Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ Only the rich are able to indulge in spiritual wives. Such marriages are far too costly for the mass of our men."
Mr. Rouse was impressed by the wealth of Salt Lake City, due chiefly to the immense store of mineral treasure in the surrounding mountains. Many of the houses in the richest thoroughfares of the city were built of rare and beautiful stone. The tabernacle is a vast building, with an oval dome, perfect in its acoustic quality, and the organ is a magnificent instru- ment. Mineral treasure, rather than agriculture, is the source of the prosperity of Utah. ”

“ We have almost subdued jealousy. Our system of a separate house for each wife is an excellent one. We do not coop all our women together in one dwelling. Of course, the separate establishment plan is very ex- pensive. ”

“ In Utah the effect of the plurality system is most severely felt by the first or real wife," writes B. G. Ferris. He declares that polygamy was introduced originally to gratify the sensuality of Joseph Smith. The Mormon upholders of plural marriage declare that this is untrue. They assert that polygamy was taught as a part of Biblical morality, as a remedy for the celibacy of redundant women, and in order that every woman should exercise the right of maternity. The relations of the sexes were strictly regulated in Salt Lake City under the rule of Brigham Young. Un- ”

“ It has been said that Mormon polygamy finds its most zealous advocates among women, and that the prac- tice of plural wedlock has survived through their influence.
The early missionaries, who scoured Europe for proselytes, inspired a large number of women with ardour for the new gospel. Wealthy women left home and kindred to join the settlers in their wilderness, facing privation, and engaging in severe labour, with astonishing eagerness. Young and old women,
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married and single, threw in their lot with the followers of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. ”

“ Another hostile critic was John D. Lee, who firmly believed that polygamy was an admir- able institution, although he left the sect. In " Mor- monism Unveiled," Lee states that the prophet Smith preached plural marriage privately after a revelation in 1843. Lee confesses that he had several wives, nineteen in all, who bore him sixty-four children.
Brigham Young was more explicit than Joseph Smith in the teaching of polygamy. ”

“ The degradation (or, if you please, the restriction) of woman to the single office of child-bearing and its accessories is an inevitable con- sequence of the system here paramount. I have not observed a sign in the streets, an advertisement in the journals, of this Mormon metropolis, whereby a woman proposes to do anything whatever. No Mormon has ever cited to me his wife's or any woman's opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has been intrcH duced or spoken to me ”