| Show THOUGHTS AND FACTS if we li lived I 1 ved a considerable dista distance nce uce from utah and could place a moderate degree of confidence in newspaper reports wp would almost be led to believe that utah was nearly ai as wicked as some other parts parti of the earth there could be no question about the social and moral status of those other places for if the published reports of the wickedness chronicled as existing in ih civilized cities were not credited the matter could be speedily set at rest by a flying visit to the police courts the gog geries gerles saloons and similar places to the prisons including the murderers cell with a return home after night through the streets where brazen prostitution most openly carries on its traffic we say we might be led to believe that utah was nearly but not altogether as wicked as some of those places alluded to for the pen of the most malignant enemy of humanity could scarcely write a darker record against mankind than the public journals daily set forth so rampant has crime grown and BO so futile adellie effects of the jaws laws execl executives tives tires I 1 or so corrupt are its Us administrators that vigilance committees Committe ps are as freely talked of now in State states sand and territories as district district courts and their action is much more prompt and terrible if if utah were as black as she ib painted the balance of the nation would have nothing to reproach her of for our exchanges describe the condition of society where they are published as a little worse than the vilest slanders perpetrated against utah make things appear to be here the difference in point of statements is that the condition of society elsewhere is looked upon as a matter of course while on refe hefe reference reference renco being made to utah it is customary to couple some ugly adjectives with the tho slanderous reports that are so often sent 0 floating through the country we wonder if there is anything charged upon the citizens of this territory as a whole or upon any auy part of them that is not of daily occurrence occur ence in new york washington chicago san francisco or any other city of note nofe in the republic reau lle lie we might say in the world Itis it is sald said that life and property are not secure in utah we deny the allegation as ds it is put but wo we ask in the same connection where else are they secured secure please tell us is you wise people who know everything every evers thing and a little more where is the utopia outside of these valleys where life is held hold so very sacred and where property is so very secure we jve would like to make a note of it the office of the executioner ex must have died out there for lack of employment and prisons must have been turned into seminaries of education or hospitals for the sick the infirm and the poor but it may be that as we call ourselves saints they demand from us an elevation of morality far in advance of their own and look upon anything on our part that would savor of descend ing to their level as highly derogatory and especially noteworthy if so they ard are right tight our moral condition ought indeed to be if it be not so already far in advance of that of th we e world aiming as a peo people pleat at reaching the highest condition of moral excellence not theoretically but in practice our pire course of conduct ought to h consonant with that aim an with th our professions bun BUU 04 we ive ire do nou nol expect to reach it at once and this we wish those friends frienda who avilo are so careful of our character to understand we have hawe here gathered together a crudo mass of human humanity I 1 ty with the foibles fi follies liei and weaknesses of the race and the object is to have them grow in the knowledge and practice of everything good a consummation which is being reached with encouraging speed we have also among us a certain percentage of consummate wags that we hope will some day and the sooner the better fall into the hands bands of the lawyers or what is nearly wj bad start to make a fortune at the mines in some place where they can be honored with the attentions of a vigilance committee when needed this we say of society here by way of explanation without particularly referring to those who represent the I 1 I 1 regenerating I 1 interests yet with this charitable supposition lon ion does it not seem a little strange that actions which elsewhere are looked upon as being every day occurrences and unworthy of any particular comment should excite such an intermittent fever of passion when they are said to have taken place in utah if we are as immoral as we are said to be it would not begin to compare with the imin immorality oral orai east and west of us we write the assertion in all hii calmness and the journal that undertakes to dispute it will will please look in 14 its own columns and the columns of its exchanges for our sustaining evidence what then is the matter oh they do not wish to acknowledge what they aro pleased to term lle the practice of plurality of wives well prove that it is immoral and unchristian in J stead of wasting so much breath in empty denunciations and fulminating threats that are as cowardly as they are wicked A number of corrupt pa iati I 1 clans and priests would turn the whole force of oi a nation on a handful of people to dragoon them into the repudiation of an article of religious faith which those poli politicians tich tieh ins and priests have neither brains ability nor authorities to prove erroneous imm moral or unchristian magnanimous are they not nott they I 1 ought to meet in grand caucus and vote each other a piece of plate and a monument to be paid for of course at the expense of the nation they have bibles but they think it better to keep them shut guns and bayonets would be far stronger arguments and would save the trouble of thinking c but there have been people killed in utah and in great salt lake city that is true there have been a 4 few a very few fow fe people killed here and people have been heen killed in very every city east and west north and south of this territory if we are wrong we would I 1 like to know the name of that bloodless maiden place but we again io venture the statement that there is no city of its size within the confines of the rocky mountains or in the united states stater where so few people have been killed as in this city while in some not BO so old I 1 nor so populous of which scarcely a I 1 word is is said there have been more people killed with pistol and knife in three i weeks than there have been in great I 1 i salt sait lake city in three years but you do not believe as other pe peo 0 i pie do well other people do not bei be i lieve as we do and rind where is the differ i ence wo we do them to come to our standard of thought unless they wish to and we haveko have ho intention of raveling back to theirs which we uni un i and conscientiously left some time ago aa B but ut you do not allow strangers 10 gentlemen yen ren to indulge in as much familiarly ty with your families as they would like to dopf dori do no norve nor we do not mean meau to if gentlemen 1 want to indulge in familiarity mili arity with families let them get a supply of the article for themselves we will not trouble them and they will I 1 vir oblige by not troubling us and still further oblige by not try aln inato g fasten attentions on unwilling 1 I ladies ladles a d ies les who are strangers to them deni gentlemen lemen do not do that anywhere and we are very apt to doubt the claims of men to the title who try to do dar so here we do very much in admitting strangers to the freedom of the domestic circle as they do in new york st louis andall other places we exercise the right of admitting or excluding whom we ve choose to terms of acquaintanceship and familiarity I 1 isit not curious that people should berate us so soundly for the alleged doing of what they do themselves suppose they turn the telescope for a while and not keep the diminishing glass al ai ways pointed to their own vices fhy phy physician il heal thyself said the wicked jews jens je ns tauntingly to the son of god now in all sober earnestness and in a good cause we refer the same words wards to those who are so heavily exercised about utah and her doings we have been trying for years with the help of god to heal ourselves and we hope to be successful but nut 23 ut let those philanthropic souls who would kill all the mormons cormons Mor mons just because they love them and would save saye save them from corruption learn and apply the adage charity begins at home let them clean cleanse se the cess pools of iniquity 4 steaming gunder under their own nostrils practice as well as talk about morality virtue and cli ell ristian christian holiness cease unseemly squabbling about who shall shail get his nose deepest in the public crib and by the time they tiley have reached bizat point of social and moral excel escel ibn ihn lenee lence if they turn their attention to the Is mormons cormons Mor mons they will find we have taken a long stride ahead in doing good w working I 1 righteousness and practicing virtue virte heal yourselves and then come and a n d see if we are sick take the beam out of your own eye and then bring a microscope to search for forthe the mote in ours |
