Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1880 — One Hundred Wives. [ARTICLE]

One Hundred Wives.

Anew play bearing the above title, J written by Mr. J. B. Runnion, a Chicago journalist, has made a great hit in Philadelphia and other Eastern cities, and will shortly be reproduced on the stage of McVicker’s Theater, in Chicago. The Philadelphia North American comments as follows on this new play : If it has the success which rt deserves, and which its reception promises, the ■ play entitled “100 Wives” is likely to exi ert a powerful influence in stirring up public feeling against the continued toleration in the United States of the Mori mon abomination. On this account, if for no other reason, we hope that the i piece will be supported by the public, . and go the rounds of the country. It | not only gives a vivid picture of the mis- | eries which spring from Mormon prac- ' tices, but it indicates by implication the ' precise way in which the work of sup- ■ pressioi? should be begun. The heroine i of the piece, whose wretched situation | furnishes the ground-work of the plot, i is one among a large party of deluded ; people brought over to this country at ■ the instance and under the direction of ; Mormon emissaries. She has been inI duced to leave her home under false pretenses by the suppression of the truth and the suggestion of what is false, and, I once in Salt Lake City, it is a physical impossibility for her return. There is i more truth than fiction in this story. No ; one whois at all acquainted with the ' subject can doubt that such has been the experience ’of hundreds or even thousands of unfortunate women who have sailed across the Atlantic expecting to find an earthly paradise at Salt Lake, and havingno power to help themselves or to make known their wrongs when they are placed in possession of I the wretched truth. The question is, how long will the American people allow this plague spot to disfigure the fair face of the land. Every one will concede that our condonation of Mormonism is a national reproach. The practices pursued by the abandoned inhabitants of Sait Lake City are contrary to the laws of the’United States, and the validity of the bill looking toward their suppression, which Congress passed i some time ago, has been certified by the , highest tribunal in the land. President Hayes, in his message to the Forty-sixth Congress, adverted to the matter, and urgently advocated immediate energetic and appropriate action. Some spasmodic attempts have from time to time been made to enforce the law and punish the offenders, as well in Salt Lake City as in any other c : ty of the Union, but for a variety of reasons these attempts have come to naught, and for some time past it seems that nothing whatever has been done. The Mormons continue to break the laws both of God and man; they still defy the Government of the United States to make itself respected, and the immu- > nity with which the defiance is attended justifies its seeming foolhardiness. Many reasons are assigned io" our

’ failure to carry cut the law, and it is certain that the undertaking is attended with enormous difficulties. But it seems to us that a beginning ha? been made at the wrong end. Instead of attacking the enemy in his stronghold, we should cut off’ the supplies by which alone he is enabled to maintain his resistance. The Mormon polygamists cannot gain any recruits in this country. They are obliged to bring the new material from Europe, where thousands of people are so sorely driven by poverty and so benighted by ignorance that they are ready to believe all the lies that are told by the Mormon “apostles.” Every month or so we hear of a fresh consignment of 300 or 400 unfortunates being sent over to swell the Mormon population, and it is m this way that the evil is perpetuated. There is no reason why the landing of these Mormon immigrants at any American port should not be forbidden by the United States authorities, and when that has been done, the first step in the solution of the problem will have been taken.