 CHAPTER 43 OF TELL IT ALL by FANNY STINHOUSE The world was all before them where to choose their place of rest, with Providence their guide they hand in hand with trembling steps and slow through Eden took their solitary way. Paradise lost. When we left the Mormon Church we were not quite as badly off as were our first parents when they began life, although in some respects we certainly resembled them. The world was all before us, and it was necessary that we also should choose a place of rest, but it was by no means Eden from which we were dismissed, or rather had dismissed ourselves, and in the matter of experience in the thorny ways of that world in which we were about to begin afresh the battle of existence we certainly had the advantage over the exiles from Paradise. The crisis of our own lives had now arrived, the act of sending in our resignation as members of the Church cut us off from all the associations of the past, and all the friendships and pleasant intimacies of so many years. A great gulf divided our bygone life from the unknown future which lay before us. My husband was now made painfully aware that it was altogether useless for him to attempt to carry on his paper, for his subscribers, as I before stated, had been counseled to discontinue taking it in. The Daily Telegraph had had a very large circulation, but as there was very little money in the territory, the yearly subscriptions were mostly paid at harvest time, and many of them in grain. At the time therefore when the paper was finally given up, the Mormon people, as the bookkeeper in Ogden informed us, owed about twenty thousand dollars, but when it was discovered that we were apostates, the majority of them considered that they were released from all obligations on that score, and my husband being an easy generous-minded man, most of them evaded payment. The idea that, because we had left the church, no saint was bound to pay us any debts which they might happen at the time to owe, was the natural result of the teachings of the tabernacle. Apostates are delivered over to the buffettings of Satan, and the saints consider it is their duty to begin in this world their master's work of castigation. Any ill-turn that can be done to an apostate is consequently a good action in the opinion of the Mormons, and they neglect no opportunity of showing that these are the sentiments which influence them. Although we had now left the Mormon church, never to return, my husband could not at once shake off entirely that influence which had so long held him captive. His thoughts and belief, his hopes and ambitions, had for a quarter of a century all pointed in one direction, and the very idea of rebellion on his part against the authority of the priesthood would, but a very little while before the time of which I speak, have been considered by him an utter impossibility. It was impossible in a few short months only to undo the work of five and twenty years, the best years of his life. He could no longer remain in the church or conscientiously support Brigham Young, but he had not outgrown Mormonism sufficiently to enable him to throw off the yoke entirely, and make his paper an opponent of Brigham and his faith. Could he have done so, I think it is highly probable that the telegraph might yet have been saved, for I know that many of the more influential of the Gentiles would have aided him materially in such a course. As it was nothing remained but to give it up with the best grace he could. Two offers in reference to the paper were received by Mr. Stanhouse, and it remained for him to decide which he would accept. One of them came from a Gentile who proposed to run it in opposition to Brigham Young, and the other came from a certain Mr. Fuller, who had for some time been my husband's travelling agent, and was a very intimate friend of John W. Young, Brigham's youngest son by his first wife. We knew that this Fuller had nothing beyond his salary, but as the friend of Brigham's son we thought that probably it was the prophet's wish that he should have this paper, and we believed that he was simply buying it for the church. My husband argued that, although he could no longer unite with the Mormons, he could at least refrain from doing them any injury. He therefore concluded that, rather than let the paper go into the hands of an avowed enemy, he would sell it to Mr. Fuller, who on account of his friendship for the prophet's family would, he presumed, try to be just to the people. This no doubt was very conscientious and just, although, of course, no Mormon would give my husband credit for entertaining such sentiments. For my own part I naturally wished him to accept the offer that would pay him the best, which was that made by the Gentile. He could not, however, bring his mind to do this. The paper, therefore, was sold to Mr. Fuller, who ran it for a few months, and then himself ran away, leaving behind him debts enough to swallow up everything. Thus ended the telegraph under that name, but destined, however, to rise again as the salt lake herald, a paper devoted to the interests of Brigham and the priesthood. To my husband it was an utter loss, but it was hardly fair that his conscientious conduct should meet with such an ill return. It was now necessary that some steps should be taken to provide for our family. The reader may perhaps remember that when we first arrived in Salt Lake City as I stated, I myself engaged in business until my husband was able to find some suitable and profitable employment. When the telegraph, however, was established, and proved such a great success, and we were in a position of affluence, I considered the pressure of necessity being removed, that I should do well to resign my own business connection and employ my time more profitably in domestic affairs. This was a great relief to me, for I always felt considerable repugnance in mixing with the world in any way of business while among my children and attending to their wants and interests I found myself in my own legitimate sphere. But there was now no alternative. All interest in the telegraph had been resigned. My husband's property had been wasted in an attempt to keep it up, and he had nothing now to depend upon. Something must be done, and I resolved that I would not be backward in bearing my full share of the burden. It was only natural that we should feel very much unsettled in