116 PERILS. — MOUMUNISM. 



sends out from 200 to 400 missionaries a year, most of 

 whom labor in Europe. They generally return after 

 two years of service at their own charges. In 1849 the 

 "Perpetual Emigration Fund" was founded for the pur- 

 pose of assisting converts who were too poor to reach 

 " Zion " unaided. During the first ten years after the 

 founding of this fund the annual average was 750 ; for 

 the next decade it was 3,000; from 1880 to 1885 the 

 number ranged from 2,500 to 3,000; since 1885 it has 

 gradually decreased. The losses by apostasy i are many, 

 but are more than covered by the number of converts, 

 while the natural increase of the Church by the growth 

 of the family is exceedingly large. Furthermore, to the 

 growing power of multiplying numbers is added that of 

 rapidly inci'easing wealth. The Mormons are industri- 

 ous—a lazy man cannot enter their heaven— and the 

 tithing of the increase adds constantly to the vast sums 

 already gathered in the grasping hands of the hierarchy. 

 The Mormon delegate to Congress, who carries a hun- 

 dred thousand votes in one hand, and millions of cor- 

 ruption money in the other, will prove a dangerous man 

 in Washington, unless politicians grow strangely virtu- 

 ous, and there are fewer itching palms twenty years 

 hence. 



Those best acquainted with Mormonism seem most 

 sensible of the danger which it threatens. The pastors 

 of churches and principals of schools in Salt Lake City, 



1 We may learn ere long that there is as little occasion for congratulation 

 over Mormon apostasy as over Roman Catholic. The Mormon, in his men- 

 tal make-up. is a distinct type. There are men in every community who 

 were born for the Mormon Church. Let one of the missionaries of the 

 " Saints " appear, and he attracts this class as naturally as a magnet 

 attracts iron filings in a handful of sand. They are waiting to hear and 

 believe some new thing; they are driven about by every wind of doctrine; 

 they have probably been members of several different rehgious denomi- 

 nations; they are credulous and superstitious, and are easily led in the 

 direction of their inclinations; they love reasoning, but hate reason; they 

 are capable of a blind devotion, and strongly incline to fanaticism. In a 

 word, they are cranky. A church largely made up of such material will, of 

 course, multiply apostates. The Mormon Churcii is a machine which manu- 

 factures tinder for anarchistic fire. 



