1858 – 6 January, p. 4 – The City of the Mormons. (From the New York Tribune) The City of the Saints is fortified with a wall of mud twelve feet high, with a broad deep ditch in front of it, and semi-bastions at half-musket range. These are pierced with loop holes to afford a front and flank fire in case of attack. Entering through a gate of the wall, we find the city divided into blocks, often of ten acres each, intersected at right angles by streets one hundred and thirty feet wide, running due north and south and east and west, and in wet weather almost impassible. The houses in the suburbs are scattered and consist mostly of mud hovels, with dirt roofs and log shanties. The centre of the city is more thickly settled and better built. The side walks are of respectable width, often with a stream of water flowing through them, on which are planted cotton, wood, and other trees of rapid growth. Everything bears the impress of industry and toil. Improvements are visible in all quarters, which no drones could have effected. The number of inhabitants is about fifteen thousand. Most of them are English and Scotch, a few Americans, many Welsh, and some Danes. The Americans, who are principally from the western borders of the United States, although composing less than a third part of the population, possess a complete monopoly of political power, fill all the offices, ecclesiastical and civil, and receive all the emoluments. Almost without exception, they are polygamists, bitter in their hatred of the Gentiles, and full of zeal for their miserable faith. Arriving at the centre of the city, we come upon Temple Block and a street full of stores. The premises are very favourable to business, and the merchants make enormous profits, often amounting from 150 to 600 per cent. Large stocks of merchandise are yearly imported across the plains, in huge waggons drawn by oxen. The stores are built of adobe sun-dried bricks, and their white colour gives a lively appearance to the streets. In this portion of the city reside the principal dignitaries. Their houses are generally comfortable, though with slight pretensions to elegance. You see a large barrack-like house on the corner. This is the residence of Elder Benson and his four wives; Brother Grant, with his five wives, lately occupied the pretty house you see on the east side. Parley P. Pratt, with his nine wives, lived in more ascetic style, and was content with the mean looking house you pass on the west. Dr. Richards, with his eleven helpmates, lived in that long dirty row of single rooms, half hidden by a very beautiful orchard and garden. Looking towards the north, we see a whole square covered with houses, barns, gardens, and orchards. Here, in serene domestic bliss, resides the great apostle, H. C. Kimball, with his eighteen or twenty wives, their families, and dependents. Here is a pompous edifice, with a fierce lion in repose sculptured on its front. It can only be the dwelling of the champion, the ‘Lion’ as he is sometimes called, the renowned Brigham Young. Here, with his seventeen wives, he watches over the welfare of his charming colony. This house was erected at an expense of over £30,000, in addition to the shingling, which was performed by all the carpenters in the city, at the command of Brigham, ‘by the authority of the holy priesthood.’ But we have not arrived at the grand seraglio of our accidental sultan. This is a large, showy, adobe building, finely plastered, brilliantly white, balconied from ground to roof; an observatory on the top, and the whole surmounted by the Mormon symbol of industry, a beehive. It cost over 65,000 dollars, and is the most splendid building in the territory. It is occupied by the senior wife of the patriarch and her family. Orchards gardens lie behind it and surround it. Near by is the Social Hall, devoted to dramatic representations and to the dance. This last is a great institution with the Mormons, and Brigham himself does not disdain to initiate the unenlightened into the mysteries of Terpsichore. He is an accomplished dancing-master. The Mormons show a discriminating taste in their choice of dances. They especially affect cotillions, country dances, and reels, but show no favour to the polka, schottische, and similar ambitious performances, being averse, as they say, to seeing their wives and daughters in such close proximity to other men. An original genius amongst them has invented a double cotillion, giving two ladies to each gentleman; a necessary arrangement, as the ball room generally numbers from three to four women to one of the ruder sex. The tabernacle is an imposing structure of temple block—a square containing ten acres, and surrounded with a wall and handsome shady trees. The tabernacle will seat over 2000 persons. They have an instrumental band, which play marches, waltzes, and other lively tunes; and a choir, who sing the original productions of the Mormon muse to the muse of Old Dan Tucker, Bach’s chants, and Handel’s oratorios. Their meetings commence with singing and prayer, which are followed with discourses on adobe-making, clothes-washing, house-cleaning, ditch-digging, and similar instructive topics, the whole service winding up with announcements of letters in the post office, plans for pic-nics, and the arrangement of work. Even their theatrical performances are opened with prayer, and the actors are dismissed with a benediction, often while in a state of pythonic excitement from bad liquor.

