| Show THE SICK MAN MAX IX IN our OCR TION again the recurring question is asked what shall we do with the mormons Mormon Mor mons si when this occidental islam isiam began its departure from the banks of the mississippi twenty years ago and struck boldly into nhe the wilderness it was the wrong ans answering of this question which made it sanguine and strong the vigorous compulsion of a large and peaceful community in a matter of morals morais is at variance with the mild and corn eoin comprehensive rehenA lve ive genius kenius olour of our institutions the civilized world has got past the flower of ethical absolutism in governments even the despotic czar ezar would not venture in the face of europe after a conquest of the turk to annul the relationships and thrust out the in mates of the harems hares but polygamy polygamy toly gamy is a great evil it is so is t the e drinking of whiskey yet no one proposes to suppress ress distilleries with the torch or to pt set e up laboratories besides them from which to flood them with deadly gases they are made tributary to the public treasury and we pay with the revenue for the things th things ings of ciesar and the prayers of congress nor do we perceive in the dismemberment of utah either equitable dealing or remedy for abuse that the surrounding territories are waiting and eager to receive their respective morsels is the worst feature of the prospect to the rapacity of covetousness would pr presently be added the arrogance of domination and the rancor of dissent wrangling and waste strife and bloodshed would ensue an in tenser fanaticism would be aroused in the body of the mormon population to be followed by another exodus a closer cohesion and a larger growth in time the precedent c might be perverted in its application and the absorption of small and obnoxious states on other pretences pretenses of moral and political insisted upon hereit would be a pillory there a wrested question of finance surely our christian faith is st strong roll enough unarmed with the face faces i s of civia civil authority to cope with this peculiarity of asiatic civilization even though it be as old as the patriarchs and robust from an anglo saxon crossing what then is the solution of this problem of polygamy simply to surround the saints and let t them em alone they will contaminate nobody the christian women lenwill will take care of that bo so in time the snakes will untwist from the head of this thib medusa and creep silently and stealthily away we protest further in behalf of the I 1 interests of industry against all projects of proscriptive prescriptive aggression that is always a calamity which disturbs the equilibrium of 01 peaceful labor and chokes the sources of production bring discord with her dagger on the scene and the toiling hand drops nerveless efrom from plough handle and forging tool ithone those virtues that dwell in serene security quit the land the mormon I 1 population opu lation of utah numbers nearly a undred hundred thousand souls to be usefully busy is a part of their religion when their pioneers entered the valley which they have since rescued from the wilderness that sa same meilay day they drove their teams afield and turned with their shares the virgin furrows since then they have labored labo redon on undaunted by drought and locust everywhere throughout their reach of se settlements north south east and west they have dug canals and ditches for irrigation numerous flocks of sheep of superior breeds feed on their pasture ranges they cultivate successfully diverse sta staples es wheat cotton and the vine As you look down upon salt bait lake city from the bench after emerging from the wasatch kanyon it seems almost as umbrageous as damascus or padua each house has its orchard of apple apricot and cherry trees and the wide and watered avenues of the town are shady with locusts mulberries ries ribs and cottonwood here is a quiet and increasing community of well to do consumers with iron arms reaching for supplies on either side across the conti nent to the markets of the east and of the west and it is proposed in congress to dismember this community and allot it in a feast of fragments to the wandering adventurers of the surrounding regions miners gamblers and tr traders iders who will sin in an orthodox way wa T this nis lis project of dismemberment may may be to some extent a bid for disorder in the interests of jobbery we think we see in it a suspicious shadow lurking behind the cross the hectored vectored hec mor mons will sell their hard earned improvements prove ments at low prices there will be valuable franchises and congressional subsidies for this and for that there may be turbulence and another expedition of troops and then in a hundred ways to employ the language of the sagacious nym profits will accrue of course nobody in th the last case won would id be ac accusable b but bub t t the h perfidious and polygamous mormons cormons Mor mons and the contractors with full pockets could very well dispense with the eions which would be withheld by an ungrateful country ex |
