Reincarnation and Mormonism, Part 5

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Reincarnation & Mormonism

THE SECOND COMING

OF JOSEPH SMITH

When one considers the doctrine of reincarnation his mind would naturally wonder what the previous lifetimes were of some of the early brethren in the church.

It’s quite possible that their incarnations on the earth began even before the days of Adam for Hyrum Smith said: “There were prophets BEFORE Adam, and Joseph has the spirit and power of all the prophets.” Millenial Star Vol. 23:Pg 406.

Orson Hyde also said: “The world was peopled before the days of Adam as much as it was before the days of Noah.” J.D. 2:79

It is true that the ancient continents of Atlantis and Lemuria did exist and some of the more recent prophets also struggled as teachers of mankind back at that ancient time.

We see from the scriptures evidence of the past lives of some of the early brethren. For instance, there is a strong indication that Oliver Cowdrey was Aaron. Oliver was told: “You have another gift, which is the gift of Aaron; behold it hath told you many things; Behold, there is no other power, save the power of God, that can cause this gift of Aaron to be with you. Therefore, doubt not, for it is the gift of God, and you shall hold it in your hands.” D&C 8:6-8

This scripture is even more striking when one considers that a very important word here has been changed. The first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants read “rod of Aaron” instead of “gift of Aaron”. The word “gift” does not make sense because Oliver was told he would hold it in his hands. It is not a coincidence, then, that Oliver was given a Rod just as Aaron was, and his Rod generated power just as Aaron’s did.

It is also ironic that Oliver was the first with Joseph to receive the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist and he was the first one in this dispensation to be ordained in an earthly ordinance to this priesthood by another mortal, namely Joseph Smith. Oliver was told that he was “called and ordained even as Aaron.” D&C 27:8

Edward Partrigde was told that “he is like unto Nathanael of old, in whom there is no guile.” D&C 41:11 Could this be the Lord’s way of hinting at his identity in a previous lifetime?

Many of the brethren were conspicuously called strange ancient names in various revelations. No logical explanation of this has ever been given by the church. Again, was the Lord hinting at past identities?

Hyrum was Hyrum, King of Tyre from the Old Testament. Brigham Young was King Solomon. Just as King Solomon built the temple without the sound of a hammer (I Kings 6:7) so did Brigham construct the tabernacle in Salt Lake without hammer or nails. Furthermore, Solomon has sculptured lions on both sides of his throne and ornamenting his house just as Brigham had two of them guarding the entrance to his home he named “The Lionhouse”. Brigham was often referred to as “the Lion of the Lord”. You will also notice that many of Brigham’s sermons sound amazingly like the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes written by Solomon.

The Lord identified Joseph Smith in a dual manner. He said: “Thou art Joseph, and wast chosen to do the work of the Lord.” D&C 3:9 Which Joseph was the Lord referring to? Was this his method of telling him that he was Joseph who was sold into Egypt? Was this why Joseph of old, when prophesying of the mission of Joseph Smith, wrote of him: “He shall be like unto me.” II Nephi 3:15 Was he really writing of his own future mission?

Why did the Lord say that Joseph was “called and chosen to WRITE the Book of Mormon”? D&C 24:1 We know that, as Joseph, he did not write the book, but translated it. If the word of God is literally true then Joseph had to have been Mormon, for Mormon wrote the abridged book. Was this why, when describing his unusual traits as a young boy, his mother said: “During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He could describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and animals upon which they rode; their cities; their buildings with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, AS IF HE HAD SPENT HIS WHOLE LIFE WITH THEM.” Lucy Smith Biographical Sketches; Pg 85.

It is interesting that Mother Smith was speaking of Joseph as a young boy before he had any revelations. It sounds as if he was merely recalling his past life experiences just as numerous young people do today in increasing degrees.

Of course, Joseph and the other brethren had many other lives that are too numerous to mention here, but more interesting than their past lives are their possible future ones.

Many of the brethren were quite surprised that Joseph and Hyrum were killed because of certain things the Prophet told them. For instance, he said: “I prophesy and bear record this morning that all the combined powers of earth and hell shall not and cannot overthrow or overcome this boy, FOR I HAVE A PROMISE FROM THE ETERNAL GOD.” DHC 5:554

Because God had promised Joseph he would overcome all of his enemies he was very confident in expressing it. A reference is found in the scriptures: “I feel like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, AND WILL DELIVER ME FROM HENCEFORTH; for behold, and lo, I SHALL TRIUMPH OVER ALL MY ENEMIES, FOR THE LORD GOD HATH SPOKEN IT.” D&C 127:2

Joseph indicated that this overcoming all of our enemies is essential to obtain salvation: “Salvation is nothing more or less than to triumph over all our enemies and put them under our feet IN THIS WORLD, and a knowledge to triumph over all evil spirits in the world to come, THEN we are saved.” DHC 5:387

According to this then, Joseph was not saved for he did not triumph over his enemies “in this world”, but they overcame him and took his life.

Brigham Young was one of those who expected greater things of Joseph: “Yet he (Joseph) will lay a plan to speculate as large as ancient Joseph did; he will have power to buy up all the rest of the world.” DHC 6:16

Also the Lord said: “But a small moment and thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion.” D&C 122:4

Joseph Smith was also promised that he would redeem Zion. (See D&C 105:26-27,37) He said he would be a witness to the whole world and then the end would come. DHC 6:363

The Book of Mormon tells us that he is the one like Moses mentioned in D&C 103:15-16. (See II Nephi 3:6-17) He said his father in a blessing “anointed my head, and sealed upon me the blessings of Moses, to lead Israel in the latter days, even as Moses lead them in the days of old.” DHC 2:380

Joseph’s patriarchal blessing even makes this promise: “Thou shalt hold the keys of this ministry, even the presidency of this church both in time and eternity…Thou shalt stand on Mount Zion when the tribes of Jacob come shouting from the North, and with thy brethren, the Sons of Ephriam, crown them in the name of Jesus Christ.” OUR LINEAGE (Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1933)

We can clearly see then, without quoting further, why the brethren did not expect Joseph to be overcome and killed by his enemies. It was even the Lord’s intention that Joseph and Hyrum escape martrydom for he said: “I…will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through eternity…Behold, I have seen all your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I WILL MAKE A WAY FOR YOUR ESCAPE, as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.” D&C 132:49-50

Just as the Lord prepared the way for the saving of the physical life of Isaac so would the Lord have saved the life of Joseph, and, unknown to most, God fulfilled his part of this promise for the Lord did reveal to him a way to escape.

When all the forces of evil came crushing down on Joseph and Hyrum and it seemed as if there was no way to escape with their lives, the Lord did give Joseph a revelation and told him to cross the Missouri and go west. However, his friends called him a coward for doing so and upon hearing this from a letter sent by his wife he replied “If my life is worth nothing to my friends it is worth nothing to me.”

This decision was his alone for neither God nor the heavens were allowed to interfere. They could only look on realizing the unalterable fate of his perilous decision. Although either choice required great courage, his love for the saints compelled him to return to face martrydom. The setback of his premature death was anticipated, however, and all the promises concerning him will yet be fulfilled.

Joseph was once asking the Lord concerning the time of the second coming of Christ and received the answer: “Joseph, my son, IF THOU LIVEST UNTIL THOU ART EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS OLD, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore, let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.” D&C 130:15

This revelation led Joseph to later say: “I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written, the Son of Man WILL NOT COME in the clouds of heaven TILL I AM EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS OLD.” DHC 5:336

If he would have lived to age eight-five as hoped he would have prepared the way so the Christ could have reappeared and the promise concerning the building of the temple in Jackson County in his generation (D&C 84:4) would have been fulfilled. As it is the promise has been delayed because the saints wanted their prophet to prove he was a hero more than they wanted the words of eternal life.

All the promises made to Joseph shall be fulfilled for he will overcome all his enemies and will yet live in the flesh to the age of eighty-five and see the face of the Son of Man. He will not do it in an immortal resurrected body, but as a mortal walking among us again. Eliza R. Snow, the true author of PRAISE TO THE MAN knew what she was writing when she said: “Millions shall know Brother Joseph again.”

Parley P. Pratt was out of state when he heard of the Prophet’s death. He couldn’t understand why his life was taken before the Lord’s promises concerning Joseph were fulfilled. Wondering how he was going to explain Joseph’s death to the people when he returned to Nauvoo, he prayed: “O Lord! In the name of Jesus Christ I pray thee, show me what these things mean, and what I shall say unto thy people? On a sudden the Spirit of God came upon me, and filled my heart with joy and gladness indescribable; and which the spirit of revelation glowed in my bosom with as visible a warmth and gladness as if it were a fire. The Spirit said unto me:   ‘Lift up your head and rejoice; for behold! It is well with my servants Joseph and Hyrum. My servant Joseph still holds the keys of my kingdom in this dispensation, AND HE SHALL STAND IN DUE TIME ON EARTH IN THE FLESH, AND FULFILL THAT TO WHICH HE IS APPOINTED.” Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt; Page 333.

In answer to this revelation given to Elder Pratt the average Latter-Day Saint, without thinking twice, would merely say it has reference to Joseph Smith coming again in an immortal resurrected body, but an important point he forgets is that an immortal person never does the work of a mortal. After all, why did not Moroni translate the plates? It would have been more convincing perhaps, but it is the decree of God that man must work out his own salvation and resurrected beings do not interfere with that.

The Lord promised Parley P. Pratt that Joseph would again would stand again on the earth and fulfill that to which he was appointed. What was he appointed to do that he did not accomplish? We shall name nine things and point out that they do not fit the works of a resurrected being.

FIRST:   He was to achieve salvation by overcoming all of his enemies ON THE EARTH. It would be an unfair advantage with no victory, and contrary to the laws of heaven, for a resurrected being of great power to fight against mere mortals. If he is to overcome his enemies he must return as a mortal and face them on even ground.

SECOND: The Lord indicated that Joseph would live until he was eighty-five old. This he could only do as a mortal.

THIRD:   Brigham Young said Joseph Smith would be able to buy up the world as ancient Joseph did. Can you imagine the Lord sending a resurrected being to do this?

FOURTH: Joseph was promised that he would lead his people as Moses. Moses was a mortal so Joseph could not be like Moses if he was an immortal – he would be like Jehovah who was guiding Moses.

FIFTH: Joseph was promised he would be the one to redeem Zion. (See D&C 105:26-27,37) The one who will do this is referred to as the “marred” servant. (See Isa 52:24 and III Nephi 20:44) Does it make sense that Joseph Smith would appear to lead the Saints to Zion in a resurrected immortal body that is also marred? The prophecy of the marred servant would have to concern a mortal man.

SIXTH: Joseph was also promised that he would restore all things. We know that all things have not yet been restored. An example is the golden plates which were sealed. The Lord told Joseph: “I am the Lord thy God, and gave unto thee, my servant Joseph, an appointment, and RESTORE ALL THINGS. Ask what ye will and it shall be given you according to my word…For I have conferred upon you the keys and power of the priesthood, wherein I restore all things, and make KNOWN UNTO YOU ALL THINGS in due time.” D&C 132:40 & 45

SEVENTH: One of the things Joseph was to restore was the fulness of the record of John: “And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed…And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful YOU SHALL RECEIVE the fulness of the record of John.” D&C 93:6&18

Joseph Smith was faithful wasn’t he? Then where is the fulness of the record of John? Obviously this can only be fulfilled in a future life.

EIGHTH: Joseph is to reveal all mysteries “until”the Lord comes: “And I have given unto him the keys of the mystery of those things which were from the foundation of the world, AND THE THINGS WHICH SHALL COME FROM THIS TIME UNTIL THE TIME OF MY COMING, if he abide in me.” D&C 35:18 Also see DHC 2:32

NINETH: Joseph Smith is to be the “One Mighty and Strong” and “Set in order the house of God”.

Let us expand this final point and quote the reference concerning this Coming One, for it is the most controversial writing in all the Standard Works, misunderstood by orthodox and fundamentalist Mormon alike.

“And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth to SET IN ORDER THE HOUSE OF GOD, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the saints whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God; While that man who was called of God, and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by a vivid shaft of lightening…These things I say not of myself; THEREFORE, AS THE LORD SPEAKETH, HE WILL ALSO FULFILL.” D&C 85:7-8,10

And how does the church explain this powerful scripture? They say that Edward Partridge, the first bishop of the church, was bungling things up, and the Lord was thinking of sending One Mighty and Strong to straighten him out, but Partridge repented and thus the prophesied person did not need to come. Thus the authorities have tried to negate the word of God for this is one prophesy with a promise of fulfillment. It is written: “He (God) will also fulfill…” D&C 85:10

The present day authorities like to think that this scripture cannot pretain to them. They do not like the idea that the church may be out of order and will require a new Moses to be sent to straighten things out.

As upsetting as it may be to the present day heirarchy we have definite proof that this warning was not to Edward Partridge as is claimed. Oliver Cowdery stated: “Brother Joseph says that the item in his letter (section 85) that says that the man that is called etc. and puts forth his hand to steady the arc of God, DOES NOT MEAN THAT ANYONE HAD AT THE TIME, but was given for a caution to those in HIGH STANDING TO BE WARE, lest they should fall by the shaft of death.” THE REVELATIONS OF JOSEPH SMITH by Lyndon W. Cook; Page 179; Published By Deseret Book

Furthermore, the prophecy pertains to the redemption of Zion which has not yet occurred and could not have been fulfilled in Joseph’s day. In addition we have a second witness to the Coming One in Isaiah: “Behold, the Lord hath a MIGHTY AND STRONG ONE, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephriam, shall be trodden under foot…The priest and the PROPHET HAVE ERRED through strong drink (doctrine), they are swallowed up of wine, (knowledge); they are out of the way; they err in vision, they stumble in judgement.” Isa 28:2-3, 7

Thus the coming of the One Mighty and Strong is established by two scriptural witnesses, which is discreetfully swept under the rug by those who do not want to be set in order.

Since the One Mighty and Strong will set the house of God in order, then that must mean that it will be out of order. In fact the church was not in order even in the days of Joseph. The Prophet said he planned “to organize the Church in its PROPER ORDER as soon as the (Nauvoo) temple is completed.” DHC 4:604

Unfortunately, he was killed before the temple was completed so he never had a change to set the church in order as he had hoped, and no one since that time has claimed to have had any revelation concerning the setting in order.

Joseph explained that the setting in order would be after the similitude of the parable of the wheat and the tares and that “the corruptions of the church are represented by the tares, which are sown by the enemy.” He said that the tares will be removed when the wheat gets sufficiently strong.

Who is this One Mighty and Strong? Some think it will be Joseph Smith because he said the revelation ‘often times…maketh my bones to quake…” D&C 85:6. But a more conclusive proof is found in another revelation which tells us he will spend numerous lifetimes setting the church and kingdom in order. “and this shall be your business and mission ALL YOUR LIVES, to preside in council, AND SET IN ORDER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF THIS CHURCH AND KINGDOM.” D&C 90:16

Some believe that Joseph will come as a resurrected and glorified personage because we are told the One Mighty and Strong will be “clothed with light for a covering”. D&C 85:7 But they do not understand that all men have some sort of light for a covering for we are all surrounded with a colorful aura which can be seen with sensitive eyes. Also, saints often noticed a light that surrounded Joseph when he was speaking by inspiration. There were those who said his face sometimes glowed as if there were a searchlight in his head. Thus Joseph could be a mortal with light for a covering and will also have the “scepter of power” which will be a rod like unto that of Moses.

Joseph Smith was aware that this was not his last life on the earth for in speaking to the Nauvoo Legion he said: “You have faithfully performed your duty, in preserving the lives of the people as well as mine. You shall be called the first Elders of this church….And your mission will be to the nations of the earth to preach the gospel, and you will gather many people to the fastness of the Rocky Mountains, and many of those who will come in under your ministery because of their learning will seek for position and they will gain eminence over you, and you will walk in low places unnoticed. Yet you will know all that transpires in your midst. Those who are your friends are my friends AND I PROMISE YOU WHEN I COME AGAIN I WILL LEAD YOU FORTH, so that where I am you shall be with me.” LIFE STORY OF WANDLES MACE, By Himself; Pages 131-132

Joseph will keep his promise and come again, for today there are many of the most enlightened saints who are walking “in low places unnoticed” who will be raised up to a point where they can be a light unto the world.

Also that “in life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!” D&C 135:3 It is most probable they will be the two witnesses as prophesied by John in chapter 11 of Revelations for Joseph said he would be a witness to the world and then the end would come. In addition they will be the One like Moses and the Spokesman as prophesied in II Nephi chapter three. Indeed, we have glorious events to look forward to in the near future!

There is not time in this short article for more elaboration. That will be given later. The most important thing is to consider the words we have written. Remember that the Lord answers no one who takes “no thought save it was to ask me.” D&C 9:7.   So study this out first. Search the scriptures and your heart and then ask God with a sincere heart about the truth of these things and the Spirit will tell you that the principle of reincarnation is a true, holy, and just principle.

We bear witness to the principle of rebirth. We have tested the Spirit and know it is true and we know that he will reveal this and other great mysteries to all true seekers of light.

Let us remember the words of Joseph: “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true Mormons.” DHC 5:517

Keys Writings, Part 17

This entry is part 31 of 34 in the series 2011C

Oct 29, 2011
Inertia

I never did comment on the principle behind pushing the boundaries as happens with children and some adults. The post was at:

Keys Post 54431

The Question: This is a branch of the real principle, which gives us an opportunity to do some discovery:

What is the real principle behind this Push the Boundary force and how it works?

We received a number of answers on this and I believe each person participating guessed a different principle. They couldn’t all be right could they?

Well, they all could be partially correct for many different principles are at play in everything we do, just as there are many parts to the elephant. As I said in my recent post – even scratching an itch has principles and forces at play.

On the other hand, there are some things that play out where a core principle is involved and this is one.

The core principle is inertia and I think the group will see this as I explain.

According to this principle an object in motion will stay in motion unless it is stopped by a force equal to that which is keeping it in motion.

Now when a kid gets his desires in motion for something he wants (like a new video game) the parent may at first dismiss the expressed desire and think that will be the end of it, but it often is not.

The kid has set his desires in motion, desires that have energy behind them, and the parent keeps getting hit with this energy time and time again. Finally, he gets worn down any buys the video game. The purchase is the counter force that neutralizes the energy of the kids inertia.

Another parent may not have money to buy the game and lash back at the kid with anger. If the anger has equal energy to the inertia of the desire then the kid will give up for the time being.

Many people visit salesperson thinking they are just going to look, but are not going to buy anything just yet. Then they wind up buying everything but the kitchen sink.

Why?

Because a good salesperson uses the principle of inertia. He throws desire energy at them again and again and if the customers find themselves moving in a current toward the dotted line and they do not counter with high resistance they follow the path of least resistance and will purchase. By the time that they have been hit with the power of inertia they may feel it is easier to spend a bundle of money rather than to resist.

Right now, president Obama is creating inertia behind his jobs bill. It could be the worst bill since the beginning of time but the appeal to jobs for those who are desperate is great. Since he is pitching this new stimulus again and again the inertia is building and can only be stopped by opposing forces. Some opposing forces have surfaced but some version of this is likely to get through unless the opposing force is increased.

Oct 29, 2011
Re: Definitions 1.1

LWK They (natural rights) could no more be taken away than one could take away the fact that men needed food to live – it was simply part of their “unalienable” nature.

JJ This made me think that maybe we should say the right to food is as natural of a right as the right to liberty. After all, if it came down to choosing to have food or liberty when one is starving to death, most would chose food.

Questions for the group: So, do we have a natural right to food?

Does one have a right to another’s food if the other guy has lots of it and you have none and are starving?

How about if the other guy has abundance and you are just surviving and often go to bed hungry?

How about if the other guy just eats a lot better than you can afford to?

LWK You stated that in your view that your meaning was the majority view of the meaning of “rights” and that somehow others should be obliged to state they are using a “minority” meaning. I personally do not agree with your interpretation.

JJ Well, I don’t exactly agree with that statement either. I said (or at least meant to say) that when speaking in legal terms the legal definition of rights is the one normally used and is used most of the time. I believe this is an accurate statement.

LWK It is doubtful that either meaning, legalistic or natural rights, is clearly predominant in how people use the word.

JJ This is true, but in speaking in legal terms legal rights is usually meant and the first point that I was arguing with Blayne was supposed to deal wit the question: Was it legal?

You made some excellent points in your post. Here is one I liked: “You don’t protect the rights of some by protecting the rights of others to attack them.”

Here is another: “There are many things the government does today that are much more likely to lead to a totalitarian government than killing terrorists instead of trying to bring them to trial.

“The most basic principle of natural rights is that one cannot claim their protection while violating the natural rights of others.”

JJ So true. If the execution of one man will save the natural rights of thousands then it is a good trade – proving the evidence backs up the action.

Oct 30, 2012 Election 2012 Blayne: I think Ron Paul is the only republican that can beat Obama but I doubt he can win the republican nomination.

JJ I don’t think Ron Paul would have a chance to win. Right now he scares the independents as much as Obama does but after the media was done with him he would be toast. They would research his old newsletters, writings and speeches and bring forth quotes that would blow a lot of people away and portray him as a racist who thinks the South was on the right side in the Civil War and Lincoln was a traitor and tyrant.

Also the fact that he would do nothing to prevent Iran from getting the nuclear bomb and seems unconcerned that it would send one over to Israel at the first opportunity would give the media the opportunity to portray Obama as the one who is on the side of national security – weak though he is in that department.

Oct 30, 2011
Infiltrating Mormonism,one sunday school class at a time

Adam’s Post My wife, Marnie, has gone through a re-think of Mormonism over the past several years, thanks to me and my experiences and readings, and, in turn, her own experiences and readings. Often now, when she hears or reads some “Mormon speak” in a family or church setting, she cringes. She’s fond of telling me that I’ve “ruined” her. We both, of course, feel very grateful for JJ’s teachings and the “ruin” the teachings have caused us.

Marnie still takes our children to church for the social aspect and to give them some exposure to spiritual teachings and the family culture. Occasionally, Marnie is asked to substitute teach for one of our children’s Sunday school classes, as happened a few weeks ago.

The lesson was on “being pure” – this for a bunch of six year olds. It’s amazing what we don’t see when we’re firmly entrenched in thought forms, reinforced by a strong culture. The lesson suggested that the teacher use salt and pepper to illustrate personal purity and impurity – again, this to a bunch of six year olds. The lesson emphasized a lot of guilt and unworthiness. Marnie didn’t care for the message, the examples, and the way it was taught, especially given the young audience. [Yes, the church does a lot of good and teaches a few nice things, but other such ridiculous teachings are not flukes or aberrations. A while back Marnie listened to the Primary President read from Malachi to about 50 children. She told them that those who do not pay tithing will burn! – yes, in so many words and with that emphasis. And many other examples there are. Many of you I’m sure are familiar with such ridiculous and often harmful things that go on in what is supposed to be an educational and spiritual environment.]

Anyway, my wife didn’t like the lesson, so, God bless her, of her own volition, without my prompting or consultation, she changed it. She got out some darts and a target and used JJ’s teaching about Hamartano (I know JJ is not the only person to teach this, but JJ’s writings are where we first heard the true definition and analogy to shooting an arrow at a target) Needless to say, the lesson was a hit (yes, punned) with the kids. Aside from being fun and entertaining, the six year olds actually “got it” and they gave Marnie insightful feedback, like: “Oh, that makes sense. If we make mistakes we just try again. We practice doing better. Practice makes perfect” and so on. A much healthier message, no? A better message than: “when you sin, you are impure, like little black spots before God; and all of the accompanying thoughts of unworthiness and guilt that are likely to be imagined by impressionable and innocent minds.

A small success. But much more doable, since we can’t all go around dusting our feet to general authorities, much as I would like.

But, the small success didn’t end there. Marnie’s mother happened to be teaching the same lesson this week to the six year olds in her congregation. Her mother’s printer wasn’t working, so Marnie downloaded and printed the lesson for her. When her mother came by to pick it up, they started discussing the lesson. Marnie mentioned that she had taught it a few weeks back. She expressed to her mother that she didn’t care for the way the lesson was taught, especially for that kind of an audience. Her mother, a very orthodox Mormon, actually could see what Marnie was saying about the lesson’s poor wording, conceptualization, and analogies. Marnie told her mother what she had done and how successful it had been. Marnie’s mother “loved it.” (Can you imagine how amused/pleased I am as I listen to Marnie repeat the conversation?) “Where did you get that idea?” her mother asked. “That’s a fantastic way to teach about sin. I’m going to use that idea instead.” That’s probably about as far as Marnie could safely go with her mother. I guess we’ll never know whether her mother would have taught the lesson or not, had Marnie revealed her source:)

Truth can actually resonate when it’s not being filtered through pre-existing biases and belief. Truth can actually resonate when it’s not being filtered through pre-existing biases and belief. Oh, what…wait..what?

How we’d love to actually tell her mother where that teaching came from, but that might ruin it and halt further use of the analogy.

Another success. A few more kids who weren’t bludgeoned and burdened with guilt ridden propaganda, for an hour anyway. One Sunday school class at a time. Maybe Marnie’s mom will share with another orthodox adult who will unwittingly teach truth, as taught by an excommunicated apostate. Classic. Had to share.

Thank you for ruining us, JJ.

Adam and Marnie

JJ Thanks for the encouraging letter Adam. What you say illustrates the power of the enunciation of true principles. A teacher may receive some light and do his best to promote it and die unrecognized, but if he has followed the highest he knows some seeds will be planted and the tiniest of seeds will grow to great plants and multiply until all of humanity will some day realize the true reality. You planted a seed in your wife and your wife in her mother and the kids. Some will take that seed and plant it in others until the day comes that the apostles of the church will be talking about shooting arrows a targets until we become proficient in the paths of righteousness. Who knows, that apostle might be one of the kids taught by your wife.

