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Show PRACTICAL POLYGAMY. 139 the Mormons too well understand. With the more timid it amounts to a command. An intelligent lady who was a member of the Mormon church until she became disgusted with its abominations, informed me that four years ago she was repeatedly " counselled " to marry against her wishes, and on more than one occasion her bishop had been so kind as to name the individual he " counselled " her to marry. I have heard of one instance of the man and woman both being required to marry, on the grounds that they had previously agreed to do so, and afterwards flew the track. A saint who had one wife already, was attracted by a young woman in Liverpool, when on a mission there, and promised to marry her ; but it could not be consummated in England, where the laws against bigamy are rigidly enforced, and as they had to be separated, the man placed to the credit of the woman in the emigration office the cost of her transporta tion to Salt Lake. For some cause she did not come over that year, but came afterwards. Time and distance has a wonderful effect in cooling the ardor of lovers, and when there is no love, but only attraction, indifference is likely soon to result. Such was the case with our Elder and his espoused, and by mutual consent the match was regarded as broken. Some time afterwards Brigham learned of the circumstances, and the woman was required to become the third wife of the former missionary. I did not learn of any criminal intimacy existing to cause the compulsory mar riage, which indeed was as much so on one party as on the other. It is not uncommon for a woman, who is the lawful wife of a Gentile, to leave her husband, and live as a wife of a Mormon. Brigham Young has a woman in his harem who is the wife of a gentleman in Boston, and Parley Pratt, once one of the most prominent apostles, was shot and killed by an enraged husband for taking his wife from Cali fornia to Salt Lake City, and there marrying her. The little boy who brought me iiesh water to wash the briny solution from my body, at the time of my bath in the lake, spoKe very affectionately of his father in New Jersey, when |
