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Among The Mormons

Among The Mormons image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
April
Year
1864
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Fitz Hugh Ludlow writes in the April Ltlttnttc of bis exporieuce among the Saints at Salt Lake Oity : The first Moniion household I ever visiled belonged to the son of the fammis Heber Kiuiball, Brighatn Young's mot ik'votud foHower, and next (o bitn in the Presidency. It was tlie last síage station but oue before we entered Salt Lake aud as it looked like a wtll to lo farmer, I went 'm and asked for a bowl of bread aud milk, the greatest possible luxury after a Iife of bacon and salt spring water, sueh as wa bad beun laading in the mouiituihs. A fine looking, motiieriy vróitiu'u, with facu full of charactar, gray 'uan ed, aud aboüt s:xty yuars olrl, rose !! i.ii.jjt'y to graut my request, aud whilr tbu Iioimvm were 1 had ampie time to make thu aoquaintanoo of two pretty joung girls, bardly oVer twen tv, holding two infuuts, oi ;w-s imt more ihan thrce months apart. Green as L was iü saintly tuunutirs, [ supposed that uue of theíé two yoiuig inothers liad run n froiïl x nciglibor'ti to compare babies with the mistress of tlie house, after uur ËaBtCTD fasliiui!. When the (I8 lady eame back with thu bread aud mi! k, aud boih the young girls nddregsed her as "motjïer," I was emboldoüed to talk to hei' that her daughters had a pretty pair of ehildren. "They are pretty," said the uld lady, demurely; but they are the ehildren of Voy son, who has now goue on a missiou to Liverpool, youug Mr. Kimball, son of He' er Kimball; and lam Hebev Kimbali's vvife.'1 A cosiu'ipoHiau might vvell be aahamed to be so taken ott" his feet as I was by my first view of -Mormonism in it practical workings. [ stared, - I betieve I blushed a little, - trted to stutter a reply ; aud the one dreadful thought hión persistently kept uppenuost, su lliat I feit that they must read it, in my face, was, '"How eau youug wouien sit looking at each other's babies without flyiug into eacb other's faces with their fiuger-nails and teariug uut eaeh other's hair ?"' Htber Kimball after wards íolved the juestion for me, bv baying it was a triumph of yraee. Such auother triumph was Mrs. Heber Kimball herself. She was a wotnan ol reniarkable presenee, ia youth must have baan very handsome, wuuld have beeu the oracle of tea figfats, the ruling spirit of douation visits, in any Easteru village where she 'night have livud, aud, hid her home been in New York, would have fallen by her owu gravity inte the Cbief Directress'ë chair of half a dozen Woman's Aid Societies ana As-oéiatinus for Moral Keform. Yet here was this stroug minded wouian, as her husba'id afterwaris acknowledged to me, hisbest euuiisellor and right hand helper through a married Iife reaching into middle a'e, l wituessiug her property in that husbands j affecticus subdivided and pa-eeled out uutil she owned but a one-tliirtieth share not ouly without a pang, but with the aeijuieseence of her eonacience aud the approbation of her intellect. Uue day in tbe Opera House at Salt Laké, when the carpenters were laying tiie floor tbr the Eourth of July ove ball, Bebtr aud I got talkiug uf tha poipuur ri of nationulities assembled in Utah. - Heber waxed unutuously benevolent, aud expressed his affectiou for eaoh sucbeedlug race as fast as nientioned. "I love the Danes dearly ! Tve got a Dauish wife." Tlieu turniug to a íough lookiug carpenter, hammoring uear him, " Vou know Cliristiny, eb, Brotber ápudge?" ''Oh, yes ! know her vevy well !" A moment after, - "The [rish are a dear people. My Irish wife is amoug the best I have got." Again, - "I love the Germana! Got a Datch wife, too ! Kuow Katriue, Brother Spudge ? Remember she coulu't eöarcely talk a word of English wlien tha calfc; here, eb, Brotber Spudge ?" Brother Spudge remembered, - and Biotber Heber contiuued to trot out the members of his martial stud lor dis lición of their poiuts with his u.ore humble fellow polygamis'.s of the hamMter, but wheu I happened to touch upuii tha earliett Mis. Heber, wbom I uaturally thought he would by this time regard as a forgotten fofsil iu the Lower íSiluriau Stráta of his eonnubial Iife, and referred to the interview I had eujoyed with her on the afternoon before entering thtí city, his wbole marmer changed to a proper husbaudly dignity, and, nitliout seeking eorroboration from the carpciiter, hc replied gravely, "Yes that is my first wife and the best woman God ever made!" The following is a desci'iptiou of Brigbam Youug : He is uearly seventy years old, but appars very little over forty. His beiglit is about (ivo feet ten inches ; bis tigure very well made, and slightly ncliued to portliuess. His hair is a rich eurly ehestuut, formerly woru long, in bupposed imitarion of the apostoliu eoilïure, but now eut iu our practical Kasteru { fasbiou, as accords with the man of business whose metier he bas added to apostleship with thegrowing temporal prosperity of Ziou. Indeed, he is the greatest business mau op the continent, - the cash ier of a nrm ot eighty thousaud sileut partners, and the only auditor of that cashier, besides. Hts evos are a ojear bluogray, frank and straiglui'mvard in their look; bis nose a fiuely chisled uqualine; liis luouth exeeediugly Grm, and foitified in that expressiou by a chin almos! as protru-ive bevond thö rest cf the pruiilc as ('harlotto Cushman's, though K'sa noticeably , so, beiug longer than hérs ; aud he waar i narrow ribbon of browu beard, uieeiiug I uuder the chin. His individual magnetiíui, his t xeeutive tact, hisuative beuuvoleuee, are al! immense ; L regard him as Louis león plus a baart. Ho is the farthest remove on earth íroin a hypocrite; he is that graud, yet uwful sight iu human nature,- a man wlO WabtOUgfil the loftièst Chiistlan elf devotion to the altar of tho dtvil, - who ia ready to suffer crúeifitiou for Barrabas, suppotiug him to be Uinist Tliere is siiid to oe a tenement house ia New Fork hftv!ny6 rooins, 8 by 10 fest,(iuU(StïïTri 7D families, i.f' 1-H ad ! avl ....d IWi k-btljreu, 11 dogs and 43 1

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus