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Show 138 PRACTICAL POLYGAMY. the father of her child, the announcement quite surprised the household, as well as the community, and was for a time the subject of gossip, but as the woman had been married by the president it was regarded as above suspicion of wron^; For several years she continued to live with her half- broth er bearing other children by him, and no effort was then made to conceal the double relationship. Her mother was also the mother of her husband, living in the family ; and finally her treatment by her brother- husband became so cruel that she left his house and sought refuge at Camp Douglas, and afterward with her mother went back to the States with a company of Josephites. Another shocking feature in this case was the brother and husband's charge of a want of chastity in her relations to other men. I know of one instance of a Mormon proposing to marry a widow lady, her daughter of sixteen, and a woman she had as a servant, and to bind himself to marry a younger daughter as soon as she was of marriageable age. The proposition being declined, he made a bold attempt to obtain the servant alone; but he failed in this also, not without making a rather unusual effort however, and the dernier resort, which ter minated his unsuccessful suit, was the promise that if the woman would have him he would give her the best tiog in his stye, which she might sell, and use the money as she pleased. Here is an example for the benefit of young ladies in the States as to the appreciation of their sex in Utah, one of them being regarded as about the equivalent of a hog. The individual was about sixty years of age, and had a son of twenty, who subsequently sought and obtained the hand of the maid. Taking the father's age as the maximum of marriageable years, while the mini mum is fourteen for girls, and sixteen for boys, we have quite a long period when parties are in the market as husbands or wives. As I have before remarked, the women are not required to marry a particular individual, or indeed to marry at all, if they are willing to risk the consequences ; but they are often " counselled " to do so. The influence of counsel |
