| Show the tho women of utah theresa yelverton lady avon more the well known traveller and authoress is at present in edinburgh in she is engaged in preparing a second volume of her travels w which ich will soon boon be published the following conversation with her bays says the edinburgh courant will give glye a foretaste of what the public may yet expect from her pen Q I 1 understand that you have enado ado tho the social condition of woman abroad a subject of study in the course of your travels rouil round the world A I 1 have all along done so I 1 have llave had bad special opportunities of becoming acquainted with the social state of the women of different countries beyond what any man could obtain as I 1 was admitted into apartments occupied by the females and from which the male bex sex were entirely excluded I 1 have closely observed the women in china tur t byj the salt lake the united states and other countries Q 2 what whit were your impressions of the condition of the women at U utah tah tab r A 1 nidiffer bluer entirely in opinion from the ordinary run of visitors to the salt lake I 1 stayed there about a month mouth and lived with different families I 1 went to utah in fear and trembling because in america the people of utah have even a worse character than they have here I 1 went under the protection of a secretary but no evil befell be As to the women they are not what may be called ladies in utah but they are all women of what I 1 would call good moral character quiet homely hardworking se scrubbing women no 11 vico vice coexists exists in utah no drunkards nor dissipation of any kind they hold the tenet of bf polygamy as a rightful thin thing and not at all from looseness of character character Q 2 it is generally supposed ged sed that a good deal of wrangling must arise between the wives A it is much the same as aa in an ordinary farmhouse farm house in scotland or england where there may bo be a and cousins eight or ten women in the house of course they disagree occasionally and dispo disputes tes arise about trifles such as jane where did you put the milk jug 1 I put it on the table you did not sot 1 I did you fr 1 I did and so forth with tho the exception of such quarrels which would arise in any house the famil families lesl lesi I 1 visited were very peaceable Q you said that the wives were great sc rubbers A yes they are great rubbers scrubbers sc and cleaners they are continually scrubbing both their houses and their children they take great care of the children and it seemed to td me that like the people in the olden times their great joys joy as the rearing of a large family to which everything thin g must be sacrificed you will not hear people say there 1 I have so many children that I 1 do not know what to do with them but on the contrary their greatest glory is a numerous family one of brigham youngs wives is a poetess I 1 and she writes pretty fairly in a house where there ther eare earo are several wives they are occupied in whatever they they are most suited for one wife will act as cook for the household two more may do the scrubbing and cleaning and a fourth will do the dressmaking and sewing all the children numbering berh perhaps aps fifteen or twenty live and feed reed together and if the father dies they share whatever he leaves if a man does doea not leave enough to support all his wives then the church in the person of brigham young comes to their rescue in utah no person is in want there are bishops to attend to the different districts the bishop with whom I 1 resided told me that it was almost impossible to prevent some people ne neer er do falling into want as they had to be set act up again and again nevertheless it baddo had to be done and is done Q have you met with Brigham brnham youngs family A I 1 have three of his wives and his daughters I 1 found to be very intelligent one of his sons I 1 believe is a very intel intelligent ent man and has been frequently in in europe erig Brig amys hamb daughters possess an ordinary education but nothing to boast of onn and are quiet peaceable girls no two of them act in the theatre Q what is the average number of wives in each family generally general two or three the bishops have more the one in whose housel house I 1 stayed had bad twelve wives two of them were sisters who had emigrated from a village near liverpool they the indwell were very nice ulce people indeed and I 1 used to talk a good deal with them I 1 1 do not say av that they were what are commonly understood der deni tood stood by the term ladies ladles lad les lea but were more like housekeepers neither ignorant nor sufficiently educated for being ladies in one house bouse I 1 met with one of the wives who used to do all the ironing and attend to the linen in fact she was wm always ironing I 1 asked her do you always iron well I 1 do she replied there is always a great deal of ironing on account of these children I 1 think there were from fifteen to twenty running about Q it must be a pretty noisy house where there are so many children A they abey turn gnem out of doors to play or send them to school and they leet keet keep them within strict bounds I 1 have ave seen small families in europe make quite as much noise Q isit Is it not difficult for a man in ordil ordinary iary lary circumstances to keep up such a large establishment A I 1 do not think so supposing a man with a number of wives he be does not in that case require servants as the wives are what may be called self supporting they are not wives who lie on the sora sofa all daylong day long iong they are all in that position in ilfe life for which they are well fitted strong healthy people they are very cleanly being in that respect very much like the dutch in utah I 1 met a girl who had formerly been a nurse in a family I 1 used to visit in Yorkshire York shim shig i I 1 said you are an english girl are you not from yorkshire she said yes I 1 re in ember seeing you at mr so and sos sors I 1 asked lierer her if she was married she said no I 1 remarked oh dear not married in such a place as luise luiss how i is la that well she said 1 I navo nave not yet found the right man and I 1 will only take one who will not to take another wife that is not a good mormon lyl INI Ormon I 1 said no she bho responded spon ded but I 1 would like I 1 it t best there was evidently no compulsion and she appeared quite at liberty to remain unmarried if she chose |
