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Women of Mormonism
Chapter 5 - Woman's Consent
THE WOMEN OF MORMONISM:
or
THE STORY OF POLYGAMY
As Told by the Victims Themselves.
Edited By
JENNIE ANDERSON FROISETH
Editor of the Anti-Polygamy Standard, Salt Lake City,
PUBLISHED BY
C.G.G. PAINE, DETROIT, MICH.
1886
Copyright, 1881 and 1882
By Jennie Anderson Froiseth
First Wife's
Story.-Counseled to Humble His Wife.-"Wives Have no Rights in this Territory."-A
Mother's Reason for Going to Utah.-The New House.- The Baby.-Persecutions.
Husband Persuaded.-Death of the Baby.-Wife
Reluctantly
Consents.-Consequences.-A Death-Bed Scene.-Escape
[50] THE following stories of
first wives will show how women have been, and still are, coerced into giving consent for
their husbands to take other women, and also illustrate the beauties of that system which
its votaries declare brings so much happiness, and is so ennobling to the female sex.
A FIRST WIFE’S STORY.
" Many friends who have heard me complain of the sorrows I have
endured in polygamy, censure me deeply for having given my consent for my husband to take
another wife. They say I could easily have prevented it if I had been determined and
threatened him with Gentile law, as it is only a few years, comparatively speaking, since
he went into plurality. I will relate the facts just as they are, and people can see for
themselves how utterly impossible it would have been for me to have acted any differently.
[51] "My husband was doing well in his business, and had
frequently been counseled by various members of the priesthood, to avail himself of his
privilege, and add to his family. It may not, perhaps, be understood by the Gentiles, that
when a man shows signs of being prosperous, he is not given any peace until he has bound
himself in the chains of polygamy. He is then a much greater slave to the priesthood, and
not so likely to apostatize.
" One day my husband announced to me that he had determined to
live his religion, and take another wife. In one way I was not much surprised, for I knew
the influences that had been brought to bear upon him continually for months, influences
which could not be ignored without the possibilities of utter ruin. Besides, I had seen
that blighting shadow destroy the peace of too many homes not to fear that it might also
cast its baleful influence over mine; yet still I hoped that it might pass me by. We had
lived together happily for fifteen years, and seven children had been born to us, four of
whom were living. One of these children was a dearly loved, I may say, an idolized, little
girl, who had been an invalid from her birth, and whom I had cherished like a delicate,
rare, hot-house flower; another was a babe in arms; the rest were two stout hearty little
boys, not old enough to do anything to help themselves.
"When he told me of his intention to go into polygamy, he also
said that he had been counseled to marry a certain woman. I had many reasons to [52]
regard this woman with special aversion. A year or two previous she had been a servant in
my family, and in addition to a very high temper, she had annoyed and disgusted me by her
efforts to attract the attention of my husband. He did not seem to notice her in the least
at that time, and made no objections when I discharged her for an unkind action toward my
little girl, whom she appeared to dislike extremely; and why, I never could imagine, for
she was as sweet and gentle a little creature as ever lived. Subsequently, I heard that he
had been advised by the church authorities to marry this woman, on purpose to humble me,
because I was suspected of having more spirit and independence than was befitting a Mormon
woman.
" Well, it is no use repeating what I said to him. I knew that
it would be in vain, for the decree had gone forth. It was like a drowning man clutching
at a straw when I wept and prayed him to avert the disaster a little longer, if not
altogether, and not to ruin our happy home. I reminded him of what we had been to each
other for fifteen long years, and how I had forsaken all my friends for him; how I had
tried to be an exemplary wife and a good mother to our children.
"'It is well-that you think of your children,' was his reply,
'for if you will not do your duty and consent for me to do mine, by living up to the
privileges of a Latter-day Saint, they shall have neither food, clothing, nor shelter of
my providing during the coming winter,'
[53] “Gentile ladies who read this will perhaps think that my
husband was a brute. On the contrary, he had been one of the best of husbands, and had
never given me a rough word in fifteen years of married life, until he considered himself
forced to ' bring me to my senses,' as the Mormons would say. None but those who have
lived and suffered in it, can imagine the tyranny of Mormonism.
