Salt Lake Tribune | 1905-05-14 | Page 6 | Polygamistic Callousness

POLYGAMISTIC CALLOUSNESS. One of the most trying things In dealing deal-ing with the situation and with everyday every-day life here, Is the offmsle pushing of polygamistS to the front, In apparent appa-rent unconsciousness that any one s hon 1.1 be scandalized by It, or else In defiance of the decent sentiment of people peo-ple who believe in the purity of the marriage relation as exemplified in monogamy, and In that only. Whenever any public exerclso or function Is held, there you will find the polygamlst polygam-lst In Impudent disregard of the offen-siveness offen-siveness of his presence to a considerable consider-able portion of the people who may be present. It is a prevalent cause of Indignation, In-dignation, and one which does more to chill the public fraternization of the different classes of people than any other one thing. For. say what you will, the average American citizen believes in the decencies of the relations between be-tween the sexes, and wants those with w horn he comes In contact to respet t his lews and the proper traditions of life and of society. It Is Idle to say that this polygnmous State of society should be respected here, as a thing honored by the first settlers of Utah) and long practiced by them The trouble is. thei practii ed It too much, and In defiance of tho laws and of the sentiments of the people of the United Slates It was always obnoxious, ob-noxious, always undei the ban. And now that It has been purported to be given tip. let It be retired to obscurity, and the lawless persons who practice it kept In the background. It Is time tint the old sentiment of law-defying were dropped entirely In Utah A recent case of this thrusting of a poly gam 1st to the front was on Frl-daj Frl-daj night, w hen Rrlgham II. Roberts was proposed ns one of the Judges of the debate between the visiting 01 itorfl from Colorado and the orators of the. Utah University, it was a Wholly needless affront to the Colorado boys, and they very properly resented It. Were this act of outspoken objection to the Intrusion of polygamistS into public affairs and exercises persisted In bv the managers or participants In such functions generally, it would work a wholesome change here, and would in some degree remove a reproach re-proach from Utah, where she now stinks In the nostrils of a decent and disgusted public