Show u ll t M I STUDIES IN MORMONISM l lI m 10 I 11 ti t tl I S Investigation In of tho Religion nod and Customs ol of OJ the Lat Latt c II III t Saints Sainte I I J rA Il l fly 1St T ELLA EMA J OJ of 2 fa CA i I S I CAs M s I t a 24 I j Written for and copyrighted by tho the thod d ha I I Now York Journal iW 14 i ARTICLE A NO 1 t tJ at It j I have been la III the Ihu very center of J polygamy I have havo shall n hands hand and andt t j i j listened to the th theories and studied Ssi S 91 j the types of men and women born and bred In the religion of Joseph Smith us t i and Brigham Young ne I leave looked lo ed Into Inlo the tho eyes and tho i hearts of women w men who wore were and ore are tat 11 plural wives and I have hava arrived at pos positive convictions regarding all H of the these then a DI 01 Interesting people for Interesting they f must most certainly y are am a and cultured and ie n nt fined filled of ol o I T I I am ashamed to confess that until d recently I hud had h ad supposed Mormonism 11 I I and polygamy p to 10 be synonymous terms lerms s 3 M 1 I j All Alt were Mormons but only of oft the Mormons o ot t were Mormonism is III a 1 at nf f creed differing but slightly lIghtly from oth othI t creeds Here are tho the Ar Articles tides of ot Faith I I I IV t 1 I HH 1 i IF H I IH 1 Tr nn Just lust why this creed and the thu be te tej beI j I lief that Joseph Smith received It dl di directly through heavenly messengers tent sent from Jehovah h should hoe have caus caulI caused Ij ed d Its It followers to 10 be bo so Inhumanely iJ persecuted polygamy was Wild In Introduced Introduced traduced Into the religion is lit as hard hant 4 p far tm ug Us to understand In this modern ll time of comparative tolerance AS ns why whytt the witches witch e were burned alive In Sa Sn Salem tt tl lem lent by our dead orthodox ancestors We can Imagine laughing at Joseph JosephI I Smith and his pipe dreams of sacred gold Raid plates which an all angel told him God had caused to be hurled burled and kept for tor his finding but we re cannot conceive of ot robbing persecuting and despoiling u u u u u u u u u u role his followers or assassinating the lead leador or orTho orThe The Tho have h mafle merle a ur at claim regarding the discovery of a Boole of In the and Dowie of Chicago und and Mrs of Boston both bolh have bave nn an Immense fol following following lowing and all nil are oro allowed to thrive and nd proselyte without being hunted down do ac were tire the till Mormons and a driven from pillar to post po t starving and ana freezing and dying while the ortho orthodox orthodox orthodox dox Christian churches pursued them with true Iru religious ml zeal The Ille Insane and end claims of Dowle Dowie are lire areas areas as a wild as were those of lit Smith yet hof ho hoto hoIs f to Is not molested The word Mormon today In our most meet Intelligent countries c u ts Io 10 thing more than a plurality of wives end and Innumerable children Few l e of the present generation know the tile remarkable and tragic history of the tho people who first settled Salt Snit Lake City While In that oily city olt I met several ol ot the women omen who hall had been driven n from Nauvoo ill and compelled to 10 cross erase the tile desolate plains In wagons In the tho exo exodus exodus dus due of 1845 One of these th Be Is III Mrs Wells editor orator arid and poet now 75 16 years of rf 1 H 1 t t age and a more moro refined r sensitive anti and gifted woman one seldom meets Yet because of her tier conversion conver lon to the Mor Mormon Mormon Mormon mon religion at tho the age ol ot 15 11 and later lat Int later Inter er to a belief in the divine ordinance of ot plural has hall suffered almost every Indignity and amI borne almost every overy burden possible for human nature to endure One of her children was WIlB born In a 1 wagon on the plains In a n driving sleet and snow Inow storm Mrs Irs Wells was one of th the eight wives of oC Bishop Whitney for tor three years year Two years after ills his death she became the tho plural wife of den Gen Wells with whom she lived 40 years and for fop whom she entertains entertain deep respect and sincere af at affection affection I In my next tt 11 t article I will wilt give a n atur fur fl titer ther account nC of my experience ABC IM conversation with this and other oUter poly polygamous gaino s of whom are ar living as II wives to the man they married b before foro polygamy became un an unlawful unlawful lawful In JUt lief H HIt It has recently been claimed by a 00 of Joseph Smith that be he did not approve of plural marr marriage age and that polygamy was Introduced by Brigham Young Mrs Mr Wells however Informed me JOe that tills this was untrue Joseph had Imd a n revelation con corning that thai divine divino ordinance she said and I could Introduce you ou to some of ot his lets wives still living In to this city Mrs Wells regards Joseph as all the most remarkable man titan of ot the lust last century From Itom what I read and learn of him himI I believe Joaeph Joseph Smith was a medium of great power and magnetism I 1 have h no ao doubt he communicated with disembodied disembodied bodied spirits both bolh good Glod anti and had bad and that his hili remarkable achievements were explainable In this tills way 1011 