" But what could I do? Could I see my innocent children, who had
always been tenderly cared for, go hungry, naked, and homeless ? I was not strong enough
to do all my own household work, and I had a three months' old baby at my breast. I could
not go out and earn their food and clothes. I could not bring myself to see them suffer,
as I knew they must do, for I knew him well enough to be assured that he would carry out
his threat; so I said, ' Well, if you must take another wife, do so, but let it be any
other woman in the world rather than the one you have named. You know how hateful she was
to May, and how could I tolerate any one in the house that would be unkind to her? Choose
any other woman in the city, and I will try to make the best of it.'
"' He answered, 'She it must be, and none other, and there need
not be any trouble. You will keep your side of the house and mind your children, and I
will make her keep hers.'
" 'Henry,' I said, 'the day that woman enters this house will be
the last day of domestic happiness for us.’
" 'I cannot help it, Mary,' he replied, ' I am determined to
live my religion; and if you know when you are well off, you will not make any fuss, but
act like a sensible woman. There is nothing to prevent my leaving you without a penny, if
I like, for you know that women, especially first wives, have no rights in this Territory,
not even the right of dower. Do as you ought, and I will pledge myself that neither you
nor the children shall ever want for anything; but make a fool of yourself, and you may go
where you like, and do the best you can for them.'
"Again I ask, what could I do ? Nothing. So I consented, went to
the Endowment House, and gave as wife to my husband the woman that I most hated and
despised of all women in the world. I saw her enter my house and take my place in the
heart of the man for whom I had given up all I had held dear in this life. I know that, as
a rule, the Gentile ladies consider the Mormon women weak, miserable creatures to bear
what they do, but the sacrifices that many of us have made for our children will prove
that we are not different from other women, at least in the matter of a mother's love.
"I could tell you much more, but to what purpose ? I could tell
you how that woman's influence awakened and fostered all that was evil in my nature, how
we together changed my kind, tender husband into a perfect brute, how the strong arm that
had defended me for fifteen years came to be lifted against me, and how the death blow
came to my little angel child in trying to save her mother from it, [55] as she thought.
But I ask again, to what purpose? It will not avail me anything, for there is neither law,
justice, nor mercy for women in this Territory. It was not my intention to give any
history of my sufferings in polygamy, I simply wanted to tell how I was coerced into
giving my consent for my husband to enter it; and I will say this much, that Satan himself
could not devise any worse tortures than women experience in the infernal system called '
Celestial Marriage.' "
Here is the experience of another first wife on the very same point,
giving consent for her husband to take another wife:-
"A Gentile lady remarked not long ago in the presence of several
women who had been Mormons that she had no patience with first wives who gave consent for
their husbands to take other women they deserved to suffer for being so weak, and if they
had been determined they might have prevented it. This lady had been in Utah a few months,
and thought she knew all the workings of Mormonism; but when she has lived here seven or
eight years, perhaps she will discover that she had not then found out the real inner
machinery of polygamy. It takes a person who has lived in it, and suffered in it, to
understand what it is. and it takes one who has been a Mormon herself to fully comprehend
the pressure, the organized system of tyranny that is brought to bear upon people to
compel them to submit to the dictates of the priesthood.
"Years ago, a woman had no choice but to submit [56] or die; it
would have been happier for many if the latter had been their fate, but they had ties that
bound them to earth,-their little children,-so they lived on, suffering eternal torments
every day of their lives. It is not quite so bad now, perhaps, for women can leave their
husbands more easily, and if they have any friends they can get away from Utah without
being murdered by ' Indians ' in the mountains or on the plains. But in another respect it
is worse, for now men will marry other women without asking the consent of their wives,
which was deemed necessary some years ago.
" I will relate my own experience, and then let any candid
person decide if I could have done otherwise than give consent for my husband to take a
plural wife. What I have suffered through the doctrine of polygamy cannot be half told.
