Show and county boys in new zealand elders rampton blaylock arid E P browni A allot his county are mobbed in dunedin Dui edin new zealand A letter from george brown of provo an elder of the I 1 D S church who Is doing missionary work in new zealand to a friend in ogden contains aa account of the mobbing of three weber county boys As the account will be of considerable interest to their friends in this county the letter Is given in full as follows dunedin new zealand may 21 1901 dear friend I 1 take pleasure in writing you a few lines 1 am well and enjoying my labors as a missionary of ane church of jesua christ of latter day saints I 1 wish to give you a little account of our missionary experiences perien ces here in this part of the world the first three months of my mission I 1 labored in Gl with elder B N christensen Chrls of american fork after the april conference which was held at Murl wal in a native village a distance of fifteen miles irom the above named city Gl we elders forty eight in number with about a thousand natives and a few europeans mostly saints enjoyed social intercourse and mhd instructions given by president J E magleby and other elders as well as the many testimonies ti borne by many of the saints at the conference many changes were made among the elders four ogden missionaries besides three other elders and myself were called to labor on the south island among the europeans the elders from ogden were E P brown G C allson E M blaylock and W W shaw we were divided in pairs and scattered about the island we were instructed at our priesthood meeting held during conference time to do street preaching the street work was first commenced at christ church tho elders there have had a hard time in holding their ground at two or three different times they have abeen driven from the place where they held their meeting one of the papers here in this city had a short item taken from the paper stating that the elders there had been mobbed just at this time we elders here were holding street meetings during the evenings at these meetings one or two religious fanatics came into our ring and commenced to say all manner of things about us and to abuse the cormons mormons generally tha larrikin element which la in every city thought they would be doing gods service in helping to put down mormonism on saturday night may alth elders E P brown T M rampton E M blaylock and myself were holding a street meeting in this city after the meeting was dismissed we started to leave the crowd when they made a grand rush upon us by the help of tour police who were standing on the corner of the street who came to our assistance we were freed from the crowd in a very short time the police advised us to go down princess street which la tha main street we started out on our way thinking that the crowd would not follow us elders rampton and blaylock made their escape in the crowd and were not molested after going two blocks elder brown and I 1 turned down another street and here there were thousands of people running toward us to see what was going on these people could not have been more excited it there had been two white elephants going down the street we cef two police on our way down the street after talking to them a short time akey kindly escorted us to the police station on the way the mob hooted us and at times they would come up to us and try to get us down when we reached the block the station was on we were advised by the police to run as the mob were becoming very angry after a hard struggle we reached the police station in safely the mob stayed around the station for an hour waiting tor vs but at last they all left elders rampton and blaylock came to where we were after talking to the chief of police and others for a short time we went to our room it waa eleven blocks and after offering up a prayer to the giver of all good gifts we retired tor that night the press has taken up our cause and several people have corresponded through the papers expressing sympathy tor us and deep regret tor the treatment we have received through the kindness of the editor ot the star we were permitted to insert an article treating upon our religious views on the whole I 1 think the affair has softened many hearts towards us here at present here are only two of us elders laboring in dunedin E M blaylock of north ogden and myself though we have tor the present been obliged to forego street preaching we yet have hopes of getting a chance to declare our message to the people on sunday may a public discussion was held in the odd fellows hall an immense crowd listened at to both sides of the argument on the origin of mormonism elder E P brown who was chosen as our spokesman acquitted himself creditably and the people went away with a much better opinion of mor monism A correspondent in the evening star complimented elder brown highly on his christian forbearance and the able way in which he dealt with his subject the liberal in an editorial said from an argumentative standpoint the cormons mormons have decidedly athe best of their bout with dunedin so it will be seen that we arc making friends even in the face of great prejudice the elders are enjoying good health and the mission Is in a prosperous condition with best wishes I 1 am your brother in truth GEO A BROWN provo city dunedin new zealand may 21 |