Oct 31, 2011
Right to Food

Blayne: I know that JJ argues from a perspective that rights don’t really exist (Correct me if I am wrong JJ) based on his previous writings except as created and or secured by men through their individual or collective actions.

JJ To just jumble natural and legal rights together as “rights” does not accurately portray what I think. If you would have said “legal rights” you would have been correct for this was what I was talking about in relation to Awlaki. You have been talking about natural rights, a different animal, which didn’t have anything to do with my question: Was it legal?

I think we agree that it is a built in desire to want to secure life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

JJ (Previous Post) … maybe we should say the right to food is as natural of a right as the right to liberty.

LWK One could say this if one had absolutely no understanding of the concept of natural rights, and many have indeed reached this conclusion.

JJ I think I have as good of an idea of what natural rights are as you or the next guy. Let’s go by your own words. <>

Are you thinking that I was suggesting a natural right to food would mean that someone else should be forced to work to provide another with food? Where did you get such an idea??? I said nothing to indicate anything like this.

Here is how I defined a natural right, which harmonizes with the Declaration of Independence:

“That which one has a moral claim or desire to have or express.”

This definition does nothing to imply a socialistic form of government to distribute food as you imply. But the desire for food is connected with the desire for life itself and is a natural desire and just as one feels he is morally justified to live and pursue liberty and happiness all feel that that have a moral justification to obtain food to stay alive.

Not all feel they are morally justified in stealing food or forcing others to supply it to them but as long as there is an abundant supply of it, all feel morally justified in having an opportunity to honestly obtain it.

Connected with fulfilling this natural right is a natural desire to assist others in obtaining food that some, through no fault of their own, cannot obtain for themselves. These include children, babies, the disabled and the down and out who are willing to work. It is especially a natural desire to work to earn the money to feed our own children who cannot take care of themselves and it is natural for the child to expect the parent through free will to supply its needs that it can not supply for itself.

This has nothing to do with socialism, but with natural desire from our Creator as written by Jefferson.

LWK Natural rights are simply the right to exercise one’s free will without interference by others or the government.

JJ But life is spoken of as the first natural right and this exists for us whether we exercise will or not. The desire for both life and food are very similar as they exist no matter what we will and no matter what the government does and we all feel that we have a right to live and a right to eat so we can continue this right to live.

In a decent society there would be enough people who have empathy for these rights so they will share of their of own free will and all would have enough to eat to sustain their lives.

Question to the group: Does this make sense? If not why?

Oct 31, 2011
Re: Election 2012

Blayne on Ron Paul: Rasmussen did a poll recently and he was virtually tied with Obama.

JJ Some polls indicate he has a fighting chance, but this is before the media has taken sides in the general election. Right now the major media leave Ron Paul alone because they are happy to see him be a voice of opposition to many Republican policies they loath. It would be much different if he were the nominee and and was running against Boy Wonder.

Blayne: All the stuff you have brought up has already been aired in the media over and over and he still has more independents and growing. I doubt it or the Iran thing would hurt him.

JJ Where has it been aired – Alex Jones? I haven’t seen the media do any investigative reporting on Paul’s past. There’s also little about it on his site. You have to do some digging to find some of his early writings and many of them are said to be lost and many of the extant ones are controversial. BUT if he were the nominee I’m sure some of the lost ones would surface. They came out with more critical stuff on Rick Perry or Sarah Palin one one week than that have in Paul’s entire life.

Blayne: Israel has over 300 nuclear weapons they will take care of Iran if they ever became that threat just like they took care of the Iraq’s nuclear program.

JJ Iran has learned from Iraq and have secured their nuclear program much better than Iraq did. They do not care if Israel has a million nuclear warheads because they do not think they will do a first nuclear strike as all nations would turn against them. On the other hand, if they get just one or more bombs they are willing to take their chances and attack for the glory of destroying Israel. Unless there is a change in leadership we are headed for trouble there. Paul is dead wrong to not be concerned – maybe millions of dead wrongs.

Oct 31, 2011
Re: Right to Food

I would be interested in a definition of natural rights as defined by you and Blayne – in a paragraph.. In the definition that I came up with I am not going by how the strict Constitutionalists have conjured it up but by how Jefferson and the Founders seemed to understand the term “rights” in the Declaration. I think Dan has a point that it is questionable that the term natural rights, as used, is even justified. But since it is used, even in an ephemeral way, then we must acknowledge it is one of the established uses.

I would refine my definition a bit to make it more accurate. Here it is:

“That which humanity, as a whole, has a moral claim or desire to have or express.”

Previous wording:

“That which one has a moral claim or desire to have or express.”

Nov 1, 2011
Steve Job’s Last Words

Just before his death Steve looked at his sister Patty, then at his children, then his wife and next he seemed to look beyond them at empty space and said these words:

Oh Wow! Oh Wow! OH WOW!!!

Then he passed over, apparently going to the place he was seeing.

Jobs Last Words

Nov 2, 2011
Re: Gathering Data

We finally get don to the nitty gritty of this issue that the group wanted me to continue and no one has responded. Let me repeat the question:

Is there enough evidence to establish Awlaki’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?

Google the name Awlaki with key words such as legal, terrorist, innocent, guilty, analysis, justified, unjustified and whatever you think helpful.

Then post the reasons he may or may not be guilty of either terrorism or treason. When we get them all tabulated then the group will judge the quality of Obama’s decision.

I’ll start the ball rolling by posting one for and against.

Reasons for being not guilty. 1. He is an American citizen and innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reasons for guilt. 1. The underwear bomber, Umar Farouk, who tried to being down an airliner, stated this under oath at his trial: “I was greatly inspired to participate in jihad by the lectures of the great and rightly guided mujahedeen who is alive, Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, may Allah preserve him and his family and give them victory, Amen, and Allah knows best.”

See if you can find some positives and negatives to add to the list.

Nov 2, 2011
Morals and Legality

Question from JJ to Blayne: Do you acknowledge that there is a difference between legal rights and natural rights?

Blayne: No because anything that violates natural rights cannot be legal. Laws seek to illustrate morality and ethics.

JJ You have clarified here where the source of our disagreement is on the first point. You think a law has to fit in with your personal view of what is a moral natural right or it is flat out illegal and we can ignore it or break it at will.

Thus you consider a law as non-existent if you do not think it is moral, even if you are arrested, convicted and sent to jail by a process that has Constitutional authority.

The problem with attempting live by this belief is that there are lots of laws that others think are moral who could cause you untold grief – as they did with my friend Wayne. Wayne thought a lot of the laws were unconstitutional and immoral but he never thought they were not legal under our current system. He tried to live by what he thought the laws should be. Since he believed it was wrong for them to require him to get a drivers license then he did not get one and was arrested regularly. This cost him many thousands of dollars and several prison sentences.

I tried to reason with him many times concerning this because his beliefs were definitely affecting the quality of his life. My reasoning went something like this;

“Look, no matter what system we are under, none of us will agree with all the laws and regulations. If you violate and fight every law you disagree with that’s all you will be doing and thinking about and it will consume your life. And this struggle you have with the law doesn’t just hurt you but disrupts your business and affects the money your dozen employees make. Then you suffer from depression and this regular hassle with the law can’t help that at all.

“Sometimes in life there are two paths and neither choice may be what we want. You have the choice of a minor inconvenience of getting a license or not getting one and suffering a huge inconvenience. Which choice makes the most sense? You have to pick your battles and you’ve picked one here you can’t win. The State is not going to discontinue driver’s licenses because of anything you do, neither will the city discontinue building codes. Why don’t you concentrate your energy on something that will make a difference?”

It didn’t matter what I said to him. He wanted to stick to his principles – principles that most of his friends could not relate to or see much purpose therein.

When he died of heart failure he also had a large tumor on the back of his neck. It seemed to be a symbol of his thinking that he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Perhaps his soul was trying to yell him to release that weight and smell the roses along the path instead.

Anyway, if you have an attitude that any law (regulation or whatever you call them) you do not consider moral is something you can break or ignore because they really do not exist then you are even going beyond what Wayne thought and if you stand by these beliefs you could be headed for an equal amount or more trouble. In fact, you have already mentioned that you and others who believe as you do have suffered painful experiences through the court system. I suspect that you could write a book about your legal battles.

The trouble with ignoring what the system says is legal and only obeying laws that only fit your own version of morality is you not only suffer untold inconvenience that interferes with regular life, but your version of what conforms to natural law may be different from the next guy who believes in natural rights – like myself.

“But,” says the Fundamentalist, “the Constitution is clear and it is plain as he nose on your face what natural rights are. All we have to do is follow the obvious.”

Think so? If this is so then why are there disagreements here on the Keys between, not only liberals and conservatives, but strong libertarians that support he Constitution and principles of freedom?

Why did some of the Founding Fathers and half the country before the Civil War think that keeping slaves was a moral natural right? Many southerners thought they were doing the moral thing by keeping slaves. They believed that:

(1) Blacks were of low intelligence and needed the whites to help then advance. Slavery was good because it provided that opportunity.

(2) Slavery also enhanced their own natural right of liberty because the slaves increased prosperity and gave the owners more free time to pursue culture and their own happiness.

Now keep in mind that this was not just a small fringe as with some fundamentalist beliefs today but held by enough people to divide the entire country.

The bottom line is this. If millions of individuals can decide, by their own version of what is right, which laws they want to keep then we would have total anarchy in this country. Secondly, no system, no matter how perfect, will make everyone happy and all will have to conform to a few things they do not like to make it work.

It seems logical that the best course is to cooperate with the system unless something totally outrageous is demanded. In this case, one can lead the cause of civil disobedience and many will follow giving the possibility of actual success.

If one sees a path to improvement that others do not then he should seek to educate. The informed majority will generally pick the right path.

Your personal definition of legal and tying it to your version of natural rights causes you to not even consider that Obama could have acted legally in any way even if every constitutional authority on the planet says he did. This narrow view has caused you to not even considering answering my question in the spirit that as intended as everyone else clearly saw. I was talking about legal as it is considered by the authorities in our legal system, not your view of what is moral and that should have been extremely obvious.

But even after I have clearly explained what I mean by legal you refuse to go by the majority definition and cooperate and answer the question.

You seem to think that using a dictionary definition of something violates some principle. It does not. A definition is just what it is, and nothing more. It is a neutral thing, but one must go by definitions as understood by others or nothing will make sense to anyone and communication will be muddled.

Nov 2, 2011
Re: Right to Food

Larry W I want to discuss the practicality of Jefferson’s theory of rights which he articulated in the Declaration. JJ has said that it is an obscure use of the definition of rights and has little to do with the common man nor with common usage of the word, rights. But I disagree.

JJ I can’t find anything you said that disagrees with anything I actually said. You seem to be arguing with what I do not even think.

First I said that Blayne and literal fundamentalist have an obscure and unusual definition of rights – see my last post. I have no problem with the way Jefferson actually articulated them.

Larry: “…and has little to do with the common man…”

JJ Where did you get this idea??? The rights enunciated in the Declaration of Independence have everything to do with the common man. I have said nothing contrary to this that I recall.

Larry: “…nor with common usage of the word, rights”

JJ That’s not what I said. I said that not all laws we have today that are considered legal are the same as as natural rights or that which Jefferson considered to be moral. Not everything in the legal system is in harmony with natural rights.

Nothing you said is out of harmony with anything I have written that I can see yet you present it as a disagreement. Disagreeing with what?

Nov 2, 2011
Re: Gathering Data

I think you’re missing the reason we are doing this. We care listing things in his favor and not in his favor as to whether he is guilty of treason, terrorism, subversion, etc. I doubt if any one thing will be absolute proof one way or another. When the list is complete then the group will make a judgement. How about contributing a point?

 

Copyright 2011 by J J Dewey

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Hell on Earth, Part 14

This entry is part 46 of 50 in the series 2011A

I was now given over to the tender mercies of Porter Rockwell, one of the great chiefs of these “Angels.” I was unacquainted with this worthy until I ‘began to notice him wherever I went. One day in the street I stopped to talk with my Cockney friend. Noticing this fellow watching me, I asked my friend who he was, told him I found him always following me.

He replied, “That’s old Port.”

I said “he looks more like old Rye Whisky.”

The Cockney gave his name and said “if he’s following you he has his orders to kill you, and he’ll do it dead sure. He has slain many a good man. There’s only one way to get the blind side of him. He’s mighty fond of whisky. If you can stuff him with that you’re all right.”

I said “You leave me now, I’ll fix him.”

My friend went one way and I started as if to pass “Port” and – cross the street. Coming directly abreast of “ Port “ I stopped short and addressing him said “Excuse me sir, but can you tell me where the Patriarch John Smith lives?”

“Oh yes! he said, down by Jordon Bridge.” (The Patriarch lived within a stone’s throw of where we stood.) “But,” he continned “he ain’t home, he won’t be home till nine to-night.”

I thanked him -very politely, and said “Well my friend, you’ve saved me a good jaunt, I feel it’s my treat, do you ever indulge? won’t you take something?”

“Wal yes,” said Port, “You’re the best man I’ve seen today.” And although the Scripture says “Woe unto him hat giveth his neighbour drink” “a drowning man will catch at a straw.” I took him to a saloon, asked the landlord to show us to a private room as we had business to talk over. We were – shown to a small room.

“Friend what will you take,” I asked?

He replied “My old stand-by, whisky, I suppose we can punish a pint can’t we?”

I said “I’ll take Soda-water.” Port ordered a pint of whisky. We sat down. Here was the victim and his would-be murderer cozily seated in a snug little room. How to handle him properly, secure his friendship, and draw him out was the question. Our potations came and Port began to make himself at home and as the whisky got in his wits got out. Presently Port emptied the pint, which was refilled. He became very talkative. I said “Excuse me sir, what is your name?” He answered, “Port Rockwell, they call me Old Port.”

I made it a point to be very sociable, for I meant to get from him an account of some of the many murders he had committed, and his intentions toward myself. Finally I was successful; he said in answer to my question. “I’ve had my orders to use you up, but you’re a bully good fellow, don’t you fear old Port, I’ll not hurt a hair of your head. You know how to treat a man decent; you’re all right.”

I saw that by a judicious use of whisky I had secured a friend, instead of becoming my “Destroying Angel,” “Port,” through a good supply of “ Spirit “ would be my “ Guardian Angel.”

He became quite confidential. In one of his moods he said “You got in a hell of a hurry that night when you fetched out yer shooting irons and got huffy.”

I asked him if he could explain that affair. “I guess I can,” he answered “Between you and I, you’re a lucky cuss; we attended to another poor devil that night who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, like yourself. You’re awful foolish let me tell you; howsoever, we didn’t catch on to him till midnight, and by the time we’d a fixed his wind-pipe so as he won’t squeal again, kivered him up, and got to where we thought you was, you’d a got yer back up and gone.” Port said this when the whisky had taken the place of his wits. I further drew from him that the “Saint” was to keep me there that night till the “Destroying Angels” came, that my grave was dug in the “ Saint’s “ garden, and they intended to make “short work of it.”

From that time I and Port were friends; and being in his charge I was perfectly safe. Port reported that I was a slippery customer, and difficult to catch. This much, past experience had proven. It cost me something to supply Port with whisky, but I trust my life may yet prove worth the outlay.

Things jogged along all right so long as I had money for whisky, but my second wife got a divorce and I was turned out in the streets homeless and penniless.

I sold my pistols to keep the whisky mill agoing. Port frequently posted me in regard to the various devices planned for my capture; though we were never seen together after the time mentioned, we had a way of communicating.

One night on my going as usual to our “Telegraph Office,” as we called it, there was the cipher message “Meet Port midnight by old City wall, by Arsenal.”

I met him and never shall forget his anxiety: I know that this man, guilty of “hundreds of murders” according to his own confessions to me, was true in his sympathy toward me and wished to aid me all in his power. He had then brought me a bundle of provisions, which he quickly handed me and, hurriedly said “Here take that, fly to the mountains and hide at once, I have to leave this city by daylight. A far worse than I am is now on your track.” He told me which way to go to escape him; for Port had given him instruction where to find me or rather where not to find me, and had sent him off in another direction. Then giving me a gentle push said “Now be off and may God bless you.”

It is really astonishing how these murderers can mix up the Divine Name in everything they do. I have seen men that I know are guilty of blood take the bread and break it at the Sacrament, and offer a prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that all the blasphemy under the sun is centered in this so called “Zion “-this Hell upon Earth.

I am sorry space will not permit me to give more of my sufferings in this Hell upon Earth. I will briefly tell how I got away, and trust to my lectures for an opportunity to detail all I am prevented from giving here.

Though 500 American troops and gatling guns are now stationed at Camp Douglas, overlooking the City; a railway connecting it with the outside world; Gentiles there transacting business; and United States Courts in operation-yet the Mormons hold civil, ecclesiastical, and judicial power in Utah, and have things pretty much their own way.

General Garfield came to Salt Lake City, and through a friend of his” obtained an interview with him, which finally resulted in my escape. The reader may ask, why talk of an “ escape “ from Salt Lake, new that Railways, Troops, Gentiles, and U. S. Courts are there? I answer what good is either to one in the condition I was? The Railway is a ready money institution; no trust there. At cheapest rates it costs 15 pounds to get back, and the generality of us not able to muster ‘scents., or is pence. The first forty miles of railroad is built, controlled, and worked by Mormons. The journey from Salt Lake to New York at cheap rates takes about ten days, and food costs something when traveling. I ask how can the poor duped English girls, now living a life of sin and slavery in Utah, who scarcely ever get any money, raise the cash to go back? The Gentiles have enough to do to look after themselves. The troops are all very well in their place to Overawe the Mormons, but they have nothing to do with the Civil Government. As to the United States Courts,,. a more complete farce does not exist; for with Mormon Juries it is impossible to obtain a just verdict.

Look for a moment at the fact. The whole Territory, is governed by the Mormon Power. There is the Mormon Parliament. The Lower and Upper House and its Cabinet. Then all the Officers of State are Church Officers. Mormon Mayors, Aldermen and Town Councilors in their various Cities-Mormon Police-in fact Mormon everything, with the exception of one Governor, and two or three judges who are like a figure 9 with the tail off.

Had the Mormons known that I was going away to expose their wickedness, think you for one moment they would have allowed me to escape? No, never! Suppose they knew it the night before I left; on going through the street a crowd of Mormons would be there through which I must pass. Superintending matters would be a policeman, who would grab me, while the “ Saints “ flock around, and one put, say a gold watch in my pocket, the owner of which would there and then charge me with highway robbery, and every Mormon priest swear to it. I am walked off to the City Hall, searched, the watch found on me, and locked up. In the morning papers would appear as follows:-” Last night Wm. Jarman was arrested for stealing a gold watch from Mr. – On being searched the watch was found on him, and he was held for examination. During the night he attempted to escape and was shot by his keeper. He died instantly, the bullet piercing the heart,”

The keeper, – coroner, and everyone who had to deal with the case being “Good Mormons” would be perfectly satisfied, and thus would end the career of Wm. Jarman. That’s about how the business is managed now-a-days. But they did not know – for after Brigham’s death arrangements were being made for my going back into the Church, though I constantly put it off. I did business with Mormons, some very prominent ones. I had “an axe to grind “-(in English a game to play). There were matters I should never have found out had I not done so; yea, so late as 11 p.m. the night before I left, I had important business with the second man in the Kingdom, and everything considered O. K.

A good Brother holding the same “ Priesthood “ I had, helped me away; my luggage was shipped, and ticket bought by others, not me. My valuable books and papers were taken to New York by a gentleman and delivered to me there, and not till the morning after my first lecture in Brooklyn, where the associated press telegraphed it over the country, did the Mormons know where I was.

When they saw the account in their papers they asked, “How did he get away?” I hope I have answered in a way to satisfy my readers. I know the “ Saints “ will not be satisfied until they know who assisted in spiriting away my books, papers; and myself, so that they could “Blood atone” them for their sins. But they will never know from me. “Port” died before I left Salt Lake, or I would not have said what I have. I could tell a hundred times as much as I have of such matters were it not that my friends who helped me are still living in “Zion,” and for their sakes I keep it back feeling I have said quite enough to convince the world of the perfect honors of this vile Mormonism, if not am sure they would not believe the balance though an angel from Heaven proclaimed it.

To my confidential friends now in Zion I say “Fear not! so far as I am concerned you are perfectly safe. When the Governments of America and England are ready for the question, I have ample proofs and evidence without breaking faith with you, and you are most of you old enough to die before these slow-coach Governments take any active steps. in the matter.” “Uncle Sam” has brought ONE out of the MANY human butchers to justice, and seems perfectly satisfied to let the others R. I. P.. and the murderers of wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, and fathers are allowed to occupy the best positions in the Territory. So much for the Great Boasted, “ Free “ Republic; and so much for “Christian” England in allowing her citizens to be thus deceived, enslaved, and slaughtered “for Christ’s sake.”

Editors Note: Jarman ends his treatise with several accounts of how terrible the Mormons are and that something must be done about them before they take over the world. It is indeed obvious from the many testimonies that many of the Mormons in early Utah, from Brigham on down, abused their power but then when we read the solutions to this abuse it appears that the solution proposed is worse than the problem. Jarman and the people he quotes wanted the U.S. government to wage outright war on the Mormons, even if it means a mass slaughter would be the result. These critics see this as the only solution. If Jarman is telling the truth then you can’t blame him for wanting to expose the abuses of Mormonism but then he wants to abuse the Mormons with more ferocity than they dished out.

In reality what did happen was much more harmless than many critics wanted and the charge was led by none other than the prophet’s son, Joseph Smith III who worked with Congress to create laws to force change without causing the shedding of blood.

From Jarman’s book I finish with a quoted sermon and a few words from Jarman himself. He gave quite a few other references but many repeat accusations already covered. JJ

A SERMON preached by the Rev. T. De WITT TALMAGE, D. D. in The Tabernacle, Brooklyn, U.S., on the 26th of September, 1880.

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord’ out of heaven.’-GENESIS xix.

SODOM and Salt Lake City are synonymous. You can hardly think of the one without thinking of the other. Both in fertile valleys-valley of Siddim, valley of Utah. Both near a salt, offensive, fishless dead sea; for Dr.. Robinson says there must have been a lake near by while yet ancient Sodom stood. Both the famous capitals of most accursed impurity. Both doomed.

In 1857, a company of emigrants started from Arkansas and Missouri for California. They were good, respectable, well-to-do people; but they had an idea that they might have larger comforts for their families on the other side of the mountains; so they undertook what always seems to be a terrible thing, traveling in the Wagon emigrant train. They suffered everything on the way. By night the fires kept off the wolves, and by day there was fatigue and hunger, and heat, and gentle womanhood fainting with the long journey, and children crying for rest. There were one hundred and seventy in that company.

They must needs cross Utah Territory, and in Utah nearly all the emigrant trains were accustomed to take in new supplies of provisions; but Brigham Young heard that this emigrant train was coming, and he forbade, under pain of death, any Mormon in Utah giving any clothing, or food, or medicine, or kindness of any sort, to these emigrants. It was a revenge for the fact that a man in Arkansas had slain Elder Pratt, of the Mormon Church, because he (Elder Pratt) had stolen the wife of the man in Arkansas, and taken her to Utah and into Mormonism.

On and on went this emigrant train, suffering all indignity, until they came to a plain called Mountain Meadow. The Indians dashed down upon the emigrants, but the emigrants threw up a barricade, and in this temporary fortress drove back the red men most successfully. Then the Mormon militia dashed down upon these emigrants; but you know how men will fight when they fight for their wives and children, and so the Mormon militia were driven back.

Still it was only with great peril that any one could leave the temporary fortress even to get water from the spring near by. There was great suffering from thirst, so one day they dispatched two little girls clad in white to bring water from the spring. They said, Most certainly the Mormon militia will not disturb them;’ but no sooner had they appeared outside the barricade than they were shot dead by the stream.

Petitions for relief were signed by all the emigrants, and by Oddfellows and Freemasons, who made appeals to members of their particular order. Three brave men volunteered to carry that petition for relief to California. An aged Methodist minister of the group, in prayer, commended these men to God, and the emigrants all knelt in supplication; but hardly had these three brave men started on their journey than they were butchered.

Time passed on, and one day wagons were seen coming. ‘Now,’ thought the poor emigrants, we shall have relief,’ and they could not restrain their glee at the thought of liberation. The wagons came up, and from them came a flag of truce, saying, If you emigrants will surrender, and put down your arms, you may walk out into perfect liberty, and you shall not be harmed.’ Thinking the proposition a fair proposition, it was accepted, and they put down their arms, according to the arrangement, and then the men marched out first, then came the women, and then came the children. After they were outside the barricade, the Mormon militia, with guns and hems and daggers, massacred all save a few little children, whom they thought to be too young to tell the story. Aged and young husbands and wives, parents and children, left dead on the plain! Women belonging to the emigrant train, who were sick and unable to walk, were then taken out by the Mormons into the presence of their murdered families, stripped of their clothing, shot dead, and hurled upon the heap of corpses.

The wagons, the stock of the train, the dresses of the women and their jewelry amounting in all to a property of 300,000 dollars, taken possession of by the Mormon Government. Years after, a Mormon woman, showing a silk dress that had been captured from the train-showing one of these silk dresses in Salt Lake City-one of the little girls that had been saved from the massacre recognized it. She said, ‘Oh! that’s my mother’s. Where’s mamma? Why don’t mamma come? Mamma used to wear that! ‘ and she burst into tears.

