THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
possession of all his facilities. He has a be¬ 
nignant and paternal expression, and would 
pass anywhere for a handsome and amiable 
old man. He talked very frankly, leading the 
conversation himself upon polygamy; but I 
was less impressed with bis sincerity than with 
that of some of the other high “dignitaries.” 
His defence and excuse for polygamy were 
of a very material and physical character, 
and quite unworthy of a spiritual-minded 
man. He has a keen and enjoyable sense of 
humor; but after our half hour’s talk with 
him, 1 was convinced in my own mind, that 
the man did not honestly believe the first or 
last thing connected with Monnonism. 
As we passed along the street from the 
“Gardo House,” we stopped to pick and eat. 
mulberries in front of along, rambling “fami¬ 
ly” house, with piazzas in front. A great many 
mulberry trees have been planted here along 
the streets, and the production of fruit is ex¬ 
cessively abundant. One of the ladies sit¬ 
ting on tiie piazza asked us to come inside, say¬ 
ing that we were welcome to all the berries 
we could get, and went so far as to send her 
17-year-old son up a tree to shake it for us. 
In reply to my question, if silk worms were 
cultivated here, she said “Yes,” and that Ann 
Eliza Young had had a dress made from the 
silk—and she supposed that I bad heard of Ann 
Eliza; I had; and as I was all the time won¬ 
dering if she were a Mormon (I had learned 
that the Mormon women could not be detected 
as such by outward appearance), I ventured 
to ask her if she was a Latter Day Saint, and 
she said she was, aud after some further con¬ 
versation aud berry eating, she urged us 
to come in. I accepted the invitation 
very gladly, and upon entering was intro¬ 
duced to her sister, one of the women whom 
I had seen in the curs the day previous; An¬ 
aximander remained on the piazza aud talked 
with the young man and his aunt, while my 
laddie amused himself in the garden. My 
hostess led the way iuto quite a pretty parlor, 
where there wore pictures, books and an up¬ 
right piano. She looked to be sixty years of 
age perhaps, in good health, and had a frank, 
straightforward and cordial manner that 
well pleased me. I soon learned that she was 
Louisa, the first Mormon wife of Daniel H. 
Wells, ulso known as General, Judge, etc., 
Counsellor to the Twelve Apostles, and who 
had been for several years Mayor of the city 
—a man “high in power and influence.” I 
said to her that a Mormon woman in polyg¬ 
amy, was to me an enigma, and that If she 
would not object, T would like to ask a great 
many questions. She very cheerfully and 
amusedly acceded to my wish, and 1 had from 
that time various conversations with her, met 
two of tier daughters, saw and talked, on sev¬ 
eral occasions, with her husband, was intro¬ 
duced to a number of his children by other 
wives, had long conversations with another 
wife, a woman born in New England, of 
marked intelligence and refinement, of con¬ 
siderable literary ability, a. woman who edits 
a paper, and probably does inure than any 
other woman in the world to advance and 
uphold the doctrine of “plural marriage” 
among Mormon women. The Wells family, 
all in all, is one of the most respectable and 
influential in the Church. Some of Brigham 
Young’s children, both daughters and sons, 
have turned out badly, and are drunkards. 
Louisa Wells’ sister. Emmeline, was one of 
Brigham’s wives, and for a long time his fa¬ 
vorite. 
A “Gentile” woman, who was a music 
teacher for many years in Brigh tin's family, 
tells me that Emmeline was a most excellent 
and even elegant woman, and that all Brig¬ 
ham's wives were good women, and they lived 
in apparent harmony. Mrs. Louisa Wells is 
one of five wives, and she told me that she 
gave a number of them to her husband, her¬ 
self, it being a custom for the first wife to do 
so, prior to the law which has been passed 
against them by the United States Govern¬ 
ment, making plural marriage bigamy, and 
a crime. So now, all additional marriages 
are performed secretly without witnesses, so 
that no one can be called into court to prove 
anything. She said she expected her husband 
would take other wives when she married 
him; that she liked all the wives very much, 
and alJ the children (26 are living—all grown); 
that, of course, everything did not always go 
on smoothly—this was nowhere the case—and 
that each and all had trials to bear; but that 
she thought women had less to complain of 
in polygamy than in monogamy, while the 
“exaltation” they all looked forward to in the 
future was their great reward. I asked her 
how they managed their household expenses, 
and she said each one bought what she want¬ 
ed and the bnsband paid the bills; that some 
were more selfish and extravagant than oth¬ 
ers, and that husbands were more or less gen¬ 
erous in paying bills, as were Gentile husbands. 
