AFTER WE LEFT THE CHURCH—INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES—THE MORMONISM AND MORMONS OF TO-DAY.  
“The world was all before them where to choose
Their place of rest: with Providence their guide,
They hand in hand, with trembling steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
Paradise Lost.
When we left the Mormon Church, we were not quite as badly off as were our first parents when they began life, although in some respects we certainly resembled them. The world was all before us, and it was necessary that we also should choose a place of rest; but it was by no means an Eden from which we were dismissed—or, rather, had dismissed ourselves—and in the matter of experience in the thorny ways of that world in which we were about to begin afresh the battle of existence, we certainly had the advantage over the exiles from Paradise.
The crisis of our own lives had now arrived. The act of sending in our resignation as members of the Church cut us off from all the associations of the past and all the friendships and pleasant intimacies of so many years. A great gulf divided our by-gone life from the unknown future which lay before us.
My husband was now made painfully aware that it was altogether useless for him to attempt to carry on his paper; for his subscribers, as I before stated, had been “counselled” to discontinue taking it in. The Daily Telegraph had had a very large circulation, but as there was very little money in the Territory, the yearly subscriptions were mostly paid at harvest time, and many of them in grain. At the time, therefore, when the paper was finally given up, the Mormon people, as the book-keeper in Ogden informed me, owed about twenty thousand dollars; but when it was discovered that we were “Apostates,” the majority of them considered that they were released from all obligations on that score, and my husband[369] being an easy, generous-minded man, most of them evaded payment. The idea that, because we had left the Church, no Saint was bound to pay us any debts which they might happen at the time to owe, was the natural result of the teachings of the Tabernacle. Apostates are delivered over to “the buffetings of Satan,” and the Saints consider it is their duty to begin in this world their master’s work of castigation. Any ill turn that can be done to an Apostate is consequently a good action in the opinion of the Mormons, and they neglect no opportunity of showing that these are the sentiments which influence them.
Although we had now left the Mormon Church, never to return, my husband could not at once shake off entirely that influence which had so long held him captive. His thoughts and belief, his hopes and ambitions, had for a quarter of a century all pointed in one direction, and the very idea of rebellion on his part against the authority of the Priesthood, would, but a very little while before the time of which I speak, have been considered by him an utter impossibility. It was impossible, in a few short months only, to undo the work of five-and-twenty years—the best years of his life. He could no longer remain in the Church or conscientiously support Brigham Young; but he had not outgrown Mormonism sufficiently to enable him to throw off the yoke entirely and make his paper an opponent of Brigham and his faith. Could he have done so, I think it is highly probable that the Telegraph might yet have been saved, for I know that many of the more influential of the Gentiles would have aided him materially in such a course. As it was, nothing remained but to give it up with the best grace he could.
Two offers in reference to the paper were received by Mr. Stenhouse, and it remained for him to decide which he would accept. One of them came from a Gentile, who proposed to run it in opposition to Brigham Young, and the other came from a certain Mr. Fuller, who had for some time been my husband’s travelling agent, and was a very intimate friend of John W. Young, Brigham’s youngest son by his first wife. We knew that this Mr. Fuller had nothing beyond his salary; but, as the friend of Brigham’s son, we thought that probably it was the Prophet’s wish that he should have this paper, and we believed that he was simply buying it for the Church. My husband argued that, although he could no longer unite with the Mormons, he could at least refrain from doing them any injury; he therefore concluded that, rather than let the paper[370] go into the hands of an avowed enemy, he would sell it to Mr. Fuller, who, on account of his friendship for the Prophet’s family, would, he presumed, try to be just to the people.
This, no doubt, was very conscientious and just, although, of course, no Mormon would give my husband credit for entertaining such sentiments. For my own part, I naturally wished him to accept the offer that would pay him best, which was that made by the Gentile. He could not, however, bring his mind to do this. The paper, therefore, was sold to Mr. Fuller, who ran it for a few months and then himself ran away, leaving behind him debts enough to swallow up everything. Thus ended the Telegraph under that name, but destined, however, to rise again as the Salt Lake Herald—a paper devoted to the interests of Brigham and the Priesthood. To my husband it was an utter loss, but it was hardly fair that his conscientious conduct should meet with such an ill return.
