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Show ONLY A DYING REMEDY OF POLYGAMY. POLY-GAMY. The following from the Denvei Post of November 2 may be of Interest" Inter-est" to readers of Truth: ' , "Senator Reed Smoot of Utah rep- resents all the principles Inculcatea In tho National Mothers' club, yet tho members of that organization teaching teach-ing tho purity of the home with one hand, deliberately brush aside one of the purest men that ever lived, with the other hand." Thus did John P. Mealdn, tho Salt Lake City lecturer and dramatic reader, read-er, criticise the . National Mothers' club for Its decision to send a petition with 2,000,000 signatures to President Roosevelt and congress, protesting against the seating of Senator Smoot. Mr. Meakln, with his wife and son, is passing through Denver on his way ' homo 'from the east where ho has been on an extended lecturo tour. Ho Is tho guest of George B. Fisher while in tho city. "I am not a Mormon, and have no interest in that church, but my blood boiled when I read of this latest act on the part of tho Mothers' congress. "Tho Mormons come nearer to being be-ing Christians than many of those who profess to follow the footsteps of the Nazarene," continued Mr. Meakln. "I have known Reed Smoot from boyhood In fact was raised with him and therefore know whereof I speak when I declare he is clean. He has never been a polygamist, nor does he believe in polygamy; ho has never broken a national, state or moral law. It is impossible to find a cleaner man than Reed Smoot. Ho never smoked a cigar or used tobacco in any form; never tasted whisky or beer, and never played cards or gambled at any time. "Ho is married to a charming woman, wo-man, a daughter of Horace Eldredge, who was one of tho pioneer business men of Utah. Of this union Mr. Smoot has six children, all types of Intellectual Intellec-tual beauty. "Mr. Smoot Is a vigorous young business man and is Interested in nearly overy enterprise or industry in tho state of Utah." As to tho practice of polygamy, Mr. Meakln said: "There is simply a dying dy-ing remnant of polygamy now in Utah and surrounding states. This comprises com-prises about 500 old men and women who wont into tho polygamous relationship rela-tionship previous to 1890. To illustrate: illus-trate: there are In Salt Lako City ax tho present time just seventy-four old people who aro in polygamy. Two of these aro over 80 years old; iifty-eight iifty-eight aro over GO years old and fourteen four-teen aro over 50 years of age. SInco the manifesto was issued and amnesty granted sixteen years ago, two-thirds of tho people who were In polygamy have passed away. In another fifteen or twenty years they will all have W died a natural death. "Since tho present president, Joseph Jo-seph F. Smith, has been in power, tho church has not dabbled in politics nf all. It is duo to tho credit of President Presi-dent Smith that that church has been divorced from politics." |