John D. Lee, the Merman Bishop, was the presiding spirit in person of the massacre, and when, fifteen or eighteen years after, in the court-room, he gave testimony, he said he had orders to do that from head-quarters; and it appeared on the evidence that Brigham Young had given orders as to the disposition of the property of these murdered people, and had told the witnesses to hush up, and all Christendom today holds that man responsible for the tragedy. No wonder, when years after he visited the scene and found that the bones of the emigrants had been decently buried by the officers of the United States Government, and General Carlton had put up a head-board by the grave, with the epitaph, the inscription’ Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord ‘-no wonder that Brigham Young, seeing that inscription, ordered it to be torn down.

It is the presiding spirit of the Mountain Meadow massacre that I arraign today for trial before you, the jury of Americans. It still lives. It has its throne in Salt Lake City, and its foot on the heart of dishonored women, and its breath is the pestilence of the nation. Gory, ghastly, hideous, infernal Mormonism, stand up and look into the faces of the American jury that is to try you.

This summer, as well as on a previous occasion, I had the opportunity of inspecting this iniquity, and of asking many questions, and having them answered by Mormons and anti-Mormons. Many of the Gentiles of Salt Lake City called on me and asked me that when I got home I should present the case before the people on this coast. I solemnly promised them, and this morning I fulfill my promise. In regard to the alleged subsidence of Mormonism, I have to tell you that 750 Mormons had arrived in Salt Lake City or Utah, just before we went to Utah, and that there was another company still larger approaching the city, and that there were 10,000 added last year, and that there will be more than that added this year.

Three hundred missionaries, sent out to gather up victims, travel all over this land, and in Sweden, and Norway, and Russia, and Germany, and England, and Wales, and Scotland. (Germany has now prohibited Mormons from Proselyting in that country.) Many Scotch Presbyterians were recently brought there: These missionaries are compelled to go out, although their families may suffer the greatest penury, for this whole system is cruel and Herodic. These missionaries go to those who are in the struggle of life, and they hide all the hideous deformities of Mormonism, and tell these people, ‘Now, if you will cross the ocean and go to Utah, you will have your expenses paid.; and when you get there you will have gardens and farms of your own, and your hardships will be ended for ever,’ No wonder some of these incautious people ‘ accept the invitation, and then fly from poverty to get into a most stupendous swindle. Oh! you ought to see the poor creatures carrying the tenth of their small income and the tenth of the small product of their farm or garden to the tithing-house of this insatiate institution. They are taxed until the blood comes. No escape but the grave. The co-operative societies and the co-operative stores of Utah are so many mills to grind out more money from the poor people to support a depraved priesthood.

I charge Mormonism with being one great and prolonged cruelty. Nobody denies the work of the destroying. angels called Danites, whose chief business it was to hunt up antagonism to the Mormon Government and put it to death. It was for’ the land of assassination and the field of blood.

No one doubts the Hickman butcheries under Brigham Young. I saw a cellar where a mother and two sons had been put to death, the mother slain in the presence of the two sons, and the two sons butchered, because they had revealed the secrets of the Mormon Government. The whole world has heard the story of the destruction of the Aiken party. And these Mormons have a delicious vernacular by which they describe this putting to death. They say all these things with a smile and a jeer. ‘Oh, they were put out of the way; or, ‘they met with a bad accident; ‘ or, they were used up; ‘ or, ‘ they were cut off just under their ears! ‘

Why have these atrocities stopped? Because a regiment of United States soldiers are on the hill overlooking the city, and with iron rake of destruction may rake that city if it attempts to repeat such atrocity. It is not because Mormonism is more merciful, but because it has not the courage.

I charge Mormonism with being a great blasphemy. Brigham Young in one of his sermons, declared that Christ himself was a practical polygamist; that Mary and Martha were his plural wives; that Mary Magdalene was another; and he said in the same sermon that the bridal feast in Cana of Galilee, where Christ turned water into wine, was the occasion of one of His own marriages! The whole tendency of the system is towards blasphemy. I was told over and over again that Brigham Young, with slight provocation, would swear like a fishwoman at Billingsgate.

I charge upon Mormonism that it is a disloyalty to the United States

Government. There is an oath taken in the endowment house at Salt Lake City, which subverts all other oaths. Perjury is no crime when enacted in behalf of Mormonism. Mormonism hates the Government of the United States with a perfect hatred. Fourth of July occasions and all patriotic demonstrations are an utter abhorrence to the Mormons, and the Gentile celebrators of the Fourth of July suffer every indignity. Mormonism would like to have the United States Government to perish today.

I charge upon Mormonism that it is an organized filth built on polygamy. There is a man in Salt Lake City who has three wives, and they are the mother, the grandmother, and the grand-daughter! I observed that there were additions built on the houses, and it was explained to me that, when a new wife is taken, then the house is enlarged, forgetting the fact that no house was ever large enough to hold two women married to the same man!

Think of a system which applauds a man for such things. Think of a system which teaches that the more wives a man lives with at the same time on the earth, the higher his honour in heaven. Think of a system which commends a man for living in marriage at the same time with three sisters. Think of a system which wrecks the happiness of every woman that touches it, for, I do not care what they say, God never made a woman who can cheerfully divide a husband’s love with another.

Every honest wife knows she has a right to the entire throne of her husband’s affection. They may smile to keep up appearances, but they have an agony of death, and the most pitiable thing in all the earth is an aged woman in Mormonism. The aged woman in other parts of the land we bow before; we take off our hat to her, we do her reverence. The softest chair in the house is grandmother’s chair. She is the queen on Christmas and Thanksgiving days. The older she gets, and the more wrinkles on her face, and the more stooped her shoulder, the more we think of her; and when God takes her away to the eternal rest, it seems as if three-fourths of the house were torn down. But a woman getting aged in Mormonism, she is shoved back, and is paid less and less attention, and is of less and less account. Why? Another has taken the throne, and, after awhile, she will be dethroned, and another will come up, and another.

I tell you Mormonism is one great surge of licentiousness; it is the seraglio of the Republic, it is the concentrated corruption of this land, it is the brothel of the nation, it is hell enthroned.

This miserable corpse of Mormonism has been rotting in the sun, and rotting and rotting and rotting for forty years, and the United States Government has not had the courage to bury it. Moreover, it is all the time gaining in influence. Mormonism once meant Utah; now to a certain extent it means Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico. Wider and wider and wider, and greater and greater and greater. It is going forth to debauch this nation. You have no idea of the influence it is having in American politics, or what it has already done at Washington. Mormonism receives 1,000,000 dollars every year through the tithing system, and has plenty of money with which to effect national legislation. The subject was brought before Congress and the matter referred to a Committee, and one of the members of the Committee said in derision, What do you make all this fuss about polygamy for? Those Mormons out there make a religion of having four or five wives, while some of us members of Congress practice the same iniquity without any religion! ‘ A stout effort is being made to introduce Utah as a State of the Union, and if it be accomplished the United States govemment puts its broad seal of approbation upon this stupendous indecency

Now,’ you say, ‘what is best to be done? ‘ Execute the law against polygamy. What right has the law to punish a man for bigamy, if one foot this side of Utah he have two wives, when one foot the other side the law lets him have twenty? What right has the law to smite libertinism in other parts of this country when there it licenses it? Are these Mormons the pets and the darlings of the nation, that they should have especial regulations? Do you believe that filthy pool of iniquity can stand in the midst of this continent and not have the whole air poisoned with the malaria? Mormonism is an insult to every home, to every church, to every father, every mother, every sister, and the curse of Almighty God will come down on this nation unless we extirpate it.

What! ‘ say you, would you interfere with a man’s religion? ‘ Oh! no. If these Mormons want to believe that Joseph Smith was God, or that Brigham Young is the second person of the Trinity, the law has no right to interfere with them. But Mormonism not only antagonizes Christianity; it antagonizes good morals, and the infidel and the Christian stand side by side in denouncing Mormonism as a foe to free institutions. Then, I say, away with it! Moral persuasion first, if possible; but moral persuasion will not accomplish it. They have declared, over and over again, that they will let their city go down under the bombshell before they will surrender polygamy, and I tell you that Mormonism will never be destroyed until it is destroyed by the guns of the United States Government.

It would not be war. I hate war. It would be national police duly executing the law against polygamy. Why did they not let General Johnson in 1857, with his 2,500 troops sent out under the order of President Buchanan, march right on until they did their work? President Buchanan never was charged with excessive courage, and he sent out Governor Powell, of Kentucky, and Major McCullough, of Tennessee, to offer pardon to all the Mormons who would put down their arms, and there has not been a President of the United States with enough moral courage since to clean out that national stable.

We all go to look at it. President Grant went to look at it. Secretary Schurz went to look at it. Secretary Thompson went to look at it. President Hayes went to look at it. Everybody goes to look at it. We cross the continent, and it is one of the arts of Mormonism to be very gracious to public men. The Mormons struggle as to who shall have the privilege of entertainment. I never addressed a more genial audience in my life than last August in the Mormon opera-house, a great many Mormons present. They bow you into the city, and they bow you out of the city, and none of us dare touch them. We all want to be Congressmen, or President of the United States, or Minister to England, and if we oppose Mormonism it will oppose our political interests. And so, if I were an aspirant for any political office, this sermon might perhaps be very impolitic.

If there be any truth in the transmigration of souls, I hope that the soul of Andrew Jackson will get into the body of some of our Presidents, and make proclamation that within thirty days all these Mormons must decide upon one wife, or go to jail, or quit the country. Then have Congress make provisions for the carrying out of this order. If the Mormons submit to the law, all right. If not, then send out troops of the United States Government, and let them make the Mormon Tabernacle their head-quarters, and with cannon of the biggest bore thunder into them the seventh commandment. Arbitration by all means; but if that will not do, then peaceful proclamation. If that will not do, then howitzer, and bombshell, and bullets, and cannon-ball.

If a gang of thieves should squat on a territory and make thievery a religion, how long would the United States Government stand that? Yet a community founded on theft would not be so bad as a community founded on the grave of desolated, destroyed, imbruted womanhood.

I call the attention of the American Congress to this evil. The hour has come. Let some Senator of the United States at the next meeting of Congress, or some member of the House of Representatives, with eloquent tongue and persistent purpose, and good morals of his own, lift the anti-Mormon standard, and then unroll the tragedy and outrages of that appalling system before the Government and before the people, and that man will gather around him all the sympathies of all the families, and all the Churches, and all the reformers, and all the high-toned men and women of America. The thing has got to be done. It is only a question of when. Let this man of whom I speak in the name of God go forth and do his duty, and he will at the same time make his political fortune. Come, now, instead of exhuming the wrapped-up and entombed mummy of negro slavery, and tossing it about in these Presidential elections, have one live question-Mormonism, the white slavery of today, and have it decided at the ballot-box whether that institution shall go forth with its pestiferous influence, or whether, under the law of our civilization and the stroke of the law, it shall perish.

But,’ says some one, that would be a very expensive crusade.’ It would not cost the United States Government one farthing. Confiscate so much of the Mormon domain as is necessary to pay for the extermination and take some of those vast sums of money that are being poured into the lap of that old mother of harlots, and pay it out as honest taxes to support the United States Government. Utah is rich enough to pay for all the costly and expensive surgery of taking out this dripping cancer of Mormonism. Let the pulpits and the platforms and the printing-press agitate and agitate, and agitate until Congress and the White House shall hear rumbling all around the sky the storm of popular indignation against this gigantic, organized, and national crime.

I make no war against Mormonism as a religion. I war against Mormonism as an immorality, as a defiance of civil law, as an institution anti-American. When Brigham Young’s men, with bowie-knives, broke up Judge Drummond’s court in 1856, and compelled him to adjourn it sine die, and when Mormonism poised loose rocks on the top of cliffs where you may see them to this day, expecting to throw them over on the United States troops as they passed under, Mormonism showed what she thought of our Government.

Now as I have empanelled you as a jury to sit in trial of this giant of lust and disloyalty, and the evidence has been presented before you, are you ready for the verdict before you leave the jury-box? Guilty or not guilty? Guilty,’ says one. Guilty,’ say all.

Then what shall the sentence be? It must not be a small incarceration; it must not be a slight censure. While we have only pity for the victims of this abomination, and we pray God He will speedily deliver them, for this institution of Mormonism, as such, only extinction and death. But where shall be the execution, and when shall the execution take place? What scaffolding will be strong enough to hold such a monster of iniquity? One end of the scaffolding must be planted on the Rocky Mountains and the other on the Sierra Nevadas. But what Friday of what gloomy week, of what gloomy month, of what gloomy year would be gloomy enough for the execution of this beastly outlaw? What grave deep enough for this stout, thousand-armed, thousand-footed, thousand-headed, thousand-horned, thousand-fanged corpse? What epitaph for that grave unless it be this:-

Here lies Mormonism, the outlaw, the libertine, and the murderer, the hero of Mountain Meadow massacre. Born February 22, 1827. Died 1882 at the hand of the law and under the instruction of the Almighty. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven.’

Oh! good people of the United States, whether I address you face to face or through the printing-press, which every Monday morning in most of our cities gives me an audience-for which I am very thankful-whatever way I reach your ear or your eye I have to tell you that, unless we destroy Mormonism, Mormonism will destroy us. If God be good and pure and just He will not let this nation go unwhipped much longer if we allow that iniquity to go unchallenged. Every day as a nation we consent to Mormonism we are defying the hail, and the lightning, and the trumpet, and the drought, and the mildew, and the epidemic, and the plague, and the hurricane, and the earthquake of an incensed God.

My plea this morning is in behalf of fifteen thousand Gentiles, who in Utah are suffering persecution for their principles, or speechless because they do not want their commercial interests sacrificed.

I plead for thousands of foreigners who, deceived and betrayed from their own country, have been introduced into Mormonism, and, thousands of miles away from their native country, can make no resistance, but must live and die in dumb despair.

I plead for womanhood in Utah-,womanhood under foot, womanhood in the sewer, womanhood crushed until it cannot weep, womanhood looking out of the barred windows of a perdition of anguish towards what seems an unpitying heaven, crying, O Lord! how long, O Lord! ‘-womanhood in the pandemonium of a polygamous home-womanhood with the garlands of hope and affection and honour torn with the swine’s snout of incestuous abomination-womanhood that, if it had a chance, or had had a chance in the past, would have been as pure and good as that which presides at your table today, or which long ago bent in benediction over your peaceful cradle before you began the struggle with the world.

Oh men with wives and daughters and mothers; Oh brothers with sisters, do not your ears tingle, and does not your blood run cold at this story of Mormonism? And are you not determined at the ballot-box, and with pen and tongue, and in every possible way, to war against it? Oh you wives, who will to-night kneel before God, thanking Him for the home in which you are the undisputed queen-Oh mothers with daughters coming up honoured and defended, no rough hand to touch them from cradle to grave, will you not in your prayers today sympathize with your sisters who are dying the slow death of Mormonism?

Oh ye aged couples, who have been in each other’s company for thirty, or forty, or fifty years, climbing the hill of life together, and now going down on the other side the hill in the light of the setting sun; but all the way up and all the way down supreme in each other’s affections; united in holy marriage so long ago that all the witnesses but God are dead; your sympathies strengthened by the birth-hour, when one life was spared and another added, and by the grave over which both your hearts broke at once her face, with all the wrinkles more attractive now to you than when rosy with youth, because it is written all over with precious memories side by side, so long, so long, so long, that when God takes one of you He will soon take the other-Oh ye aged couple, remember this day, in prayer before God, those to whom old age brings neglect and dethronement of affection. And may the God who setteth the solitary in families bless all our homes. The best cornerstone for the republic is the hearthstone. May God keep it inviolate! (Amen.’)

As I hope to meet John Henry Smith when I lecture in Liverpool shortly I prefer to say more then. He certainly will come to my lectures, for I always state in my circulars the following:

Sir, I challenge those Mormon Missionaries who are now in England to refute my Accusations.

Not one of them has come forward to meet me as yet, I sincerely wish they would. What are they afraid of? I am not a “Danite.” The fact is they cannot, dare not meet me, so they have taken their usual course, Defamation of character. They wish the public to believe that I am a “vile fellow” not worthy of credence, so that I may not get audiences. Why vilify? If my statements in regard to them are false, they could easily prove – it. But they well know that what I say is true and that I dare not tell it all, for it is too indecent.

THE REMEDY.

As with slavery, the American Government will seek to remedy the Mormon evil by Pacific measures and dally with the question until compelled to settle it by force of arms. The sooner an army is sent to Utah to compel obedience to the law the better. For during the delay the Mormon power is increasing. They have already made fast friends of the Indians, and well armed them. They are busy in the Southern States making converts to Mormonism, for whipped on the slave question, the South have little or no love for the U. S. Government, and the Mormons are successfully winning the disaffected Southerners and firing their hearts with the hope that the South, Mormons and Indians combined will sever the union of States, firmly establish the Southern Confederacy, and concentrate a great Mormon and Indian power in the West. I know this to be the Mormon programme, and all they ask is to be let alone till they have time to perfect their plans.

If the American Government wish to avert a bloody struggle they must at once stop Mormon intrigue in the South; place the Indians under complete control, and imprison every Mormon convert that arrives at Castle Garden or any other part of the United States. For foreigners are brought to Utah on purpose to build up the Mormon power and to fight against the Government and people of the United States, and for immoral purposes.

Let Congress pass a law disfranchising all who wear the “Endowment Garment” and have taken the Endowment House Oaths; by those oaths they have virtually disfranchised themselves: All who remain faithful to these-oaths must be disloyal to every other Government but that of the Mormon Church.

Then let the Government send plenty of troops to preserve order, and aid in establishing proper schools, free from Mormon dictation. Discharge all Mormon Postmasters and Postmistress so that the people can communicate with their friends without fear of their letters being over-hauled or stopped, and let all the offices of the Territory be held by Non-Mormons.

I would also advise the Government to aid the “ Josephites “ or true law-abiding Mormons all in its power, to disseminate their principles of law and order among the Utah Fanatics, for there are thousands that will never be satisfied with anything but Mormonism, hence they should be supplied with the best there is. This is the best Remedy I can suggest short of a war of extermination.

A fund should also be raised to assist those who wish to leave the Territory. .

No Mormon should be allowed a seat in Congress, for he is there only in the interest of Mormonism.

Take from the Mormon Church the power to perform the marriage ceremony, and have all marriages solemnized by Non-Mormon Judges, or ministers of other denominations. For though I use the words “Mormon Church,” I do not consider Mormonism a Religion. I have seen enough of it to convince me that it is an infernal despotism which seeks only political power and aggrandizement under the cloak of religion. I challenge the whole of the so-called “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” to produce one Christian man or woman among the lot. Among the dupes there are sincere Mormons, but no Christians. A Christian could not remain among them, and thousands who were devout Christians when they joined the Mormons, are to day thorough infidels. We may as well try to find Christians among Mohammedans as among Mormons.

Hell on Earth, Part 13

This entry is part 43 of 50 in the series 2011A

WHAT I SUFFERED-THROWN INTO DUNGEONS-MY GRAVE DUG-
HOW I ESCAPED AND GOT OUT OF HELL.

After quoting so much I deem it right to give a little of my own experience. Space prevents my giving in full the three “Patriarchal Blessings” I received so I give extracts as follows:-

“ Salt Lake City, Utah, April, 13th, 1869.

“A blessing given by John Smith, Patriarch, upon the head of William Jarman, son of John and Ann Jarman, born in London, Middlesex, England, April 1st, 1837.

“Brother William, I lay my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazereth, to pronounce and seal a blessing upon thee. Therefore be at rest in thy mind and look forward to the future, that you may comprehend the blessings which are in store for the faithful. For thou art of the blood of Joseph and a descendant of Ephraim, and have a great work to perform in thy day. The Lord bath had his eye upon thee for years, and thou art numbered among the One Hundred and forty-four thousand saviours of men * * *

Thou shalt confound the wisdom of the wicked, and set at naught the counsel of the unjust. Thou shalt converse with the noblemen of the earth and they shall wonder at thy wisdom; for thou shalt be filled with the spirit of he Lord above many of thy fellows. * * * Thou shalt also be blessed in thy outgoings and in thy incomings, Spiritually and Temporarily, and also be prospered in the labor of thy hands, and thy name shall be perpetuated upon the earth, and handed down with thy posterity in honorable remembrance, and written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and Registered in the Chronicles of thy Fathers with thy Brethren. This blessing I seal upon thy head, and I call thee up unto Eternal Life to come forth in the morning of the First Resurrection-Even so Amen. Recorded in Book A. page 903.”

The Patriarch, John Young, Brigham’s brother, gave me a blessing for two dollars, which is dirt cheap. It covers four pages of “ Foolscap “ closely written, in which I am confirmed “An Heir to the Holy Priesthood” as well as being “one of the 144,000 virgins without guile.” I am also a Jew though born of Gentile parents, “Being a literal descendent of Ephraim,” I am to “obtain a fullness of the Holy Priesthood in the own due time of the Lord. Also, “Wives and children and a numerous posterity on the earth, even upon Mount Zion.”

Then comes a sentence which makes me a good catch for Insurance Company or Sick Benefit Society, it says: I seal upon your head the blessings of life and of health and prosperity and say you shall live on the earth till your hair becomes as white as the pure wool.” I am to become “ Saviour upon Mount Zion; and clothed upon with Priestly Garments and have power to officiate in the holy ordinances; be numbered among the great and the good, and receive an inheritance in the New Heavens and New Earth.’, After pronouncing blessings innumerable, this Patriarch winds up with “These blessings I seal upon you according to the holy order committed to the servants of the Lord to bind on earth and bind for heaven, and I do it by the power of the priesthood in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so, Amen.”

The Patriarch C. W. Hyde “ blessed “ me real nice, one of his wives wrote it down and gave me a copy. He began with, “William, I place my hands upon thy head and seal upon you a Patriarchal Blessing, for the eye of the Lord has been upon thee from Everlasting to do a great and a mighty work in this Kingdom, and no weapon formed against thee shall prosper for the Lord has given his Angels charge over you that you may live long upon the earth to promote the glory and interest of the Kingdom of God on this Earth and thou shalt stand before Kings and rulers to proclaim this Gospel * * * Thou shalt have power to do any miracle that was ever done * * * Have power to open prisons. * * * Thou art of the house of Ephraim and a right to the fullness of the Priesthood with wives and a great Kingdom upon the Earth * * * you shall stand on the earth at the coming of the Messiah * * * Thou shalt lead many to Zion with the rich treasures to help rear the Temple * “ You shall redeem your father’s household. These blessings I seal upon your head with Eternal lives with your father’s household, forever and ever, Amen. Recorded in Book E. page 792,”

The price of these Patriarchal Blessings is Two Dollars per “ Bless.”

Notwithstanding the great and manifold “blessings,” the Endowment House had so shaken my faith in Mormonism that I cared very little for my “ High and Holy Calling.” I became acquainted with a “ Cockney “ who felt about as I did, we both wished ourselves back in London. One day when calling on my Cockney friend, he introduced me to two of the “ brethren “ who had participated in the Mountain Meadow Massacre. I had heard of the affair as “an Indian Massacre,” and was surprised to find that the Mormons were the principal actors in that fearful tragedy. When I learnt from these men the facts, I felt that to be associated with such a band of murderers would make me equally guilty. How could I uphold such deeds? I could never call these men “my brothers.” I went at once to Brigham Young and demanded to have my name erased from their books, for I could no longer remain a Mormon, and told him the reason. On leaving Brigham he said to me “Oh ta, ta if you are going; You’ve got it bad, I see; your case shall be attended to.”

Up to this time my life was burdensome, but now having asserted my rights and dared to be free, and having left the abominable Church, I felt more easier, I was indeed a converted man. I prepared to battle with the inevitable, for I knew the awful fate that awaits “Apostates.” They do not always kill them. Off times they are declared insane, and confined in a wretched Asylum. I am sorry I have not space to give the abundance of proof I have on this point.

Even since I commenced writing this book, an American Lady has sent me a copy of her new book, entitled “Elder Northfield’s Home, or Sacrificed on the Mormon Altar, a story of the blighted curse of Polygamy.” A New York paper says of it:-” It tells the story of an English girl who, becoming infatuated with a Mormon elder accompanies him to Utah. It will open the eyes of the mothers and fathers of the land to a curse which is darker than the shackles of slavery, more deadly than the plagues of Egypt.” I have read the book with much interest. It tells how the girl was trapped, her life in Utah Slavery, her attempted escape and captured; then placed in a lunatic asylum. It is a thrilling story; those of my readers who can afford one dollar should send to Mrs. Jennie Bartlett, Monson, Mass. U.S.A., the Authoress, for a copy. It beats all the novels in the world, and dearly shows the Mormon Insanity dodge.

I naturally thought that as they knew of my asylum episode I should be pronounced insane, and speedily “die a raving maniac.” Fearing they might place their “ Danites” or “Destroying Angels” on my track, I made a friend of a “Chief Danite,” who lived near me. I bought him. The price was high, but my readers will soon see that it was a good investment, for not long after my interview with Brigham, the Bishop waited on me, and gave me to understand that my blood must be shed to atone for my sins. I preferred to remain in my sins rather than have my throat cut, and told him so. I was not ready to acquiesce as he wished, and he went away “ disgusted “ with me.

A few days after my “ Danite friend” came to me on the Q. T. He said, For God’s sake be careful; never show out after dark; when the chickens go to roost you go too.” I told him that in London we seldom retired so early, I was afraid that going to bed so soon would prevent my sleeping, and make an awful long night of it. He smiled, promised to do me a good turn if he could, and we parted.

