AMONG THE MORMONS President Woodruff on the Anti Polygamy laws PLURAL MARRIAGES FORBIDDEN How Confiscation la cdMiscpresenta Uons the Hardest of All to Bear The Jesperson Case 1 SALT Lin CZTT Utah October jThe head of the Mormon church is a Connecti eut Yankee He is eightytwo years old He has the compactly built figure of Grant L In the square face the firm mouth the strong nose and the set of the eyes there are reminiscences of the old commander sufficiently strong to make strangers comment com-ment upon the likeness President Wil ford Woodruff is a great disappointment to those who hae imagined a supposed typi col Mormon Ho doesnt wear his hair or his beard long but cropped He isnt oily in speech on the contrary he is plain almost al-most to bluntness There isnt a trace of the sanctimonious in his manner Matter i offact is the mental trait most pronounced THE OFP1CIU RESIDENCE of the head of the Mormon church is a t olid looking mansion a block east of the temple Brigham Young designed it culled it the Gardo house and lived in it I till he died Then the property passed into the possession of the church When the government took possession of the church property a couple of years ago the Mormons Mor-mons claimed exemption for the Gardo house on the plot that it was used for the parsonage This view the court refused to sustain While the temple was given back to the Mormons the Gardo house remained in the hands of the receiver Rather than havo the furniture and the handsome interior in-terior suffer from careless tenants the church rented the building for 7o a month It Is used as the office of the president but otherwise remains unoccupied until the f supreme court passes on the confiscation actDressed Dressed in a full suit of black with white choker President Woodruff walked briskly into the reception room of the Gardo house No suspicion of weanne8 showed itself in his manner although he had been presiding presid-ing all day at the great annual conference of the Latter day Saints Ho shook hands sat down and began at once to talk in a cheerful offhand way We are peculiar people in some respects re-spects ho said We have been out hereby here-by ourselves for a good while Many wrong impressions have gone out about us All we ask is for the American people to understand our situation as it really is I rhave no fears as to our treatment at the r hands of our fellowcitizens if we are understood j un-derstood But in some way it seems as if ii < the other side got the first hearing and we Jf do not seem to be able to overcome the misrepresentations mis-representations It was suggested that people would like to hear directly from the head of the church HIIATTUE ATTITLDE IS toward the law prohibiting polygamy Without the slightest hesitation President Presi-dent Woodruff replied with emphasis We mean to obey it of course Ye havo no thought of evading or ignoring this or any other law of the United States wo are citizens of this government We recognize its laws as binding upon us There was no careful selection of words in the reply to the question The president spoke rapidly and decisively repeating indifferent in-different forms the idea that as the head of the Mormon church he acknowledged the supremacy of the laws of his country As if to make the practical effect of this position posi-tion plain the president went on to say I have refused to give say rccommeiida tioas for the performance of plural marriages mar-riages > since I have been president I know that President Taylor mv predecessor also refused Since the Edmunds 1 uckcr law have refused to recommend plural marriages and have instructed that they should not be solemnized Becoming more and more explicit as he proceeded President Woodruff told of a special case One of the bishops at the head of a stake which is a church designation designa-tion for a large district came to him with a petition of a couple to have the plural marriage mar-riage ceremony performed between them lho stake bishop represented that the parties par-ties fully understood the risk they were running in view of the law prescribing penalty of fie years for entering into the t poljgumcus state Nevertheless they were willing to take the chances He waited from the head of the church a rule rul-e lug on the course to pursue I told the bishop said President Wood Wood must be no more plural marriages t THE ESIDESTb DLCLAPATirf that he had given no recommendations i needs but a brief explanation The ceremonies cere-monies of the Moruon religion biptisms marriages and endowmentstake place in the Mormon temples of which there are three in Utah To obtain the admission to the temple and the performance of any of the ceremonies the applicant must carry a recommendation signed by the bishop of the ward in which the applicant lives That recommendation must be counter A signed bj the bishop of the stake and by the hi her officials Cutting off the recommendations recom-mendations in good faith ought to have the effect of stopping plural marriages President Presi-dent Woodruff believes they have stopped In view of his posi ion and policy it is difficult dif-ficult to see how such marriages e in take place except upon misrepresentation and willful disregard of the presidents instruction instruc-tion I am confident said the president that there have been no plural marriages sine I have been in this position And yet a case Ins recently occurred which I will say to you I do not understand at all It is ji ing us n good deal of trouble Perhaps you have heard of iti i oleil I The president i