It was now necessary that some steps should be taken to provide for our family. The reader may, perhaps, remember that when we first arrived in Salt Lake City, as I stated, I myself engaged in business until my husband was able to find some suitable and profitable employment. When the Telegraph, however, was established and proved such a great success, and we were in a position of affluence, I considered—the pressure of necessity being removed—that I should do well to resign my own business connection and employ my time more profitably in domestic affairs. This was a great relief to me, for I always felt considerable repugnance to mixing with the world in the way of business, while among my children and attending to their wants and interests I found myself in my own legitimate sphere. But there was now no alternative. All interest in the Telegraph had been resigned; my husband’s property had been wasted in an attempt to keep it up, and he had nothing now to depend upon. Something must be done, and I resolved that I would not be backward in bearing my full share of the burden.
It was only natural that we should feel very much unsettled in mind by the great change which had taken place in our position, for it is no easy matter to cut asunder the ties and associations of a lifetime. Any one suddenly changing his religious faith would, to a certain extent, feel and understand what I mean in this respect. But in reference to any ordinary religion, the person forsaking it would probably experience comparatively little alteration in his every-day life. In Mormonism it is very different, especially to any one who has[371] occupied a prominent position among the Saints. To resign our religion was to revolutionize our lives. Everything was changed: the friends of years would look coldly on us and avoid us; persons whom we had before shunned as Gentiles or Apostates would be the only individuals who would regard us with favour; our entire position in the midst of a most exclusive community was completely reversed; in a word, we ourselves were now “Apostates!”
Thinking to turn the current of his thoughts, and believing that change would be beneficial to him, I suggested to my husband that he should pay a visit to the Eastern States. In New York I believed he could find employment which would help to divert his thoughts from Mormon affairs, and, at the same time, would be profitable to him in other respects. My suggestion was acted upon, and my husband set out East, while I prepared to engage again in the same business which I had formerly conducted so successfully.
Now, for the first time since I embraced Mormonism, I mixed freely with Gentiles and those who had left the Church, and it was not long before I found that this intercourse with the outer world produced a marked and decided effect upon my mind. My views were enlarged, and my thoughts became more liberal in their tone. My husband’s letters showed me that a similar change was taking place in him.
We were not the only Apostates from the Church at that time. The New Movement, as the reaction against the tyranny of Brigham Young was called, was then in progress; and the minds of all intelligent Saints were led to reflect upon the unheard-of claims of Brigham’s “Infallible” Priesthood. At this time the Prophet endeavoured to rivet still more firmly the fetters which bound his deluded followers, by establishing “Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile Institution” and reviving the “Order of Enoch.”
The Co-operative Institution was announced as a joint-stock concern, established under the pretence that it would be a benefit to the working classes, and all the members of the Church were invited to purchase shares, which were sold at twenty-five dollars each. The statement so often made by Brigham and repeated by strangers, to the effect that the exorbitant prices charged by Gentile merchants necessitated the establishment of such an institution was, as every Mormon knows, only a pretence, and a very shallow one too; for the Walker Brothers and other merchants had, for many years, supplied goods to Mormons and Gentiles alike, at what, under[372] the circumstances, were reasonable and just prices; for the railway not then being constructed, and every article of commerce being of necessity carried across the Plains—a distance of over a thousand miles—by horse-teams, prices were, of course, very high, and would, if this circumstance were not taken into consideration, appear extortionate. In fact, subsequently, the “Co-operative” stores, which had started with high rates, under the belief that every rival would be crushed, were compelled to lower their prices to those of the Walker Brothers, or, in spite of their faith, the Mormons would have forsaken Brigham’s Institution for the sake of their pockets. Many, in fact, did secretly go to Gentile stores, but they were watched by the police and reported to the teachers.
That large Mormon store, in which Brigham Young had such a heavy interest, was to become the parent establishment—the fountain-head from which temporal blessings, in the shape of cheap goods of every description, were to flow unto the people. Each Ward was to have its own store, and there the Saints of that Ward were expected to deal exclusively, and, as the teachers said, “keep off Main street where the Gentile stores were located.” These Ward-stores purchased their goods from the parent store, where nothing was sold by retail.
All the lesser Mormon merchants were “counselled” to sell out their stock to the Church, for just what the Church chose to offer them, or dispose of it otherwise as best they could, and then they might go farming, or on mission, or anything else; but sell out they must, for they were plainly told that they would not be allowed to carry on business in opposition to the new Institution.
Now, instead of benefiting the poorer Saints, by supplying goods to them at a small advance upon cost prices, as was at first proclaimed to be the object of the “Co-op”—as the Institution was briefly and familiarly called—the reverse was the case, for competition was altogether banished. All the trade of the Gentile merchants—with one or two exceptions—was forcibly taken from them, for the people were not to trade in any store without first looking to see if the sign of the Institution—a picture of “The All-seeing Eye,” and the words “Holiness unto the Lord” were over the doorway. How often I have seen groups of country people straggling along, with their heads thrown back and their eyes straining aloft in eager quest of that sign, although perhaps their purchases would only amount to a few yards of ribbon or a paper of pins!