I kept a good look out, and so did the Mormon leaders, for one evening having met an old friend in the City, it was dark when I left him to go home. My house was in the suburbs, and I had some distance to go. When I got near home my Danite friend met me, pushed me back hurriedly and whispered, “Go back, your grave is dug in your garden; two men are waiting at your gate, and we have to kill you. Don’t go home to-night; swear you ain’t seen me, or you and I are both dead men.”

Had I gone home the reader’s eyes would not now be resting on these pages. Thousands that wished to inform the world, as I am now doing, are in their graves; as the Mormons say, “Dead men tell no tales.”

The next morning I went to my “Hell upon Earth.” Before going in, I found my NEW DUG GRAVE in the garden. I looked down into my grave, a sight seldom witnessed by mortal eyes. The reader may have looked into the grave of a relative or friend, but into his own, never. I cannot describe my thoughts as I stood there by the side of my grave, which, but for the timely warning would now contain my body. There and then I swore that if spared to escape from that awful Sodom, I would spend the balance of my days in exposing the abominable evils of Mormonism.

“The spirit of the times can be gathered from the following beautiful expressions of President Young, his apostle son Brigham, and General D. H. Wells, then Mayor of the city, in a meeting of 1,500 men. Brigham Young, Jr.,, said That fellow Sherman said the other night coming down the street that he felt rather timid about coming out after dark. I know the reason why he felt timid; he knows that he should be killed. That’s what’s the matter. Any man who violates his covenant should be killed! ‘ President Young assented to this beautiful speech of his apostle by the nodding of his head, and when young Brigham had sat down the old man said: That man is an unprofitable servant that his master has to tell him to do everything. Brethren whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Then Gen: D. H. Wells stood on his feet and said: ‘The best thing that we can do for these men is to kill them.” Extract from Salt Lake Tribune.

The usual plan of breaking up the Apostates’ home was resorted to. The doctrine that no woman is saved but through her husband means that if the husband leaves the church the wife must leave him or she also is lost. My wife was, and still is a Mormon fanatic. The Probate Judge and Great High, Priest gave her a bill of divorce and most of my real estate. The second wife then wished to be legally married. This was done as I afterwards found to secure the balance of my property, as she could also get a divorce and property with it when married. Prior to the first wife’s divorce, I had been commanded to put my stock of drapery into the Mormon Co-operative Store, just then started. This I refused to do; I had paid the tenth of it into the church, as tithing. If a man or woman has but 10 shillings on arriving in “Zion,” they must give one to the church, and ever after the tenth of all their earnings. I give one verse from their “ Sacred “ Hymns in the Mountain Warbler, p. 67:-

“ TUNE= King Of the Cannibal Islands.”

“Now, male and female, rich and poor, who wish to keep your standing sure,
That you salvation may secure. Come forward and pay up your tithing.
A tenth that is and nothing less, of all you do or may possess:
In flocks and herds, and their increase; in pigs and poultry, ducks and geese;
A tenth, indeed of all your toil, likewise the products of the soil;
And if you’ve any wine or oil, come forward, and pay up your tithing!”

CHORUS-
Then, if to prosper you desire, and wish to keep out of the fire,
Nay, if you to be Saints aspire, come forward and pay up your tithing.

I had “come forward,” paid my tithing, and now they wanted the other nine-tenths. I failed to see the point. The first day I arrived in “Zion,” the Bishop overhauled my fourteen boxes and bales of silks, velvets, linen, broadcloth, &c., and said, “The Church will open a store shortly, you can put these. goods in and receive stock in the concern and a situation when we start. You see Brother Jennings, obtain a situation in his store so as to learn how business is done here.” I got the situation and went to work. This was a trap as you will see. Mormons are so tricky, and suspecting everybody, they fix matters, so that if a man dares assert his rights, or fails to “obey counsel” they have him, as in my case.

I showed Jennings my goods and tried to sell them to him, but he refused to purchase. The Church Store was duly opened, and as stated, I was – “ counseled “ to put my stock into the concern; but I had been through the-Endowment House, and wished to turn my goods into money and “Hook it.” While planning a disposal of my goods, a policeman came with a warrant, arrested me on a charge of stealing these goods from Jennings and Co.. Teasdale and Sadler, the partners of Jennings were there to swear to the goods and seize them. I was dragged off to a dungeon, while Teasdale and Sadler hauled my goods in wagons to their private office.

When brought into the Mormon court for examination, I sent for my – attorney and the proceedings commenced. “ Brothers “ Jennings, Teasdale – and Sadler swore to the goods, “BECAUSE THERE IS OUR PRIVATE MARK UPON THEM.” When I saw the marks I felt overcome. There were the goods. I had purchased in England with their private mark thereon. My attorney reserved his defense and asked for bail. This was put so high it was impossible – for me to obtain it, and I was thrust back into the dungeon, here with a poor wretch who had not changed his linen for seven months.

The Mormon Grand Jury brought in a Bill of Indictment against me consisting of THIRTEEN different counts or charges, covering FORTY-TWO-pages of Legal Cap. Lawyers think of it for a moment! I have the copy of that Indictment now before me, but its length precludes its insertion here.

Any lawyer can see it at my lectures, I hope to have copies printed and placed in the hands of every lawyer in England and America. It’s a legal curiosity which charges me with stealing 15,767 dollars worth of my own goods. It is so framed that if I cleared one charge there were 12 charges more to clear, and if I managed to clear the first 12 charges, the thirteenth was fixed so as to make it impossible for me to clear it. Then I should have at least two years in Jail, and my property confiscated to the Mormon Church.

A few days before the trial, my attorney, who came to see me, was afraid I should be a corpse before the time set for my trial if I remained in that dungeon. He induced the prosecuting attorney to prevail upon the High Priest Judge to lower the bail. This was done, and I was liberated on bail.

To describe my trial which occupied two weeks, is impossible. I secured an extra attorney and did the best I could. We successfully proved that the goods were not marked when taken to the private office of Jennings and Co., that they remained in that office three days and nights, and when first seen after that they were marked. Besides on my way to Utah, when arriving at the Railway Terminus, my boxes were shunted on a plank from the car to the wagons, one of the boxes fell off and was smashed and its contents scattered. Those who gathered the things and helped pack them, swore that I had those very goods 500 miles back, and a month before I reached Salt Lake City.

I cleared 12 charges, but the 13th charged that on the last day their Store was open prior to turning over the concern to the big Church Store, I stole from “ Brothers “ Jennings, Teasdale and Sadler 300 dollars in money These “Brothers” swore to it. Their Cashier and Bookkeeper corroborated and produced the firms’ books to show that on that day when every salesman was equally busy and returned over 300 dollars each to the Cashier, I who had been just as busy all day had only returned five dollars according to their books and oaths; consequently I must have pocketed at least 300 dollars on that particular day.

When the Court adjourned for the night, I went to my attorneys’ office, where I met Mr. Durkee the “ Gentile “ Governor of Utah. After stating the case to him I asked, “Can you do anything for me? “ He replied, “I do not see that I can. I am the Governor of the Territory, but Brigham Young is the Governor of the People. A Gentile Governor in Utah is the biggest farce on Earth.” Mr. Durkee sent for other lawyers, who consulted with my attorneys in reference to the matter.

These gentlemen said “though you have ‘cleared the 12 charges, that 13th is a clincher put there on purpose to secure your conviction and your goods. You cannot go behind their books and I prove them false; look at the vast array of testimony on that point from the three members of the firm, their Bookkeeper and also their Cashier. That is a thing we never attempt to do; its useless and your conviction is sure.”

Governor Durkee wrote out a free Pardon. I was now to become “A Pardoned Convict.” Crushed, weary and heavy laden, I left to go home being still on bail. Pen cannot describe my feelings as I wended my way home in the dark. Suddenly I heard distinctly “Can’t you see?” Thinking it was someone in the garden I was passing. I took but little notice of it. I had not proceeded far when it seemed to be uttered immediately behind me this time–” Can’t you see? “ I turned but saw no one, it was very dark. Thinking someone was near I called out “See what! “ the answer came “the date! the date! 20th of February-The Last Day! “ All at once it came to my I mind that I could remember a few who had dealt with me on that day, for every one who could, made purchases then, as the shops were all to be closed for one week. I thought of a man and his wife who had made extensive purchases that day. I went at once to their house. I asked “Do you remember buying some goods of me in Jennings’ Store the last day it was opened?” “Oh yes,” replied the wife, “I bought that 18 dollar shawl and-”

“Excuse me” I said “Do you remember how much your bill was?”

The husband replied, “Yes, I have the account,” producing which he said” 44 dollars and 50 cents.”

I asked “Do you know if the goods were paid for and how?”

He replied “You gave me this bill,” producing it, “and after I examined and found it correct you sent it with a 50 dollar bill to the Cashier, and five dollars and 50 cents change came back.”

I asked, “Do you know who the Cashier was and the cash-boy who took the money?”

The man and his wife both declared they could swear that the Cashier was N. H. Felt, and the cash-boy his son, and they both saw the boy give the 50 dollar bill to his father and receive from him the change, which the boy brought to me.

I thanked them and said that what they had told me must be sworn to in Court and that subpoenas would be presented them next morning. Here then I had evidence to prove those books wrong or the Cashier a thief. His books returned only five dollars as my total sales for the day, here was one sale of 44 and a half dollars, and the money seen to go into the Cashier’s hands by two witnesses. I then went to others I thought of. The next man and wife could swear tot over 70 dollars they saw the Cashier receive from me in about the same manner, and before the Court opened next morning I had many witnesses who could swear they saw me send to the Cashier that day over 300 dollars.

That “busted up” the 13th charge, and as nothing more remained, against me. I saw Brigham’s private reporter who had been present through the trial, rush out, and shortly return and hand a note to the Judge. When this High Priest Judge delivered his charge to the Jury of Priests, Elders and Teachers, he told them to acquit, and to pay no attention to the opinions he had hitherto expressed. He had considered me guilty and had so stated, but now at the close of the trial he had reason to change his mind. I was acquitted amid the hurrahs of the crowded court.

Though I had 13 witnesses whose testimony unrebutted was now on file and they were ready again to offer the same evidence which must convict that Cashier, yet “Brother Jennings” never brought “Brother Felt” to trial. How’s that? Echo answers in true Yankee style “ How? “ Then answers by asking “Was their books fixed for the occasion? “ and then replies “ They-were; “ the same infernal agency that prompted the marking of my goods, fixed the books also.

This “ Brother “ Jennings is the “Hon.” William Jennings, a member of the Legislature, a commander in the “Navoo Legion of cut throats” and Director of the “Deseret Bank,” run by “Apostles and Priests, by inspiration and revelation,” like the “Kirtland Bank” which “busted.” Yet over the-door of this “Revelation Bank” may be seen in large letters “U. S. (Uncle Sam’s) Repository.” This I fail to understand. When U. S. Grant visited: Salt Lake City, he wined and dined with this “Hon.” Wm. Jennings.

The Mormon Sheriff, R. T. Burton, the chief actor in the Morrisite Massacre, where women were murdered “for Christ’s sake,” seized my goods ere they left the Court, to pay bills I never contracted.

“The Utah Daily Reporter,” August 5th, 1869, says:-” The great larceny case against William Jarman, in the Probate Court, ended Saturday night at twelve o’clock in a verdict of NOT GUILTY.’ This case has excited a great deal of comment throughout the City. It is the greatest case of larceny that has ever been tried in this Territory, involving property to a large amount, and many nice points of law. Mr. Jarman, it appears from the testimony in the case, arrived here last fall, bringing with him an assortment of merchandize and a large amount of money earned by him in England.

“He obtained a clerkship with William Jennings and Co., where he remained six months, when Jennings and Co. sold out to the Co-operative Association; Mr. Jarman became involved in a difficulty with the Church authorities and withdrew from fellowship.

“From this time the hand of persecution followed him with relentless -energy, and finally culminated in a charge of grand larceny, preferred by Jennings and Co. The principal witnesses for the prosecution were Mr. Teasdale and Mr. Sadler, of the firm of Jennings and Co.; but their testimony was exceedingly contradictory, and the defense introduced witnesses to impeach and contradict their testimony. The defense introduced overwhelming testimony to disprove the charge and an acquittal was the result.

From fifty to Sixty witnesses were examined during the trial, which occupied twelve days, and the attorneys for the accused consumed eleven hours in summing up the testimony before the jury. Z. Snow, Esq., appeared for the prosecution’ and R. H. Robertson and H. W. Isaacson, Esqs., for the accused. The result is received with universal satisfaction by the people, who believed the charge unfounded from the beginning.”

One night soon after the trial I was sent for to see a “ Saint “ on urgent “business. It was 10 p.m. when we sat down to talk business. He touched upon all sorts of topics; when I broached business he said, “Don’t hurry! won’t you take something?” and fetching in whisky said, “Do take some, ‘ it’ll do you good! “ I steadfastly declined; had I been a drinker and taken some then, it would have been my death, for stupified with drink, and that drugged, they could quietly put me with the others who tell no tales; but by keeping my brain clear I was always conscious, knew my danger, and kept on the look out. Who can blame me for abstaining from alcoholic drink?

The “ Saint “ kept discoursing upon all sorts of topics quite foreign to that I had come to talk about. I sat till 12 o’clock, then arose, said, “It’s midnight, I’ll see you to-morrow.”

He replied “I go off early, to be gone sometime; we will settle this matter now, sit down.”

I felt forced by an irrepressible power to hurry off. I got into the hall, found the door locked and key gone. I shouted “Open the door! “ He asked “Are you armed” seeing me place my hands to my pistol pockets. I at once presented a pair of -revolvers to his astonished gaze. The door was opened instantly. I got into ‘the middle of the road, and fearing Danites might come up behind me I kept whirling around and presenting my pistols ready to fire, and thus I got home. (The sequel of this follows shortly.)

Hell on Earth, Part 11

This entry is part 28 of 50 in the series 2011A

From page 302, The Rocky Mountain Saints

I was at a Sunday meeting in Provo, when the news of the San Pete castration was referred to by the presiding bishop-Blackburn. Some men in Provo had rebelled against authority, and Blackburn shouted in his Sunday meeting-a mixed congregation of all ages and both sexes I want the people of Provo to understand that the boys in Provo can use the knife as well as the boys in San Pete. Boys, get your knives ready, there is work for you! We must not be behind San Pete in good works.’

“This man, Blackburn, was continued in office at least a year after this, and was afterwards taken from his bishopric and sent on a mission to England.

“Many young women were forced to break off engagements with young men whom they loved, to gratify a bishop’s preference, a missionary’s feelings or a great elder’s desires.”

– From Apostle Kimball’s Sermon:-

“ I would not be afraid to promise a man who is 60 years of age, if he -will take the counsel of Brother Brigham and his brethren, he will renew his age. I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his work and word. Some of you may not believe this; but I not only believe it, but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business, for it is as much as we can do to keep under the burdens we have to carry, and do not know what we should do if we only had one woman apiece.”

From a “Sermon” delivered by Dr. Clinton, Justice of the Peace. Speaking of some men and women that he was not exactly pleased with and after using language unfit for publication, the Doctor said:-

“ They ought to be shot with a double-barreled shot gun. That is my doctrine; take a double-barrelled shot gun and follow them, and when you catch them, shoot them to pieces. I am the Justice of the Peace, I an the-Coroner of the County, but I will never ‘find’ you, I will guarantee that.”

Bishop E. Wooley followed the J. P., and said:- “I would do as the Doctor says, KILL THEM * * * Tear down their houses. THERE IS NO HELP FOR THEM * * * we will do as the Doctor said, and have a clean record.” Salt Lake Daily Review, extra.

One of the “Apostles was to be privileged with the honour of pulling the nose of little Vic.! ‘ (Queen Victoria).” Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 206.

27 years ago the American Government sent an Army to Utah to whip the Mormons into obedience of law and order. But the Mormons were victorious. There was a “high old time” in Utah. The Priest Journalist on page 372 Rocky Mountain Saints says:-” It was the gayest time ever known in Utah, dancing and theatrical amusements everywhere, while the songs of the Mormon camps, adapted to the popular negro melodies were heard in all their assemblies. The Sunday worship was enlivened with the jovial chorus of Dudah.’ After partaking of the Lord’s supper the following was sung,

‘There’s seven hundred wagons on the way, Du dah!

And their cattle are numerous, so they say, Du dah! du dah day!

Now, to let them perish would be a sin, Du dah!

So we’ll take all they’ve got for bringing them in, Du dah! Du dah day!

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, by Brigham Young to stand,

And if our enemies do appear, we’ll sweep them off the land.. ‘Old Sam has sent, I understand, Du dah!

A Missouri ass to rule our land, Du dah! Du dah day!

But if he comes, we’ll have some fun, Du Dab!

To see him and his juries run, Du dah! Du dah day.

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, &c.

Old Squaw-killer Harney is on the way, Du dab!

The Mormon people for to slay, Du dab! Du dab day

Now if he comes the truth tell, Du dah!

Our boys will drive him down to hell, Du dab! Du dah day!”

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, &c.

“It is too lengthy to give entire-about 16 verses.-From such lyrical effusions as these, sung during divine worship’ in the Tabernacle, the elevated tone of the sermons can be imagined.”

“During this Mormon War,’ the Saints,’ who were ‘spoiling for a fight,’ burned two provision trains, one of 31 and the other of 23 wagons, and drove off their animals, causing great want in the Army. The American officer in command, having no use for 80 of the teamsters after the wagons were burnt, discharged them. They concluded to go to California. In passing through Salt Lake City, a Mormon armed guard was furnished to see-them safe through. The following is a copy of the “ orders “ in regard to these teamsters:-Life in Utah, p. 194.

SALT LAKE CITY, April 9th, 1858.

“The (Mormon) officer in command of escort is hereby ordered to see that every man is well prepared with ammunition and have it ready at the-time you see those teamsters a hundred miles from the settlements. President Young advises that they should be all killed. Every precaution should betaken, and see that not one escapes. Secrecy is required.

“By order of General Daniel. H. Wells.

“JAMES FERGUSON, Assistant Adjutant General.”

Brigham had a Revelation how to emigrate the “Saints,” in which the-Saints were shown how to haul their baggage and food over the plains and ‘mountains in hand carts. This went forth with the stamp of Divinity. “God had revealed it; “ this was the “Divine Plan” of emigration. Think of it, Ladies, fancy pulling a cart with 200 lbs. of baggage over mountains and dales, 1,500 miles. On they trudge pulling the carts. When in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, tremendous snow storms came on. In the heavy snow its hard to pull the carts.

The Revelation promised fine weather. Now their faith fails them; weary and hungry their souls faint within them. Their food, scant at best, nearly gone; they wade rivers and no dry clothing, no rest. What a Divine Plan! Several leading Mormons camped with them one night, made them kill their last calf and ate hearty of their scant provisions; ‘in the morning these kind Mormon gentlemen drove their carriages through the river and waited on the opposite bank to see the women drag their carts through, then bade them good morning and sped on their way, leaving these poor dupes to get to Zion as best they could, finally reduced to starvation, and in the heavy drifting snow 250 souls perished. The reader can get full particulars of this horrid affair in The Rocky Mountain Saints, or at my lectures, where they will also see the pictures of the incidents related in my book besides several others, which space precludes my giving here.

The following is from Mrs. Smith’s “Fifteen Years among the Mormons,” pp. 309:-

“The widow of Hartley, 22 years old, is the most heart broken human being I ever saw. Dressed n deep black, the unrelieved picture of woe she presented, excited our curiosity and sympathy. Accompanied by my sister, went to her, and after some delay and the assurance, that although we were Mormons, we were yet women, she told us her brief story, without a tear; yet with an expression of hopeless sorrow which I shall never forget. Oh! Mormonism is too hard-too cruel upon women. Will it be permitted for ever?

“It was not until I had suggested to her, that perhaps I had also a woe to unburden, as the result of my Mormon life, which might have some comparison to her own, that she commenced by saying:-

“ You may have suffered; and if you have been a Mormon wife, you must have known sorrow. But the cruelty of my own fate, I am sure, is without a parallel, even in this land of. cruelty.

“I married Jesse Hartly, knowing he was a Gentile,’ but that made no difference with me, although I was a Mormon, because he was a noble man, and sought only the right. By being my husband, he was brought into closer contact with the members of the Church, and was thus soon enabled to learn many things about the Heads of the Church, that he did not approve, and of which I was ignorant, although I had been brought up among the Saints; and which, if known among the Gentiles’ would have greatly damaged us. I do not understand all he discovered, or all he did; but they found he had written against the Church, and the Prophet required as an atonement for his sins that he should lay down his life.

That he should be sacrificed in the Endowment House, where human sacrifices are made. They kill those there who have committed sins too great to be atoned for in any other way. The Prophet says, if they submit to this he can save them; otherwise they are lost. Oh! that is horrible. But my husband refused to be sacrificed, and so set out alone for the United States. I told him when he left me, and left his child, that he would be killed, and so he was. William Hickman and another Danite, shot him in the canyons. My child soon followed after its father, and I hope to die also for why should I live? Here the murderers of my husband curse the earth, and roll in affluence unpunished.

“She had finished her sad story, and we were choking down our sobs of pity in silence, when she rose saying, I trust you will excuse me,’ and went away, still wearing the same stony expression of agony, as when we first saw her. But this is but one case among a thousand others, that have never seen the light, and never will, until the dark history of the Danites,’ or Destroying Angels,’ is unveiled.”

In a work by Mrs. A. G. Paddock, “The Fate of Madame La Tour,’ page 296, is the following:-

“ During 1870 and 1871 the juries empanelled by the United States. Marshall were composed altogether of Gentiles and seceders from the Mormon Church.

“During these years one hundred and twenty nine persons were indicted for the commission of murders, unspeakable mutilations, and other atrocious crimes.

These Juries not having been empannelled according to the laws of Utah – everyone of these indictments were set aside and the accused all set free.

“More polygamous marriages were contracted during 1880 than during any year since the settlement of the Territory.”-]bid, p. 324.

“An Englishwoman, who a few years ago abandoned her husband and children for the purpose of gathering with the Saints to Zion, has been divorced and re-married five times since she came to Utah. Another, after being divorced from five husbands, is now living in Polygamy with the sixth. A district judge reports the case of a Saintess, living near the place in which he holds court, who has been divorced fourteen times.-Ibid, p. 342.

I now extract from “The Prophets, or Mormonism Unveiled,” by a lady who had a fearful experience in Zion. It is published by Wm. White Smith,. 195, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, U. S. On page 255, she says:-” This modern pandemonium, in which vice unchecked ran riot, would have rivaled Hades in its motley crew. It was a safe retreat for the forger and bogus. coiner, house thief, and murderer. I should not dare to chronicle it had not others done so, as well as the passing papers of the day, and they have never been disproved.”

This lady tells a fearful tale of a wife who killed the other wife of her husband. The story is too long to give entire, but from it I glean as follows:-

“A wife, who refused to consent to the plural marriage, cautioned her husband not to trifle with her feelings: that if the unnatural knot was tied death should speedily sever it. Notwithstanding this, one evening at suppertime, the husband returned from the Endowment House with his new bride; the wife sternly commanded the intruder to leave the house at once, or submit to the consequence. This was all she said. The husband escorted his bride to her room and bade her prepare for supper.

The bride, of course, must obey her husband and not his wife; and having arrayed herself gorgeously for the occasion, the husband conducted her to the table to partake of the evening repast with the family. The wife, always a woman of few words, seated herself at the table also, and remained silent. But still waters run deep,’ and away down in the depths of that woman’s heart were feelings unutterable. And while the husband and bride were exchanging loving glances and affectionate words, the wife and mother was deciding in her mind how best to end this fearful torture.

A serious mental struggle ensued; finally the predominating thoughts were, ‘Why should I make my children motherless? How can, I destroy myself and leave my dear children to the care of this hated intruder? No, never! I cannot; I will not. But to live on in this state is impossible; to be constantly worried in mind over this will either dethrone reason or hurry me to a premature grave. This must not, shall not happen.’

The idea now uppermost in her mind was slay the rival,’ and thus put an end to all this vexation. This decided the matter. ‘Death shall end what folly and crime began.’ The supper ended, the husband and his bride retire. The husband partly turned and said, ‘Good night! ‘ to his wife. Imagine the feelings of that wife as she witnessed the disgusting and revolting scene. Her husband who swore at the marriage altar in England ‘to forsake all others,’ had now forsaken her to revel in the unlawful embraces of another; and in her own house and before her very eyes, this wrong was being perpetrated.

This was more than human nature could endure. She had already decided, now she felt an irresistible force urging her on to slay the guilty pair. But she reasoned, is he not the father of my children. She gave a deep sigh, then softly the words escaped her lips, with all his faults I love him still.’ Then she hesitated for a moment, and concluded to spare him, but she would teach him that night that two wives could not live in that house. She thought of the dagger her husband had given her to protect herself in his absence. Now she would protect herself from this intruder in his presence with that very weapon. Grasping the dagger she silently approached the door of the bride-chamber and listened. Then peeping through the key hole she saw in that bright moonlight what she should never have seen.

“Her brain reeled, and sinking to the floor, she remained a long time in a dreamy, half-conscious state. The moon’s bright beams had ascended still higher, and every object stood revealed in silvery light when she once more peeped into that room, and now they slept, and the sight of the peaceful slumber of her rival, reposing on that breast which should have been all her own, again aroused the demon in her heart; she tried the door: it was locked. She thought of the window, which was on the ground floor, and having no fastening, she could easily reach it from the garden. Proceeding thither she raised the sash, quietly crept in, bent over her rival, marked the smooth, beautiful brow, the finely chiseled features, and full voluptuous form, and contrasted them with her own faded beauty, once as lovely as that before her, but now with the roseate hues faded-faded in his service, and now trampled upon as valueless.

