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Show WAY DOWN IN ALABAMA. Mormon Elders Pnrsuiug a. Coarse That Leads to "iriartyrdom.5 Cincinnati, March 8. An Atlanta, Ga., special says : The Mormons have chosen. Alabama as a missionary field and have been vigorously prosecuting their work daring the past six months. Among other things, your correspondent finds that the Mormon elders, under the guise of travelers, go from house to house distributing little twenty-five page pamphlets pam-phlets entitled "Doctrines of Latter-day Saints, by Elder John Morgan." The book contains their articles of faith, and gives an account of the revelations made to J oseph Smith. It also proclaims that I Mormonism is THE ONLY TEUE RELIGION. When a person joins them, the elders give him what they call their "mystic sign," which consists of a paper upon which is written their articles of faith and the name of every convert in that section. The possession of this proves the owner a true saint. One of the most enthusiastic converts in Shinbone Valley is W. .7. Conger. .Living upon Conger's farm is a young man by the name of Boilings, who has heen very bitter towards, the elders and their converts. About six weeks ago Boilings found a paper near his house, which stated that Mormonism was the only true religion, and that uuless he joined them within thirty days and used his influence to get his neighbors to join, he must leave that section of the country. The paper was SIGNED BY ALL THE ELDERS, By Conger and a number of other converts. con-verts. Boiling has not left and it is stated that he did not intend to leave, and so far no effort has been made to force him to leave. Last September or October, Elder Davis came over into Choccoolocoo Valley, within five miles of Oxford,"and in a short time he was joined by Elder Allrod, who came direct from Utah. In a little while they had made converts of James Tilliman and his wife, and later on, Hiram Harrison and his entire family. Tilliman soon became much enthused with his" new religion, and declared that "he thanked God, the Lord,4 for sending Mormon elders to teach him the true religion." The elders, Davis and Allrod, spent most of their time while in this section at the homes of Tilliman and Harrison, and a few nights ago a committee of citizens surrounded Harrison's house and CALLED FOR THE ELDERS. They happened to be spending that night at the house of Thomas Richards, and the committee not finding the objects of their search, notified Harrison that he must not let the elders stay at his house again. Next day Harrison bought a gun and a supply of amunition, and his son wrote the following note to the citizens : "Come to our house another night and some of you will eat breakfast in hell next morning." After writing the notice, young Harrison shot a ball through the paper and then stuck it on the gate post of the man he supposed was one of the committee of the citizens. The Shinbone Valley elders were reinforced in January by elders Butler and Wilson, and in that section they have not brought only their converts but many other ignorant people to believe that the entire Territory of Utah is the EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF THE MORMOK i ciiCRcny And that the land is overflowing with riches, long life and happiness, and naturally nat-urally most of the converts are anxious to get there as soon as possible. The elders have very little to say about polygamy, and tell their converts that only the Church officials or any pious members are allowed to have more than one wife. The elders are fed and clothed by their converts and also receive regular installments install-ments of money from Salt Lake City. |