mind by the great change which had taken place in our position, for it is no easy matter to cut us under the ties and associations of a lifetime. Anyone suddenly changing his religious faith would, to a certain extent, feel and understand what I mean in this respect. But in reference to any ordinary religion, the person forsaking it would probably experience comparatively little alteration in his everyday life. In Mormonism it is very different, especially to anyone who has occupied a prominent position among the saints. To resign our religion was to revolutionize our lives. Everything was changed. The friends of yours would look coldly upon us and avoid us. Persons whom we had before shunned as Gentiles or apostates would be the only individuals who would regard us with favor. Our entire position in the midst of a most exclusive community was completely reversed. In a word, we ourselves were now apostates. Thinking to turn the current of his thoughts and believing that change would be beneficial to him, I suggested to my husband that he should pay a visit to the Eastern States. In New York I believed he could find employment which would help to divert his thoughts for Mormon affairs, and at the same time would be profitable to him in other respects. My suggestion was acted upon and my husband set out east while I prepared to engage again in the same business which I had formerly conducted so successfully. Now for the first time since I embraced Mormonism I mixed freely with Gentiles and those who had left the church, and it was not long before I found that this intercourse with the outer world produced a market and decided effect upon my mind. My views were enlarged and my thoughts became more liberal in their tone. My husband's letters showed me that a similar change was taking place in him. We were not the only apostates from the church at that time, the new movement as the reaction against the tyranny of Brigham Young was called, and the minds of all intelligent saints were led to reflect upon the unheard of claims of Brigham's infallible priesthood. At this time the prophet endeavored to rivet still more firmly the fetters which bound his deluded followers by establishing Zion's cooperative mercantile institution and reviving the order of Enoch. The cooperative institution was announced as a joint stock concern, established under the pretense that it would be a benefit to the working classes, and all the members of the church were invited to purchase shares which were sold at $25 each. The statement so often made by Brigham and repeated by strangers, to the effect that the exorbitant prices charged by gentile merchants necessitated the establishment of such an institution was, as every Mormon knows, only a pretense and a very shallow one, too. For the Walker Brothers and other merchants had for many years supplied goods to Mormons and gentiles alike at what, under the circumstances, were reasonable and just prices. For the railway not then being constructed, and every article of commerce being of necessity carried across the plains a distance of over a thousand miles by horse teams, prices were of course very high, and would, if this circumstance were not taken into consideration, appear extortionate. In fact, subsequently the cooperative stores, which had started with high rates, under the belief that every rival would be crushed, were compelled to lower their prices to those of the Walker Brothers, or in spite of their faith the Mormons would have forsaken Brigham's institution for the sake of their pockets. Many, in fact, did secretly go to gentile stores, but they were watched by the police and reported to the teachers. That large Mormon store, in which Brigham Young had such a heavy interest, was to become the parent establishment, the fountain head from which temporal blessings, in the shape of cheap goods of every description, were to flow unto the people. Each ward was to have its own store, and there the saints of that ward were expected to deal exclusively, and as the teachers said, keep off Main Street, where the gentile stores were located. These ward stores purchased their goods from the parent store, where nothing was sold by wholesale. All the lesser Mormon merchants were counseled to sell out their stock to the church for just what the church chose to offer them, or dispose of it otherwise as best they could, and then they might go farming or on a mission or anything else, but sell out they must, for they were plainly told that they would not be allowed to carry on business in opposition to the new institution. Now, instead of benefiting the poorer saints by supplying goods to them at a small advance upon cost prices, as was at first proclaimed to be the object of the co-op, as the institution was briefly and familiarly called, the reverse was the case, for competition was altogether banished. All the trade of the gentile merchants, with one or two exceptions, was forcibly taken from them, for the people were not to trade in any store without first looking to see if the sign of the institution, a picture of the all seeing I, and the word's holiness unto the Lord, were over the doorway. How often I have seen groups of country people, straggling along with their heads thrown back, and their eyes straining aloft an eager quest of that sign, although perhaps their purchases would only amount to a few yards of ribbon or a paper of pins. No one can predict what the church, otherwise Brigham, will do, if money should chance to tempt him. In this case the parent co-operative store turned, as I might say, traitor to the ward stores, its own children, for no sooner had they all been established, and had bought up all the old stock from the parent store, than it was whispered abroad that the latter was about to open in the retail line with the splendid stock of new goods, to suit the gentiles, of course, for the saints were not allowed to trade outside of their own ward stores, where they were expected to buy up all the old goods. In fact, in order to gain gentile trade and fill the pockets of Brigham and the leading elders who really constituted the institution, and do so still, the same prices were asked at the parent store, as had been charged at the poor confiding stockholders of the ward stores at wholesale. This of course caused great dissatisfaction, and many of the saints rebelled, declaring that they