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Show ! VOL. III. NO ever u o t). JJlan have 1(is om and V evertj QIonian have 1cr oivn SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, JUNE, THE OLD CIIUKCH TOW Eli. neighbor is being committed by wholesale in Utah, and ask him to exert himBY T. B. ALDRICII. self to have the business stopped, and the chances are two to one that he will In the old church tower commence to hedge, that he will intithe bell; Hangs mate that the Gentiles here are a preAnd above it on the vane, datory set; he will tell how the MorIn the sunshine and the rain, mons are an industrious people and Cut in gold, St. Peter stands, made the desert blossom as the rose, With the keys in his claspt hands, forgetting that since this valley was And all is well. first settled the whole West has been In the oldchurch tower transfigured by the work of- the American people, and that Utah,- because of Hangs the bell; You can hear its great heart beat the Asiatic taint which is upon her Oh! so loud, and wild, and sweet, people, makes the only break in the line of sovereign States from sea to sea. As the parson says a prayer This only shows that as a rule a great Over wedded lovers there And all is well. many of the men who go to Congress, in order to get there or to maintain In the oldchurch tower themselves there, mortgage their manHangs the bell; hood to rich corporations until all their Deep and solemn, hark! again. better natures are lost. The Ah, what passion and what pain! whose railroads centre in companies Utah; the With her hands upon her breast, merchants sell who goods to the Some poor soul has gone to rest great Co-o- p corporation of Utah, and subsiWhere all is well. dized newspapers like the New York In the old church tower World , do not want any legislation hostile to Taylor, Cannon & Co., passed. Hangs the bell, An old friend who seems to know The result is that the Congressmen All our joys and all our woe; whom these corporations own or can It is glad when we are wed, influence are instructed to kill any bill is when we are dead, It sad affecting Utah. That Cannon was unAnd all is well. seated and the Edmunds bill passed was due solely to the public sentiment; not to Congress, but of the country. Congress and Uiali. This shows us what is to' be done. That sentiment must be strengthened Up to this writing there has come no until no skulking knave will ever dare sign from Washington that there has to go back to his constituents and ask been an effort made in the House of for a without being able to Representatives to bring up the Senate show that he took an active interest in bill which provides for an increase in to have laws for Utah in passed the salaries to be paid to the Utah trying accordance the demand with of the Commissioners! The bill passed the Senate many weeks since, but it seems country. The causes which have put off legislation for a quarter of a centu-t- y to have been killed in the House. The are still at work, and the battle for delay makes it impossible for the Com- the right here is hardlyjoinedas yet. mission to do any effectual work this Salt Lake Tribune . year in Utah. Mr. Cannon, with all the help he required, is actively at work A Martyr of in Washington, while of all the milPolyaoif. lions of the Nation who pretend that Incidents, where the curse of they desire to see the same laws enhas broken up homes and forced in Utah that are in force in every made wretched is not other Territory and State, there happy lives, have been one in Washington to urge our needs. multiplied from the beginning till now; Of all the two hundred and ninety-thre- e and yet in the face of all this misery, representatives in Congress, there the world is assured that Mormon wodoes not seem to be one who has time men are comfortable and content; that to devote one moment to calling up they find no fault with polygamy; inthe bill, to have it passed or defeated. deed, that they prefer the system rathIt only shows that the majority in er than dislike it; and the world, Congress simply do not care a straw against all reason and common sense, whether the laws are obeyed in Utah believes what it is told. Elder Claudius Spencer, while on or not, that what they have so far done during the present session has his first mission to England became been in answer to a public opinion the guest of a gentleman of considerawhich they did not dare resist, Sena- ble property and good social position, tor Edmunds admitted that his bill was and the father of two interesting imperfect, that it did not reach the case daughters who were converts to the The young ladies in Utah, but he excused himself by Mormon faith. saying that it was a commencement, were finely educated, and had always and more could be done hereafter. His been tenderly attached to each other. reasoning traced down to the bottom (This gentlemans name was King, and amounts simply to an admission that his wife is Mrs. Hannah T. King, at the Congress of the United States is present residing in Sait Lake City.) When the young missionary from not yet ready to shake off the influences of the moneyed corporations which Zion became an inmate of their fathhave control in Washington, enough ers house they, with all the zeal of to compel justice in Utah. A lawyer new and enthusiastic converts, vied will in any Eastern State act as prose- with each other in showing him every cuting attorney and send a man to the hospitable attention, for the sake of penitentiary for a crime and think he the glorious gospel which they supis doing God and the country sterling posed he came to preach, and before Send the long the elder of the sisters found herservice by his act. and self becoming interested in him for his to man same Congress show to him that the same crime for own sake. The interest was mutual, and ripened which he prosecuted and convicted his Mor-monis- m into love. IQnnbandl for. 7: 2, PRICE 1882. 