1858 – 26 May, p. 4 – The New York Times of May 1, just received devotes three or four columns to a detailed account of the “experiences” of one Frederick Loba (“a repentant Mormon sinner”), while in Utah, and his escape from the Salt Lake City.—Loba, a Swiss, of a strongly metaphysical turn of mind, with a great predilection for speculative theology; and, although a professed Protestant, he felt some years ago “rather uneasy with respect to sacred things and a future existence.” Like Faust he tried all sorts of expositions of different views in regard to man’s final destiny, but found them all unsatisfactory although he ranged the continent of Europe in the prosecution of his metaphysical studies. Thus, although in easy circumstances, Loba was wretched; and, when at length Mormonism was presented to him, he was, as he himself asserts, deceived into a reception of the impious and immoral heresy. His gullibility may be estimated when we inform our readers that he gave implicit credence to all the assurances of his Mormon instructors, that the “Valley” (or Utah) was the appointed place for the pure and honest; that all the blessings of Heaven were their happy lot; that peace and plenty prevailed, and that no evil or wickedness was to be found in this terrestrial paradise! He was thus “completely deceived, won over, and baptized into the faith, with all his family. He arrived at St. Louis (on his way to the “Happy Valley”) in December 1853, and was then appointed temporary president of a Mormon “chapel.” The “tricks and rascalities” of the Mormons at St. Louis shock our friend’s faith not a little, but he still hoped to find in “the Rev. Brigham Young, at Utah, “all the characteristics and virtues befitting a man of God.” In this faith he persisted, although plundered at every opportunity by his Mormon guides to the Salt Lake City. Mr. Loba proceeds: “Immediately after my arrival in the Valley the Prophet took me out in one of his wagons, and showed me some of his houses and other property. During this excursion he presented me with one of his houses and some land, with the condition that I should manufacture gunpowder. However, I was grievously disappointed to find that all I had been told in Switzerland of this beautiful land was far from the truth, and that I was anything but fertile and fruitful. Shortly after this I was made a “professor of chemistry, became a high priest, and received the endowments.” Thus I was initiated into all their principles and mysteries, and became acquainted with many of their secret plans and transactions. These opened my eyes at once, and I saw at a glance the terrible position in which I was placed. I now found myself in the midst of a wicked and degraded people, shut up in the midst of the mountains, with a large and helpless family, and deprived of all resources with which to extricate myself. The conviction had been forced upon my mind that Brigham himself was at the bottom of all the clandestine assassinations, plundering of trains, robbing of mails, and the exemplar of every other species of wickedness practiced among his followers. I saw also that the system of polygamy was anything but conducive to peace and happiness in the human family, but only calculated to gratify the carnal propensities of men, and to destroy at the same time all that is delicate, refined, or noble in a woman’s character, reducing her, in fact, merely to the position of an article of merchandise. I have seen two young sisters sold by their own father to General Horace Eldredge for some groceries. I have seen men marrying both mother and daughter. I have seen another in incestuous intercourse with his own sister, and then witnessed Brigham Young takingthis last woman to be his wife when she was about to become a mother. One of my acquaintances, W. Stains, one of Brigham’s favorite “destroying angels” and spies, applied to the prophet for leave to take a third wife. Leave was granted. The next day the lover appeared before Brigham with his betrothed, when, greatly to his astonishment, that worthy changed the program slightly, and married the lady to himself, as he found her a very pretty woman. Poor Stains accepted his bereavement as a trial from the Lord.—Crimes of all sorts were, he found, committed with impunity, and anybody accused of uttering “disparaging remarks concerning the head of the church” was certain to disappear suddenly and mysteriously, being “privately destroyed.” The vengeance of these miscreants was especially wreaked on those of their “initiated” victims who attempted to escape from the Valley. Loba had lost his wife on his journey across the plains; he took another in the city of the Salt Lake, and although frequently urged to help himself to more wives, refused. On the 1^st of April, 1857, he resolved to escape with his wife only, leaving his eight children to the care of his mother-in-law and her brother; and after many hardships, mountain adventures, and risks by blood and field, the unhappy couple at length reached Green River, and were kindly received by the Snake Indians and some Canadian Indians there encamped. Brigham Young had started 32 horsemen on Loba’s track, to recapture him, but after making incredible exertions to do so they were forced to return. Loba arrived at Kickagoo last December, after several attacks of fever, in a state of perfect destitution. His relatives and children have rejoined him. Mr. Loba thus concludes: “This is a very brief outline of what I and mine have suffered from Mormonism. Every educated man will realize much more readily than I can describe it how keen has been my mental suffering amid the degraded, uncultivated, and besotted followers of Brigham Young. Could all that be obliterated from the page of memory, how lightly should I esteem the recollections of the physical privations and sufferings of the last few years. But nothing remains for me but regret for the past, and joy that I have escaped the trammels of Salt Lake, and that the remnant of my family are spared the contamination and ruin which a life among the “saints’ would inevitably involve.” Will this narrative operate as a caution to the gullible greenhorns who are even now flocking, like geese, to the “Happy Valley?”