"My husband and I emigrated to Utah nearly twenty years ago. We
had been married about three years, and had been converted to Mormonism by a traveling
missionary in New York State some three months previous. We had been in haste to gather to
Zion, not so much to be with God's people, for we had many friends from whom it was hard
to part, and besides, rumors had reached us that the promised land was not exactly as the
missionaries represented, but because my health was rather delicate, and a change was
deemed beneficial. We had heard of the glorious climate of these valleys, and their
health-giving properties, and were anxious to secure their benefits. As I said, we had
been [57] married three years; but no little child had been sent to sanctify our union,
and the Mormon missionary had assured us that this blessing would be ours if we would
leave wicked Babylon, and cast our lot with the Saints of God.
" We did not have very much of this world's goods, but my
husband was a superior mechanic, besides having a good knowledge of book-keeping, acquired
in leisure hours, and I was an excellent needle-woman, consequently we had no fears of not
being able to make a living in any place. We sold our little home, and the proceeds were
more than sufficient to defray comfortably the expenses of the journey, and leave a
surplus for our maintenance until my husband should be able to get into some business. The
missionary offered to take charge of George's extra funds, hut he was not sufficiently
blinded or bigoted to trust the elder so implicitly. Besides, in those days he was very
independent, and thought he was fully able to take care of himself and everything
belonging to him. A course of Mormon dietetics somewhat modified this characteristic, but
for years it was prominent enough to cause both of us many troubles and heart-aches. I
often think that if we had been ' blood-atoned ' in the days of our early love, and buried
together side by side in one grave, we should have escaped many sorrows, and been more
glad to meet each other in the resurrection day than we shall be now. But regrets are
vain, and what is done can never be undone.
"We had heard in our New York home that [58] polygamy was
practiced among the Saints, but we were assured by the elder that it was entirely optional
with the people themselves, and that if a man's religious convictions did not prompt him
to enter it, or if a wife thought she was not fitted to carry out the principles of the
celestial doctrine, there was no compulsion whatever employed. Of course, he depicted in
glowing colors the advantages of the system when lived aright, that the women who embraced
it were perfectly happy in this life, and assured of the highest bliss in the world to
come. I did not trouble myself very much about the matter after he stated so positively
that polygamy was not compulsory, for I was sure that George would never enter it against
my wishes, and I was so anxious to get to Utah that I was willing to assume almost any
risk. I was not a fanatic or a religious enthusiast by any means, but I had an
irresistible longing to experience the joys of motherhood, and I had faith in a change of
climate to accomplish this much desired end.
"In due time we arrived in Utah, after a pleasant journey across
the plains, and my husband was not long in obtaining steady employment. Of course, we
experienced a measure of regret and sorrow at leaving our old home, and severing so many
old ties, but the anticipations for the future soon overbalanced these, and our first year
in Zion was one of peace and contentment. We had secured a lot and intended to build a
little home very soon, and in my limited way I was making preparations to adorn it [59]
with articles of taste, if not elegance. George was fond of seeing things look pretty
around him, and our old home had been as tastefully furnished as our means would permit.
And what rendered us still happier, was the fact that my fond hopes were to be realized,
and the next spring, God willing, a baby of my own should be folded to my breast.
"Ah me! I grow almost insane when I look back upon those days,
and recall the memory of what my husband and I were to each other. Our marriage had been
one of pure affection, and the knowledge of this coming pledge of our love drew us even
more closely together and made earth seem almost a Paradise. I used to stand sometimes by
my open door and gaze on the lovely valley, bathed in the evening sunlight, and then over
the snow-capped mountains, and think that God could not make a lovelier spot than my
mountain home. But I lived to see the day when I cursed those mountains for being my
prison walls, and almost cursed God for allowing them to exist.
"I need not tell any mother the delight and rapture I felt when
I held a lovely baby boy in my arms; and George was no less rejoiced. Everything in our
past lives seemed nothing when compared with this event; and from the number of
congratulations we received, it also seemed as if the entire city was rejoicing too.
"When our boy was about six months old, the shadow first began
to gather around our lives, and it was in this wise. We had s neighbor, a polygamist [60]
with two wives, who had lived pretty peaceably together up to that time. But dissensions
began to arise, and before long their quarrels were the theme of the neighborhood. One day
the two women had a severe altercation in the front door-yard, which the husband undertook
to stop, and all three used a great deal of language which, to say the least, was very
unbecoming to Saints. My husband spoke his opinion very frankly in regard to an
institution which produced such results, and within the space of an hour it was carried to
the bishop of the ward, who came down that very evening to remonstrate with George, whom
he accused of a leaning toward apostasy. George, being high spirited, and unaccustomed to
any dictation or reproof, quietly informed the bishop that he had best mind his own
concerns, for he should entertain any opinions he chose about polygamy or any other
doctrine. The bishop went directly and reported to the church authorities, and from that
moment our doom was sealed. From that moment began a series of persecutions which never
ceased until my happiness was wrecked forever.
