STEEP TRAILS 



especially those from the country, have a 

 weary, repressed look, as if for the sake of their 

 religion they were patiently carrying burdens 

 heavier than they were well able to bear. But, 

 strange as it must seem to Gentiles, the many 

 wives of one man, instead of being repelled 

 from one another by jealousy, appear to be 

 drawn all the closer together, as if the real 

 marriage existed between the wives only. 

 Groups of half a dozen or so may frequently be 

 seen on the streets in close conversation, look- 

 ing as innocent and unspeculative as a lot of 

 heifers, while the mascuHne Saints pass them 

 by as if they belonged to a distinct species. In 

 the Tabernacle last Sunday, one of the elders 

 of the church, in discomrsing upon the good 

 things of life, the possessions of Latter-Day 

 Saints, enumerated fruitful fields, horses, cows, 

 wives, and implements, the wives being placed 

 as above, between the cows and implements, 

 without receiving any superior emphasis. 



Polygamy, as far as I have observed, exerts 

 a more degrading influence upon husbands than 

 upon wives. The love of the latter finds expres- 

 sion in flowers and children, while the former 

 seem to be rendered incapable of pure love of 

 anything. The spirit of Mormonism is in- 

 tensely exclusive and im-American. A more 

 withdrawn, compact, sealed-up body of people 



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