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Show JONAH JARVIS ON THE CAMPAIGN. Dear Mother: Do not worry any more about the money. I have a situation by which I can earn a living. My health is improving and I am beginning to enjoy myself. We have had a great political campaign here for several weeks. There was a combine here, but poorly concealed between some machine politicians and the heads of the Mormon church, whereby it was proposed to elect no one to office who was not willing to be either a spoke in the wheels of the machine or a pillar under the church balcony. The names of nomi-ness nomi-ness were taken from the slate, then gravely and formally, in sounding speech, placed in nomination, nomina-tion, the orators laboring to show that on personal merits alone their candidates were the only ones who were perfectly fitted for the places named. I was in one of these nominating conventions, and it was as jolly a spectacle as I have looked at since the last Tammany primary that I attended in the Fourteenth ward. You know that the Mormon Mor-mon church has a head who is called president. He has two counselors, and the three spoken of collectively are called "The First Presidency," much the same as the Sultan of Turkey and his ministers are called collectively, "The Sublime Porte." Then there are many other sub-divisions among the Saints here, like the apostles, patriarchs, patri-archs, the seventies, presidents of stakes, bishops, etc. The rule generally is that the head or heads of each organization of priests must each have two counselors. You must keep in mind that these priestly officers conduct all the affairs of the great church, and the inference is that their calling, call-ing, is too sacred to permit them to ever think of anything so worldly and unclean as common, every-day politicians. But in this convention apostles, presidents of stakes and their counselors, bishops and their counselors and elders without with-out number were on the convention floor, and in the language of Tammany were "whooping up the boys" to vote a certain ticket, which was the ticket that was on the slate. This can only be accounted ac-counted for by keeping in mind that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not just like any other. Its claim is that it has a celestial kingdom up in the e ther to which good Saints go when released from this world's cares; that there they are kings, that their wives are all queens, that it is a select place where no Gentile can intrude in-trude except in the capacity of servants to these B Icings anl queens. I heard of one lady who gently H reproved her servant girl for some sin of 'pmis-H 'pmis-H sion like leaving the screen door open and letting I the flies in, or some sin of commission, like dump ing a platter of red-hot baked apples intoa$5 cut-glass cut-glass dish, with results disastrous to the cut-glass, cut-glass, whereupon the maid turned defiantly upon her mistress and said: "You can have it your way here, but in heaven I shall be a queen and you will be a servant girl." The mistress gently responded: "Will you not use your influence up there to get me a second girl's place; I never was a success as a cook?" But the business does not stop with the celestial celes-tial kingdom part. The claim is that Ihe government govern-ment of the Saints is a dual affair, that besides the upper kingdom they have here "a kingdom of God on earth," that this kingdom is a purely temporal tem-poral government, and that they hold the Jceys. Necessarily all other governments are usurpations, usurpa-tions, and are maintained simply by the force of numbers. You see how natural all this is, mother. Suppose Sup-pose that you firmly believed being thus taught from your youth up that old man Jones, who lives on the hill' beyond the schoolhouse, was a prophet and seer; that it was in his power to daily talk with God even as Moses did amid the clouds and thunderings of Sinai: that be had received from the Infinite God the authority to rule in his stead here on this earth, you wowld not have much respect, would you, for ordinary man-made governments? gov-ernments? The flag of the United States is very beautiful, and is the symbol of much power, but what is it compared with the emblazoned standards stand-ards of the archangels? "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a great anthem, but what is it compared com-pared with the paeans that the angels sing with golden harp and trumpet accompaniments? Well, the secret of the acts of these high priests in the convention was that one of the highest in all the ranks of the priesthood, even an apostle, is a candidate for election to the United States Senate. You may ask what one so exalted, so set aside and consecrated to a great religious office could want of a wicked political office. The answer is the apostles are supposed to be inspired, and know a good thing when they see it. Well, the nominations being made, the campaign cam-paign began. Headquarters were established and the whole State flooded by orators, and the principles prin-ciples of the respective parties proclaimed with all the lung power that could be brought to bear. Orators of all grades, from the arc-light kind down to the sixteen-candle-power contingent, were kept busy, all to make it appear that it was not a cut-and-dried Punch and Judy show. But probably the funniest feature of the campaign cam-paign was the course of the organ of the Republican Republi-can party. That formerly was a journal of some influence. It made plenty of mistakes no doubt, but it never once run a sneak on the people, and a good many people trusted it. But a year ago it was bought by the machine and placed in charge of an Eastern politician. He was no doubt led to believe at first that his position would in a little while cause him to gravitate to the front place in Utah politics, provided he would never criticise the church or any of its methods. He was installed in-stalled with becoming honors, and shortly thereafter there-after the Governor of the State (who owed his election more to that same newspaper than to any other one fact except that he was a Mormon and ready at any time to obey counsel) in a great public pub-lic assemblage expressed his delight that the organ or-gan of the Republican party was at last in capa ble and unprejudiced hands. But the months J u ' jflB went by, and at last a light shone in on the new f 1 ffl editor. He examined his hands and found that 1 fa I" 1! IfflB the ends of his Angers were scorched and worn to ' I v 1 T'-rH Tie quick in snatching the apostle's chestnuts fj n' ftfPB from a redhot Are, and he planned a mighty re- ' L L ' "jjB venge. He organized a lottery which was not a j ,l?jH lottery, a guessing school where the guesses by , 1 tjtJDjI mistake might not win, a sure-thing game, so to 1 k iJpH speak; for a subscription of 50 cents he promised J Ja OaS a chance to win such a princely sum as no three- j ..,; ijlfJM card monte chap ever dreamed of, and all through ,.j p , the campaign dovetailed his offers between the M K jffifl announcements of Republican meetings. As the t ilflifiJM campaign waxed warm he increased the size of j 'Lf iflfH the type which told of his wonderful offers to give I SJilB away fortunes to lucky guessers. In modest type t jHifflH he announced that the Honorable Mr. Fiddle J J; fH Sticks would speak on a certain date at Sanpete, ; 'f 'tf 1H the Honorable Mr. Scoopem at Box Elder, while ,k 4 , StM above and below in monstrous type he called upon ' f ,: $& the people to explain why they would remain poor ij '!f ,s$IM and work hard all their sinful lives when a lucky ' CljF-HB investment of only 50 cents might make an ever- j to j. 'jfjffl lasting fortune for the lucky guesser. I j , ifjjfl His large type was justifiable, for he wanted a Jk Jffl full 50 cents, while many of the speeches which he I; fB advertised would have been dear at 30 cents. The li JNIflfl campaign is over now, and my belief is that the w'jj fjdH autumn will, in the back settlements of Utah, be lii$ igslJiH filled with fights, the contention being whether in I $ . WjM the campaign the Tribune was the organ of the yi. rJjB Ropublican party or a mere grafter nf-ev any !w ' ifl loose four-bit pieces that the stockings of the j pij oH people had put aside in foi the winter's coal. m ''IH Dear mother, this is a great country. Affec- P f 1H tionately yours, JONAH JARVIS. H V llfl |