OCR Text |
Show BIG MEDICINE When a member of a savage tribe being too honest to work and too lazy to steal assumes that he possesses supernatural powers and can by in-contations in-contations arrest the ear of the Great Spirit and thus has command over diseases, to drive them away, he is "A Big Medicine Man," he has at a Dog Feast the tenderloin; he is excused from the chase and from going to war, and it is the delight of the squaws to embroider moccasins and shirt waists for him. True, he takes some risks, for when his incantations incan-tations fail a few times, the tribe is liable to conclude con-clude that he is "bad medicine" and may decide to I lay one side of his head on a big stone and drop another big stone on the other side. But while he is a succesful practitioner, he lives in clover. In ancient Greece there was a class of priests that pretended to have the power through their incantations, to gain the ear of any desired God and to obtain from him information for the future, fu-ture, or to obtain a knowledge of the significance of earthly phenomena, like the appearance of a comet or an eclipse, the tremole of an earthquake or the flight of eagles or cormorants. Of course they were reverenced by the ignorant and superstitious super-stitious and they lived high. Of course there were suspicions among the depraved and wicked that they really ought to have no more standing than has the man who calls himself Doctor and has no diploma, and the old story runs that Zeus saw Sisyphus stealing cattle year after year and did not mind it much, but one day detected him trying try-ing to bribe his oracle to predict a famine that he might unload at a profit a big band of stolen steers, and then sent Hermes down for his soul. The rule from the first has been that anyone claiming divine power and privileges always has a big following, and from the first the effort of these has been to play upon man's credulity and to hedge themselves about with an air of mystery mys-tery and sanctity. So, too, promising blessings to the faithful it has always been a rule to reward those on whom they can most implicitly rely. Now, Utah, not to be behind with the ancient or modern world, has, also, Its oracle. One came with the first immigration. Prom the first, these oracles, with the exception of one, have seemed most intent upon gaining money and extending their power. Again in their organization, their high officers are an aristocracy which tho lay members must look up to. For instance, if there were to be a convention of Saints for the purpose of Plecting a school officer of any degree, and an Apostle should stroll in, he would be made chairman chair-man of the meeting by unanimous vote, though' he might know no more of the business on hand than a gray ape. This makes plain the anxiety that prevails among the higher priesthood to have an Apostle for United States Senator. There are a hundred Mormons throughout the state better fitted for the place than Apostle Smoot, but most of thf.se have by their own efforts demonstrated their ability abil-ity and trustworthiness, and there is no object in specially recognizing them. But in the person of the Apostle, it will be easy for the laity to sen that he has been rewarded, not for his ability, not for his acquirements, not because he has rendered the state great service, but because he Is an Apostle, and the second thought will be "if we ' ant honors there is no sure pathway except through the Church." Any man not wilfully blind can see that this J8 an absolute perversion of the theory and underlying un-derlying principles of our free government; that It is in the direct line of establishing a priestly aristocracy and the reducing of the people to serfdom. serf-dom. Save in its methods of procedure, it is not one bit different from the despotisms that have scourged and debased all western Asia for three thousand years, and tho Senate of the United States will stultify itself and perpetrate a hideous wrong upon Utah and the whole union, if he is permitted to take and keep his seat in that body. |