She gloated over the sleeping victim, then the steel glittered once in the air, descended, and was raised reeking with the victim’s life’s blood! Again it descended, when the temporarily insane wife leaped through the window, fled to her room and caressed her sleeping babes!

The terrible sequence of this horrible affair is too lengthy to give here, for I could go back to that bride chamber and detail the death of the bride who expired accusing her husband; how she was quietly buried in the garden with her mother who had silently yielded up her troubled soul on her murdered child’s bosom. It was indeed a blessing for that broken hearted and widowed mother to die, within a few hours after her only child had ceased to live. And when afterward the husband found out the truth of the matter-it was as he had supposed-and now that the affair was hushed up, the husband and wife passed on in their career as if nothing had occurred, although her’s was not the first blood that cried aloud to heaven for vengeance on betrayed and murdered innocence.”

I could enumerate cases of this kind, and of others who have committed suicide. While I write this, scores of instances crowd into my mind. But I have made a mistake in contracting for a book of 200 pages. I should have had at least 800 pages more.

“A married woman, Mrs. L–, young, beautiful, and hitherto of unblemished reputation, fell a victim to the arts of the Prophet, and was to him as his plural wife. Her husband, a Gentile, knew nothing of it, and within a few months after he died; as it happened, many men died whose presence was not desired by the saints.”-Madam La Tour, pp. 331.

In the same work chap. 18, Mrs. Paddock tells of two women brutally murdered, and adds:-” Julia H-, plural wife of a man who fills important offices in this city, was allowed the alternative of death by poison; but in the two cases named in this chapter, they were sacrificed with attendant barbarities which could not be paralleled outside the darkest abode of paganism.”

I now quote from a petition from the women of Utah. “To the Senate and Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled.”

“During all the years that their will has been law in Utah, no man’s life no woman’s honor has been safe, if either stood in the way of the despotic rulers of this people. Never in this world will the history of their dark and bloody deeds be fully written, for the victim and witnesses of many a tragedy are hidden in the grave.

“We adjure you in the name of the mothers who bore you, of the wives you love, of the sisters whose honor is dear to you, not to turn a deaf ear to the cry of those who ask protection from the tyranny of a system that, throughout its whole existence, has sought only to crush and degrade womanhood. Thousands of women in the Territory of Utah are today in a condition of abject slavery. Many of them would proclaim their wrongs to the world if they dared.”

This petition is signed by 474 of the women of Utah. Mrs. Paddock in her book says;-” Many women to whom the memorial was presented said Every word in it is true, and we want to sign it, but we dare not.”-Page 337. “Fate of Madam La Tour.”

Did Congress Listen to this appeal? Yes! It “went in at one ear aid out at the other,” and though shortly afterward it did seem that justice in Utah was at last possible, Brigham Young was imprisoned by Judge McKean for the alarming space of 24 hours. Yet almost immediately afterward President Grant deposed the incorruptible Judge, whose only fault was the faithful and fearless performance of duty. Perhaps U. S. Grant will let me know why he did so, and I shall be pleased to insert his reason for so doing in future editions. At present I, and all those acquainted with the circumstances, are at a loss to understand why Judge McKean was removed from office.

From the Rocky Mountain Saints, page 462:-” In the controversy between Rigdon and the Twelve Apostles, at Smith’s death, for the ruling supremacy of the Church, one Parrish said, he would follow the Twelve if they led him to hell.’ Ten years later his zeal cooled, and he resolved to leave Utah.

“On the evening of the departure of the Parrish family, Potter and Durfee, two Danites, professed to aid them in leaving without observation while in reality they were leading them to the place where they were to be killed. In the dark, Potter, who decoyed the elder Parrish, was accidentally shot and killed; old man Parrish was stabbed to death; his eldest son fell dead upon the road, and the younger son, though severely wounded, escaped ‘ and got back to town.” [The Bishop, in command of this affair, still lives in Utah, the husband of numerous wives, six of whom are sisters; none of these guilty wretches were punished.]

“A month after the Parrish murders, Henry Jones and his mother were both killed. The mother was killed in the house, and the son, who tried to escape was pursued and killed. They are to come forth in the first resurrection, for they paid the atoning penalty, and are, therefore, entitled to the honours of the immortalized Saints.-/bid, p. 469.

“A young man named Skeen was suspected of a disposition to apostatize. Thereupon he was arrested on a trumped up charge by Sheriff Ricks, who was also a Mormon High Priest. After Skeen lay down to sleep Ricks said to the guard, named Chambers, Whatever you see to night, your business is to keep still.’ When the sleeper’s breathing showed his slumber to be sound, Ricks placed his gun to the young man’s breast and fired. The victim sprang up, ran to the door, fell, and in a few minutes expired. It was given out that he was killed in attempting to escape, but the testimony of Chambers, who saw the affair, was corroborated by several other men who swore that the gun had been held so close to Skeen’s breast as to set his clothing on fire. Yet a Mormon jury pronounced Ricks, Not Guilty,’ and his fellow-saints escorted him home with a band of music, flags flying, &c. I saw the procession and everybody understood the meaning.” Fate of Madam La Tour, p. 347.

[I also “saw and understood.” I have myself talked with Skeen’s mother, and with Chambers about the affair. The burnt clothing shows that if young Skeen was “attempting to escape,” he was running toward and not from the Sheriff who shot him. This is but one of the many cases where men have been so arrested and foully murdered.]

The murder of Yates, extracted from Bill Hickman’s Book, p. 524 Yates had a fine gold watch and 900 dollars in gold. Joseph A Young, a son of Brigham’s, said his father wanted that man Yates killed. Col. Jones, Hosea Stout, and another, whose name I do not recollect, came to my camp fire and asked if Yates was asleep. I told them he was, upon which his brains were knocked out with an axe, a grave three feet deep was dug, the body put in and the dirt well packed on it, after which our camp fire was moved on to the grave.

We were off before day light, and arrived at Salt Lake that day. My comrade and I went to Brigham’s office. He asked what had become of Yates? I told him. He said that was right and a good thing. I pulled out the sack containing the money; the money was counted and we left.”

From The Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 736, I extract from the speech of Governor J. B. Weller, of Utah, on the murder of Dr. Robinson:-” Dr. Robinson, aged 31 years, was an amiable, quiet Christian, universally loved and respected. Six months ago he married a young lady of one of your most estimable families. An armed force of the police, sent by the City authorities, destroyed his building and ejected him from his premises. Afterward, between 11 and 12 p.m. a man goes to the doctor’s house, wakes him up, tells him that a brother of his (Jones) had broken his leg. The doctor hastily dressed and proceeds with this man upon what he regarded a mission of mercy. About 175 steps from his dwelling he was struck over the head with a sharp instrument, and then shot through the brain.”

“ Apostle “ Snow, in a sermon distinguished by its profanity and brutal ferocity, which was not reported and can only be stated from memory:-” He plainly told the audience that whoever should be the executioner of divine justice and slay the apostate, their wives and children, would receive a bright crown of glory, and, what is more to be lamented, it was approvingly responded to by the audience. It was a sphere of murder, plain, palpable, frightful and sickening. The picture can never be effaced from the mind-a preacher in the pulpit ferociously enjoining the murder of men, women, and children for a difference of opinion, and thousands of faces intently gazing upon him with fanatical approbation. The regions of the damned could scarcely present a scene more truly diabolical.-Secretary Ferris, p. 332, Utah and the Mormons.

Utah is a rich mineral country, and many Gentiles came to “ Zion “ to open the mines and get rich. Apostle Woodruff preached for their benefit the following:-” Men that come here to seek for our gold and silver find that it is now too hot for them. The day has now come that they cannot bear the burning heat of Zion, and I am glad of it.” Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, 13- 141.

Brigham talked a little plainer and said, “If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats,” and all the people said Amen! ‘ Ibid, p. 253.

Hell on Earth, Part 10

This entry is part 27 of 50 in the series 2011A

(Here Mr. Jarman introduces he Danites and attributes their creation to Joseph Smith.  Joseph’s involvement with them is not so cut and dried as arguments have been made for and against it.  Students of Mormon history can understand why such an organization sprang up which was to protect the Saints after great persecution began in Missouri.

Shortly after its creation Joseph publicly condemned the organization and Dr. Avard as its unauthorized founder.

Some think that the Danites eventually saw Joseph as a traitor and were responsible for his death.  The fact that one of the mob tried to cut his head off with a bowie knife gives evidence to this charge)

DANITE DEVILS-HUMAN SACRIFICE

In this chapter I shall also let others tell the tale. I commence with sermons by Brigham Young and his “Apostles.” I quote from Brigham’s sermon “Love thy neighbour as thyself.”

“When will we love our neighbours as ourselves? In the first place, Jesus saith that no man hateth his own flesh. It is admitted by all that every person loves himself. Now if we do rightly love ourselves we want to be saved and enjoy eternity and see no more sorrow nor death. This is the desire of every person who believes in God. Now take a person in this congregation who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin and be saved and exalted with the gods, is there a man or woman in this house but would say Shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the gods? ‘

“All mankind love themselves; and let those principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. This would be loving ourselves even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers others likewise when they have a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? THAT IS WHAT JESUS CHRIST MEANT. He never told man or woman to love their enemies in their wickedness, never. He never meant any such thing; His language is left as it is for those to read who have the spirit to discern between truth and error; it was so left for those who can discern the things of God.

“I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil.

“I have known a great many men who have left this Church, for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled it would have been better for them.

“This is loving our neighbour as ourselves; if he needs help, HELP HIM; if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, SPILL IT.

“Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, should not be satisfied or rest until your blood should be spilled, that you may gain that salvation you desire. THAT IS THE WAY TO LOVE MANKIND. Now brethren and sisters, will you live your religion? How many hundreds of times have I asked that question? Will the Latter-day Saints live their religion? “

Discourse in the Tabernacle, published in the “Journal of Discourses,” Vol. IV., pp. 219, 220.

“ Apostle “ Grant, in his sermon upon the penalty for breaking the covenants of the Church, says:-

“Then what ought this meek people who keep the commandments of God do unto them? ‘Why,’ says one they ought TO PRAY TO THE LORD TO KILL THEM.’ I want to know if you would wish the Lord TO COME DOWN AND DO ALL YOUR DIRTY WORK? Many of the Latter-day Saints will pray, and petition, and supplicate the Lord to do a thousand things they themselves would be ashamed to do.

“When a man prays for a thing, he ought to be willing to perform it himself.

“The Lord God commanded them not to pity the person whom they killed, but to execute the law of God upon persons worthy of death. This should be done by the entire congregation, showing no pity.

“ What! do you believe that people would do right, and keep the law of God, by actually putting to death the transgressors? Putting to death the transgressors would exhibit the law of God, no matter by whom it was done. That is my opinion.

“You talk of the doings of different governments. What mode do they adopt to punish traitors? Do traitors forfeit their lives? Examine the doings of earthly governments on this point, and you will find the same practice universal. But people will look into books of theology, and argue that the people of God have a right to try people for fellowship, but they have no right to try them on property or life. That makes the devil laugh, saying: I have got them on a hook now; they can cut them off, and I will put eight or ten spirits worse than they are into their tabernacles, and send them back to mob them.”

“If men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed.”-” Apostle” Kimball.

Brigham assured the Saints that these throat-cutting, blood-spilling doctrines were meritorious, glorious, and soul-saving. He says:-

“ There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come; and if they had their eyes open to their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins, and the smoking incense would atone for their sins; whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit-world.

“I do know that there are sins committed of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. And, furthermore, I know that there are transgressors who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say, further: I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins.

“I know, when you hear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it is strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them.

“As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day; and though the principles are taught publicly from this stand, still the people do not understand them; yet the law is precisely the same. There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves cannot remit, but THEY MUST BE ATONED FOR BY THE BLOOD OF THE MAN. That is the reason why men talk to you as they do from this stand; they understand the doctrine, and throw out a few words about it. You have been taught that doctrine, but you do not understand it.” The reader will see here how aprapos is the following lines from, Hudibras:-

“The only difference is, that then they slaughtered only beasts, now men.”

133

“From “ Apostle “ Grant’s Sermon:-” There are men and women here who must have their blood shed or they cannot be saved. I advise you to go to the President immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to your case; and then let a place be selected, and let that committee shed your blood to atone for your sins.

“What disposition ought the people to make of covenant-breakers? Why, says one, forgive them. Very good, What did the Apostle say? He says they are worthy of death. I am inclined to believe his decision was a just one.

“Have not the people of God a right to carry out that part of the law as well as any other portion of it? It is their right to baptize a sinner to save him, it is also their right to kill a sinner to save him, when he commits those crimes that can only be atoned for by shedding his blood. We would not kill a man, of course, unless we killed him to save him. Do you think it would be any sin to kill me if I were to break my covenants? Let every man preach for himself, I am preaching my own faith today. Do you believe you would kill me if I broke the covenants of God and you had the spirit of God? Yes, and the more spirit of God I had the more I should strive to save your soul by spilling your blood when you had committed sin that could not be remitted by baptism. But, says one, will not Uncle Sam play the devil with you? Uncle Sam is a part of us and we are Uncle Sam, and it is us and Uncle Sam together. We have a right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience and have a right to carry out our religion, and there is nothing in the Constitution and laws of the United States to the contrary.”

“We have been trying long enough with this people, and I go in for letting the sword of the Almighty to be unsheathed, not only in word, but in deed.” [Please remember this man was an “Apostle,” Mayor of Salt Lake City, and speaker to the “Lords House of Parliament.”]

From the “ Prophet “ Brigham’s Sermon:-” Justice will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; we shall take the old broadsword, and ask, Are you for God?’ and if you are not heartily on the Lord’s side, you will be hewn down.”

“But now I say, in the name of the Lord, that if this people will faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them without taking life.

“Keep your tongues still, lest sudden destruction come upon you. I say rather than that the apostates should flourish here, I will unsheathe my bowie-knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.] Now you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.’ [Voices generally, Go it, go it!] If you say it is all right, raise your hands. [All hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this and every other good work.’

The foregoing are literal quotations from the Deseret News, “Journal of Discourses,” vol. i., p. 82, and vol. iii. p. 226.

The “Hand Book on Mormonism,” page 49, after quoting about the same as I have here, says:-

“ The few selections taken from the so-called sermons of Brigham and others-many more can be produced-cause a shudder of horror to all who read them. But we know that the discourses, as delivered on the stand, were much more cruel, wicked, and blood thirsty than they appear in the printed works; it was blood-curdling to hear them. The Mormon shorthand reporters, when transcribing the ‘ Sermons ‘ for the printer, left out many blasphemous and bloody expressions, unfit for the public eye.”

Among the Senate documents we find General Clark’s dispatch to Governor Boggs, which says:-

“ There is no crime, from treason down to petty larceny, but these people have been guilty of. They have committed treason, murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. They have societies formed under the most binding covenants and most horrid oaths to circumvent the laws, and put them at defiance; and to plunder and burn and murder, and divide the spoils for the use of the Church.’

In “The Rocky Mountain Saints” is the affidavit of T. B. Marsh, an ex-Mormon, from which I extract the following:-

“They have among them a company, called the Danites, who have taken an oath to support the heads of the Church in all things that they say or do, whether right or wrong.

“The plan of the Prophet is to take the United States, and ultimately the whole world. The Prophet inculcates the notion, and it is believed by every true Mormon, that Smith’s prophecies are superior to the laws of the land. I have heard the Prophet say that he would yet tread down his enemies, and walk over their dead bodies; that if he was not let alone he would be a second Mohammed to this generation, and that he would make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean; that like Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was the Alcoran or the Sword,’ so should it be eventually with us, Joseph Smith or the Sword.”

To successfully carry out their plans they organized an Army. John D. Lee in his confession says:-

“All the males over eighteen years of age were organized into a military body, and called The Host of Israel.’ The first rank was a captain with ten men under him; next was a captain of fifty, that is he had five companies of ten; next, the captain of a hundred, or of ten captains and companies of ten. The entire membership of the Mormon Church was then organized in the same way. This was the first organization of the military force of the Church. It was so organized as revealed through the Lord’s Prophet. God commanded Joseph Smith to place the Host of Israel in a situation for defense against the enemies of God and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“Another organization was formed called the Danites.’ The members of this order were placed under the most sacred obligations that language could invent. They were sworn to stand by and sustain each other. Sustain, protect, defend, and obey the leaders of the Church, under any and all circumstances unto death; and to disobey the orders of the leaders of the Church, or divulge the name of a Danite to an outsider, or to make public any of the secrets of the order of Danites, was to be punished with death. And I can say of a truth, many have paid the penalty for failing to keep their covenants. They had signs and tokens for use and protection. When the sign was given it must be responded to and obeyed, even at the risk or certainty of death. The Danite that would refuse to respect the token, and comply with all its requirements, was stamped with dishonor, infamy, shame, disgrace, and his fate for cowardice and treachery was death.

This sign or token of distress is made by placing the right hand on the right side of the face, with the points of the fingers upwards, shoving the hand upwards until the ear is snug up between the thumb and forefinger.

The “High Priest” Journalist in his Rocky Mountain Saints, says:-

“ Dr. Avard organized the brethren into companies of tens and fifties, appointed Captains over each company, gave signs and ‘grips’ by which they should know each other by day or by night, binding themselves by the most sacred oaths to preserve in secrecy their works of darkness,” Then follows

Dr. Avard’s address to the Danite Captains:-

“ My brethren, as you have been chosen to be our leading men, our captains to rule over this Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who have been organized after the ancient order, I have called upon you here today to teach you and instruct you in the things that pertain to your duty, and to show you what your-privileges are. Take your respective companies and go out and take to your–self spoils of the ungodly Gentiles? For it is written, ‘The riches of the Gentiles shall be consecrated to my people, the house of Israel;’ and thus -waste away the Gentiles by robbing and plundering them of their property; and in this way we will build up the kingdom of God, and roll forth the little stone that Daniel saw cut out of the mountain without hands until it shall fill the whole earth.

For this is the very way that God destines to build up his Kingdom in the last days. If any of us should be recognized, who can harm ‘us? For we will stand by each other and defend one another in all things. If our enemies swear against us, we can swear also. As the Lord’ liveth I would swear a lie to clear any of you; and if this would not do, I would put them or him under the sand as Moses did the Egyptian, and in this way we -will consecrate much unto ‘the Lord,’ and build up his Kingdom; and who can stand against us? And if any of us transgress we will deal with him amongst ourselves. And if any of this Danite Society reveals any of these -things, I will put him where the dogs cannot bite him.”

In Burton’s “City of the Saints” I find the following:-

“ The Danite band,” Destroying Angels ‘-Gentiles say Devils Sons of Dan, or Danites,’ were organized for the purpose of dealing as avengers of blood with Gentiles; in fact, they formed a kind of Death Society,’ Desperadoes, Thugs, Hashshashiyun in plain English, assassins in the name of the Lord.”

Elder Hyde, in his work on Mormonism says:-

“ A Death Society’ was organized and led by Captain ‘Fearnaught’ alias Apostle’ Patten. Mich. iv. 13 furnished the first name; Arise and -thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron and thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord.’ This accurately described their intentions, and they called themselves the Daughters of Zion.’ Some ridiculed these bearded and bloody Daughters,’ and the name did not sit easily. Destroying Angels came next; the Big fan of the thresher that should thoroughly purge the floor.’ Genesis xlix. 17 furnished the name finally assumed. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse’s heels so that his rider shall fall backward.’ The Sons of Dan,’ or Danites was adopted, and many times they have been adders in the path, and many a man has fallen .backward and been seen no more.”

Brigham Young in one of his Sermons said:-

“ If men come here and do not behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites, whom they talk so much about, biting the horse’s heels, but the scoundrels will find something biting their heels. In my plain remarks I merely call things by their own name.” Deseret News, vol. 7., p. 143.

I trust enough is given to show the organization of this terrible band of cut-throats, and the kind of” Sermons” preached in “Zion.” Now for some of their bloody work. Though I could fill this book with the most horrid tales which have been related to me, I prefer to use other testimony. I cannot however, refrain from mentioning a case of a neighbour of mine who is still a Bishop in the Mormon Church. He had two sons which grew “weak in the faith.” They were both murdered by “ Danites,” and thrown over the garden wall with the remark to their mother who stood just inside:- “ There learn how to train up your children properly.”

The following extracts are from the Confessions of John D. Lee:-

“ The Bishop notified Anderson that he must die by having his throat cut, so that the running of his blood would atone for his sins. Anderson being a firm believer in the doctrines and teachings of the Mormon Church, made no objections, but asked for half a day to prepare for death. His request was granted. His wife was ordered to prepare a suit of clean clothing in which to have her husband buried and was informed that he was to be-killed for his sins, she being directed to tell those who enquired after her husband that he had gone to California.

“The Bishop, James Hasletn, Daniel McFarland and John M. Higbee dug a grave in a field near the city, and that night about 12 o’clock, went to Anderson’s house and ordered him to make ready to obey the Council. Anderson got up, dressed himself, bid his family good-bye, and without a word of remonstrance accompanied those that he believed were carrying out the will of the Almighty God.’ They went to the place where the grave was prepared. Anderson knelt upon the side of the grave and prayed. The Bishop and his company then cut Anderson’s throat from ear to ear and held him so that his blood ran into the grave.

“As soon as he was dead they dressed him in his clean clothes, threw him into the grave and buried him. They then carried his bloody clothing back and gave them to his wife to wash, when she was again instructed to say that her husband was in California. She obeyed their orders. The killing of Anderson was considered a religious duty and a just act. It was justified by all the people, for they were bound by the same covenants, and the least word of objection to thus treating the man who had broken his covenant would have brought the same fate upon the person who was so foolish as to raise his voice against any act committed by order of the Church authorities.” Page 283, Lee’s Confession, Published by Bryan, Brand and Co., St. Louis, U.S.A W. H. Stelle and Co., New York.

“A quiet and orderly young man, a Gentile, was notified to let the girls alone. No Gentile was allowed to keep company with or visit any Mormon girl; but he still kept going to see some of them. The authorities decided to have the young man killed, so they called two of Bishop Dames’ Destroying Angels, Carter and Gould, and told them to take that cursed young Gentile over the rim of the basin.’ That was a term used when they killed a person.

“The destroying angels made some excuse to induce the young man to go with them on an excursion, and when they got close to Shirts’ Mill, they killed him, and left his body in the bushes.

“The Indians found the body, and reported the facts to me. I was not at home that night, but Carter and Gould went to my house and staid there all night. They told Rachel (one of Lee’s wives) they had been on a mission to-take a young man, a Gentile, over the rim of the basin, and Carter showed her his sword, which was all bloody, and said he used that to help the Gentile-over the edge. Rachel knew what they meant when they spoke of sending him over the rim of the basin.’ It was a common thing to see parties going out with suspected Gentiles, to send them over the rim,’ and the Gentiles were always killed.

“It was a common thing for small bands of people on their way from California to pass through by way of Cedar City on their journey. Many of these people were killed simply because they were Gentiles. The killing of Gentiles was considered a means of Grace and virtuous deed.

“Three men came to Cedar City one evening; they were poor, and much worn by their long journey. They were on their way to California. The Authorities ordered the brethren to devise a plan to put them out of the way, decently and in order. That the will of God, as made known through Bishops. Haightand Klingensmith, might be done, these helpless men were coaxed to-go to the distillery and take a drink. They went in company with J. M.. Higbee, John Weston, James Haslem and Wm. C. Stewart, and I think another man, but if so, I have forgotten his name. The party drank considerable and when the emigrants got under the influence of the whisky, the brethren knocked the brains out of two of the men with the king-bolt of a wagon. The third man was very powerful and muscular; he fought valiantly for his life, but was overcome and killed. They were buried near the city.

“ This deed was sustained by all the people there. The parties who did the killing were pointed out as true valiant men, zealous defenders of the faith and as fine examples for the young men to pattern after.”

“John Weston took an Irishman, that had been stopping with him as his guest several days, on a hunt and when he got him in the forest, he cut the throat of the Irishman and left the body unburied. Weston received orders to kill the man because Bishop Haight considered him a spy.

“Bishop Klingensmith laid in ambush to kill Robert Keyes, because Keyes refused to give false testimony when requested to do so by the Bishop. When Keyes came within a few feet of the hiding place of the Bishop, this Holy man raised his gun and took deliberate aim at Keyes heart.”

“The authorities at Salt Lake City decided that Lieut. Tobin must be killed. Tobin had joined the Church there, and married ‘a daughter of -General Rich, one of the twelve Apostles. I think his wife was taken from him by order of the Church. He made several efforts to get out of the Territory. Finally he left Salt Lake intending to go to California, to escape the persecutions that were being forced upon him by the Church authorities. The Destroying Angels’ were put on his trail, with orders to kill him without fail before they returned. Two desperate fanatics, Joel White and John Willis, were the ‘Angels’ selected, who knew nothing but to obey orders. These vile tools of the Church leaders were keeping their oaths of obedience to the Priesthood, and were as willing to shed blood at the command of the Prophet or any of the Apostles, as ever Inquisitor was to apply the rack to an offending heretic in the days of the Inquisition. In fact Mormonism is Jesuitism ‘refined and perfected.”

“White and Wilas found Lieut. Tobin while he was sleeping, and going right up to him as he lay upon the ground, wrapt in his blanket, they shot him several times’ they concluded to shoot him once more to make certain that he would not escape, so they put a pistol right up against his eye, and fired. The ‘Angels’ returned to Salt Lake City and reported that their orders were obeyed.”

