| Show written for this paper THE BRIGHAM YOUNG OF 1896 copyrighted IM 1806 hv by frank G carpenter SALT LAKE LA CITY UTAH oct ath 1896 HAVE just had a chat with the brigham young of 1896 his name is W ifford woodruff he is the spiritual head bead of the mormons cormons who are now to be found in utah and other parts of the world and as such he is one of the most remarkable ecclesiastical rulers ot of the world my appointment lor for meeting him was at the presidents house 1 a and I 1 was received there by ij i the honorable joseph smith one of the twelve apostles and elder penrose the historian of the church I 1 had chatted with them a moment when a short broad shouldered well built man who did not look to be more than sixty years of age came in in i he had kind blue eyes and his square face was almost free itom wrinkles he was about five feet seven inches tall and his weight I 1 judge was about one hundred and fifty pounds his dress was black broadcloth and his linen was as white as the thick thatch of silver which covered his head he walked in with a firm step and shook my hand with a cordial grip as mr smith introduced me to him it was president woodruff who 0 was born in connecticut in 1807 au during ring the presidency ot of thomas jefferson and who is still young notwithstanding standi ig that he is in his ninetieth year I 1 have known several men in their nineties but none who show so much mental and ph physical vitality as does this mormon president I 1 interviewed the millionaire corcoran Coi coran when he was ninety he walked with a cane and tottered about being supported by his body servant during his latter years he kept to his bed the greater part of each day and though intellectually bright had nothing of the physical vigor ot of president woodruff george bancroft the historian only pretended to work after he was ninety he was not strong and he sometimes dropped off to sleep in the midst of the public dinners which he attended mrs president harrisons father dr scott was able to walk about at ninety three but a servant always accompanied him and in chatting with me he repeated himself and showed that his memory was wan dering wilford woodruff is still full of vigor he laughed like a boy several times dur during ing our chat and at times he rose and walked about the room he took a trip to alaska last summer and he stood the journey as well as any man in the party during our conversation I 1 asked him to what he attributed his wonderful working powers he replied 1 I come from a long lived family and inherit a strong constitution I 1 believe that both temperance and hard work vork lead to longevity and I 1 have all my life been temperate and a hard worker these two things have helped me but outside of and apart from them there is another element which it seems to me has had much to do with my strength in looking back over my life it seems to me that there have always been two powers at work about me one trying to destroy me the other to keep me alive so far the latter has prevailed why I 1 have gone through all kinds of perils and had all kinds of accidents nearly e every ve ry bone of my body has been broken at some time or other my legs were broken twice I 1 was twice almost dead from drowning my ribs were broken at another time and I 1 have had about a score of attacks of bilious colic I 1 now suffer from the asthma which keeps me from sleeping but praise god I 1 am still able to work he has another element which keeps him alive said mr smith this I 1 suppose you would not count much but we count it a great deal he has the prayers of about people going up everyday every day for his health then you mormons cormons believe in prayer we have faith in prayer and we believe in cures being accomplished by the laying lay ing on of lands was the reply cepl y by the way there is a slip which w will ili show you just what we do believe it was written by joseph smith and it embraces the atti articles cles of our faith here mr woodruff handed me a card which I 1 copy verbatim 1 we believe in god the eternal father and in his son jesus christ and in the holy ghost 2 we believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for adams transgression 3 we believe that through the atonement of christ all mankind nay may be saved by obedience to the I 1 laws a lows and ordinances of the gospel 4 we believe that these ordinances are first faith in the lord jesus christ second repentance third baptism by immersion for the remission ot of our sins sine fourth laying on of hands for the gait of the holy ghost 5 we believe that a man must be called of god by prophecy and by the laying on oi of hands by those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances there of 6 we believe in the same organic aaion that existed in the primitive church namely apostles prophets pastors teachers evangelists etc 7 we believe in the gift of tongues ton aes ues prophecy revelations visions helling healing interpretation of tongues etc 8 we believe the bible to be the word of god as far as it is translated correctly we also believe the booc of corwon to be the word of god 9 we believe in all that god has re healed all that he does now reveal and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kin kingdom dorn of god 10 we we believe