"We had always been in the habit of going regularly to meeting,
paying tithes promptly, and outwardly conforming to all the observances of the Mormon
faith. But soon George received an intimation that he was not living up to his privileges
as a Saint, and unless he wanted to make trouble for himself, he had better speak more
respectfully of the divine ordinance. But, as I said before, he was an independent man and
would not be dictated to; [61] but he discovered after awhile that in Zion the least was
soonest mended, and a man who thought for himself had better also keep those thoughts to
himself.
"I could not recount the number of mean and petty persecutions
to which we were subjected. We were not threatened openly, because George was making
money, and was very liberal in contributing whenever he was called on, consequently he was
in good standing. But he could never go to a meeting of the Seventies, or even a Sunday
ward meeting, without polygamy being, hurled at him in some way or other. I was very
quiet, because I had so much confidence in him; and so long as I felt sure that he would
not go into it, I judged it best not to make matter worse by talking myself. But there
came a time when all this was changed. One evening we had a visit from a friend whom we
both honored and respected, and who said that he had come to talk seriously with George. I
believe he was honest in his intentions, and firmly thought he had our best interests at
heart; but oh, how I hate and despise the very sight of that man!
"He told us that if George did not change his course, he would
either be sent on a three-years' mission, or pay the penalty of his indiscretion and
disobedience to the law of God. He gave us the particulars of one case, which had happened
only a few months previous. We knew the man was missing, but nothing more. I had then
lived in Zion long enough to know what going on a mission portended. [62] For me,
destitution, or hard labor to keep soul and body together, exposure to all manner of
insult from other Saints in my husband's absence, and persecution and slander if I
remained true to him. For him, it meant a three-years' absence from wife and boy whom he
tenderly loved, and liberty, if not strict private orders to make entanglements with
any number of women he pleased. I had known more than one missionary to return with young
girls as wives,-men whom their wives had trusted as much as I did my husband.
"I had learned a great deal the last six months we had lived in
Salt Lake City. Before that, we had been so thoroughly engrossed with our own affairs as
to pay little attention to what was going on around us. Also, he had been purposely kept
in ignorance of evil deeds that. were transpiring almost every day. I had learned, too,
what was meant by ' paying the penalty,'-a lonely, unmarked grave somewhere on the
outskirts of the city, or a ghastly corpse left in some .secluded locality to be the prey
of wild animals. We listened to our friend, and were impressed by his sincerity, and he
gave us unmistakable tokens that he had not come of his own accord, but had been
commissioned from head-quarters. When he was leaving he said, 'Think of what I have been
telling you, brother and sister M-, for it would be a pity, if that fine little fellow
there should wake up some morning and find himself fatherless, and perhaps motherless
too.'
"I was silent during the interview but the moment [63] he was
gone, I could not restrain my feelings longer, and I burst into tears, exclaiming 'O
George, let us get away from this dreadful place! I cannot consent to your embracing that
dreadful doctrine, and yet I feel it is true, what brother B. has said, that you will
either be blood-atoned or sent on a mission.' He soothed me as well as he could, assured
me I need not fear he would break my heart by taking another woman, and that perhaps all
would yet come right in the end.
"We agreed, however, that for the present he should be very
cautious in expressing his views, and not say anything more against polygamy openly.
"From that day forward an almost unaccountable change came over
him. Formerly, he used to talk of polygamy with loathing; now he would say sometimes that
it was a good enough doctrine for some people if it was lived aright, but it would never
do for him. I know that he was continually pursued by some of the elders, acting under
instructions, and when they found that he no longer talked against it, they followed up
what they thought a decided advantage. After six months more of this persecution, he
became almost maddened, and told me that-he believed the best thing for all of us would be
to submit. He assured me that matters could not remain in this way much longer, and both
our lives were at stake if he did not take another wife. He furthermore assured me that it
would never make the slightest difference in our relation He loved me, and only me; but if
I did not [64] give my consent, he could not answer for the consequences.