“It was the usual course to send an ‘Angel’ after all who were charged or suspected of having violated their covenants. When a Danite or Destroying Angel was placed on a man’s track, that man died, certain, unless some providential act saved him.”

“William Laney, while on a mission to Tennessee, was saved by a family named Aden from a mob who threatened him with death because he was a Mormon preacher. When Fancher’s train (The Emigrants killed at Mountain Meadows by the Mormons) reached Parowan, Laney met young Aden, and recognized him as the son of the man who had saved his life. Aden said he was hungry, that he and his comrades had been unable to purchase supplies from the Mormons since they left Salt Lake City, and that there seemed to be a conspiracy formed against that train by which the Mormons had agreed to starve the emigrants. Laney took young Aden to his house, gave him his supper, and let him sleep there that night. A few nights after that the Destroying Angels were ordered by Bishop Dame to kill Laney to save him from his sins, he having violated his endowment oath and furnished food to a man who had been declared an outlaw by the Mormon Church.

The Angels’ were commanded by Carter, a son-in-law of the Bishop. The Angels called Laney out of the house, saying the Bishop wished to see him. As Laney passed through the gate into the street, he was struck across the back of the head with a large club. His skull was fractured and for many months Laney lay at the point of death, and his mind still shows the effect of the injury, for his brain has never quite settled since. I have frequently talked with Laney about the matter, he knows that he will yet be killed if he makes public the facts. Punishment by death was the penalty for refusing to obey the orders of the Priesthood.

“The sinful member was to be slain for the remission of his sins, it being taught by the leaders and believed by the people that the right thing to do with a sinner, was to take the life of the offending party, and thus save his never dying soul. This was called Blood Atonement.’“

“The Mormons nearly all believe in blood atonement. It was taught by the leaders and believed by the people that the Priesthood were inspired and could not give a wrong order. That the authority that ordered a murder committed, was the only responsible party, that the man who did the killing was. only an instrument of the party commanding-just as much of an instrument as the knife that was used to cut the throat of the victim. This being the belief of all good Mormons, it is easily understood why the orders of the Priesthood were so blindly obeyed by the people. The Church authorities used the laws of the land, the laws of the Church, and Danite Angels’ to enforce their orders, and rid the country of those who were distasteful to the leaders. And I say as a fact that there was no escape for any one that the leaders of the Church selected as a victim.” From Lee’s Confession, pp. 272 to 283.

“In Utah it has been the Custom with the Priesthood to make eunuchs of such men as were obnoxious to their leaders. This was done for a double purpose: first, it gave a perfect revenge, and next, it left the poor victim a living example to others of the dangers of disobeying counsel, and not living as ordered by the Priesthood.

“It was the favorite revenge of old, worn-out Priests, who wanted young women sealed to them, and found that the girl preferred some handsome young man. The old Priests generally got the girls, and many a young man was UNSEXED for refusing to give up his sweetheart at the request of an old, and failing, but still sensual Apostle or member of the Priesthood.

“As an illustration I will refer to an instance that many a good Saint knows to be true, (including the Author of this Book.)

“Warren Snow was Bishop of the Church at Manti, San Pete County, Utah. He had several wives, but there was a fair, buxom young woman in the town that Snow wanted for a wife. He made love to her with all his powers, went to parties where she was, visited her at her home, and proposed to make her his wife. She thanked him for the honor offered, but told him she was then engaged to a young man, a member of the Church, and consequently could not marry the old priest. This was no sufficient reason to Snow. He told her it was the will of God that she should marry him, and she must do so; that, in fact, a promise made to the young man was not binding, when she was informed that it was contrary to the wishes of the authorities.

“The girl continued obstinate. The ‘teachers’ of the town visited her-and advised her to many Bishop Snow. Her parents, under the orders of the Counselors of the Bishop, also insisted that their daughter must marry the old man. She still refused. Then the authorities called on the young-man and directed him to give up the young woman. This he steadfastly refused to do. He remained true to his intended, and said he would die before he would surrender his intended wife to the embraces of another.

“It was then determined that the rebellious young man must be forced by harsh treatment to respect the advice and orders of the Priesthood. His fate was left to Bishop Snow for his decision. He decided that the young man should be mutilated; Snow saying, ‘When that is done, he will not be liable to want the girl badly, and she will listen to reason when she knows that her lover is no longer a man.

“It was then decided to call a meeting of the people who live true to counsel, which was to be held in the school-house in Manti, at which place the young man should be present, and dealt with according to Snow’s will..

The meeting was called. The young man was there, and was again requested ordered and threatened, to get him to surrender the young woman to Snow, but true to his plighted troth, he refused to consent to give up the girl. The lights were then put out. An attack was made on the young man. He was severely beaten, and then tied with his back down on a bench, when Bishop Snow took a bowie-knife, and performed the operation in a most brutal manner, and than took the portion severed from his victim and hung it up in the school-house on a nail, so that it could be seen by all who visited the house afterwards.

“The party then left the young man weltering in his blood, and in a lifeless condition. During the night he succeeded in releasing himself from his confinement, and dragged himself to some haystacks, where he lay until the next day, when he was discovered by his friends. The young man regained his health, but has been an idiot or quiet lunatic ever since, and is well known by hundreds of both Mormons and Gentiles in Utah.

“After this outrage old Bishop Snow took occasion to get up a meeting at the school-house, so as to get the people of Manti, and the young woman that he wanted to marry, to attend the meeting. When all had assembled, the old man talked to the people about their duty to the Church, and their duty to obey counsel, and the dangers of refusal, and then publicly called attention to the mangled parts of the young man, that had been severed from his person and stated that the deed had been done to teach the people that the counsel of the Priesthood must be obeyed. To make a long story short, I will say, the young woman was soon after forced into being sealed to Bishop Snow.

“This is only one instance of many that I might give to show the danger of refusing to obey counsel in Utah.” Lee’s Confesston, p. 285-6.

Hell on Earth, Part 9

This entry is part 26 of 50 in the series 2011A

“A man, by the name of Eldridge, was living with much apparent ‘happiness with his wife at Nauvoo, at the time of the great break up there. Emma Smith, the prophet’s widow, had seen enough of Mormonism, and, having secured some property out of the general wreck, resolved to remain in the States. When the Saints were on the point of removing, Emma Smith advised Mrs. Eldridge not to follow her husband to the valley of Great Salt Lake; told her he would certainly go into the plurality order, and then she would be treated with neglect; that was the case with them all. Mrs. E. replied that her husband had promised her that he would never go into it; that they were attached to each other; and that she had the utmost confidence in him. They went on together to Salt Lake, and, in 1851, the predictions of Mrs. Smith were verified.

Brigham Young, for some reason or other, desired to involve Eldridge in the meshes of spiritual wife-ism, and repeatedly importuned him on the subject. Eldridge told him he was living very happily with his wife, and that to bring another into the family would almost kill her. Young replied that, if his wife was opposed to the order of the Church, the ‘quicker she was damned the better.’ He also stated, among other things, that he was about to go off on an exploring tour in the Territory with a party (naming some of them); that he and the rest intended each to take along a new wife; that he (Eldridge) had better -do so too, and they would have ‘a nice time of it.’

Eldridge finally yielded, and so worked upon his wife as to compel her to give her consent to his being sealed to a miserable drab selected for this occasion. From this period he became a perfect brute in the treatment of his wife; turned her from the best room in the house to make room for his concubine; and she, thoroughly crushed and despairing, realizes that her once peaceful and happy home has been changed into a domestic hell. This is a fair history of the fate of the first wife.”

(Eldridge has wives “scattered all over the blooming shop” and is “a perfect brute.” Once when selling pictures I called at the house of one of his female “sleeping partners.” Another woman, also illegitimately related to Eldridge, was there, and as these slaves never have any money, they offered some eggs to pay for a picture called “The Resurrection of Christ.” While they were collecting the eggs Eldridge came in and raved out, “I’ll kick you and your bastard Christ pictures out of here if you ain’t off at once.” As I left I heard his female “white slaves” “catching it,” and thought what a pity they cannot also leave. Eldridge is principal director in Uncle Sam’s Bank, and runs the “Lord’s Store” in Salt Lake City, and holds the “Melchizedek Priesthood.”]

“In Utah it is an easy matter to obtain a divorce; all the legal wife has to-do is to swear that she cannot live in the conjugal relation in peace and union, and a decree nil:- is pronounced by the Mormon Judge. The second wife’s marriage being illegal is the more easily dissolved. She can he separated without legal proceedings. The Priesthood can dissolve whatever bonds exists in her case.

“Their theology teaches the legitimacy of marriage between brother and sister and between parties of near relationship, in order that a pure family may be raised up.’ Instances of a Saint marrying or being sealed’ to a mother and to her daughters at the same time, are of frequent occurrence. Contracts are made with missionaries to find a wife or wives for parties here -on condition of paying the expenses of the passage to this Territory. Young and innocent girls are thus purchased by old gray-headed polygamists and dragged into life as slavish in its character as was that system which always will be a foul blot upon our nation’s history.

It may well be repeated, and the declaration made emphatic, that polygamy means the enslavement and prostitution of woman; a venomous defiance of the authority of the United States Government, and the propagation of a horde of banditti in this Territory whose deeds will strike terror to every heart. The massacre at Mountain Meadows, the robber bands of Nauvoo, the outlawry of young Mormondom of today, away from the centers of civilization, are but the natural fruits of this terrible system, and only a forecast of the years to come, when those masses of ignorant, vicious, polygamous-bred ‘hoodlums’ of mixed parentage shall be thrown out like driftwood upon the sea of active life.

“80 per cent, of the plural marriages were necessiated by previous immorality. And yet notwithstanding this convenient cloak of wrong-doing, I have been informed by jurists who have resided in the Territory a long time, and who are well posted in the legal facts connected with this thing, that there is a fearful amount of illegitimacy. And I could name a small village where no ungodly Outsider is found to corrupt the morals of the young Saints, and yet there were over a dozen illegitimate births in one year among a population of 400 people. I have also been informed by persons whose truthfulness of statement cannot be impeached, and whose honesty of purpose cannot be doubted, that there is a fearful state of morals throughout the Territory, especially among the youth connected with polygamous families. That the young Saints are practically carrying out the theory of the Church on this subject without troubling themselves about the ecclesiastical ceremonies of the Endowment House.”-Ibid, pp. 22.

“A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE.-Geo. C. Bates, well known in Salt Lake City, writes to the Denver Tribune that he was a resident of Utah for six years, three years of that time as United States Attorney, and three years as attorney for the Mormon Church. While acting in the latter capacity he was called south on church business, and gives the following account of his trip:-

“ In January, 1873, I happened to visit the southern parts of the Territory on business for the church, and, stopping to change horses and dine, I saw around one table five polygamic wives of one old bishop, and in and around the ranch some thirty-six large boys and girls of all ages, from ten to sixteen and twenty years, and then and there learned that these young Mormons all slept in one large single room overhead in the winter, like so many pigs, and in the hot weather in summer they all hurdled together in the straw in the stable, living in promiscuous concubinage, and that several of the girls were bearing children to their brothers and cousins and uncles, as so many cows or ewes would do, and that this was a matter of daily happening, and was not discouraged, but was winked at, by the church, as a natural consequence of their religious teachings that every woman’s future happiness was enhanced_ by the number of children she bore, no matter who might be their fathers.”-

HAND-BOOK ON MORMONISM, pp. 22.

I now quote from Anti-Polygamy Standard, VOL 2, No. 3, as follows:-

“ Old Jim Butler, over 60 years of age, was sealed to his step-child, x little girl fifteen years old, at the Endowment House, Feb. 14th, 1876 (The Great Centennial Year of American Independence and Progress). Brigham performed the ceremony very much against the wishes of the child, who was compelled to comply with the bestial request upon pain of being turned into I the streets destitute and homeless together with her mother. Both the mother and daughter, the pretended wives of this old heathen, live together with the old man in a little dirt hovel of one room.

“Old man Lareless, now seventy years of age, is using every means in his power to have his own grandchild, a girl sixteen years old, sealed to him.’

MORMON SLAVES. (From Salt Lake Tribune.)

“A horrible story is told by a correspondent of the Eureka Leader of what he saw at Ogden, a railroad town in Utah, where a number of Sweedish 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 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 her what was the trouble. She said that this girl was pledged to the old man and that he 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 course 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 was sickening to think of such doings in a civilized land. Dark as that girls mind was, she had some grains of virtue and some delicate instincts. The despair pictured on her face showed that.”

Any old brute that wants to import a fresh young female slave, gives the missionary the money to pay the passage out of a “nice young girl” This Missionary comes into the factory towns of England and other places, procures the girls, pays the passage, ships them off, and sends the bill of lading to the old lechers, who await their arrival in Utah.

Besides this, they have a Grand Lottery scheme called “The Perpetual Emigration Fund,” “All prizes and no blanks.” There are millions of money in this fund, which is used to import girls who cannot pay their fare to Utah. So soon as a man has paid in sufficient for one fare, he is entitled to draw “One Fair damsel.” Two fares-Two fairs, and so on and so _forth. While the Missionary is here ostensibly to “Preach the Gospel” but in reality to nab girls for Utah’s Harems. Now let the press of England re-publish the story and give my addition so that the girls may be cautioned.]

“A cargo commonly called emigrants, arrived in this city and were duly located in the stockyard at the Tithing office. Yesterday they branched off in all directions to view the beauties and attractions of Zion, and early in the morning a gentleman of the city had occasion to go into a saloon to get a glass of beer on his road home, and found the saloon literally packed with these new emigrants, both male and female who were punishing beer in a way entirely beyond the ability of the average Zionite. They were enjoying themselves hugely, and well they may while they have a little spare change, for when the priests get through fleecing them, they can look back on the little event with the satisfaction of knowing that all their hard earnings didn’t go into the hands of the Latter-day robbers.

“In one of the Mormon settlements of Utah, the Father of a girl 14 years of age has sold her to a polygamous bishop who has a harem of three concubines. And this is America in the Nineteenth Century.

[Elder Pitkin isa “Melchizedek Priest,” who prostituted his own daughter when she was but eight years old. I will spare the reader details. The child at the age of thirteen became a mother as the result of this incest. I could relate many similar cases which came under my own observation. I prefer, however, to quote other testimony, so incredible will these things appear to the uninitiated.] I continue to extract from the Salt Lake Tribune:-

“A girl, fifteen years of age, named Elizabeth Natrass, was brought before Judge Pyper charged with drunkenness and profanity. Her story to the Judge was simply horrible, and the language disgusting. She stated that some time ago her father had seduced her, and since then she had turned herself loose in all that was bad.” * * * *

“The Mormon Church Organ reports a case of a woman kicking in West Jordan, in which the kicker, in the shape of a man, was fined ten dollars. The Church paper praises the man and abuses the woman, thus illustrating how dearly the Latter-day frauds love the women.”

“Susie Vance, one of Brigham’s female Battle-axes, and by divine right to be some old polygamist’s queen in the celestial world, but now unfortunately-a soiled dove, was arrested last night for being drunk, and was lodged in jail Her usual place of abode is at the Palace de Lunatic, where, let us hope her royal highness will return.”

I leave this part to say a few words about the “Drunken Devils.”

The Mormons claim to be a sober people, but what are the facts? “The Resources of Utah,” published at Salt Lake City in 1873, says:-” There are five breweries in Salt Lake City. Shortly after this another very large brewery was built, and is now doing a tremendous business; while whiskey distillers. are profusely abundant, and large quantities are imported from the States. One of” Zion’s” Whiskey Firms, advertises in five languages occupying six columns-”

The Saints gathered from All Nations” take to whiskey. But “John Bull Saints” like their beer as well, hence we find advertized in the Mormon papers that “Brother Margetts “ makes “ENGLISH ALE A. SPECIALTY,” though he also deals in “Wines and Liquors.” We are informed that at another “Saloon,” “Choice Wines,” Pure Liquors, ENGLISH ALE AND PORTER, Ice, Cold Beer, Superior Cigars, and 1,000 Fancy Drinks” can be had. Polygamists in trouble are told that another dealer has “snug apartments, shady and cool, where the thirsty can take a cold lunch, and quaff the flowing bowl in PEACE AND QUIETUDE “-quite a consideration for “ Henpecked Saints.”

The Editor adds:-” Mr. S. is doing quite a snug business, and is therefore correspondingly ‘apy.’ “ He is not the only one doing “a snug business” in that line. The fact is the troubles of polygamy drive both men and women to drink. I have known “Saints and Saintesses “ sell their children’s bread for drink, and thousands have told me they must have drink to drown their sorrows; but in this chapter I give, as far as possible, the words. of others. Secretary Ferris on page 47, “Utah and the Mormons,” says:- “ The gross sensualities originating in Polygamy, coupled with parental neglect of offspring, occasion great mortality among children. To these may be added intemperance in drinking, very generally diffused, and which finds its gratification in a miserable article of whiskey and beer, manufactured in great quantities.”

Dr. MCKENZIE VISITED “ ZION “ TO START THE BLUE RIBBON MOVEMENT.-

I now quote from Salt Lake Tribune, June 3, 1881:-

“Don’t we Mormons have to suffer,” said an old drunken Saintess, yesterday evening, when Dr. McKenzie picked her up out of the gutter and placed her in an express wagon and sent her home. She was one of five-women belonging to the harem of an old polyg. on the East Bench of Zion.

“It is quite evident that some of the brethren have been pulling the wool over the eyes of Dr. McKenzie in regard to the temperate habits of the-Mormons. By walking up Main street the Doctor will observe a sign “ Holiness to the Lord, Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile Institution, Wholesale. Dealers and Rectifiers of Liquor.” This institution under the all-seeing eye sells more whiskey than any house in Utah, and it all goes into the stomachs of the Saints. He can extend his walk to several saloons in Zion where Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing deal out villainous whiskey to God’s elect. Of course this is all done for Christ’s sake.

“Some old hen writing in the (Mormon) Procuress winds her horn thus

“ The ‘Gentile’ women of Utah have prepared a memorial to Congress, -against the Mormon custom of plural marriage. But after all, what a sham morality is this cry against plurality of wives. In Utah, until the advent of the ‘ Gentile ‘ population, there were no liquor saloons, no gambling hells, no houses of prostitution, no paupers and few criminals.

“It is a little difficult to fix the exact date when the Gentile population came to Utah, but before they came Brigham Young and the priesthood manufactured a most villainous brand of whiskey known as Valley Tan, and dispensed it to the Saints at high figures; before the Gentile population came here-as early as 1857-whole trains of emigrants were murdered, and every leading elder kept a private house of ill-fame. Brigham Young and the priests. he has left here still owe a portion of the United States internal revenue tax on the crooked whiskey they made and sold to the people; only one of the murderers who took part in the wholesale human butcheries of early days has been punished, while some of the others are hid up in the mountains to escape -justice, and the private houses of prostitution have multiplied ten fold, so that the inmates thereof, according to Emeline B. Wells, the editor of the paper we quote from, now number 50,000”

“Whereas these polygamous delegates charge that dram-selling, dram drinking, prostitution and kindred vices were unknown in Utah previous to the advent of the Gentiles; and…

“Resolved, That it is a matter of public notoriety, that Brigham Young owned a large distillery, which not only supplied the Utah Saints but many-outside the Territory with whiskey; that Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile. Institution deals largely in all manner of intoxicating drinks; that it is a well known historical fact that at a large meeting of the priesthood, presided over by Brigham Young himself, nearly every man present confessed himself guilty of adultery, outside of his polygamous relations and that the Mormon, preachers themselves publicly lament the great number of illegitimate births in, purely Mormon settlements!’ Extract from THE ANTI-POLYGAMY MEMORIAL.

“ Allread, that one-armed soldier now languishing in a Mormon jail at Manti, bears testimony to the truth of that resolution passed at the Rep. convention in Salt Lake. Allread was a saloon keeper who sold better whiskey than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and therefore gobbled, the ducats of the boys. This was too much for the Lord’s anointed scoundrels.. and they cast him into prison. Such reports, you know, dear brethren, hurt business and you must not rile the saintly devils.”

“Apostle Rich called to account our peculiar people for collecting at saloons and drinking with the ungodly outsiders; and then, when drunk, these Mormons sit down and yell, even singing those songs of Zion which are sung here in this sacred edifice. He had seen on the State road a dozen: or so Mormon farmers too drunk to drive their horses, and in danger of getting hurt where not their horses so gentle. Nor was this all. Even our sisters drink. He happened to be in the Police Court one day when five Mormon women were brought up for drunkenness.”

“ EDS. TRIBUNE: Ask him how that difficulty ended which was brought about by that five gallon keg of whiskey that J. T. Barker brought from Evanston. Thomas, son of Apostle Rich, and others, after drinking and fighting all night, settled the matter in the morning of the 2d with a horse race in which Thomas Rich broke his neck and died instantly. It was the most disgraceful scene I ever witnessed. ONE WHO WAS PRESENT.”

I have seen Whiskey, Rum, and Brandy flowing in the gutters of Salt Lake City, and the ” Siants ” dipping the ” Spirits ‘ with buckets, and even Cling the washtubs so that very soon the satiated sinners became in reality ” Spiritual ” Saints.

“As early as 1869 there was 37 distilleries in Utah run by Mormons.”- Hand Book on Mormonism, pp. 76

Hell on Earth, Part 8

This entry is part 25 of 50 in the series 2011A

From the “Salt Lake Daily Review”:

THE UTAH MONSTER

“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. For behold I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands; and I will not suffer that the cries of the fair daughters of this people shall come up to me against the men of my people. For they shall not lead captive the daughters of my people because of their tenderness, save I shall visit them with a sore curse even unto destruction’ for they shall not commit whoredoms lie unto them of old, saith the Lord of Hosts. Behold, ye have done greater iniquities than the Lamanites, our brethren. Ye have broken the hearts of your tender wives, and lost the confidence of your children, because of your bad examples before them; and the sobbings of their hearts ascend up to God against you. And because of the strictness of the word of God, which cometh down against you, many hearts died, pierced with deep wounds.- Book of Mormon, page 118.”

“Polygamy is truly a relic of barbarism.’ Examined from any and every standpoint, it is repulsive to all pure-minded Men and women. On every hand the evils it has entailed are manifest. If those who have introduced it into our midst and sought to enforce its practice by pronouncing anathemas and the pangs of hell against those who did not obey it, are responsible for the wrecked happiness and blighted prospects of thousands who have experienced its mischief, then it were better they had not been born. There is no ground upon which it can be justified for an instant. The only point ever made to its credit, is that it is better than whoredom or desertion of monogamic wives.

There is no emotional, spiritual, or intellectual culture in it. It vitiates the attributes of maritial affection; it severes the bonds that should make husband and wive dearer to each other than all other objects; it leads to a voluptuousness on the part of the wealthy that is destructive to the production of great men; it is practised for the momentary gratification of the sensual appetites; it leads to the debasement of womanhood, and deprives her of that natural companionship which Nature has designed for her, making her the mere instrument of administering to the physical pleasure of one not her own, finally leaving her in melancholy solitude, her mind clouded with an aimless and vague prospect in life, with nothing to stimulate or excite her ambition but to supplant her more favoured sisters and gain the supremacy of the household-seeking her happiness at the distraction of others. Its spirit is the disunion and division of families; it is a constant menace to pure enjoyment.

Whatever is enjoyed, is done surreptitiously. We know the women of Utah are the most dispirited in the world. The fervid anticipations of youth are dissipated; life is not what the heart teaches. The object of life-happiness has miscarried: and nowhere in Christendom is the life of women such a deteriorated blank. We have yet to meet the first woman who does not regret that its practice and trials are necessary to salvation hereafter.

They bleed inwardly. Drop by drop the heart yields the happiness that God would give them, which the beasts of men have defrauded them of possessing. The young men and women of Utah are far behind other countries as regards refinement, civility, polite accomplishments and natural endowments. The majority of parents in polygamy have little conception and less care what trouble and mortification they are subjecting their own flesh and blood to. The man who, regardless of right, truth, decency and respect due to the welfare of others, persists in this practice, deserves the hottest place that the infernal one has prepared for the wicked.”

Polygamy creates “He and She Devils,” plenty of them. A few cases will show that I am not the only one who can truly say, “It is a perfect Hell upon Earth.” It being so much cheaper to board and lodge all the wives under one roof, where one kitchen and parlor serves for the lot. It is considered the best way to manage the affair. But off times when wives are so terribly belligerent, separate houses are built, if the hubby can afford it. Even this separation does not always prevent “war.” I know a man “ blessed “ with more than one wife, who built for his termagant wife a wooden hut in the foot hills, three miles off, and by removing her to this lonely spot, he expected to obtain peace. But alas!

“ The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglee,

And leave us nought but grief and pain for promised joy.”

This virago would often rush down from her “ Mountain Home,” reinvigorated in mind and body, and make a vigorous onslaught upon the” Peaceful Home.” She would come down through blinding snow storms, when least expected, just to have “a real good fight.” It is impossible to have peace in Polygamy, no matter what they try.

I saw two wives of a merchant meet at the door of their husband’s place of business. As the Salt Lake Tribune reporter saw the same, I give the account from that paper. It says:-

“The elder of the two had made a wifely call at the Store, and on coming out met her younger rival, who was bent on the same errand. Her anger was aroused, and she went for that Nasty minx’ in hot haste. Wife, No. 2, found herself divested of her head gear, and her back hair floating in the breeze before she knew there was anything, the matter. She had come for connubial courtesies, and fell into dread Bellona’s arms. It was a good place to get away from, and she made good time with her heels, leaving her scattered garments on the field as a trophy to the victor.”

