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Show PRACTICAL POLYGAMY. 143 husband was absent at the time, and the three together en tertained her apparently very harmoniously, but when the husband came in, the last wife, certainly in bad taste, went and sat on his knee. This so displeased the others, that they immediately left the room with their guest sitting there. It is not uncommon for a second, third or fourth wife to be confined in child- bed, without the first manifesting the slightest interest in her case. At first blush it may seem very unnatural for a woman to be devoid of sympathy under such circumstances. But it must also be unnatural for her to feel much pleased when she considers the fact of her hus band being the father of a child which is not her own. The unpleasant feeling existing between wives is not con fined to them, but a want of congeniality between husband and wife is most marked. This naturally grows out of the degradation in which woman is held, to which I have before alluded. The belief in their systems, whether a man be comes a polygamist or not, is almost certain to result in improper treatment of his wife, as he is taught to regard woman in a very different light from that in which she is regarded in Christian communities. I know of one case where this change took place. An intelligent man who be came a Mormon after having lived many years as an affec tionate and indulgent husband^ always conferring with his wife in all his plans in life, and I have no doubt profiting by her advice. They were English, and in Liverpool he as sociated a good deal with the clergy, and through them was led to a change in his views, as to the relation that should exist between husband and wife. Accordingly, one day he instructed the wife as to - how she should act in the future. She was not to presume, thereafter, to advise or counsel him in anything, nor even suggest a thing that might influ ence his judgment ; particularly if she held different views from himself; that if he should contemplate marrying other women she was not to oppose him in any way, but quietly to submit. This was exactly the opposite to what he seemed to desire up to the moment of the conversation, and the change was to be as sudden as it was radical. |