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Show 164 WHERE THE MORMONS It would not be proper for me to give the name of the writer ; but I would state that the person had observed all that is referred to in the letter. After alluding to other matters it refers to a certain president, whose name is given, in this wise : " This man was a tyrant among the people, and few re spected him. He would not show himself to preach to the people except on fast days once a month ; and then he would scold them and tell them that they were extravagant ; that they lived too well ; that they did not pay enough to the Lord ; and during one month seventeen old members, who had been in the church ever since its organization in Europe, were c cut off* " ( women would never have been dealt with thus harshly they are too valuable in the church and the unfortunates must have been men). The reason people did not like him was because he spent so much money on his u little doll" ( the wife he had with him. Saints in Salt Lake do not have u dolls " their wives as a rule are treated as anything else). " He made it a practice to go to the theatre and take his wife's family, and that cost him one pound every night he went, and it was the tithing that paid it. He was just the man to extort money from the poor, and ' cut them off' if they did not pay their tithing; and a man or woman rather than lose their position in the church would pay their last cent. u I know of cases where women have had to take their husbands' clothes to the pawnbrokers, in order to have the money ready for their teacher. Shoes have been taken from little children's feet to pay the fee. It is a common thing for a poor sister to go out and earn a shilling, and when she goes home find an Elder from Utah at her house, and she will very cheerfully put her hard- earned shilling in his hand, and believe that the Lord has blessed her for it, and I have known cases where the men have gone into a liquor- store and spent it." Such testimony is rather damag ing to the character of Mormons when they go abroad. Formerly the headquarters of Mormonism was in Liver pool, but within a few years they have been changed to Lon don, and there the Elders report on their arrival out, and are |