in the literal gathering of israel and in the restoration of the ten tribes that zion will be built upon this continent that christ will reign personally upon the carthand eart earth hand and that the earth will be renewed and receive its glory ii we claim the ledge of worshiping almighty god according to the dictates of our conscience and allow all men the same privilege let them worship how where or what they may 12 we believe in be being i ng subject to kings presidents rulers and magi magistrates krates in obeying honoring and sustaining the law 13 we believe in being honest true I 1 chaste benevolent virtuous and in doing good to all men indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of paul we believe all things we hope all things we have endured man many things and hope to be able to endure arl aal things if there is anything virtuous lovely or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things joseph smith As I 1 looked the above article over I 1 said 1 I see mr woodruff you mor mons believe in the bible why you are almost christians Christian slip why bless my soul ap replied the old m man an we christians why wan we are i re the only true christians we believe in the precepts oi of the old and new testaments and we try to practice what we preach we believe also that the day of revelation has not passed and that god still reveals himself to man but president woodruff do all of your people believe these things many of the gentiles think that only the poor and ignorant of the church actually have faith in what you preach do you be lieve and do the elders of your church believe are you honest in your belief the old gentleman looked at mea me a moment and then replied of course I 1 believe do you suppose we would carry on a 1 life of this kind if we did not have implicit faith in its being the right life and that from god do you know what a mormon engages to do when he enters the church he agrees to leave all at the command of the church to drop his business his property and his family and to go wherever the church directs him why we send out every year from to 1000 missionaries to all parts of the world they leave all and go where sent to preach the gospel they take neither purse nor scrip with them and have only enough to sustain them take my life I 1 have been sixty lour four years a mormon I 1 have traveled many tens of thousands of miles my life has been in danger I 1 have been twice almost drowned I 1 have been persecuted what had I 1 to gain by all this what have the young men who are now going abroad to england to germany to the islands of 0 the sea to gain by it how do your missions succeed very well I 1 think replied the president our preachers are doing much good we have all told about converts and emigrants who have come here as the direct result of our labors and there are mormon colonies in many parts of the world however you must not think that the most of the mormons cormons are foreigners the truth is that the grand majority maio maici rity of our people are americans nearly all of our leading men are and have been americans many of us are from new england and descendants of pilgrim fathers how many mormons cormons are there now in the world about cy 2 where are they there are nearly in this state then we have colonies in colorado idaho wyoming arizona and new and old mexico there are colonies in great grat britain germany and other parts 0 of europe there are large colonies in australia australi samoa and the hawaii islands how about your colony in old mexico 0 it is doing very well the silver basis acts as a protective tariff as to bringing in goods from the outside to compete with them and they can send their cattle and other products here and et a sale for them they are well 1 beet aked ked by the mexicans and the government their towns there bear a stronger resemblance resemy ance to american cities than any other places in mexico do you believe that the world will eventually all become mormon no P I 1 do not I 1 believe there will always be different religions I 1 think all religions must have bave some good in them or they would n not bome be believed the mormon is the best and the true religion we tolerate and respect all religions you know in our tabernacle every man can have entrance whether hether he be protestants protestant catholic mormon or gentile not long ago a presbyterian divine was offered the chance of preaching in um the tabernacle he was one of a patty party who were passing through salt lake he refused saying the party preferred to hear bear a mormon ministers of all the leading denominations have preached in our tabernacle our people come out and listen to them this often happens how about the manifesto lately proclaimed it is charged that the mormons cormons are trying to run utah politically that is not true said president woodruff we do not pretend to tell you people how to vote we try to separate church and state brigham young taught this and all of our teachings have been in this direction we have mormon democrats and mormon republicans the so called manifesto to which you refer was mt rely a declaration of principles which have been a part art of the church since its foundation ft it is nothing new no revelation nor new promulgation of any kind our ples