The Awakening Of The Desert Part 21

CHAPTER XXVI

MORMON HOMES AND SOCIAL LIFE

In the older days, when polygamy was a recognized inst.i.tution in Utah, there was much in the organization of a Mormon home that was calculated to excite interest, bordering on curiosity, in the minds of many, who have regarded such complex domestic relations as peculiar to the luxurious life in an Oriental harem.

This curiosity was intensified by sensational statements made in the East,--chiefly by women, but in some cases by men, who had renounced, and later denounced, Mormonism. It is quite possible that the stilted dignity of some officials, the eager search for the sensational, which had characterized the rude intrusion of some writers, and the p.r.o.nounced antagonism of the greater number of Gentile residents, prevented such persons from entering the Mormon homes, except to find their members very reserved and in no frame of mind to disclose the inner life of the family.

There also seemed to be a hidden mystery connected with the secret religious rites of the Endowment House which were said by many persons to be both solemn and indelicate, and extended through three degrees with a symbolic ritual quite as elaborate as that which is used in Masonry.

In the earlier days in Salt Lake City, this ceremony was performed in a large adobe structure, known as the Endowment House, but since the completion of the Temple, it had been held in the Temple Building. As none but the elect are permitted to enter those sacred precincts, we must obtain our information from persons who, although, perhaps, pledged to secrecy, are nevertheless now willing to reveal the facts. An estimable old lady, who is held in high regard by all her neighbors, but who is now no longer a Mormon, has told me all that she could remember of the trying ordeal, and has shown me the robe which she wore in this ceremony through which she pa.s.sed, after she left the State of New York with her parents, and joined with the Saints in the far West. She has preserved the robe more than forty years.

The rite, which may properly be termed confirmation, was performed upon this young lady (as such religious ceremonies usually are) through parental influence and through the advice of church officers. She believed it to be her religious duty to enter the Endowment House, but she was thoroughly uninformed concerning the nature of what she should there see or do, and for which, being a helpless subject, she was not responsible, although for sixteen years thereafter she accepted the revelation of the Mormon prophets and for years was a faithful Mormon wife. It would appear from her frank narration that there was nothing in the ceremony, itself, that justifies the malicious gossip. I have heard from many uninformed persons, that some features of the ceremony are indecent, and that its secrecy is intended simply to conceal rites which would be flagrantly offensive, if performed in the presence of intimate friends or of the family.

Mrs. Stenhouse, who has written at length upon this subject, confirms the statement that while "The elaborate ceremonial seems ridiculously absurd, there is nothing in it that is immoral." My informant regarded the ceremony as being sometimes woefully solemn, often thrilling, but exceedingly fatiguing because of the many hours required to pa.s.s through each degree. Her baptism, according to Mormon practice, was by immersion. She wore a loose white robe, extending to the ankles, and leaving one arm free. A linen belt encircled the waist. She was anointed with olive oil. She pa.s.sed the ceremony of purification, and was then led into a representation of the Garden of Eden, from which time no members of her family were present. This long ceremony ended the first degree. Having been driven from the garden and its temptations, the novice receives secret signs and pa.s.swords and unites in solemn oaths, and finally pa.s.ses beyond the veil. The remainder of the ceremony seemed to be simple and uninteresting.

It hardly seems necessary to attempt an explanation of the so-called Celestial marriages, or marriages for eternity, as distinguished from marriages made simply for life, and which have been the subject of much ridicule because of the peculiar situation that arises when the two relations are held successively by two different husbands. I should prefer to leave this occult mystery in the state in which it has already been left by writers who have, perhaps satisfactorily to themselves, endeavored to give it a clear presentation.

The ethics of polygamy, and the authority for its adoption, as I have heard it set forth by the Mormon prophet, are exhaustively presented by Bancroft in his history of Utah. Some very thoughtful comments in a kindly, though not approving vein, are made by the much esteemed Bishop Tuttle in his interesting work _Reminiscences of a Missionary Bishop_.

