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Show A MORMOX WIFE. A Woman's Story Womanly Told. Pus day Eve., Nov.lOLb, 187 8. Editors Herald: I saw an artulea tew days since enii'led "A nti - polygamy." It appeared ap-peared in your columns. Tbe subject being one in which I am interested, (in common with my sisters in Utah,) I beg the privilege ot aukicg a lew questions concerning it.' Do these ladits, rciolving themselves into a committee, purpose to work for our I elevation, our emancipation? Havi? "our wrougs at last reached the cri-if, and ara saviors seut to the roicue? Women for this work should hvo clean liaudd and pure hearts, bolting well, and deeply into the many niiiad problem. Uuu expression, (if not more,) in that iirtiule seemtd anta-Qtiisiii: anta-Qtiisiii: to the yod of the many. It spoke cf "wives and concubines," meani.'g. I suppose, to rlasa the largo majority uf Mormon wives and devoted devo-ted mothers wi'.h women who are bougLit and sold into greater alavery than the paiiey-slave at tne block. Ladies, Ih s remark was unfortunate if your tffjru are in the interests of icuman hery. If it id only to gratiiy aome personal pique, or petty enmity tbi.t you have entered this crusade, it v in jjruuauiy juuuw il8 preuecessora, , and perhaps lall heaviest upon the j shoulders of its originators. Justice sleeps silently antk sometimes a long while, but come at last she will, and . well for thesa who can ahow "clean hands and pure hearts." They have nothing to lear. A vivid picture 13 brought to my mind this evening. It is of a young wife and mother, scarce out ot her teens, pleading far mercy at tbe bands oiwshicn. Cau I call tbem women, who would see a sister woman in distress dis-tress and not respond in mercy? No, I cannot, so distorted does sbe become who givce herself up to that fiend caloitxy ,th&t the face is hardly human. It was to such as these that this young wife pleaded for mercy, and they sat injuJgmeut ovr her! What was her crime, did you ask? Why, she had obeyed the teaching of the only religion she knew anything about, and accepted as her marriage covenant, coven-ant, polyjamy. She was born in Salt Luke city, and bad never (at that time, snnie ten years agn) Been outside out-side of Uuh territory. Had her husband hus-band another wife, ai the time he proposed marriage to hor ? Yea, he had one wife, but ttie covenant that ru:ido her his wife, was a polyyamous contract, in which she sacredly vowed at the att.ir of hc-r own marriage, to "keep all law?, rites and ordinances, pertaining to this holy order of matrimony." matri-mony." S.i she was neither wrooged nor deceived by her husband entenog into the same covenant the second time. (Cold words and cruel, yet to be just we muet sometimes be cruel, and the heart of woman is ttie fame, in each wif?, and unless hardened by sin or scan tied hy jealousy, it t the most beautiful piece of the creator's workmanabip.) There was only a year or two intervening between the time of these two ceremonies, and for a while all went well with these three, embarked oo matrimony's fickle sea. They both bore to him children, were loving wiveB, and devoted motners. Id an evil hour the tempter came. He said t-j one, tiuu art a wife, and she said to the ottier, "What art thou ? A concubine!" What an opportunity fora woman's grandeur to display ileelf, andprotect her sister by tbe very knowledge of ber own newly Acquired power ! Bat she did not ! They drove her forth to a cold and critical world; they took from her her husband's name, (a lamb shorn of its tleece;) her little ones in the grave, and she alone in the wide world. Her heart ia with her husband here, the father of her augel babe?, but where is stic ? Aw:iy among Btrangcrs; ber relatives and friends, all those who 'ove ber best dicel here. Can Bbe not come to them ? There are others who can answer this question ques-tion better than I can, and some day not far in tbe future, they will have to answer it. If these ladies so free ot benevolence and sympathy will delegate dele-gate some cne to "collect money" to send for this lamb and bring her back to her fold, they will have our warmest gratitude. But let them Oeicare, lest they should repeat ber experience in the lived ol 10,000 wives and mothers. We do not wish reformation refor-mation ihat turns back, bringing with it desolation and despair. Tuc gospel of Christ is one to save, and not to destroy. It ia eaey for you, ladies, safe in your "marriaye certificate," certifi-cate," to Hay "some must sutler," but take good care it is not "me and my wife, my sou John and his wife." Ltt us four be spared, no matter what comes to tho fuur thousand ! But it does motor, and we will look nil that the majority are protected. We have he;u a little in advance of your petition pe-tition to Mrs. Hayes, and we hd her warm assurance tual by her band and iutluence no Mormon wife should be made to sutler. Turn the force ot yuur energy to uuplowed fields and pastures green, and thereby gain wisJom, and 1st our dead past bury ileelf. A Mukmos Wife. P.S. The poet canuot write without having himself sutler ed. He must learn the chords of tbe everlamug harp, before he cm drw music frcm it. lie cannot play while be is learning. learn-ing. Ho cannut write when he id auileriuc He cannot m'ih when his own heart is hlrjeJiug. He- ruiiet we.n unlit that sufleiinx hs paen-d into merr.ory. There- it will work, - r olh-rs, fortifying his oaii ?uul. Hi' must wait until uicnnry has become spiritualized, by losing every portion ot the sensuous pain, before he can write of it. A MohmoS Wife. |