sider it a great object to be "sealed " to him, by which, as they suppose, their salvation is ensured; an absurdity worthy of the dark ages, and a slight advance on the doctrine of Mohammedanism, that women have no souls to be saved.

EXTERIOR

CHAPTER XIX.

INFLUENCES-YOUNG

MEN-DISSATISFACTION WITH

66

POLYGAMY-CHANGES TO BE WROUGHT IN THE SYSTEM OF

MORMONISM, AND HOW.

MAITH, hope, and charity; and the greatest of these

FAITH,

is charity," saith the apostle. Faith in the abiding truths of Christianity, and the Rock of Ages; Hope in the strong good sense and principle of the Anglo-Saxon people; and Charity that covereth a multitude of sins, would lead us not to despair even of the Mormons. Influences, both exterior and internal, are at work among them that can scarcely fail to soften and modify the more peculiar doctrines of their faith, and their most obnoxious practices. Could people of other persuasions, with enlarged and benevolent views and motives, be induced to settle among them, establish schools, and erect churches, there can be little doubt that in process of time a radical change might be effected in their peculiar tenets. Already the influence of the emigrants and occasional visitors to the country, has not been lost, and we may confidently anticipate that as travel

increases, and facilities for communication with other parts of the world are opened, while other communities and States spring up around them, the Mormons, for the sake of public opinion, and to conciliate the good will of mankind, if for no other purpose, will grow ashamed of their excesses, and lop off such excrescences as must, when known, retard the progress of their faith. Customs now tolerated for mere expedience and the increase of numbers, will be left to become unfashionable, and finally grow obsolete, when the supposed necessity no longer exists.

The younger portions of the community are evidently disaffected to the existing state of things. With the considerate, the thoughtful, and the intelligent, it could scarcely be otherwise. They know it to be an occasion of reproach, and naturally shrink before the contumely and maledictions of the civilized world. Thus far polygamy and its kindred vices have been indebted to the power of priestcraft for their support. When priestcraft falls, as it surely must, in the lapse of generations, we may expect the prohibition of its attendant vice.

There is one class of the community whom hitherto I have not noticed, yet who are destined to act an important part in the future. I allude to the young men, flush, fiery fellows, characterized by a defiant air and independent spirit. Between these and the elders feuds and jealousies have already arisen, in many cases, and we cannot doubt that similar causes will produce the same effects, with still more gratifying results, in the time to come. That the

elders should monopolize the youngest, most beautiful, and wealthy women, must of itself be sufficiently displeasing to the young men, without further aggravation from the fact, that as brothers they must witness the humiliation and unhappiness of their sisters, added to the dishonor and domestic annoyances of their mothers. I have heard young fellows anathematize the whole Mormon system on this account; while others would run off to California with their sweethearts, and there abide, in order to preserve the objects of their love from falling beneath the libidinous influence of those they hated. Brothers frequently urge their sisters to depart for California, and escape the contamination of living in a Mormon harem. A young man by the name of Bryce, a Mormon in sentiment, yet independent and, for a backwoodsman, uncommonly intelligent, said that he had a sister whom Elder John Taylor had married for his sixth wife. That he considered such connections abominable, and no marriage at all; that he told his sister so, and offered to bear her expenses wherever she wished to go, if she would only abandon the paramour.

“And did she accept your offer?" I inquired.

"No; she said that here she was as good as the best ;" he answered, "but anywhere else she would certainly be despised, and her child called by an opprobrious epithet, which she could not bear."

A young man, whose parents were from Oneida County, in the State of New York, expressed a bitter aversion to polygamy. He had been wounded in the tenderest point.

His affianced bride, within one week of the time appointed for their marriage, jilted him in favor of one of the elders, an old man of forty years, whose house was already shared by four wives. In consideration of her youth and beauty he promised the fifth a separate establishment, which, however, she never obtained.

Another young man with whom I conversed, had suffered severely when a child, from the persecutions of his father's second wife. These women, it seems, are even more cruel and selfish than step-mothers are reported to be, and the helpless children of their rivals are made the subjects of their concentrated jealousy and rage. This, however, must materially depend on the natural dispositions of the females, and would, by the Mormons at least, be referred to the faults of the individual rather than the system.

A highly intelligent young man, a member of the Legislative Assembly, thus expressed himself on the subject of polygamy:

"Polygamy, it must be admitted, is an evil. It is an institution that presses heavily against the best interests of our people. It banishes the best women; it operates against the increase of our population, instead of assisting it, as has been supposed. It prevents the establishment of families, obstructs the proper education of children, and is the fruitful source of a vast amount of vice and misery. Being thus injurious, have the priests and elders any right to fasten it on our community? Shall the free Mormon people have their best interests subverted, that these men,