Certain It Ills I is that he Is II held hell reverence by a II large Urge number of or educated and cultured people such as the upper classes of the th Mormons In Salt Bait Lake Lako City are mo today to today today day It wag an my pleasure to meet Senator Smoot While In the city and his charm charmIng charmIng Ing lag wife and sister Iloth were born In polygamy but hut neither ever embraced It Mr Ir has only one wife who Is the tho mother of his hili six Ix children Jut Just what his sister and other oth r women and men mell born of polygamous parents have to 10 say soy regarding It I will tell to tomorrow tomorrow morrow murrow ARTICLE NO 2 I had hall met m et at nt n large late reception e In n I a ab beautiful b home In Salt Snit Lake City elly the representative people of the place from thu governor down The majority were Verll members of the Mormon Church There dente Id nt of or colleges and churches apos apostles I ties professors and statesmen Among them were a n few of the thc old regime who had bad believed helleved In und and adopted polygamy and who still support plural wives man married led before the passage pas age of the Ed Edmund mund bill In 1192 There were too In tho the throng men and women born and reared by poly polygamous pot parents und and a n few fete wives still living In plural marriage It 11 was with one of these I talked the tho fallowing f day when 1 It party of some Rome 20 21 ladles land ond one are man Invited me out on n a special car to view what Is left of Salt Bait Lake that mysteriously receding body of brine The people whom I met represented the of Salt Snit Lake City They hay were without exception cultivated In mind sympathetic appreciative tive and relined refined In dress and deport deportment deportment deportment ment resembling the best society In any of our eastern cities they were simpler and anti more moro cordial In manner and possessed of greater renter repose The fares faces of the women struck me as ns mor more serene lerene than the faces face of our eastern call tern women I had been Introduced to 10 a I very farming charming woman Yes rN you are lire talk talking ing with the tho wife of a man who has hils nix lx wives the lady said ald to me Do I look unhappy or neglected She was n a 1 woman who appeared sui sus young to have been married before 1882 1112 when the law IRV aw was passed Yes faces In these heso days not calendars calendar She Sho was well dressed cultured There Thero was wall fire In n her hor eye anti and color on her cheek id repose In her manner But Hut you are the last and latest wife I said Bald that makes It easier No there are two later ones oneil she Bhe re reo replied plied piled and there was wall on nn undertone of reluctance In her tier voice 0 Ice as all she oho made mode the tho assertion Will you look me In the eyes 11 I asked and tell toll me as woman to woman wo woman 0 man that you felt no regret no heart heartache heartache heartache ache no sorrow Borrow when your husband took ook the next wife after you that you were satisfied and happy to have It so BO 1 The lady did not look at nt me and the thA th color deepened In her cheek I sold said that you OU are ore not talking to a 1 bigot who regards you as OR a lost lust or depraved or martyred wo woo woman woman man I believe from what I have hae al already already already ready seen seel here that the cultured class clas of polygamous wives have ns DB high Ideals of marriage at least as ns many of our fashionable women who marry tor for money and po position and that they lire are entitled to as much respect rell cl nut But I am om ama i in a n student of ot human nature and I can i not loot t believe beHove that your our religion however 1 can utterly change chango your wo woo womans mana mans nature You must hove have suffered Buttered some pangs when you found you were not hot tho thu last wife By ny this time Ume I 1 the center of s a circle of women and one ono man all lie lla In Intently Tim The man told me 1110 he had lied three wives and 28 25 children living lIe He was vas elderly and I believe had our Bur Ived other wives Wo We do not claim that we te are not hu flu Unto num the lady replied In a 1 low voice olee nut But to us marriage la is 1811 a sacred ea red by motherhood We believe in n peopling the world anil that our men have the truth of at God Clod In their hearts and that they should scatter their seed over the earth We believe In sacrifice and ar t anti In overcoming our petty personal desires for tor the good goodOf Of bf the Ihl race rn o The Tl e womans vo ans taco faeo was waR full fun of light and her het he voice Was deep with sincerity nut But If It you love your husband I persisted In my no doubt eel sel holiness lIshne of or view you mu must mut t long often oUen for fOl more mort of ot ills his time companionship com devotion and demonstrations of affection tion than he hI can possibly give you with five other wives Another lady Indy with features and intellectual eyes eos took up the thu dle here hert What we may cony long for or desire at times ha nothing to do with the case she said laid saidU It U Is II a Womans sphere to sacrifice her feelings and petty Jealousy jell lousy and to Welcome other wives and help care for other othet Vom ns children n I had throe three