She said she had always been free to read 
whatever she pleased, aud she said that she 
had always had her own “say” about every¬ 
thing; that she thought women were better 
than men, and she conceded that a woman 
who lias been raised in the Mormon faith, 
does not look upon plural marriages as does 
a Gentile. 
These various wives of Gen. Wells, so he 
told me, all lived at one time under one roof, ! 
and with their children ate at. one table, ami 
he pointed out the house to me. He laughing¬ 
ly added, as he lifted his hat from his snow¬ 
ing one, but he said he didn’t think a woman 
could love in that way. The Mormons evi¬ 
dently feel the weakuess of the Bible in giving 
them support for polygamy, and when Mr. 
Wells quoted “ Abraham Isaac and Jacob,” I 
said that none of them were men whose lives 
formed the best examples to follow, and that 
even in that crude time a plurality of wives 
made great trouble. Their Bible defence lies 
whitehead, “and you see that my hair hasn’t 
been pulled out either.” I replied that T won 
dered he had a spear left on his head! One 
of the reasons he advanced in faver of plural 
marriage was that every woman had a right 
to a husband and children, and that in the 
course of nature there were many more women 
than men in the world, and he was for a mo¬ 
ment confused when I told him that the IX. 8. 
census of 1880 numbered a million more of 
men in this country than of women, and that 
in the fact that polygamy is not condemned 
in either the Old or New Testament, while the 
revelation made to their “ Prophet,” Joseph 
■Smith, commands it. 
They have throe grades of marriage, and 
they construe the remark of Christ that there 
will be neither marrying nor giving in mar¬ 
riage in Heaven, to mean that all marriages 
for eternity must take place here, and do take 
place in this world. Whero Paul says a bishop 
must be the husband of one wife, he does not 
WINDSOR CHERRY. (From Nature.) Fig. 364. 
there were far from being women enough to 
give each man one wife. “ Well,” he said, 
“there are a great many more women in our 
Kingdom of Zion here than men.” “That 
is because women are so weak-minded and so 
much more readily deluded by you than are 
men,” I said. He cook everything good-natur¬ 
edly. 1 asked him if, when he took a second 
wife, he had ceased to love the first one; he 
said not at all—he loved her all the same, and 
he loved in just the same way each succeed¬ 
say that he cannot have more than one wife, 
and so on to the end of the chapter. If I were 
to write out in full my experiences in this 
city with this “peculiar people,” and put on 
record ail I said aud all I heard said from a 
multitude of sources, from ex Mormons and 
Gentiles as well, it would cover more space in 
the Rural than I could hope to command, or 
any one would probably care to read. 
We attended on Sunday a Mormon Sunday- 
school, admirably conducted—the Superin¬ 
tendent asked Anaximander to address the 
school—and the Tabernacle service, which was 
very interesting. Hero we found the largest 
auditorium in America, an immense organ, 
and a trained choir of over 100 voice?. It was 
in largo part a very foreign-looking congre¬ 
gation—Dunes, Swedes. English, some Ger¬ 
mans, and Swiss - all of the lower classes. 
When ouo realizes the strength of the ecclesi¬ 
astical tyranny of the Mormon Church, he 
must confess that the founders and binders 
builded better than they Wuow, while the 
Mormons say that no man could have done 
the work—that God alone could have done it. 
They accept the Old and New Testament 
straight through, and have, in addition, a 
multitude of revelations made in these latter 
days. They (iud just as much in the prophe¬ 
cies of the Old Testament pointing to them 
and tlieir location In these mountains, as any 
class or creed can fiud in their own behalf. 