[373]
No one can predict what the Church—otherwise Brigham—will do, if money should chance to tempt him. In this case, the parent Co-operative store turned, as I might say, traitor to the Ward-stores—its own children—for no sooner had they all been established, and had bought up all the old stock from the parent store, than it was whispered abroad that the latter was about to open in the retail line with a splendid stock of new goods—to suit the Gentiles, of course; for the Saints were not allowed to trade outside of their own Ward-stores, where they were expected to buy up all the old goods. In fact, in order to gain Gentile trade and fill the pockets of Brigham and the leading Elders who really constituted the Institution (and do so still), the same prices were asked at the parent store as had been charged the poor confiding stock-holders of the Ward-stores at wholesale. This, of course, caused great dissatisfaction, and many of the Saints rebelled, declaring they would go where they pleased to spend their money, when they had any to spend. The Ward-stores, in consequence, were obliged, at great loss, to lower their prices, and many were utterly ruined. Others which had more capital tided over the difficulty, and learned a lesson concerning the honesty of the Church leaders which it is to be hoped did them good.
As an example of the way in which matters were managed, I may instance a very old and infirm woman who was one of their victims. She came to me one day and said, “Sister Stenhouse, will you buy out my stock in the Co-operative store? Our store has failed, and I have my twenty-five dollars’ worth in my basket. I pitied her and asked her to let me see her stock, and thereupon she brought out a pound and a half of nails! I did buy out her stock, for I thought that the nails might be handy to have in the house, although I did not give her twenty-five dollars for them. Another person—a Frenchman, whom I knew—bought a share, and when he saw certain ruin looming over his Ward-store, he went to the head-quarters and purchased twenty-five dollars’ worth of goods, and having got them all secured, laid down his shareholders’ receipt in payment and beat a hasty retreat. He was a fortunate man and acted prudently, but alas! for the poor souls who ventured all their little savings in these Church “Institutions” and then were left to poverty and starvation.
About this time, also, it was that the Mormon women, under the auspices of Eliza R. Snow and the Female Relief Society, got up a petition to Mrs. Grant, begging her to use her influence with the President in favour of a toleration of[374] Polygamy. The names to that petition were affixed without any reference to propriety or right. Hundreds of names were copied from the books of the Society without any permission being obtained, or even asked, of their owners. It was then, as I before stated, that the names of the dead were actually added as subscribers to the petition; and in one case, when a lady mentioned that her dead daughter had never belonged to the Church, as she died before her mother heard of Mormonism, she was told that her daughter would now, of course, have found out that Polygamy was the true order of domestic life in heaven, and that she would certainly be willing to subscribe if she could return to earth. Her name was, therefore, added without any further ceremony, although she had been dead a good many years.
In January, 1872, a counter-petition was got up by the Gentile and Apostate ladies. It set forth the cruel bondage which Polygamy inflicts upon women; spoke of the heartless conduct of the Mormon leaders, and of the murders and other foul crimes which had been committed by them or at their instigation; showed that, should Utah become a State, under the name of Deseret—which has ever been the ambition of Brigham Young—there would be no protection for life or property; stated that the authorities themselves had declared that when statehood was conferred, Gentiles and Apostates would have good cause to tremble; and, finally, prayed the National Government to stretch forth its long arm of power for the defence and protection of honest and law-abiding citizens. This petition was signed by four hundred and forty ladies of Utah, most of them members of the Mormon Church, whose real names were all fairly and openly affixed by their own selves. It was presented to the Senate by the Hon. Schuyler Colfax—then Vice-President; was read, discussed, and ordered to be printed. As might be supposed, it excited a great deal of angry discussion on the part of the Church authorities; and the following Sundays the names of those who had signed were read out in the Tabernacle, and strong remarks made upon their conduct, in order to intimidate them and prevent others from following their example. The consequence was that many of their husbands and sons were threatened with loss of employment, and they were thus forced to retract.
That same year a bill was brought into the Territorial Legislature, providing that boys of fifteen years of age and girls of twelve might legally contract marriage, with the consent of[375] their parents or guardians! In stating this disgraceful fact, I feel certain that the reader who has never lived among the Saints, and is not versed in Utah affairs, will think that I must be mistaken in what I say. It is, however, I am sorry to say, only too true, and the records of the Legislature will bear me witness.
With the exception of the............