mothers and all nil were kind and ond good tome to tome tomel me and they lived together r like three sisters mel ers I 1 never heard hear a quarrel or on tin Unkind work among them themI I t went to o live IIvo with my in husbands first wife said ahl an nn elderly woman She hail had eons eon older than I and anil I always called her mother molher She Sho was very VCr kind to me There were other otters In homes homeR of or our our but we two lived together In she sho helped me care car to for my s by children I t believe bellev he took another she said with Ju Just t an an Indefinable shadow In eyes ee and voice nut But he was most kind to tome me Inc I wee was sealed to hime a long time lime before he ho ever approached me as a 0 wife Our men were not lascivious la as people have called them They regard mar marriage as holy holand and treated women with far more respect re than many man of your men In hi church and nil nd state elate to day do When It come comes to sensual and anti licentious men we feel ours can bear comparison with many prominent Gentiles O In your best Society ARTICLE NO 0 8 I fully realise realo I said Jt to the plural wife of Iff n a Saint that tat any anyone i iono ono one who believes the Bible DIble Is all In Inspired inspired I and sacred history has hall no right to 0 denounce polygamy All Ail the tho great mell of ot the Old Testament had bud many wives tt Ivl r but I regard It t as na merely a n I his lory tar tor and no more Inore sacred titan than Gib OIb Gibbons Gibbuns buns bons lQ Rome nome or French rench Revo neo Revolution futon lution I do net not consider propagating tag ing In our tl the tho most Important work In life th r making the orld a beautiful moral huppy happy place the fewer wellborn well b rn people to live In inand and ond I cannot Imagine happiness In marriage without u loyalty loyally and anti devo devotion tion of or both bolh husband and wife often oUen do you OU mid find it the lady Indy Inquired Your newspapers are arc full Of divorce and desertion tJ I have spent much time In Washington and In New NewYork NewYork York and Chicago and I have seen cen and in nt heard h ard of more marriages than I ever knew kne of In Utah when polygamy WAS legal Our O r men at least acknowledged l d and supported their own offspring Instead of ot denying them and deserting the unwedded mothers mother I was wal unable to refute any of these theM assertions alas ala so I changed the tapir top I flut to me the romance of life would be utterly destroyed d I said were I Ione Ione one of ot two or three wives and lire without romance la is a n desert without an at oasis Where would bo your four our romance If your Clur husband tf If secret hidden away us as many man doT dt d the he lady queried I confess I I would rather have him hide a secret than exploit another wife I could get it fre frein In one oho case and could not In the other And lAnd you would rather be a n woman shunned by respectable society ty than n plural received With affection and ord Olt treated with respect You must view the matter from both eldes Owing to my early education I owned up that I 1 would In tin the th former case n I could get away Iway 1 end nud begin over ocr I 1 said suld In the latter latterI 1 I could not I am nm afraid the sweet lazy lady felt fell my lilY standard was Willi low but I the cite has hIlS compelled me to theoretically make a Q choice of two evils and I had to 10 bo be truthful Our separate points of view show how strong stron art are nr the Influences of early education and prenatal conditions There could b be no tragedy In life lit more terrible to me than to lu be bo one of several wl v Yet these sweet re refined refined fined educate women regarded it It tie lIB e ea a 1 religious duty not unmixed with 1 I urn um convinced beyond doubt that till the women I met In II Salt hake Lak City who hid been burn born In n polygamy or lived as a plural wives were as happy as tho generality of ot married women I have elsewhere encountered They The dill did not and mid do not consider their situation Ideal but a 1 tow few wives anywhere do doone one tine In one hundred perhaps That the tho Mormon women are uro sustained nn and l actuated by the strongest religious con I aril arn Otherwise they could not bo be so Fe exceptionally lowly lovely sympathetic and sweet as IS they are That hint as 1111 much can be bl said Hald for the th tower lower and Ind more Ignorant classes I doubt That tho the men maintained at no high Ideate Ideals be the women I J question U It Is III women always who ho hold up the standard of ot any religion lon Among tho ha hole ignorant and poorer classes polygamy Jn was creative I have hao every cery letson leIOn te son to believe of untold misery Themen The Tho Thomen men mOIl found hund It Impossible to properly support their Innumerable children ItIs It Ity Iv Is y hardly to be supposed that the better ch hut s encumbered rd them with a sore score or er two of ot children without some orn Ideals beyond sensuality That the th lower r order o it of converts gave the tho h Ideals little consideration or othe the re ra little thought Is ungues unquestionably true There were Wen here heie and anil there thele noble men m n with religious zeal to 10 actuate their motives but I am lain |