10 CENTS Mr. Spencer made a formal ry the girls as soon proposal to the father for the daughter s hand, and very soon after the lovers were married. The young wife was perfectly happy; she was devoted to her husband, and rested so securely on his love, she fondly believed that his care would compass her about, and his strength sustain her, through all her days. She was living her first romance, and sweet enough she found it. Ah, if the hard reality had not been so soon to follow it! But Mormon marriage soon kills all the romance of a womans nature, and either kills her at the same time, or leaves her hopeless, apathetic, her finer nature crushed within her, bearing life because she must, and not because it holds anything for her of love, or care, or sweet tenderness of any kind. It is oftener this way than the other; alas, for the poor victims that such is the case! Mr. Spencer had lived among a people who practice the doctrine of plurality of wives. His own father had brought home eight brides to grace his domestic circle, four of them in one day. No wonder, then, that he believed he should be living beneath his privileges if he contented himself with the love of one woman. His sister inlaw was a remarkably pretty girl, and fervent in her devotion to the new faith she had espoused. In time, perhaps, she might be also won to a cordial belief in the doctrine of plural marriage a doctrine which the missionary Saints, with damnable wisdom had not openiy proclaimed at that date. as they reached Salt Lake. He said that they had embraced the great truths of their religion fully, and were willing and anxious to be sealed to him as their Savior for time and eternity. The poor wife, with all her faith in her husband, her sister and her religion shattered at one blow but alas for her, with a heart throbbing with a love that could not die, never rallied from the shock she received when her doom was thus pronounced by the lips of the one dearest to her. Day after day, as they continued their toilsome journey, her strength declined, and it was evident, even to the eyes of strangers, that she was dying. Her husband, however, saw nothing, was troubled With no anxieties. He was too much absorbed in his love for the two girls whose souls he proposed to save to have any time or thought to spare for his dying wife. The days lengthened into weeks, and still the lamp of life burned lower, while the love that had outlived both faith and hope was yet strong enough to torture her with vain longings to hear again the tender words that were never spoken now, and to lean in her mortal weakness, on the arm that she, so short a time ago, had fondly hoped would be her support, even down to the brink of death. It is easy to say of love unworthily bestowed. I would pluck ittfrom my bosom. Though my heart were at the root, but many a wronged and forsaken wife could tell you that these are only This young brother, imitating the idle words. prudent course of his colleagues, Many may wonder if the dying girls preached only those truths which he sister had no compunction, no remorse thought would be received most readi- for the part she was playing in the ly. Such portions of the gospel as None; for so completely might be considered hard doctrine by tragedy. the new converts he left to be learned was she carried away by the fanaticism with which she had been inspired, that by them after their arrival in Zion. she actually believed she was doing His growing admiration for his charmGod service in trampling on the holiest he kept to himself; ing but when the time arrivedfor his return, feelings of her own nature, and inflicthome with his wife, he had succeeded ing upon her sister the most cruel in making arrangements for her sister wrong that one woman may. suffer at to accompany them. In the meantime, the hands of another. The weary journey was ended at however, another young lady, also a new convert had attracted his favora- length, and the wanderers reached the ble notice, and as she was to form one Valley which was henceforth to be of a large company who were about to their home. The wife lived only just start for America, he kindly, and disin- to enter the city, which she once terestedly, of course, offered to take dreamed was a heaven upon earth. her under his care. From the Zion of her earthly hopes During the voyage across the ocean, she passed on to the true Zion, where and the hurried journey through the the mercy and love of a God kinder States, nothing worthy of notice oc- than the one she had been taught to curred. True, Mr. Spencer was very worship healed every wound, and attentive to the young ladies travelling brought infinite peace to the broken under his protection; but his young heart. wife loved him too well, and believed Just two weeks from the day of her in him too implicitly, to have any death, there wa.s a double bridal in thought that he was actuated by other Salt Lake City. The bereaved and motives than brotherly affection and was united in marhusband sorrowing Christian charity. At the Missouri riage to the equally afflicted sister and River, where the emigrants took leave her friend, the young lady who accomof civilization, and commenced their panied them from England. I have memthe long journey over the plains, often wondered if there was a ghost bers of the little party were thrown present at that bridal, and if the white, more closely together than before; dead face of the wronged and murdered wife wife did not look in sad and now, even the reproach at could not fail to see that her husband them all, as took upon themselves they demeaned himself as a lover toward the vows that bound them together, the two girls her sister and her friend not for but time, eternity. only and that they by no means discourThis was the fate of a young girl aged his attentions. who supposed she was marrying one Her reproachful questioning regard- of the best men in the kingdom, one ing his conduct brought out an expla- who is always loud in defense of the nation of the doctrines of plurality, glorious institution of polygamy. Amh and an avowal of his intention to mar Eliza Young in My Life in Bondage , i , sister-in-la- w ; all-confidi- ng . |