referred to the Hans JesI person case Jcspcison is a Dane He lives in Goshen lit the head of Utah lake Ueeeutli u neighbor reported to the United J Status authorities at Provo that ho be Jitved Jesner on w is sustaining the plural i marriage relation with Mrs Alice Horton A deputy marshal went out and brought in the Jesperson family and Mrs Horton All of them denied tho knowledge of any improper relationship At last Airs Horton Hor-ton broke down and testified thU she was married to Jesperson on tie bth of April last She said that part of the ceremony took place in the temple at Manti and part of it at the endowment house at bill Lake city This testimony was given before the Unite States commissioner and Jisperson i was bound over for the gi ud jury on the I charge of polygamy Tho developments I occurred only a few months ago but tho case has at once become a celebrated one It is the only performance of a plural mar riago ceremony this year which tho courts I I have unearthed If the womans testimony testi-mony is true it proves that plural mar riuges are still being celebrated in the temples and that the law is being ignored President Woodruff ought up TUB JKSPKBSOX CASH without waiting to be questioned about it Hc spoke with much warmth Ho seemed to feel keenly tho position in which he was j placed by such testimony When he f earned that his victor hid made a trip to Provo for the purpose of obligating tho Jesperson case ho asked What did you think of ltJlI Ho was told that the woman had testified very plainly that the marriage ceremony S was performed on the Sth of April and that > U part of it bad been performed at ManU and Vthe rest at tho endowment house The presidents brow clouded as ho said I It seems incredible If it is true it is against all of mv instructions I do not understand un-derstand it at all We are looking Into it and shall not rest until we get at all of the facts There is no intention on our part to pI r do anything but to obey the law I As the president concluded his mouth closed with an expression of settled determination deter-mination Resident Gentiles sneer at those I who take the words of the Mormons for anything in which the church is concerned I They say that the Saints are not worthj of the slightest credence regarding their religion re-ligion although they may be upright I enough in all other respects There are Gentiles in Salt Lake who will laugh tho laugh of scorn atthese utterances of President Presi-dent Woodruff As to that iew it can only be said that the conversation herein narrated was characterized on the part of the venerable head of the church by apparent appar-ent candor and utter absence of guile From plural marriages present the conversation 1 con-versation turned to plural marriages past The president said that THE POSITION or TIIE cuui en was the same as regards both The law of the country must be obeyed lo show you how Ifeelsai heI will tell iou frankly of my own rase I intro three wives married them before 1800 when there was no law whatevctiejrardin polygamy have not visited the houses of my wives for five years I have kept entirely en-tirely aw iv because I aid i not mean to do anything which might have the ippoirauca of breaking thoEdmuuds law 1 But I have fed and clothed these families I can not repudiate the obligations I entered into so many years ago The women I married were good and virtuous They have raised families I can not now turn them adrift We entered into this relationship in good faith As an honorable man I am bound to support the families But to show mj respect re-spect for the law and my desire to obey it I have kept way from the houses of my wives for five years For the better understanding of the position posi-tion in which President Woodruff finds himself it should be explained that rue three wives to whom he makes reference are his plural wives His first and legal wife is dead Ho lives as a bachelor supporting sup-porting but never visiting the three plural wives He was asked if he thought the Dost of those who had entered into the polygamous relationship before the passage of the Edmunds law were obeying provisions pro-visions Ho replied that he certainly did jot think so It seems to me he said that the law ought to have been made plainer in one respect re-spect It might havo marked out the course to be pursued by those who had gone into this thing before the enactment That would have saved a great deal of trouble Wo have been several years finding out JUST WHAT TilE LAW 3i0 INS Men who were in polygamy at the time of its passage had nothing to guide them as to their conduct They construed tho law one way Tho courts viewed it differently I believe that many ceased at once to sustain sus-tain the marital relationship with their plural wives Yet they recognized these wives visited their houses or in souio way rendered themselves liable under the law as the court construed it These men were sent to tho penitentiary when at heart they were guiltless If the law had set forth clearly how those polygamy wero to act towards their plural wives a great deal of suffering would have been prevented pre-vented The president went on to say that the number of convictions under the lawbe tween 1100 and 1 200 since the beginning was not to be taken as a measure oC the unwillingness the Mormons to accept the law If the provisions hid made clear the line of conduct toward plural wives there would not have been so many cases The matter of the confiscation of the church property was brought up Rather strange tell President Woodruff