NOVEMBER 1. 1912 



that they had a right to pass the Edmunds 

 Law making it a penitentiary offense to 

 have more than one wife at a time. 



The Mormons went to the Supreme Court 

 with that question. Brigham Young sent 

 his attorney to that great court with his 

 proposition : He said that marrying twenty- 

 one wives out in Utah was a "religious 

 ceremony." 



What did the Supreme Court say? Listen 

 to their answer : "It is not a religious cere- 

 mony in a Christian country; to wed one 

 wife is a religious ceremony, but to marry 

 two is a crime/' and they said the law was 

 «ill right. 



Then when the law was passed prohibit- 

 ing all interstate commerce in lottery tick- 

 ets, they went to the Sui3reme Court with 

 that question, and they said: "The Con- 

 stitution says that Congress shall have 

 power to regulate commerce between the 

 States, and here you prohibit it." 



What did the Supreme Court say? A 

 unanimous opinion of the nine judges said 

 that that clause of the constitution gave 

 congress the right to regulate the shipment 

 of cattle or dry goods across a State line, 

 but on a moral question it had a right 

 to prohibit interstate traffic entirely. Oh 

 what a splendid decision ! 



THE STRANGEST CONTRADICTION IN AMERI- 

 CAN HISTORY. 



Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have 

 shown you to-night that this doctrine of 

 one standard of morals is as fundamental in 

 our government, and has been for fifty 

 years, as the constitution itself. 



And you have acted upon it in every sin- 

 gle instance but one in American history 

 for the last fifty years — not only these three 

 prominent instances which I have related, 

 but in many others. 



You have acted upon it in every single 

 instance but one, and that is when you 

 struck the liquor problem. And when you 

 struck the liquor problem you said: "We 

 will adopt a rule on this question different 

 from any other." Isn't it marvelous that 

 you were reasoning right on every single 

 question before the American people un- 

 til you came to the liquor question, and 

 then you have an entirely different stand- 

 ard of morals? 



See A. I. Root's Special Notice, this issue. 



A TRIP ON A MOTOR-CYCLE TO THE OLD 

 WORLD ; BY ONE OP OUR GRANDCHILDREN. . 



Several times of late the question has 

 come up as to who shall conduct my de- 

 partment in this journal when sickness or 

 death shall cause me to drop it. The fol- 

 lowing letter from one of our grandchil- 



713 



dren, who has been spending his summer 

 vacation in a tour through Europe, might 

 suggest an answer; he was not quite 21 

 when this letter was written, and it is 

 plainly evident he had no thought that it 

 would ever find a place in Gleanings: 



Dear Grandma and Grandpa : — I thought of home 

 quite often on the Fourth of July; and, oh how 

 I wish I could have been with you all for the 

 picnic supper 1 It is the first one I ever missed on 

 the Fourth. 



I will first tell you the things you want to know 

 worst. I am well and feel fine, and have been 

 well ever since leaving home. My machine runs 

 finely, and I haven't had a bit of trouble with it 

 We have saved money a good many times by good 

 fortune — first on our motor-cycle crates; then on 

 our transportation of them from one place to an- 

 other; and, lastly, on our hotel bills and meals 

 In London we stayed at a private family with Mr 

 Boxwell. We had our meals and all for only $3 48 

 for the five days we were there. Here in Paris 

 we do even better. We get our rooms for fifty 

 cents a night, and our meals for about fifty cents 

 a day, besides getting our motor-cycles kept for 

 nothing at our hotel. It costs a little more per 

 day, but the accommodations are very much better 

 and the rooms cleaner. ' 



This afternoon we went by the aviation field and 

 saw an aeroplane circling around the field Later 

 we saw one up in the air about three thousand 

 feet high. Yesterday we saw seven balloons in the 

 air at one time. This is a great place for aero- 

 nautics. Next Sunday is the day which the French 

 celebrate as the Fourth of July. Hundreds of 

 dirigible balloons and aeroplanes will be in the air 

 at once. 



Yesterday we were invited over to Dr Wiatt's 

 to dinner. He is the pastor of the American 

 Church here in Paris. 



Paris is the most beautiful city in the world 

 I am afraid It is the most wicked city in the world 

 too The French women are awful. I am dis- 

 gusted with all that I have seen so far. The time 

 will come when Paris will be taught an awful 

 lesson, with a catastrophe far worse than the San 

 Francisco eartliquake. The beautiful buildings, the 

 Eifel tower, the Trocadero, the Arch of Triumph 

 and all the rest will be destroyed as was Rome of 

 old, and only their ruins will remain It will be 

 an awful lesson ; but unless the French people 

 wake up soon it will be too late f f ^ 



The ride from London to Paris was beautiful. 

 Ihe green fields, sprinkled with red poppies the 

 stone walls and ivy-covered castles and chat^aus 

 he green hedges, the thatched-roof peasants' 

 houses, are all far beyond my power to describe. 

 The roads in England are particularly beautiful 

 they are as smooth as a concrete floor; and the 

 httle villages with their tiled-roof houses and pe- 

 culiar chimneys are exceedingly picturesque. 



We don t have a bit of trouble in going from 

 one country to another, because we got interna- 

 tional passes in London from the automobile as- 

 sociation. It was quite a lot of trouble and expense 

 to get the passes but they will save us untold time 

 and money m the end. All we have to do now i^ 

 to show our papers, have them look at our pict- 

 ures, and see if they tally with us; sign two or 

 three places, and we are off again. In about a 

 couple of weeks we hope to be riding along thi 



This trip is doing me a world of good. For one 

 thing It IS making a man out of me, I hope. I am 

 thrown upon my own responsibility, and even have 

 to look after the two other boys to a certain ex- 

 li \t-^ ^^^^ *^«''' machines in repair for 



them. Mine hasn't needed any attention yet 



We are coming home through Boston— at least 

 Mr. Griffith and I are. We will stay there a day 

 or two before we come on home. 



I am sure you won't worry about me. I take 

 good care of myself, and God takes care of me. 

 When I get home I shall be healthier, stronger, 

 and will have seen more of the world, which is a 

 good thing for anybody. I also hope to be of 

 some service to the business over here if I can 



Pans, July 8. Howard Root Calvert 