1858 – 7 July, p. 1 – [The gaps result from blurriness of the images of the originals.] Mormonism in Difficulties. At the foot of the Lake of D________ there is, or was, no long time ago, to be heard a remarkably fine echo. It attracted during the summer a large number of tourists, and gave to the place a religious value which was ______ to proper account by the hotel keeper. Of course, echoes cannot be produced for nothing, and the echo at _______ was, on the whole, rather expensive. It was ______ pliant, however, and adapted itself according to prevailing circumstances. ‘The first quality,’ a really fine, full, and well recommended echo, could only be had for five shillings, which was not dear, the price being a little less than the cost of the gunpowder expended in producing it, but an inferior echo by no means unsatisfactory might be enjoyed by tourists of limited means for half that sum. On a similar _______ be that of the English echo, the superior echoes and visions with which it Mr. Brigham Young has _______ his wonderful _____ at the foot of the Salt Lake have adapted themselves to the force _____________and vision of only a very inferior quality can be produced. Having exhausted___________ and having signally failed in his attempt to disperse or circumvent the United States army in its advance towards Utah, Mr. Brigham Young makes the best echo he can afford under the circumstances, and has been commanded to destroy the cities, and to occupy Southern settlements. That, in fact, as it appears to us, is the only course which Mr. Brigham Young can safely pursue. No prophet, no seer, however ancient his style, however lofty his pretensions, can contend against Destiny, especially when that personage is supported by eight or ten thousand riflemen. Hunger, and frost, and cold, and _____ Indians, were evidently fighting against the Gentiles, and in favor of Prophet Young, but when Gentiles are found who can live upon oil and candles—who can starve a whole winter in snow and frost, bivouac in bleak plains and make their way through intricate gorges, as brave American Gentiles have done, what can the ablest prophet do? Resignation under arduous circumstances was the favorite doctrine of the Eastern, as it seems to be of the Western prophet. Only the force of that iron necessity which vanquished classical mythology can vanquish a mythology which is anything but classical.

Mr. Brigham Young, having had a very peremptory summons served upon him, finding a very strong and determined company posted at the entrance of his premises, his domestic arrangements being by no means in a satisfactory condition, thinks it advisable to remove to the South. There are historical precedents for such a course, John of Eyden, if we remember right, removed, though disadvantageously, when the Bishop of Munster took possession of the city, and Prophet Smith also removed under equally painful but pressing circumstances. It will not, therefore, be matter of surprise that ex-President Young should announce his intention of removal in his own very characteristic manner. To the Mormon congregation assembled at the Tabernacle in Utah for Sunday recreation, Mr. Young is reported to have spoken as follows:

“I have a good mind to tell a secret here; I believe I will tell it anyhow. They say there is a fine country down South there. Sonora, is it? Is that your name for it? Do not speak of this out of doors if you please.”

At the date of this notice, Governor Cumming, the newly appointed President of the territory, had made a peaceable, if not triumphal entry into Utah. An encounter of the Danites conducted him at night to the entrance of the Mormon settlement. At every turn of the road parties of armed Mormons were posted, and the Governor was received with a military salute and every demonstration of popular welcome. Bonfires kindled all along the hills, which were still covered with snow, lit up the valley. On Governor Cumming’s arrival, the records and State papers were duly delivered up in perfect preservation, and, with the exception of a momentary tumult in the Tabernacle, which the new Governor [______________?] needlessly provoked, there was no show of resistance. The preparations which had been made for a move evidenced the still potent authority of the chiefs, and the obduracy of the Mormon fanaticism. In many of its details, the second migration reads like a chapter out of Herodotus or Caesar. All those living in the southern part of the territory were directed to quit their houses first, in order that the vacant dwellings might serve as a shelter and resting place for those who should follow from the north. The roads were everywhere filled with wagons laden with provisions and household furniture-women and children, often without shoes and hats, driving the flocks they knew not where, for “It is the will of God” cried these poor miserable fanatics. On the part of the leaders, we are told, there was a good deal of stoicism. Apparently without reluctance they resigned their spacious houses, and joined the long train of their followers. Due notice was given that the city would be burnt as soon as the Gentile army set foot in it; and it seems by no means unlikely that a chosen band may be commanded by the shrewd Prophet to return and take advantage of the favorable juncture for repossessing themselves of the soil. Under these circumstances, the proclamation issued by the President of the United States, and the attitude of the invading army, is wise and conciliatory and though no more than some 120 have claimed the protection of the new Governor, and asked for help to enable them to return to a monogamous country, there can be little doubt that a result has been obtained by the Executive of the United States no less creditable than it is auspicious.