Rather than devote s.p.a.ce to an attempted exposition of this much discussed doctrine, let us visit some of the several homes with which we were once somewhat familiar. There are two wives in the household where we are first to be received. We enter the hall, which is a customary feature of the homes, and learning that our looked for host is with his wife, Sister Maria, in the sitting-room at the right, we are conducted to that apartment, and find that entire branch of the family, including the three children, gathered there. In Utah the women are present, as in any American home, and enter freely into the conversation with their husbands and guests. There is nothing in the home we are now visiting that would suggest luxury or any tendency toward high living. I observed a Bible and _Book of Mormon_ lying upon a table near where I sat.

Doubtless a copy of _Doctrines and Covenants_ is near at hand, as one is usually found in every loyal Mormon home. A picture of the Martyred Prophet, also one of President Young, hang upon the walls. Doors communicate between the sitting-room and bed-rooms. Another door communicates with the dining-room, which is at the rear of the hall, and is used in common by both branches of the family.

After half an hour spent in conversation, we all pa.s.s across the hall to Sister Ellen's apartment, where we find almost an exact duplication of the rooms we first entered. Sister Ellen is somewhat younger than Maria, and but two children have as yet blessed that alliance. Belonging to a people of simple habits, the wives are trained to habits of industry, and attend to all the domestic duties of the home. The dress of the women is, therefore, very plain.

While it may be true that the relations between the two branches of this family are as variable as are those of average Gentile families in our cities who live in connecting flats, and who, when company is present, usually appear to be on terms of perfect amity one with another, and that this Mormon home has its conflicts, yet it must be admitted that there is now a peaceful atmosphere, and the children, who are sometimes a social barometer, pa.s.s freely from one apartment to the other.

Another friend, a merchant, invites us to call. He also happens to have exactly two wives, both of whom, but at different times, I have since entertained with their husband in my Eastern home. This gentleman enjoyed the luxury of two very well appointed homes, separated by about fifty feet of lawn, in each of which was housed one branch of his family. He frankly informed me that he devoted each alternate week to each family. I remarked that this plan must occasion considerable moving of his own personal effects.

"Oh no," he replied. "It is easy enough, but I think things go a little smoother when each woman has her own home."

I observed, however, that wife number one ran over in a pleasant and familiar way, and joined in our visit. The husband said that he honestly and conscientiously divided his time between his two families. These women were refined, and had profited by better educational advantages than were afforded the greater number of people whom I had met in Utah.

It would be strange indeed if an indication of partiality or preference for either wife by her husband would not arouse some feelings of resentment, and possibly jealousy, in the heart of the other.

I once asked one bright lady if she really favored the idea of a plurality of wives.

"Yes," she replied slowly, and then added, "but it is because it is G.o.d's will. I would prefer to have a whole husband."

To me this reply seemed to be a fair statement of the att.i.tude of Mormon women toward polygamy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREAT SALT LAKE]

During nearly all of our sojourn in the city our venerable and beloved traveling companion, Deacon Simeon E. Cobb, had been in another Mormon home very ill. It was a home, however, in which there was but one wife, and which I frequently visited. On the 10th of October, the Deacon peacefully pa.s.sed away. All of the members of our party were summoned to the city, and on the following day we laid him in a cemetery, situated away up near Camp Dougla.s.s, and overlooking the entire Jordan Valley.

There was no clergyman in the city to a.s.sist in the obsequies. The Reverend Norman McLeod was then on his Eastern trip already referred to.

Deacon Cobb's Mormon home had been a comfortable asylum in his days of suffering, and he had said, previous to his death, that the good wife who attended him had been an angel of mercy.

I will allow those writers who have met bad women among the Mormons to give their own experiences. Personally I have met none who did not seem to be moral and true to the fundamental principles that underlie Christian character, as they understood them.

Some writings that I have perused comment on the race deterioration of this people, as the result of polygamy. In theory one would expect such a result, and the practice, doubtless, has produced its effects.

However, from personal observation I am unable to discover wherein the children in Utah appear to be materially different from those in other parts of our country, though in Salt Lake City there is a mixed population composed of Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, English, native Americans and other industrious people. This is not an apology for the abhorrent practice of polygamy; but it must be supposed that temperance, industry, and the recognized value of other good habits, as prescribed, and fairly well observed by the Mormons are sure to produce more favorable results than are the rapid and dissipated careers of many children of fortune, who are so-called leaders in American social life.