"At first, I was angry, indignant, and would not listen to the
thing for a moment. Afterward, I wept, pleaded, and prayed him rather to let us die
together if there was no other way of escape, and our baby with us, than to thus pollute
and disgrace our household. Oh, the agony of those never to be forgotten days! Oh, the
martyrdom I suffered, in having my heart crucified over and over again' I got to such a
pitch of frenzy and despair that I almost cursed my darling boy, who was commencing to
toddle after me and lisp my name, as the author of this misfortune. God forgive me, for I
knew not what I did!
"While I was in that state of anguish, our boy was taken ill
suddenly, and though apparently in perfect health one morning, on the next his little
helpless form lay ready for the grave. I can never trust myself to speak of this
occurrence. Mothers will comprehend my feelings, and to others my grief is too sacred to
be even mentioned. If it were not absolutely necessary, I would not relate what follows;
but how can these evils be remedied unless their infamy is exposed? While my husband and
myself stood weeping over the cold and senseless form of our idolized little one, a
certain member of the Mormon priesthood entered the chamber, and said to me, 'Sister M., this dispensation of Providence is not mysterious to
us who can see clearly; it is only a punishment for your pertinacity in [65] not permitting brother G. to do his duty and live his
religion. And mark my words, you will never have another child as long as you oppose the
will of the Lord.’ We were both so completely bowed down with sorrow that we
neither understood fully his brutality, nor had power to resent it.
"George said subsequently that if he had only been himself, that
man would never have left the house alive. But as it was, his words sunk into my heart,
because he was considered a just and good man, and I was tortured, almost consumed, with
doubt and fear. Friends urged me to seek the consolation of religion in my sorrow. Every
influence possible was brought to bear upon me. I went constantly to the meeting-house,
where polygamy was dinned forever in my ears, and the wickedness of opposing the celestial
ordinance fully set forth. My physical strength gave way. In mind I became almost an
imbecile. And as the months sped by, and gave me no signs or hopes of maternity, I began
to think that I was cursed of God, and was only expiating my own sin. Then, when the
mother love grew again so strong as to be almost uncontrollable, when day and night were
haunted by visions of the child who had gone from me forever, and whom I so ardently
yearned to replace, in a period of unusual weakness of mind and body, I took the fatal
step, I gave consent for my husband to share my place with another.
"I was not allowed to relent. No time was given [66] me to
reconsider. A girl had long, been picked out for him. They were married in the Endowment
House, and he took her back to her mother until a home could be provided for her. He had
enough respect for me not to bring her to my house, and I know that in his heart he
regretted the deed as soon as it was done. But this infernal doctrine will destroy all
that is good in the best men. They can learn to look unmoved upon ,sorrows that would
awaken pity in the heart of Satan himself. Men who would not allow the wind to blow
roughly on their wives, will learn to see them hungry and naked without pang, and their
children the same. Sometimes, when I sit and meditate upon the atrocities that have been
perpetrated in the name of God and religion, I wish I had the tongue of an angel, that I
might go forth to the wor1d and proclaim the truth as it is.
"I ask now if I was not excusable, if not justified, in giving
consent for my husband to go into polygamy. I might perhaps have held out a little longer,
but in all probability the end would have been the same. I yielded in a time of weakness,
and whether or not I deserved to suffer as my Gentile friend declared, I have been richly
repaid for it all the same.
"After George had married, he did not return to my lonely home
for several days. He was afraid to meet the storm of grief and indignation which he knew I
could not repress. And when he did come, I felt as if I could have torn him in pieces. I
wanted to kill him with my own hand, and then [67] I could have fallen dead at his feet.
He was not my own husband any longer, the life of my life and soul of my soul. Another had
come between us and severed the mystic bond that had made us ONE. He could never be to me
again on earth what he had been before.