would go where they pleased to spend their money, when they had any to spend. The ward stores in consequence were obliged at great loss to lower their prices, and many were utterly ruined. Others which had more capital, tied it over the difficulty, and learned a lesson concerning the honesty of the church leaders, which it is to be hoped did them good. As an example of the way in which matters were managed, I may instance a very old and infirm woman who was one of their victims. She came to me one day and said, Sister Stenhouse, will you buy out my stock in the cooperative store? Our store has failed, and I have my twenty-five dollars worth in my basket. I pitied her and asked her to let me see her stock, and thereupon she brought out a pound and a half of nails. I did buy out her stock, for I thought that the nails might be handy to have in the house, although I did not give her twenty-five dollars for them. Another person, a Frenchman, whom I knew, bought a share, and when he saw certain ruin looming over his ward store, he went to the headquarters and purchased twenty-five dollars worth of goods, and having got them all secured, laid down his shareholder's receipt in payment, and beat a hasty retreat. He was a fortunate man, and acted prudently. But alas for the poor souls who ventured all their little savings in these church institutions, and then were left to poverty and starvation. The order of Enoch is the crowning swindle of all. Its victims, under a legal form, make over to the church every cent of which they may be possessed, even to the very close upon their backs, and place themselves, their whole life and being, entirely at the command of the church. They do in fact literally make themselves slaves, only their slavery is infinitely worse, and more debasing than the bondage of the Negro, for they give soul and mind as well as body and goods, utterly, absolutely, and forever, into the iron grasp of the Mormon priesthood. This order of Enoch is quite a favorite institution with Brigham Young, who has lately been preaching it up throughout Utah, and many hundred fanatical and diluted saints have at his instigation, given, not sold, for they receive nothing in return, themselves into the subject slavery. And yet these are the institutions which, unprejudiced newspaper reporters and editors, when they visit Utah, and are, according to the fixed and ordinary custom of Brigham, treated and totied to, until poor dupes, they think that the favors they receive are simply marks of the appreciation of the Mormons for their own conceited or diluted selves, personally, and not part and parcel of his system. These I say are the institutions which such visitors laud to the skies, when they speak of the prophet's generosity, his open heartedness, his patriarchal benevolence, and his other saintly virtues. When we left the church, these institutions were attracting a good deal of attention among the saints. The cooperative still flourishes, and the order of Enoch has within the last few weeks been gathering into its net not tens, but hundreds of dupes. About this time also it was that the Mormon women, under the auspices of Eliza R. Snow, and the female Relief Society, got up that petition to Mrs. Grant, to which I have referred in another place, begging her to use her influence with the President in favor of a toleration of polygamy. The names to that petition were affixed without any reference to propriety or right. Hundreds of names were copied from the books of the society without any permission being obtained, or even asked of their owners. It was then, as I before stated, that the names of the dead were actually added as subscribers to the petition. And in one case, when a lady mentioned that her dead daughter had never belonged to the church, as she died before her mother heard of Mormonism, she was told that her daughter would now of course have found out that polygamy was the true order of domestic life in heaven, and that she would certainly be willing to subscribe if she could return to earth. Her name was therefore added without any further ceremony, although she had been dead a good many years. In January, 1872, a counter petition was got up by the Gentile and apostate ladies. It set forth the cruel bondage which polygamy inflicts upon women, spoke of the heartless conduct of the Mormon leaders, and of the murderers and other foul crimes which had been committed by them, or at their instigation, showed that should Utah become a state under the name of Deseret, which has ever been the ambition of Brigham Young, there would be no protection for life or property, stated that the authorities themselves had declared that when statehood was conferred, Gentiles and apostates would have good cause to tremble, and finally prayed the national government to stretch forth its long arm of power for the defense and protection of honest and law-abiding citizens. This petition was signed by four hundred and forty ladies of Utah, whose real names were all fairly and openly affixed by their own selves. It was presented to the Senate by the Honorable Schuyler Colfax, then Vice President, was read, discussed, and ordered to be printed. As might be supposed, it excited a great deal of angry discussion on the part of the church authorities, and the following Sundays the names of those who had signed were read out in the tabernacle and strong remarks made upon their conduct in order to intimidate them and prevent others from following their example. The consequence was that many of their husbands and sons were threatened with loss of employment, and they were thus forced to retract. That same year a bill was brought into the territorial legislature, providing that boys of fifteen years of age and girls of twelve might legally contract marriage with the consent of their parents or guardians. In stating this disgraceful fact I am still certain that the reader who has never lived among the saints, and is not versed in Utah affairs, will think that I must be mistaken in what I say. It is, however, I am sorry to say, only too true, and the records of the legislature will bear me witness. The fact was stated in the New York Herald of January twenty-seventh, eighteen seventy-two. It will be a matter of interest to the advocates of women's suffrage to learn that Brigham Young conferred the franchise upon the Mormon ladies. This at first appears to