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Show i 3 5 PRACTICAL POLYGAMY. ascertain the will of God concerning the contemplated marriage. If it is agreeable, the man is then authorized to marry again. Next he communicates with the parents of the lady, and they being willing, he then consults the lady herself. I think if I were a young lady I would prefer taking part a little earlier in the action. The finale of the preliminaries is to obtain the consent of the first wife, when the three go together to the Endowment House, and all participate in the ceremony. If the first wife withholds her consent, as she has a re cognized right to do, the husband may submit the case to the President, when the wife is summoned before him to make known her objections. If they are not strong or tangible, they are overruled as being capricious, and the man is married with the omission of the part provided for the first wife in the ceremony. Cases sometimes occur where the first wife is capable of interposing very serious obstacles, when the difficulty can be remedied only by divorce, which is easily obtained as I shall hereafter show, or by causing the wife to waive her ob jections through fear, or because of other influences that may be brought to bear. I will give an example of this kind. A Mormon residing in Salt Lake City, having already one wife, desired to add to the number, and had selected the widow of a brother, who had died a few years before, to share his connubial relations with the other wife. She ob jected, however, not to his marrying again, but to the woman he wanted to marry, and proved herself to be a good Mor mon by offering to select for him another who would be more congenial than the sister- in- law. Rather than submit the case to the President he yielded, and accepted the choice of the wif~, a buxom young girl, and soon the three were made one flesh. But the husband appeared to prefer a particular wife rather than a mere multiplication of them, and the last marriage proved to be rather an unhappy one ; he still longed for the brother's widow. The first wife remained inexorable, and as a dernier resort he appealed to the president. The wife |