"The girl he married had been brought up in a polygamous family,
and of courage had been taught to consider the institution a religious one, although her
faith had been somewhat weakened by the scene of strife and discord to which she had been
a daily witness almost all her life
"Though she did me, unwittingly perhaps, the most grievous wrong
that one woman can do another, yet I will not be unjust to her. She was naturally good
tempered, and never deliberately set to work to torture or annoy me, as I have known too
many plural wives to do. Still I hated her with a more than mortal hatred, for had she not
come between me and my all in this world?
"As soon as possible a house was built for her quite near my
own, and it was as handsomely fitted up as his means would permit. I was not stinted in
any comforts, had all I desired, and for awhile George was as kind and attentive to me as
before. He returned punctually when the week was over, and always professed that he was
delighted to get back to me, his wife and his only love. While he was absent I did nothing
but weep and mourn, and if by chance a neighbor ventured in, I could not refrain from
speaking my mind freely about the abominable institution. [68] When he was with me I tried
to be as much like my olden self as possible, for I could not blame him entirely, knowing
as I did that he had been almost forced into it. But the specter had come between us, and
could not but make his ghastly presence perceptible sooner or later.
"After awhile George would leave the house immediately after
supper, almost every evening, saying that he had a little business out, and must also look
in upon Emma a few moments, as she was not at all well, and perhaps he would tell me not
to wait up for him, as he might be late. Of course I rebelled for during all our married
life previous to his entering polygamy, he had scarcely spent an evening away from home
unless I accompanied him. But my remonstrances were in vain. His answer would be, 'Mary,
you know that, as I have married Emma, it is only my duty to do what is right by her, and
she is now in a condition to demand my care and attention7 while you are strong and well,
and do not need me at all.' Then, when I would reproach him with having lost his love for
me, which only a few short months ago he had assured me was strong as ever, he would reply
impatiently, 'Don't be a fool, Mary; of course I love you, and always shall, but I cannot
neglect Emma just to gratify your whims. Do be reasonable and look upon things in their
proper light. I provide for you and am as kind to you as I ever was; but you ought to see,
yourself, that at present, my place is by Emma's side instead of yours.' Think of it, you
happy [69] wives, especially you who may be childless, what a religion, that drags your husband away from you
to the side of another woman who has the expectation of being a mother by him! Think of a religion that has so benumbed the moral and
intellectual faculties of a wife, that she immolates herself on such a foul altar, in
hopes that the coveted boon may be bestowed upon her. When I think upon it, I only wonder
that those in the outside world, calling themselves disciples of the loving and tender
Christ who was the friend of woman, do not come with fire and word, and sweep the monster
from the face of the earth, that commits such atrocities in his dear name.
"I was alone, in my lonely, childless house, I will no longer
call it a home, when the tidings were brought to
me that a son was born to my husband's second wife. Oh, the unutterable anguish of that
long, dreary night! I walked the floor until the dim light of early morning, when my
tottering limbs refused to bear me any longer, and I fell to the floor, where I lay for
hours in a semi-unconscious state. There was feasting and rejoicing in the other house,
while a darkness, worse than that of death, lay over mine.
"Another year, and still another went by, and the reward for
which I had bartered my happiness had not been vouchsafed to me. A little daughter had
been added to the other household, and I was drinking in its fullness the bitter cup, for
my husband no longer made any pretense of staying with me. His home was with his other wife and her children. I
[70] have no doubt but she made it pleasanter for him than I did, with my tears and
reproaches; and while fondling her children, he forgot all about the little boy who was
sleeping on the dreary hillside alone.
"Soon after her second child was born, I deter mined not to live
in that unnatural manner an longer. I would make him choose between us and if she were his
choice, I would go entirely away from him and live out my own life. I fell convinced that
I could not exist another year in that way, and retain my senses; and perhaps if we were
separated forever I could live out the measure of my days, not in happiness, that never
could be, but without the intense suffering which I now experienced every day and hour. I
could easily have died; but pride, if nothing else, should keep me alive at least until I
had severed all relations with him.
"I will relate here an incident which occurred about this time,
not that it has any bearing on my own story, but because it illustrates so well the
demoralizing influences of the infamous .system.