pies provide that when a man is an officer of the church he should ask the advice and accept the decisions of his fellow officers ot of the church as to whether lie he shall engage in outside business or politics it if these things are to effect his work we should know it one of our twelve apostles for instance has lately been en engaging ag n in real estate speculations P in mina canada his business has ms kept him away for six months at a time he could not go where he was sent among the church branches or states and subordinate organizations in to which the church is divided there is much for our elders to do and it is necessary that such action should not be with by outside matters another apostle was pacing attention to politics he wanted to be a candidate I 1 for the senate how could he perform his duties here and be away at washington six months of the year our principles are that such matters should be I 1 referred to the apostles in council and that the action taken sh ul J 1 be for forthe the good of the church another thing is as to the wards or districts in which the members live we provide that no mormon can leave one ward or church and be received into another one without he has letters or can show he was in good standing in the ward he left these things are spiritual however and not political pol s but the church does attend to temporal things does it not you have your own courts yes was the reply we believe that it is better for our brethren to come together before the elders their friends and settle their difficulties rather than go and pay the lawyers to settle them for them we have local church courts and there is a court of appeal in these most of the difficulties which arise between members are amicably settled in some cases the people go to law but not many in the few cases where the people go from the higher church courts to the civil courts the civil courts have usually sustained the he action ot of the higher church court how is the mormon church supported mr woodruff I 1 asked it is sustained almost entirely by tithes was the reply accor according di in t to 0 our religion every man is is expected t to 0 give one tenth of what he ma makes es every year to the church As to the amount this is left to the mans conscience some men give more and some less than they should this tenth is in kind the farmer brings one tenth of the eggs which his chickens lay one tenth 01 of the butter which he produces one tenth ol of his cattle and one tenth of all his products to the church during the days of brigham young we had bad a great pasture here at salt lake upon which many thousands of the s sheep heep and cattle so collected for the church were fed of 01 course the increase of such stock belonged to the chur churchard chand the land which was set aside for the church also increased in value you had a great deal of such stun stuff at the time the government confiscated your property did you not yes replied the president we had at this time about worth of such property in hand band it represented i the oge offerings rings of the rich and poor alike the government agents claimed a right to it and they took all of our cattle and sheep under the mormons cormons the stock was doing well lut the government agents could not manage it they bad to sell it and it brought very little this was a direct loss to the church lor for the value of the stock was never refunded at this same time the government took about worth of the personal property of the church this was re turned however they also took our church buildings and charged us a year rent for them we were oppressed in other ways but I 1 trust that such actions are now done away with forever how about polygamy Is it not still secretly practiced no not in any shape the church does not recognize it and the man who would so live would be acting in violation of church discipline the manifesto issued by the church some years ago absolutely forbids the practice of polygamy s will it ever be practiced again 1 I do not know I 1 think bots nots not but you had more than one wife president woodruff had you not yes I 1 had three one is dead the other two are alive I 1 live of course only with one how about the other 1 I support her of course was the emphatic reply 1 I would be less than bu human man if I 1 did not my wives were all good wives to me they are now old women as I 1 am an old kanand man and I 1 would be a brute if I 1 did not take care of them I 1 Is this the case with other at emms who were polygamists yes it is so with nearly every one shortly alter after the passage ot of the edmunds law forbidding the practice of polygamy there was a great deal of talk as to what was to become ol of the so called abandoned wives and congress was induced to appropriate to build a home for them I 1 believe the institution ution never had but one family and that this was gotten at the special of the officers 1 I suppose they were afraid they would lose their job if they had none 1 I said I 1 1 I ido do not know as to 0 chitty pa was the reply 1 I only know ith it d not have any applications hanl there was no reason for est in D ou uch an I 1 institution the mor mormon men church is amply able to take care of its own people it does not ask charity it takes care of its own poor and |
