Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1881 — The Curse of Mormonism. [ARTICLE]

The Curse of Mormonism.

Here is a horrible story told by a correspondent of the Eureka Leader of what he saw at Ogden, a railroad town in Utah, where a number of Swedish immigrants, were waiting to take the train to Brigham City : I was looking on with great curiosity, when I discovered a tow-headed, buxom girl weeping bitterly. Two or three old women were scolding at her, and a withered up old Mormon stood with his arm around her. He finally coaxed her off to his wagon, she screaming and crying that she would not marry him, and he never letting go of her until he sat her down upon the wagon-tongue. A girl was following them. I halted her and asked what was the trouble. She said that this girl was pledged to the old man and that he had paid her passage out; and now she did not want to marry him because he already had a wife and seven children. I asked if she would be forced to do so. The girl replied : “Of eourse she will. They have pledged her to him. ” Poor thing ! the last that I saw of her she was struggling to get away from him, and the withered old fellow was holding on with both arms around her. It is sickening to think of such doings in a civilized land. Dark as that girl’s mind was, she had some grains of virtue and some delicate instincts. The despair pictured on her face showed that. There is a terrible account for our country to settle with that poor girl. England was lately stirred with indignation because girls were found to be inveigled from London to Belgium for immoral purposes; but what was done there a few times is done here a thousand times, and yet our country does not dynamite the evil of cord /StcUwnan. £.