A next-door neighbour of mine, also a merchant, took a second wife for the purpose of securing eternal glory, and, if possible, a son and heir to his worldly possessions. His first wife had “ blessed “ him with, several daughters but no son. His fond hope was realized, for very soon the second wife gave birth to the heir. So soon as this new mother could mix with the family, she, in presence of the first wife, tauntingly addressed her babe thus, “You are papa’s darling; you are papa’s son and heir! He’s papa’s beautiful son! When she could take it out of doors, she would meet her husband at the gate on his return, place the babe in his arms, fondly embrace him saying, “Here’s your darling son and heir, your pet baby! “ while the first wife who had also come to the gate, stood looking on with feelings better imagined by the ladies than I can describe. This state of affairs grew worse, until finally it so preyed upon the mind of the first wife-a quiet, loving woman-she became a raving maniac. I could give the names in these cases but it would avail nothing, hence I omit them.

Just to show it is as bad since I left in 1880, I give a case from the Salt Lake Tribune, of May 12, 1881. Robbins is a merchant. A dollar is equal, all things considered, to one shilling in England.

“ EDS. TRIBUNE: It seems that this people have made lies their refuge, and under falsehood have hid themselves. Another disgraceful affair happened here the other day, between the second and third wives of C. B. Robbins. A short time ago his first wife left him, and the second was about as sick of Polygamy as the first, consequently Mr. Robbins and his third wife, together with the priesthood, agreed that the second should be allowed 15 dollars per month for the maintenance of herself and family. It appears that when the second heard from her husband what her allowance was to be, she flew into a terrible passion, called her lord everything but a saviour, left the store, picked up a rock and went to the house of No. 3, rapped at the door, and as her antagonist opened it knocked her down, and with the spring of a tigress leaped upon her and tore the hair from off her head and the flesh from her face in a brutal manner. The hired girl ran for the husband, who came immediately, and with difficulty parted them.

“Such are the fruits of Polygamy; it has covered the Territory with blood and baptized it with tears; it has cast a shadow in the heart, in the sunght, of every good and tender man and woman. I say let us rid the earth of this monster, and write upon every lintel in Utah, “Liberty and Law.” LOGAN, May 10th, 1881.       AMERICAN CITIZEN.

An old lady who was a close observer of the workings of this plural wife-ism once remarked to me that the women in Polygamy were all either devils or melancholy fools.

During my difficulties at home, a fellow “ Melchizedek Priest” called to see how I got along. In private conversation I told him that I seemed to possess two Mary Magdalenes, each of whom appeared to have 7 devils in her. He replied, “That’s nothing, my women’s chuck full of devils, I’ll bet my last dollar that one of em, my wife Hanner, has 70 times 7 devils in her night and day. You’re in luck my hearty, my best woman is never short of 7 times 7 devils, and I consider her my angel. I wish I could find a woman or two that would only harbour 7 devils, I’d marry ’em this very minnit.” He added “Cheer up, don’t let your pecker go down.”

I answered that I could not cheer up, I could see no silver lining to my cloud. Says he “there’s something wrong with you, take a little of this and it’ll cheer yer up,” taking from his pocket a bottle of whiskey.

I said “no thank you, that would raise the devil worse than ever.” “That’s it” says he “Raise the devil, then devil wo’nt fight against a devil; when they see you’re full of the devil they’ll give in, that’s how I fix ’em. I can’t manage ’em till I get full of whiskey, and full of the devil myself: then I raise the devil you bet, and I’d like to see the devils that would stand agin me when I’m full, you hear me?”

I remarked “simalia sinalibus curantur”

Says he “what’s that?”

I said “Like things are cured by like.”

He replied “ Ah! that’s it.” and took a good swig out of the bottle, was “vexed I wouldn’t jine (join) him, and proceeded to tell how matters were “ ta hum (at home). There’s the devil to pay” he said, and he was “jist on it and gitting ready to fight it out with the she devils ta hum.” Were I to tell what he said no one could possibly believe it of any man, much less one holding “The Melchizedek Priesthood.”

In addition to the task of subduing so many devils in his wives, he declared that his mother-in-laws possessed double the amount of devils. Reader, arithmetise the following: this man had 14 wives altogether (that is, wives, spiritual wives and proxy wives). One possessed 70 times ‘7 devils, the “ Best “ 7 times 7, and his mother-in-laws’ double. He, when “full of Whiskey” professed to have devils enough in him to whip all the devils in his wives, question:–How many devils were there in that family? Please give the answer, my time is too precious, and this is beyond simple arithmetic which I arm best posted in.

“ Apostle “ Kimble in one of his sermons said:-” Some women who think they know everything, go home and abuse their husbands and raise the devil in a man’s family.”-Journal of Discourses, vol. 6 p. 127.

“The devil is not dead yet; he is on hand to do his work, to perform his mission, which is to stir up the Saints to their duty.” Brigham Young’s Sermon-Journal of Discourses, vol. 2. p. 348.,

“As this work progresses, so will the works of Satan increase.”-”Apostle” Kimble, Journal of Discourses’ vol. 2, p. 150.

Now for another picture. A beautiful Kentucky girl eloped with and married a Mormon Elder, who soon became a bishop. As time rolled on, this once beautiful girl became the mother of ten children: when the time of her usefulness in this direction was over, her husband took a young wife to his bosom. This so worked upon the feelings of the hitherto amiable wife, as to transform her into a perfect vixen. She had sternly refused to consent to this plural marriage, and had sworn vengeance upon the incoming bride.

The Bishop prepared for his concubine by adding a room to his dwelling. We will call it the “ Bridechamber.” This was situated on the ground floor, the window of which is easily reached from the garden. The wife also prepared to receive the bride with more than usual attention. For some days prior to the wedding, the contents of domestic utensils were saved for the momentous occasion. It was in the very hot weather, when the Bishop, who had hitherto been “blameless, the husband of one wife,” married his second wife. He brought her from the “Endowment House” on this summer eve after dark when “all was quiet and his old wife and her children sweetly slumbering’ as he thought. He very quietly retired with his bride intent to pass the first night of his second honeymoon.

The first wife was not asleep as he supposed, but closely watching just outside the bridechamber window; and, as she anticipated, the heat of the room being so intense, the window had been opened to admit air. Underneath this window stood a row of buckets. The bridal couch stood close to the window, and when husband and bride were snugly ensconced, the wife gave them a different annointing to that which they received in the endowment house. The Bishop hastily dressed, assisted the bride to attire and took her to a lodging house and soon provided a separate house for her.

For three years the wife was furious, made many rash attempts to murder her rival, and never permitted her husband to enter her house. The heart of the husband still clung a little to the wife of his youth, or she would have been “put out of the way and sent back to her mother earth.” The Bishop often tried to become reconciled, and proposed to spend every alternate week with her, but she scorned the idea of being placed on a level with his concubine, and refused all overtures, unless he would discard the other woman. At length the Bishop fell sick, sent for his wife, and told her he was anxious to return to his family.

She replied “You know the terms, you never return here or speak to this woman again.”

The Bishop humbly ejaculated “Hand me down my pants!” That ended the conflict: the pants were taken from the peg, and after three years of Polygamy, he gave it up and returned to his old home; and family. If this Kentucky grit were infused into all Mormon women, the question of polygamy would soon be solved.

I once saw another Bishop lively chased down the street followed by a broom handle and a woman. As this was seen by reporters and appeared in Newspapers, I give it from the Salt Lake Tribune, which quotes from the Philadelphia Times:-

“The women of Mormondom evidently have it in their power to settle the Polygamy question. If they take it in hand as Mrs. Jones, of Salt Lake City, has done their work will supersede the necessity of further legislative or judicial action. Mrs Jones is the wife of Old Jones, and the only wife he has, or is likely to have. Old Jones was contemplating additional matrimony, and like a dutiful Mormon, consulted the Bishop about it. The Bishop advised him to take two more wives, and Mrs. Jones happened to overhear the advice.

“Forthwith she determined to set her face against the project in a manner which could not be misunderstood. Procuring a large broom with a stout handle, she proceeded to discountenance old Jones. She chased him for a considerable distance along the street,’ inflicting, as opportunity offered, such whacks as were calculated to dissuade him from his cherished hopes of increasing the size of his family. After Jones had taken refuge under a friendly shed, she proceeded with what was left of the broom to discourage the Bishop from the giving of any more such advice. A crowd of Mormon boys followed the portly ecclesiastic down the street as he fled from the wrath and the broom of the demonstrative Mrs. Jones.

“As to marriages already made, most of them will have to stand. As to new marriages, the system adopted by sister Jones will blot out all probability of them. No man wants his wedding ceremonies thus turned into a mixture of circus and funeral. No woman will want to become a bride when the bride of former years threatens her and their joint spouse with broom exercise. Let Mrs. Jones be encouraged, and the doom of Polygamy is sealed.”

The following articles are from the “Salt Lake Tribune”:-

Raliegh is a Bishop and Town Councilor

DIVORCE SUITS.

“A Tribune reporter had a talk with Mrs. Elizabeth Raleigh. The latter is an intelligent, fine looking lady, whose hair is but just tinged with gray, the combined result of years of life and Mormon wedded bliss.

“Mrs. Raleigh’s story is like that of a great many of the women who “ have married into the Church. She first went into Mr. Raleigh’s family as nurse to his former wife, who was upon a bed of sickness from which she never rose. She declined to accept the proposals of marriage when first made, but in obedience to the mandate of Heber C. Kimball, then one of President Young’s counselors, and to whom disobedience was worse than contempt of court, she at length acceded. Her honeymoon was not a particularly bright one, but she took upon herself the care of her husband’s children by his first wife, and was a mother to them during many years that followed.

“She was allowed to work all she pleased, and sometimes more, from the beginning, and as stated in the complaint aided in every way to build up the fortune of her lord and master. As a specimen of what was expected of her, one instance may be related alone. Shortly after the marriage one of the cows died, down in a pasture lot in the edge of town, it was supposed from having in some way become poisoned. She was sent with a Danish boy to skin the dead body, which they did, and Mrs. Raleigh carried the hide to the house over her shoulders, her husband, meantime, standing by with a linen duster on and walking cane in his hand, superintending the work.

“In the course of time new wives were added to the household, the number eventually reaching eight, and at one period six of them occupying one house, and working and eating together in one small room, which served as kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room and parlor. Each had a separate sleeping apartment. They were all expected to earn a living, and if they wanted anything special in the way of clothing, etc., they bought it themselves from money made at washing or otherwise. The head of the household bought his supplies by the quantity, and kept them under lock and key, dealing them out with a sparing hand. He was suspicious always that his wives were trying to rob him, and on one occasion, when he thought he missed a dress pattern off of a bolt of common heavy goods he searched the apartments of his wives, examining the bedticks, looking in small drawers that would not have contained the bulk of the dress, and when urged sarcastically by the plaintiff even peering into a pair of stockings which were hung up in the room. The plaintiff says the finest dress he ever gave her after their marriage was one of common material which would probably cost about a bit a yard now, (2.5 cents or 6.25d.

“As an evidence of the love felt for him by his children it is said that when he had been absent in England on a mission and was returning, they saw him, and one of the boys exclaimed ‘there comes that old scoundrel,’ whereupon they all hastened to conceal themselves. He was called by some less tender and respectful names at other times and all in all his life as a husband and father is not a happy one judging by the respect inspired in his family.”

“ROUGH ON POLYGAMOUS WIVES AND CHILDREN.”

“And the defendant further answering alleges, That at the town of Kirtland, in the State of Ohio, heretofore to wit, on the 10th day of January, 1834 this defendant being then and there an unmarried man, was duly and lawfully married to Mary Ann Angel, by a minister of the gospel who was then and there by the law of said State authorized to solemnize marriage, and that the said marriage was then and there fully consummated, and the said Mary Ann Angel, who is still living, then and there became, and ever since has been and still is, the lawful wife of this defendant.

Extract from Brigham Young’s amended answer in he Ann Eliza case.

“At last we have something definite. The Prophet of the Lord has spoken; and says in unmistakable language, that Mormon plural women’ are not legal wives-that Mary Ann Angel is his true and lawful wife,’ and marriage with her a bar to any subsequent marriage. This Brigham Young has said and sworn to in his amended answer to Ann Eliza. Brigham admits himself to be a coward, and though his person is not in danger, his money is, and he coolly throws his religion and plural wives overboard to save his cash.”

“A short time since a Saint was cut off from the Church, his offence consisting in setting aside a plural without procuring a divorce. Why should I pay to dollars for a divorce? ‘ the thrifty Saint enquired of this writer. I wasn’t legally married to the woman, and I could give her just as good a divorce as the President could.’ His ‘divorce’ consisted in turning the unhappy creature out o’ doors. But what is this but concubinage?

“When the peerless Ann Eliza sued Brigham Young for divorce, the disingenuous man of God set up for an answer that he was not married to her, his connubial relations with his first and legal wife being still undissolved. When Apostle Cannon was charged with polygamy before a committee of the House of Representatives, he solemnly declared that he was not offending against morality or living in violation of any law of God or man.

“These facts show that there is neither sacredness nor binding force in the celestial wifery of these lustful Saints, when the admission of such a relation stands in the way of profit or preferment.”

“The wealthy head of the Mormon Church in Utah, has about as effective a way of ridding himself of obnoxious wives, as that of Henry the Eighth, of England, albeit it is not quite so summary. Starvation is Brigham’s favorite mode of terminating his polygamous entanglements; the slow, agonizing, and certain method of murdering the poor slaves of whose faded charms he so readily tires.

Thus there is one creature, the oldest, and only lawful wife of this monster, Mary Ann Angell, now in the seventy-fourth year of her age, whose vitality has withstood the tyranny of the harem for half a century, and she still lives, a reproach to the system which has degraded her condition to that of serf and drudge. This victim of oppression has recently been assigned a cold and cheerless shelter in the old school house behind the seraglio; one end of that dilapidated structure having been partitioned off like a stable, or a stall for a cow!

Miserably furnished, and in no way a comfortable habitation for a person of any age, that dreary tenement is the abode of Brigham Young’s lawful wife, the mother of three of his sons and two daughters. But this is the Kingdom of God, in which women are taught to bear their crosses of shame for the glory that is to come hereafter. The Prophet says so, whenever he leads a fresh victim to the closet of concupiscence. We make bold to suggest a visit to the venerable occupant of that dismal prison, from our kind hearted Executive. He will find theme a scene to excite him to the deepest sympathy.”

The Inter-Ocean quotes the words of one of Brigham Young’s daughters: My father, prophet, though you call him, broke many a woman’s heart. If it required of me to break as many hearts and ruin as many women as my father did, I should go to perdition before I would go back into the Church. A religion which breaks women’s hearts and ruins them is of the devil. That’s what Mormonism does. Don’t talk to me of my father,’ and concludes that ‘Honor thy father’ does not seem to be in the creed of Mormonism, and does not wonder that it is not. Nobody does, The usages of the sect takes from young girls all purity of thought, and when that is accomplished what room is there for self-respect or respect for others? The inhabitants of Mohammedan countries manage affairs with much more care than they are managed in Utah. There is no such promiscuous living as abounds in the two-roomed harems of Utah, but even in those countries there is so little faith in the virtue of women that they are perpetually watched, and never permitted to appear unveiled in public. The customs of the Mormon Church tend directly to break down all a young girl’s ideas of the sanctity of chastity.” [All these-quotations are from The Salt Lake Tribune, remember.]

“One day the Prophet said to the widow Baird, ‘Now there is Brother Pierce; he wants a wife, and you want SOMEBODY TO SAVE AND EXALT YOU in the eternal worlds. Sister Susannah; I will speak to Brother Robert about it.’ The result was, in the course of a few days, Elder Pierce, aged about seventy-five years, led the blushing widow to the altar, in the House of the Lord, where they were sealed up to life everlasting.

Moved by the Spirit of his faith to chastise his better half occasionally, and not being content to make her labor in the harvest field like a man, he would heap insult upon injury by calling her a ‘ – old hell hound.’ The elder would caress his wife with a hoe handle, as he did his cows, and on one occasion he knocked her teeth out and bloodied her nose. This conduct was continued until in July, 1875, when the elder punished her with a chair.

Forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and MRS. PIERCE CALLED UPON HER PROPHET being full of the devil, to complain. After relating her story interspersed with tears, Brigham feelingly said: ‘Well, Sister Pierce, what did you come into the kingdom for? It is your duty to bear with your husband. You are his, and he has a right to do as he pleases with you.’ But this was the kind of sympathy she was not, looking for, and she told the Prophet so, whereupon he asked: How much property did you take to Brother Pierce? ‘

She replied, “I took some furniture; three chairs and”

“You had three chairs, did you?” said Brigham cutting her off short; well, Sister Susannah, take your three chairs across the street and sit down in them until you are satisfied, and if you don’t feel like obeying, do as you please, and you will Go TO HELL IN A SUN-BONNET.’

“She went home, which came the nearest to following out the last part of Brigham’s instructions of any course she could pursue. Elder Pierce continued his abuse for another year, until finally, he drove her out of the house and forbade her ever to return.”

“ EDS. TRIBUNE. Another scandalous polygamic affair has happened in this city. The man has had five wives. His first wife died leaving several children. He then married again. This one left him. He took a third, who bore him -more children. He then left her and she had to support her family as best she could. The poor woman worked and washed and almost went out of her mind, living in a log hut without care or comfort. Her husband then married a mother who had two young daughters. In a short time he began to tease the wife for the oldest child and she and her daughter had no peace until they both consented. When she attained the age of fourteen he took her through the sink hole, (Endowment House).

It was not long before he began to cast loving winks at the other daughter and commenced to woo her. She had no more comfort day or night until she left her step-father and her brother-in-law, and married a young man. Her sister has lived a life of misery and wretchedness in a log cabin with her mother and the two families, their beds being in the same room and standing foot to foot. One night, after they had retired to bed, the old man talked to the mother, thinking the young wife asleep. Her faults were the subject of the conversation, the old man even calling her a prostitute. She heard the whole of the conversation. In, the morning she wrote a note.

“JOHN ANDREWS: I am going to leave you and shall never again be your wife, nor any’ other man’s concubine. It will be no use for you to follow after me, for I shall never return to be abused by you. My cup of sorrow is full.” –

“This she placed under her pillow and left the following morning. Her mother, the other wife, started in pursuit, but returned without finding the object of her search. The Mormons are trying to create the impression at home and abroad that the grease vats of Zion are no longer used and that  polygamous marriages are no longer in fashion in the Kingdom of God on Forth. The smoothest liars are not to be trusted. The concubine factory is kept as busy as ever, and not a Thursday passes but numbers of these marriages are consummated.

“Last Thursday Bishop Davidson of the Third Ward in Logan, took a concubine in the person of Miss McNeil. The girl is nineteen years old, and has become the sealed mistress of the Mormon lecher in spite of the protests of the first and only wife. In the last three months in the Fifth Ward of the same place, four of these illegal alliances have taken place, and it is safe to say fifty have occurred in Logan within the last six months, and still our greatest Government in the world’ does nothing to prevent them.

LOGAN, April 11th, 1881.       AMERICAN CITIZEN.”

“There is a Danish Saint at Spanish Fork, named John Hanson, who recently married two pretty Scandinavian girls who came over with the last cargo of immigrants that arrived in Utah, about two months since. This last addition to the Danish harem makes ten concubines that this old brute has, and, it is said, he works the whole gang in the fields while he goes around, like an overseer, well dressed, and well cared for. This old reprobate Hanson makes his ten wives work like beasts in the fields while he roams at large in high clover.

“Ten wives! And yet there are people who think the late cut in the Police Gazette, styled Mormonism Uncovered,’ was an exaggeration; it was on’y too true.”

[The Police Gazette reproduced W. Jarman’s Illustrated Lectures for the information and amusement of its numerous readers.]

DWELLING TOGETHER IN UNITY.

“ Among the ‘infamous libels’ charged against this godless sheet, is branding the issue of these illicit unions with illegitimacy. A short time since a knock down occurred in a prominent Mormon store in town arising from two polygamous sons branding each other with bastardy.

“Those who know Mormonism best have predicted that the greatest enemies to polygamy will be its own offspring.

“William Jennings has boasted that as Mormons, his has been a happy household. His children, he says, live happily together, and all is lovely where once polygamy reigned. We do not doubt Brother Jennings’ word; but if the rumour that reaches us be true, then his statement is incorrect. In the store on Monday evening, we are told that two of Brother Jennings’ sons illustrated that unanimous spirit that invariably follows polygamy. Tom Jennings, it seems, who is son of the first wife, called his half brother, Frank, a bastard. This was resented by a slap in the face, and the happy children went at it just like Gentile boys. The clerks separated them, and we presume happiness reigns in that home once more.”

The Tribune being a secular paper perhaps my Christian friends will prefer that I quote from a few sermons; therefore I introduce “ Apostle” Kimball’s sermon published in the Mormon Church Organ, The Deseret News, vol. 6. On page 291, it says:-

“ I have no wife or child that has any right to rebel against me. If they violate my laws and rebel against me, they will get into trouble just as quickly as though they transgressed the counsels and teachings of Brother Brigham. Does it give a woman a right to sin against me because she is my wife? No; but it is her duty to do my will as I do the duty of my Father and my God. It is the duty of a woman to be obedient to her husband, and unless she is, I would not give a damn for all her queenly right and authority, nor for her either, if she will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the principles of plurality.

“A disregard of plain and correct teachings is the reason why so many are dead and damned and twice plucked up by the roots, and I would as soon baptize the devil as some of you.”

In many families where there are as yet no concubines, the wife is anxious to remove from this valley of Sodom, as well on her own account as to save her young daughters from becoming the inmates of a priestly harem; and -as she has it in her power to obtain a divorce at any time, it may seem strange that she should remain the inmate of such a domestic hell. But a divorce would be of no practical benefit to her. She would be compelled to separate from her children; and, as she is powerless to perform an overland journey of over a thousand miles, to bring herself within the protection of a civilized government, she must, of course, remain, and seek a precarious livelihood, -under the discouraging pressure of Church vengeance.

Hell on Earth, Part 7

This entry is part 24 of 50 in the series 2011A

On such interesting occasions wedding dresses, bonnets, ribbons, and such. things are of small Moment. Such trifles get scattered in fragments to the winds, while the dark glossy hair of the one and the golden locks of the other are handled most unmercifully, that is the hands of the dark-haired victim hitches to meddle with the golden locks and vice versa. And the one with the longest finger nails prides herself in doing the best scratching. Second round won by the bride, time 8 min. 32 seconds. With a brace of them, and both claiming the protection of their dear husband, what could I do. This. “duck of a husband” was nonplussed, and now that No. 1 had witnessed defeat. She was surprised that her husband and protector failed to help her-and give the bride a good thrashing, and demands that he shall protect her from the assaults of that “insolent hussy.”

The bride insists that No. I shall not interfere with her marriage rights demands the protection of her husband and is particular to state how the “deceitful old cat” lured her into marrying. her husband. Finally we reached Ho… I was about to say “home,” the Poet says:-

“ Home, home, sweet, sweet home, Be it ever so humble there is no place like home.”

But the Polygamist can never sing that. If the author of those beautiful: lines had married two wives and taken them to his ‘home, he could have never composed the like. He might have given us something about a “Hell upon Earth,” and depicted the fearful scenes of a Polygamic harem about as. follows:-

It’s here on this earth we do re-a-lize Hell,
Where women, as devils, do constantly dwell,
Because we here marry so many dear wives,
Who rage, vex, and pester us out of our lives.
Hell, Hell, chief chief Hell,
Be it ever so wealthy, It is nothing but Hell.

My Home, in Utah, as well as every other Polygamic home, must hereafter be called “Hell upon Earth.” We arrived in our “Hell at home” about 6 p.m., just in time to sit down to our wedding dinner, but my appetite was gone. In the Endowment House I had been crammed with so much of that “meat the world knows not of,” and from what I have described I may be credited when I say all I now needed was peace and quiet and a good hot bath. I managed to get the latter but never the former two. I washed off the” Holy oil,” during which time it seemed as if all hell was let loose, and ten thousand thunders, earthquakes, and dynamiters were busy tearing things.

In the early morn when I left that “Home, Sweet Home,” there hung on the walls such mottoes as “God bless our peaceful home.” “There is no place like home,” &c., while peace and plenty filled it. Now it seemed that all the devils in existence had left the infernal regions, and gathered from the various parts of the earth where they had been going to and fro, and wandering up and down, and had now gathered together and made my house their rendezvous. I wept like a child, and why I was kept from committing suicide I am only beginning to learn-

“ There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will.”

A faint gleam of light seems to show that I had to go through all this Hell upon Earth business so that I might be enabled to expose the whole matter in such a way as to convince the world of its abominable evils and thus effectually bring about its speedy overthrow. If not, I ask, “Why was lured into it and made to suffer so? And why when so often tempted to commit suicide was I frustrated?

I had been “ counseled “ to furnish a separate room for each wife, and devote one week to each alternately, the parlor’ kitchen, and dining room to be used in common by the whole family. The wife that was to be a widow, as it were for the week, had to superintend the ‘domestic arrangements, or in military parlance be “orderly for the week.” In the conjugal bliss she would be exempt from domestic duty and the week widow become the “orderly,” and so on one week. But in my Domicile things went contrary-they do in all these Polygamic families. I would that mine were an exceptional case, but having traveled over Utah Territory, and boarded and lodged in the various Polygamic establishments there, I am compelled to speak the truth and say, I found no happy Polygamic families through the length and breadth, of the land. How could there be? The whole thing is so diametrically opposed to human nature. We find in the case of Polygamy, as in every other case where Nature is perverted or abused, Dame Nature comes back on us with severe penalties.

