Show A VOICE FROM THE MOUNTAINS during the closing days of last week wee k the winds that blew up little cottonwood canyon were charged with something like sulphide bi of carbon I 1 was at a loss to understand it until I 1 read of the irritation among the ministers over the corpse of polygamy why cannot they leave it buried or why will they thus publicly show the to them recreant mormons cormons how by the exercise of political po werthey can resurrect the defunct thing thi ngOr or if they must insist that the mormons cormons are still practising practicing polygamy why do they not challenge them to public discussion of the institution and prove by the bible that it Is a social crime and in violation of the will of god through the long iong and trying years in which the pioneers were making the success that was so glorified as a new civilization in july last the leaders of the men who made that civilization were polygamists the man whose statue was dedicated on main street at that time and eulogized as one of the wisest greatest and best of men was zhe ae most married of them that success was due wholly to the religious faith of the people who looked upon brigham young as the only person on earth authorized to speak and act in all matters without restraint as the mouth of the heavenly father it might be argued that polygamy was then as much the will of god as that it was his will that the people should stick to agriculture and leave m mining in arf 9 alone I 1 will only however suggest the point but this must be said in candor if those men had been as bad as immoral a lot as the clergy would have us believe they were not only then but are now they never could have won the success which we all know they achieved we cannot say they were the most persistent and laborious workers on the continent and at the same time the most vicious of men and women we know that industrial success does not follow the march of degraded and degrading social conditions we cannot separate the work of the mormons cormons from their lives and hold that they were honest and industrious dust rious above the general average and at the same time dishonest immoral vile and beast ial in ther social relations we must admit then that they were as honest in their polygamy as in their industry that being the case it follows that they are equally honest now in their continued care of the women whom they as they believed honestly and religiously made their wives before the church as a whole announced that in deference to the law of the whole land they would permit no more polygamous marriages that was what they promised and all they promised if the ministers know of marriages since the manifesto of the church they have a case but they should present it with the evidence instead of growling against imaginary offenses suppose the mormon men who were living in polygamy that is were sustaining the relation of husband to a plurality of wives before the manifesto had subsequently turned those wives adrift upon society to take care of themselves and their children would not these same ministers have held them up as examples of the degrading influence of mormonism certainly then why should not the fact that they have cared for them and their children be placed to the credit of mormonism I 1 belong to no church but am ready to do justice to all the recognized standing and character of the evangelical sects places them above serious complaint we will say but have they all thie the honesty and purity of the world he would be a poor bigot who would make such a claim may not then the mormons cormons have been may they not be now as sincerely the doers of the will of god as are the best of their critics it Is my conviction that perfection has never existed does not now exist and indeed may never exist among men in any church on earth but so long as men and women hone honestly aly and earnestly strive to do the will of the best as they see it and understand it they are entitled to the same freedom of action and rights of conscience in one church as another or outside of all churches if we are free agents then each must settle with god himself if we are not free agents then there is no settlement possible since we are mere puppets in the hands of an infinite and heartless manager of a horrible punch and judy show I 1 have been in houses and have there seem as beautiful lives as this world contains not because of the relation but because of the honesty and purity of them the hearts of the parents it is time the gave those old polygamists a rest CHARLES ELUS |