1858 – 21 July, p. 3 – An anti-Mormon discourse was delivered at the Ebenezer Chapel, on Thursday, the 8^th instant, by a person who, according to the handbills, has returned from the Salt Lake. Despite his account of his conversion to Mormonism, and his claims to extreme continence, physical carnality seemed so stamped on the countenance that we must own the ideas came into our head that the ‘seraglio institutions’ of Mormonism had much to do with the matter of conversion. The speaker, with a strong provincial accent and phraseology, and an ungainly trick of smoothing down imperceptible but seemingly annoying trifles on the lower jaw, after instancing his conversion, proceeded to describe his travels to the Salt Lake. We should have premised that the passengers were wholly Mormonites en route to the Salt Lake. The monotony of the passage, he tells us, was diverted by all sorts of amusements, chiefly at night—card playing, dancing and marrying according to the Mormonite rite. To use his own words, ‘Seeing they were all marrying about him he said to a man on board, who had the two young daughters, “Brother Thomas, they seem to be all marrying on board here, and I have nobody, you have two daughters, can you spare me one of them?” He said, “Yes, that you can, brother, take whichever you like.” I said, “No, Brother Thomas; they will not suit me, they are two young.” He said, “O no, they are not; take whichever you like.” I then said, “If they are not too young for me, I am too old for them.” Credat Judaeus. Here a question was asked, whether he married at all; when he answered that he kept himself single-handed. From his narrative, it seemed that a system of robbery was practiced by the Mormon elders upon their deluded followers, cheating them of their provision, cattle, and wagons; in fact, victimizing them in the most minute particulars. For be it remembered, the poor dupes are led to undertake their journeyings to the Salt Lake under the impression that, the bourne once reached, food and raiment will be provided for them, and will enjoy prolonged length of days. To keep the deluded victims from having their eyes opened, at each halting place they are particularly cautioned against holding any communication with the inhabitants, as those places are designated by the Mormons elders ‘hells;’ so that the Mormonite, to reach his Salt Lake Zion, has to pass through three hells, a slight improvement on purgatory. In spite of the perils of hunger, perils by the wayside, incursions of the Paunee Indians who, by the way, the speaker seemed to say derive their name from their being mounted on ponys—more phonetic than accurate, the Salt Lake was reached. The twelve apostles visited them, and, if we may credit the speaker, told them if they saw them (the apostles) drunk, or thieving, etc., they were not to take any notice of it, and must not do the same. At length the Prophet came and dismissed them. The Prophet, however, kept his eyes roving sharply over the young women of the company, and then, to again use the speaker’s words, said, ‘Have you any young woman who wants a place of service?’ Some of the fair Mormonites speak out, and they are tampered with till they become first, second, or third wives of the apostles and prophets. Having spoken of the unscrupulous manner in which the deluded wights are bereft of their wives by the prophet Brigham Young, and of their being afraid to remonstrate lest they should be shot, the Chairman said: You have spoken of murders; have you known any one shot or likely to be shot? The speaker said he had frequently heard of cases, one especially: a man named John Galt asked Brigham Young should he preach on ‘plurality of wives,’ but when Brigham heard his doctrine he said, ‘Shut your mouth, or you will soon have a revolver shot in you.’ The speaker then mentioned the facts of Brigham having sixty wives, marrying a mother and daughter, and entered into many other details which clearly showed that in the Mormon Zion every beastiality which can tend to lower and degrade the human race is freely practiced. – The Chairman (the Rev. Mr. Jones, Baptist Minister, at the close of the discourse returned thanks to the speaker, who, he said, had stated facts likely to deter persons from being made the dupes of Mormonism. Space will not permit us farther than to recommend everyone at all inclined to be silly or Mormonized to attend the lecture, if they have an opportunity, when (if at all open to conviction) they will doubtless be disabused of their error.