" A man with two wives lived only a short distance from my
house. He was a brute by instinct, and polygamy had made him even more brutal. He was one
of those who were not contented with breaking their wives' hearts, but tried to break
their heads also. At times, their home was like the infernal regions, an abode of strife
and discord; and yet the first wife, perhaps in memory of their youth, was as patient and
forbearing as a woman could possibly be. But now, this man lay dying, and I [71] was
summoned with some other neighbors to render a little assistance. If I could live to be a
thousand years old, I never should forget the horrible scene which transpired in that
chamber of death. Several persons were present, among them the second wife, when the first
wife attempted to enter the room. The second tried to prevent her, but another woman
assisted her, and both together forced open the door. I knew this woman as the first wife
of a certain man, and that her life had been ruined on account of polygamy; and, strange
to say, her husband and his other wife were also in the room. When she had effected an
entrance, she turned to the second wife of the dying man, and said in thrilling tones, '
This is his wife and she has a right to be here,
which you have not.' Then looking at her own husband's second wife, she said, 'I want you
to remember that if my husband ever lies dying, and you try to prevent me from entering
the room, I will hurl you, yes, hurl you out of the house! '
"In the meantime the poor old wife of the dying man stood by the
bedside weeping. ' Why do you weep?' said the woman, who appeared almost like an avenging
angel; 'you should rather laugh, for you are now free from your misery. There lied lies
the man who wrecked your happiness, and ruined your life, powerless to harm you any more !
'Then, touching the hand of the man already cold with approaching death, she exclaimed, '
THANK GOD, THIS CAN NEVER STRIKE A WOMAN AGAIN ! ' Nearly all the occupants of the room
left in horror, frightened [72] at the appearance of this awful woman. I said to her,
'Sister H , what has come over you, you act as if you were crazy?' She grasped my hand,
and replied, ' Sister M , I am almost wild when I think what this infernal doctrine of
polygamy has done for us poor women!'
"As my principal object in unveiling the past was to explain how
I was beguiled into polygamy, I will not say much in regard to how I came out of it,
except that I was the victim of all manner of slanderous tales; but for that I was
partially prepared, and knew that I should have to live them down. When I first told my
husband of my decision, he was violently angry; but when he saw that I was not to be
moved, he told me to go where I liked, that he should remain with his wife and children. In accordance with instructions
from some of the priesthood, he sold the roof over my head, and in the darkness of
evening, I went forth, with only a little bundle containing a change of clothing in my
hand,-went forth from the home where I had seen so much happiness, and afterward so much
misery. I went to sister H , the first wife alluded to before, and asked shelter for the
night, which was willingly granted. I remained with her a few days, and then I was
fortunate enough to obtain a situation as needle-woman in a family that were themselves
inclined to apostasy, but whose wealth and position kept them from the persecution that
would have been dealt unsparingly to poorer people.
[73] "Since then, I have been in a measure prospered. Yet still
my life has been a lonely and desolate one. But he who ruined my happiness, did not in the
end encompass his own. He took more wives, and many children were born to him, but the
most of them died in childhood, and those who were spared did not prove either a comfort
or a blessing. Lonely as my lot is, I would not exchange it for his.
" Not long ago, I met him in the street face to face. We had not
spoken together for ten long years. I was about to pass, but he stopped me, and said,
'Mary, I do not wonder that you do not wish to .speak to me, after the way I treated you.
But I only want to say this, I hope that just punishment will be meted out to those who
separated us.'
“I drew my veil over my face to hide my tears as I answered him,
' We were to blame ourselves, and this cursed libel on the name of religion, polygamy ! '
"We have not met since, and as I said once before in the course
of this narrative, I feel as if I could not even look on his face in the resurrection
day."
Next: CHAPTER VI. A WIFE'S REVENGE
Both Fanatic and Fool.-A Husband's Promise - The Husband Ensnared.-Happiness of
Polygamous Families. - Sickness - The Vow.-English Mollie. - The Third Wife. - A Religious
Enthusiast.
Back: CHAPTER IV. CLASSES OF MORMON WOMEN
Apostates. - Anti-Polygamous Mormons. - Full Believers. - Courage of the Apostates.
Polygamy Denied Abroad While Practiced at Home. - Ingenious Liars. - Danger of
Admitting Utah as a State. - Relief Societies.
Index: INTRODUCTION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS
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