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Show MORMON CHURCH. POLYGAMY. 119 with him as he was a man of some education and of cer tainly ordinary intelligence on most subjects, but he con tended that Adams' spirit had transmigrated into his body, and that he had been six thousand years looking for Ever whom he found only the year before I saw him. Eve, it seems, had been acting badly according to his own state ment, for when he found her, he said she had become a base prostitute, but he intended to elevate her to her proper po sition in society. He declared her to be his mate ; so de creed from the beginning of time, but he treated her in the most barbarous manner, explaining that it was all intended to give her a proper idea of her inferiority. For this reason/ or some other, Adam cut her hair short to her head, and pulled out all her teeth. They started together, on foot, for the States from Salt Lake City, and as such garments were more convenient for pedestrians, he dressed her in men's clothes. There is no asylum in Utah for providing for this class of citizens, and if there were, I doubt whether they could have the benefit of. it, as they were not orthodox Mormons, but Josephites. But this is digressing from the subject of this letter. To keep the run of the doctrines of the Mormon Church would require a close attention to the teachings of the " Zion of the Lord," and to current revelation; I do not propose to criticize them here as absurd, as many of them are. They are only ques tions of opinion, and with their opinions I have no dis position to meddle. It is about their practices I have most to say. After the subject of doctrine, I may as well refer next to their church government. In the Mormon Church there are a greater number and variety of officials than in any other sect with which I am familiar. But, notwithstanding this apparent division of authority, it is probable tfie greatest ecclesiastical despotism now extant. The head of the church has in his power the lives and property of his deluded followers, and to him all acknowledge the most profound allegiance, while the masses virtually worship him. As he is not nominally the only power in the church, I will proceed to explain the |