BRIGHAM YOUNG AT HOME:—WE VISIT THE PROPHET AND HIS WIVES.  
Shortly after our arrival in Salt Lake City we visited President Young, who received us very graciously and appointed an early day for us to dine with him.
On that occasion he invited some of the Apostles and leading men to meet us at his table, and we passed an exceedingly pleasant evening. The Prophet made himself very affable; talked with us about our missionary life and other subjects of personal and general interest; and expressed a high opinion of the energy and ability which my husband had displayed. His wives, too,—whom I found, as far as I could judge from such a casual acquaintance, to be amiable and kind-hearted ladies,—made every effort to render our visit agreeable.
I was much pleased with the manner and appearance of Brigham Young, and felt greatly reassured; for he did not seem to me like a man who would preach and practise such things as I had heard of him while I was in London. This I was glad to see, for it encouraged me to think that, perhaps, after all, matters might not be so bad as I had anticipated. We were, in fact, very kindly received in Salt Lake City by every one with whom we came in contact; for having been Missionaries for so many years, we were, of course, well known by name, and had a wide circle of acquaintances among the chief Elders and emigrants.
Fifteen years have, of course, worked a great change in the appearance of Brigham Young; but though he is now nearly seventy-three years of age, he is still a portly-looking—I might almost say handsome man. His good looks are not of the poetic or romantic kind at all; he is very common-place and practical in his appearance, but long and habitual exercise of despotic authority has stamped itself upon his features, and is seen even in the way he carries himself: he might without[164] any stretch of the imagination be mistaken for a retired sea-captain.
When I first knew him, in appearance he was little over fifty years of age, was of medium height, well built, upright, and, as I just stated, had the air of one accustomed to be obeyed. His hair was light,—sandy, I suppose I ought to call it,—with eyes to match; and the expression of his countenance was pleasant and manly. I, of course, regarded him from a woman’s stand-point; but there were others who were accustomed to study physiognomy, and they detected—or thought they detected—in the cold expression of his eye and the stern, hard lines of his lips, evidences of cruelty, selfishness, and dogged determination which, it is only fair to say, I myself never saw.
The lines on his face have deepened of late years, as what little of gentleness his heart ever knew has died out within him; but still he presents the appearance of a man who would afford a deep study to the observer of human nature. In early life he had to work hard for a living, and according to his own statement he had a rough time of it. He was, by trade, a painter and glazier, and has frequently said in public that in those times he was glad to work for “six bits” a day, and to keep his hands busy from morning to night to get even that. Whether or not the privations of early years fostered in him that avaricious and grasping spirit which of late years has been so conspicuous in him, I cannot say, but it is certain that it cropped out very early in his career as a Saint. An old Nauvoo Missionary,—a Mormon of the Mormons once, but now, alas! a “vile apostate” as Brigham would politely call him,—once told me that when the Prophet Joseph Smith sent the Apostle Young on Mission, a good deal of discontent was shown that the said Apostle did not account properly for the collections and tithings which passed through his hands. Brother Joseph who was then “the Church” suggested in a pleasant way—for the Prophet Smith was a big, jovial fellow, six feet two or three inches in height, and withal somewhat of a humorist—that the said Apostle Brigham would appear in his eyes a better Saint if he displayed a little less love for filthy lucre. Thereupon the Apostle, like somebody else who shall be nameless, quoted Scripture, and reminded the Prophet that Moses had said, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.” “True, Brother Brigham,” said Joseph, “but Moses did not say the ox was to eat up all the corn.” Brother Brigham made no reply, but is said to have “sulked” for two or three days.
[165]
I have often heard intelligent Gentiles remark, “Well, Brigham Young may be a wicked man and an impostor, but there must be a great deal of talent in him, to manage those people for so many years.”
From this opinion I altogether dissent; and those who know Brigham best, think with me, though many of them would not dare to say so. I do not think Brigham Young a wicked man or an impostor in the sense in which those words are ordinarily used; but experience, and a careful study of his life and doings, have convinced me that he is certainly not a great man or a man of genius in any sense of the word. Th............