Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1881 — STORIES OF MORMON LIFE. [ARTICLE]

STORIES OF MORMON LIFE.

At almost the first dinner I was invited to in Salt Lake City, says a lady who has had a good insight into Mormon life, I was introduced to a gentleman. We will oall him Jones. I waa also introduced to two ladies named Jones, but it did not occur to me until I wad told afterward that they were both married to him. One was posse, proud and Stately in bearing and appearance. The other was young, very pretty and seemed to shrink at the spand of the other’* voice.. e She, the. commands, which consisted of orders lo wait on Mr. Jones. “Eimna,” she would say, 'hand George this, hand Georg* that; get George’s hat, get George’s cane; fetch George’s glovea,” As, I-have said before, the first wife Is mistress of all the others, and they are forced to obey her a* abjectly as slaves. Emma was the second wife of Jones, and the wife ruled her with * a rod of Iron. There was no tyranny she did not inflict upon her, no mean, merciless grinding under foot that she did not exercise. Jones left them to fight it out. So hideous was the first wife’s treatment of the second that she finally went crazy, and had to be confined in an asylum. Mrs. Jones, the first, urbanely gave Mr. Jones permission to bring home any numlier of young and pretty wive*, but at latest dates he had not availed himself of her kindness. Fighting It out reminds me of a young fellow who had a pretty young wife, nut soon began to pay his addressee to a young lady. He took the lafctor on »little excursion, on which, as it happened, his dftfe had gone. They met and, aa th* wife had had no Intimation of what he wae eoatem-

plating, she began to make a soene, just as a Gentile wife would. He hurried both Indies Into a room in a rustic hotel, on the pretext of talking it over quietly. As soon as he got them there he slipped Out, locked them in, and gave orders below that no one should let them out or pay any attention to their cries for assistance. The day went on, and the husband epjoved himself, but the women fought »nd, stnrnMfd* and went into hysterioa, ahdndfitea arid recovered, and finally got awfully hungry In vain they shouted and bagged! to be'released. Then they wept and made up, and when the husband oame and demanded through the keyhole if they were good friends and would like something to eat, they said “Ybs,” meekly, to all his questions.. Then he unlocked the door, and they went and had a cosy little dinner toegther, and * when he married the young lady, they were all happy ever after. Two schoolmates , vowed that should ever part them—neither marriage nor death. When one received an eligible offer of marriage she would only accept on condition that her husband should marry her friend before the honeymoon was over. He promised, hoping that she would change her mind, but she did uot, and in three weeks’ time there was a second wedding. The two friends were thus happily united for life. Truly the ways of Mormon women pass all ' understanding. I knew a man who married two sisters at the same time, one oermony sufficing to make him the husband of both. While old men invaribly select young women as wives, they often make a concession to a daughter and marry her mother at the same time, so as not to separate them, and a young man will often take mother and grandmother along with the daughter. Literally, 'iu Utah men frequently marry a whole family. A wife getting old is often glad to have her husband marry her daughter by another husband, so that the original wife may not be ousted frdm her privileges and a comfortable home. If a woman Is resolutely opposed to matrimony, andespecially polygamy, sealing overcomes the difficulty, Sealing constitutes a nominal marriage, and also helps a woman financially, for a man is bound to do something for every one of his sealed wives, if it Ls but to send her a pound of tea w.eekly. I kuow three old maids—the eldest is 80. They weave rag carpets for a living and are all sealed to the same man, who furnishes their groceries and Insures their entranee into heaven. If an old maid has neglected, to be sealed, and she is on her death bed. some neighbor will Le hurriedly seui for to be sealed to her. The ceremony is simple, consisting of a few words and a little annotating with oil. Step-sisters and brothers marry, but false impressions get abroad concerning these persons from their own lack of preoiston In defining ties. For example, I was walking some years ago with a lady from the States, a Journalist, and a Mormon gentleman. We met a handsome young man and woman arm in arm. “See,” whispered my Mend to the journalist,“see that young man. He’s a grandson of the Prophet, and he’s going to marry his aunt—the lady he’s with.” That Brigham’s grandson was going, to marry his aunt was duly reported as among the horrors of Mormonlsm. In reality they were not kin at all, for the young girl was born of another father before Brigham married her mother.

As th# Mormons are a most prolific people, every divorced woman having two or three children by a different husband, aud the husband having so many ohildmn by different wives, their relations sometimes become so mixed that no one could understand them. One man I was acquainted with married a divoroed woman with three little girls, all under the age of seven. When the girls grew up he 1 married all three, thus becoming tire husband of four women, though ho had but ene mother-in-law, that mother-in-law being his own wife. Bpt this is easy compared to sorin' of their problems of relationship, which, they almost go crazy themselves trying to work out. ,Here, for example: A man married a woman with a daughter nearly grown. When she reached womanhood, she was married to the father of her •'Other’s husband, making him his step-daughter’s step-son, and when a son was born to the father, the mother’s husband became half brother to his own grandchild. The original pair also had a child—but this is getting so mixed, like everything else In Utah, that I leave it to wiser heads than mine to work ou t.