be a very liberal measure, but let not the innocent reader be deceived thereby. The opening of the minds and the great influx of gentiles, consequent upon the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, proved very clearly to Brigham that the day might come when the gentiles would have an equality if not a majority of votes, and in that day the slavish despotism of the Mormon priesthood would be overthrown. The time certainly was very far off, but it was wise to provide for contingencies, so a bill was brought in conferring upon women the privilege of voting. No Mormon woman would for a moment ever dream of voting otherwise than she was directed by her husband, and no man would think of voting except as he was counseled by the priesthood. Thus a man with half a dozen wives would now have half a dozen votes, and Brother Brigham, instead of having only his own single vote, would have nineteen for his nineteen wives, to say nothing of his daughters and the whole array of spiritual wives which he might produce. I have often seen one solitary man driving into the city, a whole wagon-load of women of all ages and sizes, they were going to the poll, and their votes would be one. It is very easy to see how, in this way, the influence of the priesthood has been extended, and women themselves have been made the instruments for riveting still more firmly their own fetters. But it is by no means easy to see that women in Utah have derived any benefit from being permitted to vote. Voting among the saints has always been carried on in a very free and easy manner. One gentleman, an English convert, not long since told me that when he had been less than two months in the States, and of course was not naturalized, and had no rights as a citizen, he was counseled by the Mormon leaders to give in his vote. He did so, and in obedience to instructions received, he gave in also his wife's vote, and a vote of their little baby girl, an infant of only a few months old. Although that was before the voting of women was legalized, others have voted two or three times so as to make sure that the church should not lose their interest, and this very common practice of the same persons voting over and over again renders all statistics given by Mormon authority utterly untrustworthy, besides which the voting tickets are all numbered and the voters' names carefully registered in a book, so that the priesthood can tell at a moment's notice on which side, or for whom, a man has cast his vote. In this way the ballot in Utah becomes a most ridiculous farce instead of a means for obtaining unbiased and uninfluenced elections. Anxious to obtain admission into the union as a state, it is the interest of Brigham Young and the leaders to swell the numbers of the population by every means in their power. For this they have strained every nerve to bring over converts from abroad, and with the same object to build up the kingdom, they have forced polygamy upon the people. The most unscrupulous measures have been resorted to, and it is even said that on one occasion when a goodly show of names was needed, not only were the names of the dead and of relations and converts who had never been in the country at all added as subscribers to the document, but that they actually christened their mules, conferring upon them the names of a man, and then made them vote also. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the priesthood, many young Mormon ladies have preferred Gentile husbands, and some of them have left the territory, but they have been invariably traduced and scandalised, and whenever the rumour of misfortune occurring to any of them reached Salt Lake City, it was retailed with undisguised gratification as a sweet morsel by the priesthood. Some Mormon mothers, hating the idea of their daughters marrying polygamists, have encouraged the addresses of Gentiles, and were only too glad to have their children marry out of Mormonism. Such mothers, of course, are a posthate in heart, although nominally they may not have left the church. The extravagancies of modern dress render it every year more and more difficult for men of moderate means to support many wives. Fashion is proving a deadly vote to polygamy, and the feminine taste for finery is in Utah, helping to bring about some really good, practical results. There is now a pleasing change noticeable in the plural marriages in Salt Lake City. There are not nearly so many marriages of this kind among the actual citizens, as there were three or four years ago. The opening of the mines and the construction of the railroad brought so many strangers among us that it was impossible to withstand their influence. Many of our young Mormon maidens have been beguiled into matrimony by those wicked Gentiles, against Tombbrother Brigham has so often warned us. And not only so, but many good saints have apparently come to the conclusion that though polygamy was so absolutely necessary to their own salvation, it is not by any means essential to the salvation of their daughters. Thus some of them have given their daughters to the sons of strangers, to become in due time mothers of a race of wicked Gentiles, and if one might judge from their conversation they do not appear to regret it very much. The dislike of the women to polygamy has increased, especially in Salt Lake City, although in the settlements fanaticism is as rampant as ever, and the celestial system is the order of the day. Young Mormon girls are disgusted when they hear young men, and even boys talking of their privileges, boasting how many wives they mean to take, and how they will take two on the same day in order to preserve peace. Girls of the slightest feeling or intelligence resent all this, and the more refined regard these little would-be polygamists, and all they say, with intense loathing and contempt. To Gentile girls such insults are of course unknown, and the Mormon girls, when they have the opportunity of mixing with the outside world, are not slow to discover that well, if they marry among people of their own faith, they will never occupy their proper position in society. If they become Gentile wives, they will be the cherished companions, and equals of the men to whom they are united. Sensitive girls will say that they would rather have a little less glory in the world to come, and have a little more comfort in this. Then, too, the married