "glory" in the next world; and if not married on earth, can not be married afterward, therefore they "marry for eter