manifested mani-fested ntl indignation over this proceedu He seemed to view the action of the ov eminent with philosophical resignation They call it escheating the property of the church ho said I suppose if the government thinks best to take it away from us we must submit with as good agra a-gra e as possible We paid off one note for tW > UOOdaj before jesteidav Some prop erty you know had been sold when the law passed The court required us to inako good what was gone THE HONEY ItCCL ID from the sale had been usjd There was nothing else but for some of us to give our individual notes to the receiver for the value of that properly Ye did 50 and we have just paid one of those notes for H > 0 000 But we have enough to eat and something to wear and we don t complain if the government gov-ernment thinks best to take what we have got We are now paying rental about eight hundred dollars a month for the property taken That property was a sagebrush sage-brush plain when we got it All it is worth today the Mormons made it This was a sorry looking place Itell you when we came here The first view Brigham Ypung had of it was from my wagon as he rode down thecauoii The rstscizuieof property prop-erty by the government included the Temple block our houses of worship The receiver proposed that we retain the use of the block and pay a nominal rental of 81 a month but all of the other property taken is still held by the receiver awaiting the action of the supreme court of the United States Whatever the result we shall acquiesce ac-quiesce as cheerfully as possible and go on doing tho best we can The president smilcdjbut immediately his countenance sobered as ho said What hurts us most of all is to be so misunderstood by tho rest of the country It seems impossible to get people in the east to understand as w o are Tie listen to what goes out from a certain class of Gentiles Gen-tiles who have fought LS bitterly and have invariably and CONTINUOUSLY EPPESLNTLD LS This is the hardest thing we have to bear As I have already told iou we irtend to conform to the laws of our country Since the passage of the Edmunds Tucker law we have directed that no plural marriages shall bo performed I believed that they had ceased entirely until this particular case came up the other day This case as I said I do not understand but it will be looked into What tho result of the investigation will b e the president did not predict But one of the twelve apostles speaking of the matter mat-ter afterward said If it shall appeal that a plural marriage was effected as the evidence evi-dence indicates I for one shall favor cut ting off from the church the man who is responsible I re-sponsible for the misrepresentation which made this plural marriage possible This thing must stop I Before the conversation with the president i presi-dent came to uti end reference was made to his nativity I Yes he said I was born in Connecticut Connecti-cut the land of steady habits wooden nutmegs nut-megs and the blue laws Six generations of the family were residents resi-dents of that state before him The family home was at Avon in Hartford county The Woodruffs were millets and the father of President Woodruff was exempted from service in the American army during the Revolution because he could do more with his mill than with Ins musket Other morn ben of tho family enlisted and fought for civil and religious liberty The president lived at Avon until ho was of age His ton version to Mormonism dates from 1812 when bo heard an elder preach tho new faith at a school house in Oswego county New York The following year ho went to Kirtlaud and there met Joseph Smith the founder of the church la ItJS ho became one of the twelve apostles The apostles hold power in the Mormon church equal to that of tho president When a vacancy occurs in the presidency of tho church the custom is to make the apostle oldest in the service the now president In this way after nearlj fifty years of apostleship Wilfcrtl Woodruff became the president of the church being the fourth I man to hold that position I Those who look to the head of the church for startling i manifestations of divine power get little encouragement from tho clearheaded straightforward man Thero were many rovelations received through Joseph Smith Several but not many wore given to the church through Brigham Young John Taylor tho third president did next to nothing in tho way of direct revelation Tho present prophet seer and rovelator as the head of tho church is called calledf55 HIS VIBTVS UPON THIS SUBJECT which are interesting President Woodruff Wood-ruff says 1 The Lord docs not give revelatIons or send angels to men or work miracles to ac commodato the notions of any man who is I seeking for a sign Tho teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith to us was to obtain I I the holy spirit got acquainted with it and Its operations and listen to the whisperings of that spirit and obey its voice and it soon would become a principle of revelation I unto us I wish to say that I do not think that the Lord ever sends an angel to the earth to visit the children of men unless it is necessary to introduce a dispensation of I I a the gospel or deliver a message or performa perform-a work that can not be done otherwise I It seems that there is not much difference I after all between President Woodruffs principle of revelation and that still small voice for which the Christian listens as an answer to his prayers Is it possible that progressive ideas are at work in the Mormon Mor-mon church1Vll S in GlobeDemocrat