women compare the condition of the Gentile wives with their own, and the comparison is by no means in favor of polygamy. A polygamic wife who is one of many, and only sees her husband occasionally, and that as a favor, cannot well visit a Gentile wife in her own home without drawing a comparison by no means in favor of Mormonism. Many Mormon wives have thus become unhappy, and hence the most strenuous exertions are made on the part of the leaders to prevent as far as possible all intercourse between the saints and the outside world. Notwithstanding this, a leading attorney in Salt Lake City told me that during the year succeeding our abandonment of Mormonism more than one hundred first wives called upon him, proposing to enter suit for divorce and alimony. And this represents but a small proportion of those who would sacrifice almost anything if only they could escape from polygamy. Left to itself Mormonism would long ago have perished, so great has been the number of apostates. But England and Scandinavia furnish yearly a multitude of dupes who come over every summer by the thousands to aid in carrying on the imposture. These with the people in the settlements who are purposely kept in ignorance, slavery and poverty, perpetuate polygamy in Utah. John W. Young, the prophet's son, to whom I have already alluded, became disgusted with polygamy and abandoned it. Therefore, according to his father's teaching, he cannot now enter into the celestial kingdom. But Brigham Young says that he, as the successor of Joseph Smith, holds the keys of the kingdom, he probably thinks that he will be able to shuffle his son John W. in a quiet way. For my own part I do not suppose that Brigham Young believes one word of the nonsense he teaches to the people. He is far too shrewd for that. A certain Utah official once said to my husband, Brigham has got the best thing in America, and he means to hold on to it. That is about the sum and substance of Brigham's religion. About eight years ago, John W., who is a handsome, gentlemanly young man, married a Miss Lucy Canfield of Ogden, it is said in obedience to the counsel of his father. Two years subsequently he married Miss Clara Jones, whose father, when living, had occupied a prominent position in the church. This lady also it was stated, he married in obedience to a command of the prophet, who had been known to say that he wished one of his sons to marry her, and that if they did not he would marry her himself. Brigham has often told men to marry certain women, and they have felt bound to obey, believing probably, as Mormon men generally do, that it makes very little difference, after all, who they married, as they have got to have a certain number of wives in order to enter the celestial kingdom, and among them all they will be sure to find one whom they can love. Mormon men are not very different from other men, for although they tell their numerous wives quite another story, they can truly love but one woman at a time. Some good saints, I do not doubt, do really believe to the contrary, but love thus divided is not worthy of the name. In this respect men resemble women, no woman can love two men at the same time. The two young girls, the wives of John W. Young, of course, each in turn, believed that she was the beloved one, but subsequently they discovered how greatly they had been mistaken, for John W. had not yet met with his affinity. In the course of time, however, the fair one appeared who was to enslave his heart, and John W. submitted without a murmur. Mrs. Lucy Canfield Young, the first wife, had cousins living in Philadelphia, and as John W. was returning from England, where he had been on mission, at the request of his wife he called to see them, and there he met with his fate in the person of Miss Lizzie Canfield, one of his wife's cousins. He immediately fell deeply in love with this young lady, and requested her to go with him to Salt Lake City to visit his wife. She agreed, and with her sister, accompanied him, and before they arrived at the termination of their journey she had promised to marry him. She had no faith in Mormonism, but everything was forgotten in love. After their marriage Miss Canfield, now Mrs. John W. Young, number three, became very unhappy, for she felt deeply her degraded position, and though she dearly loved her husband, would have left him, had she not felt that such a step would render him perfectly miserable, for it was evident that he cared nothing at all for his other two wives. They, poor girls, were also destined to become victims to this disgraceful system, abandoned in their youth, and one of them the mother of two or three children. The first wife, Lucy Canfield Young, perceiving that her husband no longer cared for her, withdrew womanly dignity, withdrew from his husbandly care, obtained a divorce, and became Miss Lucy Canfield again. Miss Clara Jones Young could not so easily bring her mind to leave the father of her children, but still hopes that her true and husband will return to his unhappy wife, from whom he has not yet been divorced, although he no longer lives with her. In this, however, she is mistaken. John W. will never return to her, for he is completely disgusted with his father's pet scheme of celestial marriage, and undoubtedly would be formally separated from his second wife, were it not that according to Mormon law, the wife alone has the privilege of applying for a divorce. He is in fact, at heart, a vial apostate, as his father calls seceders from the church, for no one can possibly be a good Mormon without believing with all his soul in polygamy. Take polygamy and the endowments from Mormonism, and there is nothing left to distinguish that faith from any other of the absurd religions which have, from time to time, been advocated by fanatical men. John W. Young, notwithstanding the apostate spirit which has fallen upon him, has lately been appointed to preside over the saints at St. George in southern Utah, and I sincerely trust that he will lead all those good saints over whom he is sent to preside to think as he does respecting plural marriage, and that his wife may do her best to create in the minds of the unhappy and degraded sisters around her a desire for that higher social position, that perfect equality with man, which is the inalienable right of every woman. It is very fortunate for John W. Young that he is the