Within the first 24 hours of my “blessed Honeymoon,” the furniture of my “Home Sweet Home,” my “Hell upon Earth” appeared as if shaken and torn by a violent explosion and to cut a long story short, I never experienced any of the bliss of this “week about” business. No. 1 at all times insisted upon bossing the household arrangements and would never allow the man-her dear husband-who had violated his British marriage oath and taken another wife to his bosom, to be on the same close relation as before, she being a wife only in name and nothing more, and there was therefore an end to all chances of any “pledges of affection.” In vain did I endeavour to persuade her to “live her religion” and try to “bear the cross,” for every time I appealed to her I was met with torrents of abuse, while my bride was always mentioned in words not fit to appear here.

I went to business mornings with a heavy heart and returned evenings with a far heavier one. A man after the toils of the day and worry of business seeks the quiet retreat of his peaceful home-his castle-removed as it were from the battles of life, to recuperate his strength and fortify himself for the morrow. Here the gentle sympathies of his help meet should soothe his oft distracted brow. Here he should find that comfort and consolation not to be found in the outside world which builds him up and fortifies him, enabling him the better to do battle with the stern realities of life. But now, it was no use for me to seek consolation, peace, quiet or rest in my house-my Hell-before reaching it of an evening wife No. 1 or 2 would be sure to meet me and prepare me somewhat for the big storm raging in my hell.

If it was No. 1 who had so affectionately come to-meet her tired lord, and lovingly cheer his few remaining steps homeward, she would wring her fist in his face and say “ Now William I’m your lawful wife, married you in England “-I would try to break the sentence by saying -” Yes my dear, who says you ain’t.” Then I was treated with an outline what had passed between “my wives” during the day, and if I tried to hurry along so as to get into hell and witness the worst of it as quickly as possible she would pull me back-say she had come to meet me on purpose to let me know how things were, and like Sarah of old insisted that I must “Cast out the bondwoman. ‘ How vainly did I try to convince her that it was our “Holy Religion,”-that she should have thought of this before, and looked before she leaped, and consented to the union.

If it was wife No. 2 who met me, she would storm thus, “Now William, I married you according to our religion, by and with the willing consent your other wife. Had she refused her consent I would not have married you, yet the nasty old cat keeps calling me * * * (this must be left blank) I think I have given enough to show how matters stood. It was useless for me to ask No. 2 to put herself in the place of No. 1 for a moment and consider had she been my wife for years and the mother of my children, and then have to submit to another – how very trying it must be, &c. The fact is Polygamy makes women perfect devils, and there is only one way to manage them, and that is the mode adopted by Nigger drivers in Slavery-The Horse Whip. That being out of my line I was not a successful Polygamist. There are other ways of managing these hells which I also refused to adopt.

It soon became known that “Brother Jarman was in for it,’ and served -him right, for a man in his position to be so niggardly and try to get along with TWO WIVES when he ought to have at least a dozen.” One night on going home and neither wife having met me as usual my bosom thrilled with joy. Thinks I, now hostilities have ceased-the war is over-I shall yet have a Home on Earth. When I entered my house I soon found my mistake out.

There were two men “ Teachers “ waiting to see me: They had heard the tremendous “ rows “ going on in that unfortunate domicile that day and had -called to teach my “ women “ their “duty,” and had remained to “ teach “ me in regard to my “ duty “ which was about thus:-As I had failed to learn the “Horsewhip Drill” I had better look out a half dozen good stout girls who would hang together-hold the balance of power in my household and bring these two viragos into subjection.

Both men were strangers to me, so I said to the one who was “ mouthpiece “ “Excuse me Sir, but are you a Polygamist?”

“Oh yes,” he replied.

“How many wives have you? “ I asked,

“Four “ said he.

“May I ask, can you keep peace in your family?”

He answered “I wish I could but it seems impossible.”

I said to the other Teacher “and pray Sir, how many wives have you? “

“Only three” was the modest reply.

“Be kind enough dear Sir to tell me how matters stand in your home; can you keep your wives in subjection?”

He replied “I am sorry to say it is utterly impossible.”

I arose, opened the door, and said, “Gentlemen go home and learn how to rule your own households, and then come and teach me. At present you are not the teachers I require, I have no use for you. According to your own confessions, you are the wrong men in the wrong place, please withdraw, and when you can come and intelligently advise me what to do, I shall be very glad to see you, Good Night!” This was my first visible sign of apostasy: I had refused to listen to those “In Authority.”

Next morning early a brother “High Priest” called, said he wanted to chat with me, and as it was particular perhaps I would walk with him around the foot hills. So we took a morning walk. We had not proceeded far when he introduced his particular business thus: “Brother Jarman, you made a mistake.” I readily confessed I had. He continued, “I mean in marrying ONLY Two: a man of your caliber should have married at least a dozen. Besides your two are strong-minded English women, and they’ll always be fighting and scratching unless you do as I am about to tell you.”

Says I, “For God’s sake-for my children’s sake-for my wives’ sake-do tell me, if you can, how to have peace in my home.”

Says he, “Will you do as I tell you?”

I said, “If I possibly can, I shall be only too glad to do whatever lays in my power to secure what I so ardently desire-peace in the family.”

Says he, “There are various ways of regulating these Polygamy affairs.” [I knew he was a man of experience in that line, so I resolved to let him go a-head, and let me into the light of “the various ways” without interruption]. “In the first place you have two very excellent women, and you ought to think yourself in luck for having secured them.” (“Ill” luck thinks I) “But you are a poor judge of human nature in women, and made this mistake. You married two only and each one is fit to be a boss; the one will never yield to- the other. Had you picked out for a second some meek, quiet disposed girl, the first wife could have just whipped her into line, and made her do as she leased: or had your first been of such a temperament that the second could have brow beaten her into subjection, all would have been well. Instead of that you have two natural born bosses. Now my advice to you is this. There is a large importation of Danish girls to arrive in a day or two. You go down and pick out twelve, they are generally very quiet and harmless, and submit to anything. Marry the dozen and take home the lot. Give six to one wife and six to the other, as servants like, to help them in their domestic affairs. You’ll find they’ll just whip those Danish girls around, and have their work cut out in bossing them, and you’ll have a jolly time.”

Here I had to interpose a question. “But my dear brother, I don’t know the Danish language, neither do my wives.?

“D… the difference,” said the Priest. “We have Danish Priests that will tell those you “look out” to go with you and do as you tell them. You get a Danish Dictionary and you’ll get along all right. Should any difficulty occur, just call for the Danish Priest, and he’ll soon straighten things out, you bet.

I thought surely here is a nice scheme, but it looked to me like “hopping out of the frying pan into the fire,” but I did not say so. I was in the “pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.” He further said, “There is still another way out of your trouble. If you don’t like to marry so many, you just look out one real good vixen like woman, some regular virago, marry her and bring her on the scene, and if she don’t regulate matters, nothing will. I tell you I tried that game, and it worked like a charm. This virago of mine has a daughter a regular ‘chip off the old block.’ She’s only just turned fifteen, but lord, she’s a snorter.

“She’s just a hitching and a dying to have a regular go in at it, and this brings me to my particular business with you this morning. This daughter (sweet fifteen in Utah), I’m speaking of has taken a fancy to you, and she deeply sympathizes with you. Only last night when she heard of how your wives were a “cutting up,” she says to me, ‘Dad I feel for that dear man, he don’t deserve such treatment as he gets. Why only last week when I called, there was roast, bake, and boil and plenty of everything. Yet that thousand dollars worth of furniture he bought when he married ’em was just fit to light fires without much chopping.’ Well Brother Jarman, I need not tell you all she said, but to the point, she is willing to help you out, and I promised her to see you and talk the matter over, and if you say the word come right along and take her through the Endowment House, marry her, take her home, and I’ll guarantee she’ll settle matters in short order. You’re welcome to her my brother, and she wishes to become Mrs. Jarman. No. 3 right off, so say the word and the ‘jig’s up.”

Now what could I do. Here was an extraordinary offer of marriage, how could I refuse, or be at all uncivil, especially to a brother Priest. So I said, “Then you are willing to give me your daughter, and that under such circumstances?”

“Oh yes,” he replied, “and she is perfectly willing to marry you at once, and I do actually believe she was born to help you out of your difficulty-she’s cut out for the very purpose.”

I thanked him very kindly, said that “the proposition having come upon me so suddenly I must beg time to reflect upon it, and if I concluded to marry another, I certainly would give his daughter the first chance.”

She never got that chance, I preferred to remain in the frying-pan and frizzle. That was hot enough for me, I also vowed if I could get forgiveness for marrying two wives at once, I would never do it again. Those who have read “The Infernal Conference, or Dialogues of Devils,” by the Rev. John Macgowan, V. D. M., will see vast depths in every line I have written, which those who, have not so read fail to see. Space prevents my introducing -” Dialogues of Devils.” Milner & Co., London.

Time dragged heavily along, life was a weary burden. One terrible night when things were worse than ever I took my Colt’s Navy Revolver and went up behind the grave yard, determined to put an end to this “Hell upon Earth” and try the other. I felt it could not be worse, and probably it might prove somewhat better than the Hell I was now in. I pulled the trigger three times with the muzzle in my right ear but without effect, it did not discharge. ‘When placing it the fourth time, a feeling I cannot describe came over me, and the thought I had not kissed my dear little children “good bye,” made me determined to go home kiss my innocent darlings for the last time-and make sure work of it. When I got home the sight of my own flesh and blood laying there sweetly sleeping, unconscious of their Father’s or Mother’s deep sorrow and trouble, deterred me from committing the rash act, though driven to desperation. Be it here understood that though I and my wife should have had better sense, I blame, not her, but the vile system, and all who uphold it. It was a trouble to her as well as to myself, although she has got bravely over it, as you will see, I have not, nor do I ever expect to.

On another occasion when my trials seemed too heavy for poor human nature to bear, I kissed my dear little ones “good bye,” and this time determined not to be frustrated, took a razor, again went to the grave yard wall, a lonely place, fully resolved to launch myself into Eternity, I was so tired of Time, it dragged so slow, every day seemed years and that of wretchedness. Arriving on the spot I knelt and offered a short prayer that the Father of Mercies would have mercy upon me; and remember that my frame which was but dust, was too heavily burdened to proceed further on the journey of life that here I ended it, and trusted to Divine mercy for a better life hereafter.

I felt perfectly resigned. Intending to cut my throat while upon my bended knees, I searched in my pocket for the razor, but it was not there. It had worked its way through a small hole in the pocket and was lost. I felt awfully disappointed. I went home feeling very sad, but here one of my little ones having been taken ill, was crying for “Papa.” The tears which now blot this manuscript, thank God, will not appear in print. When I think that my children have all been torn from me by the accursed system of Polygamy, and are now 7000 miles away and are being dragged up in that awful Sodom, I pray for the curse of the Almighty to rest upon America until she rids herself of that accursed Institution. And may England’s Government wither and her Glory depart, and may England become a hiss and a by word among the nations so long as she allows Mormon Missionaries to pollute her soil and drag away so many victims to undergo the same as myself and thousands of Britishers have endured and are still suffering.

I suppose I am not the only father that possessed a PET child among his pets. This sick child was my pet and oh how earnestly I wished that sickness to prove fatal, that I might bury it and then speedily join it beyond. However it recovered and lives in Salt Lake City to day, a Mormon-a far greater trouble to me than if I had buried it.

As more of my hell and what I suffered appears in future Chapters, I will now show how things are in other families.

Hell on Earth, Part 6

This entry is part 22 of 50 in the series 2011A

I now come to a very important part of this “ Endowment “ business which I name “Weddings in Hell.” I will state right here, that most, if not all the marriages solemnized in this place are Polygamic. A man may marry a first or lawful wife without going there, but no man can marry a second or plural wife unless he and his victim wade through all the filth of the “ Endowment House” and he must be so married within its “ Sacred “ walls. When the various “Temples” now being erected are completed, Polygamic marriages are to be solemnized therein also. Up to the time I left “ Zion “ only the “Temple at .St. George” was finished. There such marriages have taken place; and I am told by those who ought to know, that a far worse, and much more filthy ceremony is gone through within the “ Temple “ than within the “Endowment House.”

I know this much, “The Prophet” has often that “There are degrees of glory and blessing which can only be obtained in Temple consecrated to God for the purpose!” Knowing, therefore, what I do, I can readily believe there will be nice goings on in these temples w finished.

Before describing my wedding in this Hell, I will state that my English wife was not only willing, but desired that I should marry another. As a marriage according to the English Law was of no avail in the Mormondom, and as we had to be married over again, she concluded that I had marry two at once, and thus secure my eternal salvation, and the power raise her up at the resurrection, This is only secured by Polygamy; the wife becomes anxious that her husband should take a second wife in order to secure the salvation of the man she loves, and her own eternal glory. Many of the first wives are lured into sanctioning the plural marriage.

(Misc comments on plural marriage edited out)

Now that everything is lovely, and my wife consenting to the plural marriage, I take her on my right arm and the bride-elect on the left, and walk them both into the “Sealing Room.” Here I present the slip of paper containing my name, the name of my wife that was, or is to be, and that of the intended bride, to the Priest who sits at the Altar. He bids me and my spouses to be seated, which we do, and await further developments. He carefully examined the slip, or certificate, the Priest calls upon me the bride groom, my wife, and bride to arise, which we do, fronting the Priest.

I and my wife are now married for time and eternity, a very simple affair; its simple being married over again. Having been married to my legal wife she then stands on my left-hand side, while the bride-elect stands on her left. The Priest then put this question to my wife, “Are you willing to give this woman to your husband to be his lawful and wedded wife for time and for all eternity? If you are you will manifest it by placing her right hand within the right of your husband.’,’

This she willingly did, and this bridegroom and bride stood “hand-in-hand.” My wife was now told to take my left as if in the attitude of walking: The Priest then asked me as follows: “Do you, Brother Jarman, take sister (calling the bride-elect by her name by the right hand, to receive her unto yourself, to be your lawful wedded wife, and you to be her lawful and wedded husband, for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and promise, on your part, that you will fulfill the laws, rites, and ordinances, pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the and everlasting covenant, doing this in the presence of God and angels of own free will and choice? “ I, of course, answered, “Yes.”-The Priest then put this question to the bride:

“Do you, sister” (calling. her by name), “take brother Jarman by right hand, and give yourself to him, to be his lawful and wedded wife for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and promise on your part that you fulfill all the laws, rites, and ordinances, pertaining to this holy matrimony, the new and everlasting covenant, doing this in the presence of God angels?

The bride meekly answered “Yes.”

The Priest then said: “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, I pronounce you legally and lawfully husband and wife for and for all eternity: and I seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection with power to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed with glory, immortality, and eternal lives; and I seal upon you the blessings thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, and exaltations, together with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and say unto you Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, that you may have joy rejoicing in your posterity in the day of the Lord Jesus. All these blessing; together with all other blessings pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, through your faithfulness unto the end, by authority of the Holy Priesthood, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

The Priest then wrote on the slip of paper “O. K.,” which signified the thing had been done “up to dick,” that I was “done brown,” and was now a thoroughly married man. This bachelor had hitherto been playing at marriage. Now it was a reality, and a fearful one at that, as you will presently see. The Priest opened the door and told me to hand the slip of paper to the Prophet, and watched me do it. The Prophet looked at it, then gave it to the Scribe, who entered it on the general record. I saw him write my name, the maiden names of my two dear wives, and the place and date of this singular plural marriage in the big register. I for asked for a certificate, but was immediately told that such “nonsensical documents” were not required; that I had “the two women to show for it,” and, says the Prophet, “If that ain’t enough go out, look up a few more, fetch ’em here, and we’ll splice you on to them mighty quick. You are all O.K., so take your women home and make the best of ’em.”

A Mormon wife has no certificate to show marriage, and if occasion should require and to shield their Polygamous brethren, the Mormon officials, will positively swear that they did not perform the marriage, while the big book will never be found, for that is safely hid.

The Great High Priest, Elias Smith, who is also Probate Judge, then confirmed me, and made me an “Elder and a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Moreover my “ Patriarchal “ documents show that I also held wonderful position, viz.: “A virgin without guile.” As these papers appear full presently, I will merely say here that the “Endowment ceremonies” shook my faith in Mormonism, making a shipwreck of faith quite possible. I began to doubt the sincerity of its leaders, which is the first step to apostasy. It seemed to me they were more like vile sinners than “Saints,” and the words Sir Jahn Birkenhead:-

“If these be saints, ’tis vain indeed, To think there’s good or evil.”

The world will soon be of this creed, No God, no king, no devil.” came to my mind, remained uppermost, and I could not forget them.

At the wedding, please observe, I and my bride were asked “Are you doing this of your own free will and choice?” my wife was only asked “Are you willing.” He should have asked “Are you subdued? Has the priesthood and this holy religion blunted every womanly feeling in your breast, and caused you to immolate yourself on the altar of Polygamy?” The marriage ceremony being now concluded we are permitted to don our worldly clothing and leave the place, this being the conclusion of the “ Endowment “ ceremonies. We are cautioned to be sure and keep on the “Holy Garment” which covers the “Sacred Oil,” and forms a complete coat of mail always proof against all the fiery darts of the Devil.

All secular clothing must go on over this. Having put on my clothes as ordered, and being again fit to appear in decent society, I soon found my empty lunch basket and my way out. I left that building a wiser’ sadder, and muchly married man: I could not help being wiser, but why should I be sad on this my TRUE AND REAL wedding day? Had not God commanded in the Mormon Revelation to take TWO wives, and had sworn to damn me if I failed to thus many. Had I not obeyed and was now saved man, and ought I not to be happy? But somehow I could not feel nippy. There seemed to be a fearful dread of something terrible just about to happen, and it did happen as you will see, for my home was ever after “A perfect Hell upon Earth.

After giving such an expose as I have of this infernal institution I must state, that though in England, and far removed from Mormon Assassins, Mormon vengeance would reach me if it could. I know how mad they will be, and further I know they have thousands of men who gladly do the bidding of their Prophet, Priests, and Bishops. Hence the people of England must not be surprised to hear that the writer of this book is vilified, for Mormons will swear to anything, as I show presently; and would stop at nothing short of my death. They always defame the character of those who leave them, for as they cannot meet the serious charges which I or any other recusant Mormon can bring against them, if they can but get the public to believe me unworthy of credence and thus prevent my obtaining an audience, they would gain their point.

The Author of “The Rocky Mountain Saints, on page 212, says:-” From the beginning of Mormonism, the ruling authorities have accepted defamation of character as the best weapon with which to assail the discontented or apostates.” They also assure their British converts that all Apostates are full of the Devil, and very wicked, and strictly caution them never to listen to one, or credit a word they say. I find it hard work to get at those who have been converted to Mormonism in England; but am happy to state that I failed but in one instance to effect a recapture, and that one seemed to me more fit for a lunatic asylum than anything else. I have saved hundreds from going into bondage, crime and misery in Utah, and when I have saved the whole of Great Britain, and driven every Mormon scamp from our shores, I shall consider my work done, and not till then.

MY HOME A PERFECT HELL.
In treating of my own domestic affairs I shall do so like a man, for man would attempt to give the public all the peculiarities thereof, which the said public have no business to enquire into, while I shall give enough trust that “ Enough’s as good as a feast.”

I was now a married man in every sense of the word. My “ Wives “ having dressed themselves fit for decent society also, each made a grab for left arm. Wife No. I (as I shall now call my “old stand-by” wife) managed to grab it successfully, while the bride proper awfully chagrined snatched at the arm hugged it tight and looked daggers at No. 1. Whatever their respected thoughts may have been, and though awful fiery glances were exchanged between them, we left the house in solemn silence. I felt that a storm of more than ordinary portentions was brewing-I was downcast, though it was my wedding day and I had a DEAR wife on each arm, and was, of course, ripe for Heaven, yet I could not help feeling I was much nearer Hell. Both wives and myself as we jog along, look down, as if to find consolation on the earth. All I could read upon the ground, and it seemed printed in big letters, was HELL UPON EARTH. No. 1 hangs heavily on the left arm; The Bride drags sulkily though tightly upon my right arm. Behold this rose between two thorns, and if there is such a thing as sympathy in human nature, sympathize with this suffering trio. Men put yourselves in my place (metaphorically of course). Ladies put yourselves on my left or right arm which ever you please (figuratively) and find out our respective feelings on this very remarkable occasion. Must I, can I, attempt to describe them? I will try.

This disconsolate hubby feels about “done up” and is ready to “pass in his checks,” get up the “flume,” “kick the bucket,” or do anything to avoid what I feel sure is coming, and that without delay. I say to myself “I am in a nice fix, I’ve done a nice thing for myself and put my foot in it.” Why was I born, why did I not commit suicide, or rob a bank, forge a cheque, or do something that would have transported me for life, then I should not have known this dreadful suspense. I glance, but for a moment, at wife No. 1, she that had so often shared my sorrow, but it’s no use looking there for sympathy now; I see in her, a worse than Mary Magdalene, who knew nothing of polygamy, and had but seven devils in her, whereas Mormon polygamy makes the women complete Devils. It’s useless looking to her—-the pride of the morning, but now the bride of the hour-for sympathy for she also seems very much “put out” and anything but satisfied with the situation.

But how shall I describe the feelings of my better halves. Were I a devil, one of those accustomed to getting inside the women, I might be able to tell exactly how they felt, but I can only judge from external appearances, and what I afterwards found out. The most interesting person and the most interested, on wedding occasions should be the Bride. Therefore we will gauge her feelings. Though this is the first time she has been married; she is not satisfied. She feels that being the latest spouse and the only real bride of the occasion, she should have the place nearest her husband’s heart. The left arm on hers, and she reasons thus-This is my first wedding day; that old wife of is has been married to him for years. It’s no novelty to her; this is my honeymoon, not hers. She might yield a little to me on this occasion. I have as much right to my husband as she has, why should she seek to claim the best place in his affection? I have just married him, and I’ll just let her know it-he wished me to many him, or I am sure I should not. Now that I have I’ll not go back on him, I’ll stick to him through thick and thin, and show her I have as much right to him as she has. If she wanted to keep him all to herself why did she wish me to share him with her; if she don’t look out I’ll make it so sweet for him that he will slight her considerably, and perhaps let her flicker solitary and alone. She must not trifle with my feelings just now I’ll make her rue it.

Wife No. 1 ruminates thus:-I never thought it would make such a difference. I and my husband were one, I could speak confidingly and pour out my soul to him in deep sympathy when I had him all to myself, but now I find the truth of the old adage “Two is company, but three is none.” This interloper deprives me of my conjugal felicity, I’ll teach her to mind her own business, and not seek to mar the happiness of man and wife that have been so long wedded to each other. She evidently thinks she ought to have my husband’s left arm; she will have to learn that his left arm is mine. She may consider that she, being the youthful bride has a perfect right to it, but I shall leach her that I am THE WIFE OF HIS YOUTH, and therefore have the greatest right to him. I shall not relinquish any of my rights for that stuck up thing.

Thus the mischief keeps fermenting, and not a word is spoken by either. What a wedding day? Did the All-wise God give that Revelation commanding such marriages? No Never! No, a thousand times, No! It’s worse than Blasphemy to say it emanated from the All-wise Creator.

In the Endowment House the “new names” given to my wives were those of “ Sarah” and “Rebecca,” but amid the excitement I got them mixed, and when we came out I could not “tell t’other from which;” for the life of me I could not tell which was Rebecca or which was Sarah, both new names to them and me. What to do I knew not, for we must never reveal the one wife’s name to the other, or speak of it at all; it is to remain a perfect secret between the husband and the particular wife.

Yet I was anxious to know “which was which.” Shortly we arrived at a small stream, over which there is no plank or bridge of any kind. Foot passengers jump over it. Now we newly-married trio, triune, triplets, tripartite party, or whatever we may be termed-do not get scared, we were merely three souls with but a thousand thoughts-three hearts that failed to beat as one. Now it is not to be expected that we three in one and one in three will try to jump the stream conjointly. Oh dear no, It can’t be did.” We would have another ‘washing if we tried to do so. The wives now release their hold of the husband’s arms. Wife No. 1, in a vexatious moment, clears the stream with a bound. Now, thinks I, this is just my time to find out if that is Sarah or Rebecca that has just flopped over the stream. So I said to my bride, who was yet on this side of Jordan (the stream), “Let me see, your new name is Rebecca.” She affectionately replied, “No, my dear, my new name is Sarah.” ‘ “Rebecca,” who stood just on the brink of the other side, heard the word “Rebecca “ and very wickedly surmised, or at least the devils in her prompted her so, that I was confidentially telling the bride her new name. That was enough. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” and to make a bad matter worse I jumped the stream and lovingly assisted the bride over. I and the bride would have got along O. K., if the other “dear charmer” had been a thousand miles away, but she was right there to pay particular attention to my left arm, &c., &c.

In helping my bride over the stream I had taken her right hand, and guided by a strong instinct, or else the Devil was prompting the batch of us to mischief, I did not release her hand until I had placed her right arm in my left. I not thinking of what I was doing, but the bride designedly, as she afterwards told me, for says she “I was determined to have my rights.” Well, she had them “right and left,” so did I, and between the two I wished myself in Heaven out of it.
My readers will not expect me to waste pen, ink, and paper and take up the valuable space in my book by describing the fracas, suffice to say the first round wag won by Wife No. I, time 5 minutes 57 seconds. My arm by this time was ready for a sling. The bride, overcome by the superior fighting qualities of No. 1, resolved to make good use of her weapon, the tongue, and give her “a good tongue lashing.” In this she was successful, or at least equal to the emergency and managed to get in “six to-the half-dozen.” As it often happens in a wrangle of words, something the bride said, amused the ire of wife No. 1, and without calling “ time! “ round. second was commenced with increased vigor.