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Show A BRAND SNATCHED. The following story has .been told to The Tribune by a perfectly trustwoithy resident of Salt Lake:" He says that a man formerly connected con-nected with the church, but having left it many years ago although all Ihc rest of his family remained in the church removed from some place in southern Utah and came to this city, where he greatly prospered. He was a good citizen, a good bus-, band and a good father; but, naturally he did not attend Mormon church services. ser-vices. Ills wlfo and daughters not only attended regularly at the Tabernacle Tab-ernacle and the ward meeting house, but were members of the various ;isso-claUons ;isso-claUons the relief society and the Y. L. M. I. A., etc. The family not being stinted in anything, the ladles were enabled en-abled to make frequent contributions to various ward funds, but they paid no tithing, as they had no income of their own. This fretted their bishop considerably, consid-erably, and finally he Induced them to appeal t'o the husband and fathsr to pay a tithe of the very splendid annual Increase on his property. The head of the house had been through all this in his earlier years, and when tiic tithe system was more Justifiable In his opinion. lie laughingly refused to be a victim of the graft, stating that Mr. Smith already bad a larger income than himself, and that if there was any real propriety in one man's giving money to another, he thought That Jcvi j h F. ought lo give him aomcthlng in cider to make- their incomes mora nearly eqda'. With this kind of badinage he put them off from tlsne to tlni, until from mere suggestions they came to pleadings plead-ings and then to weeping, woeful bc-grechlngs, bc-grechlngs, They told him that thoy worn not looked upon with much favor In tho Mormon society with which alone they m.VngJed, on account of his recalcitrant attitude; that they were not recognized as being quite "the real thing," that he ought to spare them from the humllla-tlon humllla-tlon to which they were subjected in their relations to their people, by hlm-salf hlm-salf joining the church. This he refused to do; but he told them that If they really cared, hcwould pay a tithe of hlo Income lo the church; , and -he Immediately began by'tender-Irtg by'tender-Irtg to the bishop a tithe for the preceding pre-ceding year, promising to continue the practice. It was soon remarked by the bishopric and saints of the ward that he wa3 a very kin l nnd charitable man, and that what few fault:! he had were- scarcely worth notice. His wife and daughters have been advanced In the fellowship of the faithful; and all that ho says about il Is this: "The church leaders didn't care whether my soul was saved or not; thoy didn't care very much what kind of a man I was; they wanted the graft, and they got It. I think it is all a foolish fool-ish sort of business; but If I can make my wife and children happy by purchasing pur-chasing a gold brick or any kind of green goods, Just because they think It Is real and want to have It In the family, fam-ily, here goes for me I'm a tithe i ayer. And now we have peace in the church and the home; and tho sweet old girl and the sweet young girls are the fairest fair-est and best beloved flowers that bloom In the relief society and the Y. L. M. I. A." |