son of his father, for if he had been any other man's son, and had abandoned polygamy, he would never have been appointed to preside over the saints in St. George or anywhere else. But Brigham is all powerful in Mormondom. It is he who controls the affairs of the kingdom, and if he chooses to allow an apostate son, not only to pass muster, but to be accounted worthy to rule among the saints, who shall gain say it? Brigham has a bitter hatred of apostates and apostasy. The very name apostate is the most cruel arrow in his quiver. And yet the very man who, if Brigham's own precedent were followed, ought to succeed him, or sin hide, the president of the twelve apostles, was once an apostate in Missouri, and a very cowardly one at that. Brigham himself, little as he perhaps imagines it, is the prince of apostates. He became an apostate Methodist when he left Methodism and joined the Mormons, and certainly he is now an apostate for Mormonism, as Joseph Smith first taught it. The change from Methodism to Mormonism, as it was first presented to the world, was nothing near so great as the departure which Brigham has made from the original faith of the saints. There have been many apostates from the teachings of Joseph in early days, but of all apostates brother Brigham is the chief. It may perhaps surprise the reader to learn that in polygamous Utah, notwithstanding the constant importation of young girls from abroad, there are 2056 more males than females. In four counties only are the females in excess of the males. In Salt Lake County, which includes Salt Lake City, there are 299 more females than males. In Cash County, there are 93 more. In Iron County, there are 31, and in St. Pete, there are 238 more females than males. In all the other 17 counties, the males are in excess of the females. In many instances, the sexes are singularly balanced, as, for instance, in Washington County, where there are 1,532 males, and exactly the same number of females. Weber County has an excess of 336 males, Payute has 69 males to 13 females, and in Severe County there are 19 unfortunate males who are not blessed with the presence of a single female. These figures I obtained from the Census Bureau at Washington. They speak for themselves and clearly demonstrate that as far as Utah is concerned, instead of polygamy being a necessity on account of the preponderance of the female sex, the facts are exactly the reverse. And if some men have two, four, six, eight, or ten wives, for every wife that they take, some other man is forced to remain single. Considering the multiplicity of wives among the more pious saints, and the large number of minors, who, of course, are either unmarried or have not brought their wives with them to Utah, it is quite evident that there must be a good many single men in Utah. But before closing my narrative, I must add a few words relative to myself. After my husband had been in New York for some months, it became necessary on account of business that I should join him there. I did so, and found him busy upon a history of Mormonism, which he had for some years contemplated writing, and for which he had collected a large amount of valuable facts and statistics from the historian's office in Salt Lake City. While still a Mormon, he had proposed to vindicate the saints and justify their leaders. But now that his eyes were open to the degrading superstition and the cruel bondage of the system, he was determined, as far as he had the ability to do so, to expose the corruption and tyranny of the priesthood. I heartily coincided with him and encouraged him with wifely commendations. At that time I had no idea of becoming myself an author, and it was not until the close of that same year, when I beat a second visit to New York, that I first seriously entertained the idea of appearing before the public. I was induced to write a little volume which I thought would expose some of the cruel wrongs which Mormon polygamy and plexipon diluted, helpless women. My work was very kindly received and extensively circulated, but it was, I must confess, only a very imperfect and brief sketch. In this present volume I have endeavored to supply the deficiencies of the former, and in a truthful, if imperfect, sketch of my own life, and my own experience in, and observations of, the working of the polygamic system, I have endeavored to give my readers a just idea of what polygamy and Mormonism really are. With the exception of the little literary efforts which I have made from time to time to expose through the press the iniquity of the celestial order of marriage, no event of more than personal and private interest has, since I left the Mormon Church, interrupted the even tenor of my life. Last year, however, I was able to deal another blow, weak it might be, but still it was a blow, directed at that false system against which I have sworn eternal enmity. I lectured upon Mormon polygamy in Washington and Boston and other large cities, and attempted in my humble way to attract the attention of the Gentile world to the iniquities of that terrible superstition which in Utah has degraded womanhood and wrecked the happiness of thousands of my diluted sisters. I met with sympathy everywhere, and then, as now, I resolved that efforts like these I would never relax until, if God spared my life, I should see the last stone in the fabric of Mormonism overturned, and Mormon polygamy counted among the sins and follies of the past. His literary work accomplished, my husband returned to Salt Lake City. Looking back over the past, our missionary life and our faith in Brighamism seems like a dream. So difficult is it for us to realize that we ever submitted our souls to the slavery of the priesthood, or placed any credence in that mass of folly, superstition, and licentiousness known as Mormonism. During all his efforts to obey counsel and build up a kingdom, my husband I know never ceased to love me. For the misery which he then, in, as I firmly believe, his conscientious endeavors to live his religion inflicted upon me, I have long ago freely and fully forgiven him. I think that during all that time he never ceased to entertain the fondest affection for me, and, if he was foolishly confiding in those who he believed were divinely authorized, and speaking by inspiration, can I blame him when I remember that I myself was actuated by the same faith? It was impossible