Apart from their polygamy, and the control 
of property by the Church, no reasonable 
fault can be found with the Mormons. They 
are industrious, hospitable, and kind, and 
whatever the sins of the past—some terrible— 
they belong to the leaders, and not to the 
people. 
If the Mormon women were so disposed, 
they could overthrow the whole struc¬ 
ture; but they are so educated as to be its 
staunchest supporters. Polygamy entails, as 
a rule, severe toll for the women, as they 
must work the harder to support their child¬ 
ren, the average man not being able to provide 
sufficiently for two or more families. Then, 
too, it is useless to deny that a woman suffers 
the crudest torture oftentimes when her hus¬ 
band feels it to be his “duty” to take another 
wife. He does so sometimes for the sake of ex¬ 
tra help in the house it “saves hiring” a girl I 
More girls than boys apostatize from the 
church—even in the Wells’ family, some of the 
daughters have married Gentiles, and they 
seem to be free to do so. The successor to 
Taylor (s George <,). Cannon, an able mau, but 
no President will ever again exercise the power 
that Brigham Young possessed. The incom¬ 
ing of Gentiles, and the influence exerted up¬ 
on tho minds of the young (one-quarter of the 
Mormon population is under eight years of 
age) cannot fail to have their effect. The 
opinion, however, of the leading resident Gen¬ 
tiles is, that bloodshed will ensue before the 
Mormons will give up polygamy. One Mor¬ 
mon woman of prominence said to us that no 
woman could live in polygamy and be govern 
oil by her feeling?; that it was no more pos 
siblw for a Mormon woman than for a Gen tilt 
—sho must be guided by principle, aud by that 
alone. 
The children of one Mormon mother call 
the Other wives of the family “Aunt,” and 
there seems to bo very much of unanimity of 
feeling among them, such as exists between 
full brothers and sisters; whilB, on tho other 
hand, it sometimes happens that, tho quarrel¬ 
ing between the different wives necessitates 
t.ho building of separate houses for their ac¬ 
commodation. Perhaps it is but just to say 
that 1 accept all the fair reports of polygamy, 
from such as are in it, with due allowance, from 
a desire to make the best of an ugly and un 
natural state of affairs. 
» ■ ■ 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
California- 
Cahpknteria, Santa Barbara Co., Aug. 24, 
—More beaus uro grown here than any one 
thing else, The Lima bean presides. Prices 
low compared with those of some former 
years—cents per pound is the highest 
price bid. Crops of all kinds are fair to good. 
Much rain last Winter, with now and then a 
dash up to June 12tb, when we had \% inch 
iu about three hours; the oldest inhabitants 
never saw the like. O. n. c. 
Dakota. 
Raymond, Clark Co., August 25.—Cutting 
wheat completed. A considerable portion of 
the crop stacked. Home have thrashed, but 
the returns are not what was expected—four¬ 
teen to eighteen bushels per acre where it was 
thought there would be twenty to twenty five 
bushels. Possibly the 485,000,000 bushels of 
the nation’s crop may be nearer the truth than 
the 500,000,000. T. M. 
Iowa. 
Pilot Mound, Boone Co., August 25.— 
Farmers in this locality are happy. Weather 
favorable through harvest, and yield good. 
Oats thirty to fifty bushels per acre; wheat 
eighteen to twenty-three bushels, of good 
quality. Thrashing is now the order of the 
day. Hay has now been secured in fiue condi¬ 
tion; crop ubodt the same as last year’s. Pota¬ 
toes will be a full crop, though tho acreage is 
less than formerly. Vegetables of all kinds are 
plentiful and cheap. Fruits, both wild and 
cultivated, in abundance; but apples are in¬ 
ferior. Our prospect for a huge corn crop was 
never better, all we fear is an early frost. We 
need a dry, hot September. August has been 
cool, with rather too much rain. Fall plowing 
has commenced; everybody busy I a. w. h. 
