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Show Briqham Young slept soundly By QUIG NIELSEN 4 Early to bed and early to rise". ..was a maxim Brig ham Young did not follow. One of the great Mormon leader's daughters, Susa Young Gates, writes, "The day's work for father did not begin till after 9 o'clock in the morning, for he rarely arose before 8 o'clock.. .(and) he seldom retired before midnight Yet he slept soundly when he did get to bed. He had trained himself to 'shut up his thinker' when he went to bed and to go to sleep at once. The rule of eight hours' sleep, eight hours' work, and eight hours' recreation was a plan he himself carried out fairly well." Another little known or forgotten story about Brigham Young includes in-cludes the civil franchise given to women when the pioneers came into the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham wanted them all to vote and he told them, "Now, sisters, I want you to vote because you are the characters that rule the ballot box." It should be noted that when Utah was admitted as a territory into the Union, the voting privilege for women was withdrawn and was not restored until 1870. Leading men and women of the Church had tried to have it restored. Brigham tried to accommodate a woman who sent him a letter in 1871 asking to have her name removed from the records of the church "because she had decided to become a spiritualist." There was a touch of humor in Brigham's reply: "Madam: I have this day examined ex-amined the records of baptisms for the remission of sins in the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints, and not being able to find (your) name.. .recorded therein I was saved the necessity of erasing your name therefrom. You may therefore consider con-sider that your sins have not been remitted you and you may consequently conse-quently enjoy the benefits therefrom." Sources: Gates & Widstoe, The Life Story of Brigham Young; Arr-ington, Arr-ington, Brigham Young, American Moses. Ouig Nielsen is an information officer for the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. |