to obliterate utterly the education and influences of a whole life's experience. That wall of partition, polygamy, which separated my husband from me for so many years, is now forever broken down. But the effects of Mormonism will, no doubt, though unconsciously to ourselves, tinge the whole of our future life. We can never forget the past, the mournful sympathy which, according to the poet at Perry at the Gate of Paradise expressed, over the sins and sorrows of humanity, might, with a slight variation, be applied to our own lives. Poor race of men, said the pitying spirit, dearly ye pay for your primal fall. Some traces of Eden ye still inherit, but the trail of the serpent is over them all. The terrible effects of our religion will, I know, follow us to our graves, but that temporary alienation has, I think, like the quarrels of lovers, only made us still dearer to each other. And now, happy in our family circle, with our children growing up around us, untainted by the fearful superstition which embittered and wasted their parents' lives, we feel that in them is our greatest blessing, and thank God that we have lived to see the day when our greatest ambition is, by every effort which lies within our reach, to aid in undoing that work which we spent the best years of our life in endeavouring to perform. END OF CHAPTER 43 In the preceding pages I have endeavored to present to the reader the story of my life's experience in Mormonism and polygamy, and to place before him a truthful picture of the doctrines and practices of the saints. Much has already been written on this subject, much that is in accordance with facts, and much that is exaggerated and false. Hitherto, with but one exception, that of a lady who wrote many years ago, and who in her writings so mixed up fiction with what was true, that it was difficult to determine where the one ended and the other began. No woman who really was a Mormon and lived in polygamy ever wrote the history of her own personal experience. Books have been published and narratives have appeared in the magazines and journals, purporting to be written by Mormon wives. It is, however, perhaps unnecessary for me to state that notwithstanding such narratives may be imposed upon the Gentile world as genuine, that they were written by persons outside the Mormon faith would in a moment be detected by any intelligent saint who took the trouble to peruse them. Two objects influenced my mind when I first proposed to write this volume. In the first place I earnestly desired to stir up my Mormon sisters to adjust sense of their own position. I longed to make them feel as I do, the cruel degradation, the humiliating tyranny which polygamy inflicts. I wanted to arouse them to a sense of their own womanhood and adjust appreciation of those rights and duties which, as women, God has conferred upon them. I was anxious that they should understand and know the inconsistency and folly of that superstitious faith by which they have been so egregiously deluded, that they might learn to hate and loathe the falsely named celestial system of marriage, and rising in honest indignation and disgust against the tyranny of the oppressor, break asunder the yoke of bondage, cast from them forever the moral, religious, and social fetters wherewith they are bound, and walking in the light of truth, assert their perfect equality with their sons, their husbands, their fathers, and their brethren, and henceforth claim and occupy that position which God assigned them, and which by right is theirs. In the second place I was anxious to enlist for them the sympathy of the Gentile world. Most strenuous efforts have been made, large sums of money have been spent, and secret intrigues as well as open and honorable negotiations have been carried on for the purpose of obtaining admission for Utah into the Union, under the title of The State of Deseret. The name Deseret itself is taken from the Book of Mormon, and is said to signify in the Celestial Tongue a honeybee, wherefore it is that the escutcheon of Utah territory is a beehive, and to grant that name Deseret alone would be a concession to Mormon superstition. Out here in the valley of the Great Salt Lake we are perfectly aware that, with Utah once admitted as a state, it would be almost impossible for Gentiles to live peaceably and safely among the Mormons, and of this fact their leading men and their official organs have repeatedly boasted. With Utah as a state, and Brigham Young once more Governor, the enslavement of the people to the priesthood would be complete, and the cruel bondage of polygamy would be riveted a thousand times more firmly upon the unfortunate women. I was anxious therefore to attract the attention of Congress and the nation at large to these facts, that thus when Mormon bills and Mormon petitions replete with falsified statistics, and perverted, and in many instances utterly untrue statements, are presented to the national legislature, neither the representatives of the nation, nor the nation itself may be deceived thereby. These were the two objects which I proposed to myself in writing my own experience as a wife and mother among the Mormons, and I trust to some extent at least I have realized them. I have told my story simply but truthfully, and as far as was possible I have endeavored to tell it all. Some facts I have had occasion to relate, so horrible and repulsive, that a person unused to Mormonism, and unversed in Mormon doctrine and Mormon practice would find difficulty in giving credence to such things, and yet alas they are all too true. It is only right that I should add that in the conduct and publicly expressed opinions of Brigham Young and many of the leaders there have been such disgusting atrocities and such impure statements that for the sake of decency and propriety I dared not even mention them. For this supracial very I feel assured the reader will not blame me. In all that I have said I have most scrupulously kept to the very letter of the truth, I have neither exaggerated nor concealed, and in every respect my great endeavour has been to act with the strictest impartiality and justice. Mine in one sense is the story of a wasted life. From the day when I linked my destiny with that of a Mormon missionary elder to the time when, after long weary years of trial and endurance, I abjured the faith of the modern saints, I suffered