The facilities for education, the libraries, the opportunities provided for wholesome amus.e.m.e.nt, and the development in music, were certainly on as advanced a scale as were those in any part of our Western States or territories in that day. The University of Deseret, legalized by their Legislature a.s.sembly, was opened in November, 1850, and provided for free admission to students. In it the use of tobacco and intoxicants was especially interdicted. The work of the inst.i.tution was discontinued during the war because of insufficient funds, and it was, therefore, not in operation during my first visit. It was re-opened in 1867.

Brigham encouraged music and the drama. The large and well-trained choir in the Tabernacle is even to this day an attraction for visitors.

Theatrical performances were regularly given from the earliest days of the Mormon settlement. In an address delivered by Brigham in 1852, he is quoted in the _History of Brigham Young_, MS. of that year, as stating, with reference to dancing and theatricals,--"These pastimes give me a privilege to throw everything off and shake myself that my body may exercise and my mind rest." Their dancing parties were, therefore, conducted under the supervision of church officers, and it was said that they were opened with prayer.

The fine Salt Lake Theater building was in use at the time of our visit in 1866, and was practically unchanged in 1910, except (as I observed) that opera-chairs were subst.i.tuted for long seats in the main part of the auditorium.

An excellent stock company, in which three of the president's daughters were regular members, appeared at this theater two nights each week. No dramatic entertainments were given there on other nights. The president regularly occupied his box at the right of the stage in company with one wife, who was said then to be his favorite,--the other wives occupying their regular seats, side by side, in two long rows in the parquet. All the wives were usually present. Gentiles were expected to sit in the circles and galleries above. The entertainment and other features of the performances in the theater partook of the nature of family gatherings.

The parquet afforded opportunities for social greetings among the Saints, and between the acts presented an animated scene. Laura Keene, Maggie Mitch.e.l.l, the Irvins, Phelps and other stars of the day, were introduced from time to time. The auditorium was said to have a seating capacity of more than 2,500.

As examples of the plays presented, all of which I witnessed, may be mentioned, _Gilderoy_, _Camilla's Husband_, _Brother Bill & Me_, _Robert McCaire_, _As Like as Two Peas_, _Women's Love_, _Extremes_, _Love Knot_, _Deaf as a Post_, _The Old Chateau_, _Charles XII King of Sweden_, _Jeremy Diddler_, _Grimaldi, or Perfection_, _The Robbers_, _Barney the Baron_, _Advertising for a Wife_, and _Marble Heart_, written by Mr. Sloan, a local playwright.

With but few exceptions, these were well presented. It is my belief that at no time have the Mormons allowed to be presented upon their stage any plays of the shameful and disgraceful type so popular at many of our Eastern and further Western places of amus.e.m.e.nt.

On a recent visit to Salt Lake, I was escorted by a mother in Israel, whom I had long known, to the old home of Brigham Young, in the front part of which I had been received many years before. His daughter, Zina, now a matron well advanced in years, presides over that building, which is now used as an industrial school for girls. It was this Zina, who, forty-four years before, when a bright young girl of fifteen years, having, with certain of her sisters, received careful training in elocution, appeared upon the stage of the Salt Lake City theater before an enthusiastic and friendly audience which filled the house to the upper gallery. Her role, as I remember, was not a prominent one, but her modest bearing, her clear musical voice and distinct enunciation, won universal commendation. She is now, as she doubtless was then, dignified, earnest, and interesting; but now she is a woman who seems to believe that she has a mission in the training of young girls for lives of usefulness.

We sat in the old private room, once used by her father, in which were the desk, tables and closets, not ordinarily opened to the public, and this for reasons that relic hunters well understand; but in those cabinets were many records and other objects of interest which seemed to be of historic value.

We pa.s.sed back into the long hall on either side of which were rooms, each of which was formerly occupied by one of President Young's wives.

All of these rooms are comparatively small, old-style, and simple in their appointments. We visited the old dining-room, where the president and his family, including his many children sat at their meals, using a single long table, at the head of which the president was accustomed to sit. In another room, which is in the bas.e.m.e.nt, we were served with an excellent lunch by the young ladies of the domestic science school, who were courteous, gracious, and each apparently as worthy of a good whole husband as is any daughter that graces fashionable circles in the East.