a constant martyrdom. Poverty, self-denial, and suffering I gloried in when I believed myself the humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty for proclaiming the fullness of the gospel to those who were walking in the darkness of unbelief. The trials of a missionary life were to me a pleasure. I bore with gladness the cross, believing that hereafter I should exchange it for the glories of an eternal crown, and I think even now I should never have wearied of that life of devotion, so great was my faith and my religion. Had the leaders of the church remained steadfast to that simple gospel creed which we were at first taught was the evangel of the latter-day dispensation, but when polygamy, that accursed thing, that offspring of deceit and licentiousness, came across our path, darkening the way and blighting the affections, the hopes, the whole life of every true woman among the saints, when polygamy came casting its foul stain over all that was holy, crushing out from our hearts all that was good and pure and heaven-born, degrading our womanhood and embittering existence itself, when its dark shadow, like the gloom of the deadly oposs, brought death of the soul and the withering of the heart's true love to all who came within its influence. Then my faith began to waver, my zeal to wax cold, and in anticipation and subsequently in realization of the cruel wrong which that system could inflict upon the affections and life of a wife and mother, I endured daily a trial of my faith, a moral and spiritual martyrdom such as I trust my readers may never experience. Not a day passed but what more and more evidence of the wickedness of the system and its cruel debasement of woman's nature was brought beneath my observation. Whatever came in contact with it, whoever fell beneath its influence, was the subject of immediate loss, men, women, and children alike suffered from its effects. The innocence of childhood was sullied by its contamination, girlhood and youth were degraded and disgraced. The fair sweet dreams of virgin purity were marred by its presence. The ideal of love, pure, faithful, holy, heavenly, which God himself has implanted in the heart, was rudely trampled upon and perverted and destroyed. The lives of wives and mothers were but the record of outrage, cruelty, and wrong, or else the deadening and blasting of every holy impulse and every tender emotion, while men themselves were brutalized and debased. The husband became the Lord and frequently the tyrant and the despot, and the wife was either the toy of the hour or the drudge who looked after the children, but never the cherished companion, the help-meat of the man. Such was the influence of polygamy, such the results of the celestial order of marriage. Contrary to the laws of the land, contrary to the holiest sentiments of the heart, contrary to the divine teachings of heaven, that system still exists. It is a disgrace to the national government. It is a reproach to civilization. It is a blot upon a fair escutcheon of the world's greatest republic. And yet visitors will come from Utah and will tell you that the Mormon women are happy in polygamy, for it is a part of their religion. Never, until new hearts and new natures are given to the women of Utah, and all that is womanly and pure and sacred, is crushed out from their souls, can one single woman be truly happy in polygamy. They may say so publicly, they may for their religions' sake tell strangers that thus it is, but listen to them when they are alone among themselves. Read, if you can, their hearts, and mark the bitterness which they try to stifle there. Nay, see upon their very features the handwriting which bears witness against their assertion that they are happy, and which proclaim to the world the sorrow which they vainly try to hide. I set forth this little book with many earnest prayers and many heartfelt aspirations, that my Mormon sisters may be benefited thereby. Out of the evil which man originates, God alone can produce good. And I trust that my feeble attempt to portray the cruel wrong which polygamy inflicts upon the women of Utah may excite the sympathy of every man and woman, whose influence may avail to hasten that time when this relic of ancient barbarism may be utterly rooted out before the advancing civilization of the age. The night, the gloomy night of superstition, cannot last forever. Already there are signs of the coming dawn. The time I trust and pray will not be long delayed when the veil shall be removed from the eyes of the enslaved men and women of our modern Zion, and they shall cast aside for ever the yoke of the priesthood. I trust that I shall yet live to see the day when Mormon wives and mothers shall awake to a sense of their position and responsibilities, shall understand that God never required that their womanhood should be degraded, their love crushed out, and the holiest instincts of their nature perverted. I trust to see them assert their inalienable rights, their womanly prerogatives, their very birthright itself. I trust to see them shake off the slavery of that cruel superstition which has so long held them captive. I trust to see them take their places side by side with Gentile matrons, the honoured wives and mothers of the men of Utah. I trust to see that dark shadow banished from their features, banished from their hearts, banished from their lives. I trust to see them free, full of love for them, my sisters, my friends, the companions of my life hither too, whose religion was once my own, whose hopes and joys I have shared, whose sorrows and trials have also been mine, with hopeful prayer I lay down my pen and present my labours to the world, and if my humble efforts shall have conduced, even in the smallest degree, to keep one's sister from entering into this sinful order, if they shall have aroused the women of Utah to investigate the foundations of their faith, to calmly and impartially consider the iniquities of the system of polygamy, to renounce the man-made slavery of the celestial order, if I shall be found to have awakened in the minds of thinking men and women a hatred for the licentious doctrine which enslaves the wives and daughters of the saints, if I have to any extent enlisted active, practical sympathy in their behalf, I shall feel that my endeavours have been abundantly rewarded, and that my labours have not been bestowed in vain.