The work of the school, to which Sister Zina, as she was called, is devoting her mature years, was fully explained. It is almost needless to state, that when she had summoned and introduced David McKenzie, the venerable manager and director of the theater, the man who had presented her to her first audience in 1866, our conversation turned into a lighter and more reminiscent vein. We did, however, speak of the trials of her people and of many serious matters already referred to in these chapters, and of some incidents which, though interesting, would require more s.p.a.ce if mentioned at all, than could here be given them. But Sister Zina is loyal to her father's memory.

In March, 1912, the curtain fell and closed the last act in McKenzie's life. He was a devout Mormon, had often preached in the tabernacle and maintained local dramatic art along high moral lines.

Gibbon cla.s.ses among the most furious sectaries of religion much persecuted, such Christians as the Hussites of Bohemia, the Calvinists of France and the Paulicians of America in the ninth century, but he was too just a historian to put all their leaders outside the pale of worthy citizenship.

So when I have sat in the presence of the venerable Mrs. Emeline B.

Wells, now 85 years of age, I have always been inspired with profound respect for her n.o.ble character and high culture. She was an early Mormon pioneer and is still editor of "The Woman's Exponent," an accomplished writer and conversationalist.

When I read her exquisite poem "The Wife to the Husband," I am led to the conviction that whatever there may be wrong in Mormon teachings there are women among that people who have exalted conceptions of domestic relations.

In the old days the t.i.thing House was a large adobe structure situated near the Tabernacle, where was received in kind a tenth of the surplus, as a consecration, and after that, one tenth of the increase or earnings annually. The earliest revelations to Joseph Smith in 1831, commanding the payment of t.i.thes, are quoted in _Times and Seasons_, Vols. IV and V. The later alleged revelations and instructions are published in the several Mormon journals.

The present offices of the church are now installed in a large and well-appointed building, which is as complete as are the offices of any other great modern financial inst.i.tution. As one pa.s.ses by the bookkeepers into the vaults and directors' room it seems as if one were visiting the headquarters of a huge, well-ordered business corporation.

It is not strange that many of the active men, who were at the front in Mormon affairs half a century ago, are no longer seen on the streets of Salt Lake City. Time, however, has dealt kindly with the now venerable Hiram B. Clawson, twice son-in-law of Brigham, a man once quite as prominent as any other in the social, business, and military life of Utah. In the panic of 1873 he was sent East with H. S. Eldredge to arrange an extension of the obligations of Zion's Mercantile Inst.i.tution, of which he was then superintendent. His work was conducted with success, and in less than eight months the entire liability, amounting to $1,100,000, was fully paid, a considerable portion of it being transmitted through the firm of which I was a member. He finally stated that the losses of the Company at that time, through bad debts, did not exceed one-fourth of one per cent, which was as decisive an indication of the integrity of the people as could easily have been found anywhere in that calamitous year. In my last interview with the old gentleman we discussed this experience, as well as our memorable interview with Brigham Young, already reported in another chapter.

The practice of polygamy is rapidly declining among the Mormons in Utah.

In response to the demands of the Saints themselves, Congress, in 1862, and again in 1882, enacted laws which it was hoped would remedy the evil. The law of 1862, known as the Edmunds Act, declared such cohabitation to be a misdemeanor. Nevertheless, within the past six years I have been sheltered in a Mormon home, located somewhat outside of the Utah line, where three women were present as the wives of the host.

Whatever may be the relations between husband and wives, there can be no perfectly amicable relations between the Mormons and other people in our country while these conditions continue. There is to this day an undisguisable sentiment of distrust of each other on the part of both Mormon and Gentile elements in Utah, the like of which does not seem to exist between adherents of other religious faiths in our country.

This statement leads us to consider what seems to be the fundamental cause of the greater part of the Mormon suffering and trials in the years gone by, and of their many conflicts with national and state governments, for which the ma.s.s of that people are certainly not responsible.

Orson Pratt, the Apostle, said "There can be but one perfect government--that organized by G.o.d--a government by apostles, prophets, priests, teachers, and evangelists."