To study still further the workings of
Mormonism in the household, I remained until the
"second table" bell rang for dinner, and went
below. All the wives were present—Flipper at
the head of the table, with Emily (No. 5) on his
right. All were engaged in vigorously disposing
of pork and beans, bacon, corn-bread, and
cabbage—the usual dishes to be found on all
hotel tables westward of Eastern cities—and,
from close scrutiny, I could perceive that, under
an apparent quietness, there were smouldering
flames which must break forth ere long with
terrific violence. "Hen-e-r-y, my dear," squeaked
wife No. 1, "I'll trouble you, love, for the po-
ta-to-es." "Liz, hand Peg the taters. Emily,
my darling" (sotto voce), "let me prevail upon
you; allow me to assist you again with a few
more beans; do, my love!" Rachel, Lizzie,
and Nina exchanged glances of eloquent meaning;
Margaret appeared to be choking with
rage; but all dissembled until the meal was
over. "Who's going to clear away the things?"
she asked. "Not I," said Rachel, flouncing
out of the room; "perhaps sister Emily will
assist you." "Nor I," added the others; "we
are not going to make slaves of ourselves for
other folks' pleasure." I know not what then
transpired, but, when passing to my room I heard
a great commotion on the kitchen stairs, a
sudden smashing of plates and dishes, and a
tumult of voices. The women were in desperate
combat. Flipper rushed to the rescue, but
missed his footing and tumbled down stairs.
There were sounds of chairs and tables turning
over, crockery broken, and confusion of
tongues.

This, to some extent, was the state of things
in every household when more than one wife was
admitted, and, disguise it as they might, bickerings,
heart-burnings, jealousy, anger, dissimulation,
and distrust, filled the breasts of all. They
were there, could not get away, and must make
the best of it; for thousands of miles of desert
debarred all departure either eastward or westward.
They had embraced a system which
advocated worldly advancement and unlimited
sexual intercourse. Services in the tabernacle
or other meeting-houses were nothing but
practical discourses on the art of farming, or
nonsensical narrations of supposed visions,
prophecies, &c., interspersed with secular music
from the band. Such a community, living on
the richest lands on earth, and isolated from all
the world, must necessarily prosper from the
super-fecundity of the soil; but the system itself
is a rotten one. Some households are more
comfortable than others; and, when proprietors
could afford to keep servants, numerous wives
contented themselves with passing the time in
listlessness, without soiling their hands; and,
from the mere want of ambition and true
religion, fast degenerate into dreamers and
visionaries, even more extravagant than
Mormon leaders themselves.

The Great Salt Lake Valley has been
rapidly peopled by thousands of emigrants from
Europe, whose main thought has been to
secure for themselves a home and an abundance
of food. Of religion they seldom thought;
their lot in life had been hard enough, and any
religion was acceptable which presented few
moral obligations or restrictions to passion.
The nearer it could be to no-religion, with the
name of one, the more palatable it was; hence
the observer could plainly see that they seldom
attended meeting at all except for curiosity or
pleasure, and not then, indeed, without it was
whispered that some eloquent saint, fresh from
vision or trances, would narrate his celestial
travels, or hold forth savagely upon the politics
of Gentiles.

Where emigrants find abundance to eat and
to wear, few trouble themselves seriously
regarding other things, for the system of labour to
which they have been subjected from childhood
has so ground out of them all mental or spiritual
ambition, that they have morally and insensibly
degenerated into human cart-horses. Hence, in
scanning the settlements of Utah, it will be
found they are for the most part peopled by
classes over-worked and ill-fed in Europe, but
who, now luxuriating in superabundance, have
no higher thought but to indulge in the degrading
instincts of animals.

The system is a monstrous one—volumes
could be written regarding its workings, past
and present—but it is to the future that they
look, and it is for the future that they are now
preparing. No one can reside among them who
does not embrace their tenets; if he opposes
them, or endeavours to shield or shelter any of
the many disenchanted ones, he disappears!
Without remorse, without fear of punishment
hereafter, these saints are bent upon conquest,
and the first object in view is population.
Isolated as they are from choice, their many
wants have stimulated invention, and thus for
the most part they are a self-producing people,
whose necessaries and superfluities are found at
home. Military affairs have ever been one of
their chief studies, and experiments in all arms
are of frequent occurrence. They have
superabundant talent: that which was wanting in
the saints has been freely paid for among sinners;
so that to-day they have highly educated officers,
the best of machinists and mechanics; flocks
and herds are numerous, harvests superabundant,
population fast increasing, natural resources of
the country unsurpassed by any quarter in the
globe, and all obedient to the simple nod of
their spiritual chief.

Philosophers who delight in gazing into
futurity have here a subject for their meditations:
a vast country, luxuriant and fruitful,
of unsurpassed resources and self-supporting,
far away in the Western world; a numerous,
robust, and fast increasing male population,
growing up with unbridled passions, without
a moral check—a nation of sinewy, muscular,
and enthusiastic dreamers, whose creed is that
they are all fore-ordained to happiness hereafter,
and whose mission is the extermination of
Gentiles. What can be said of the future of such
men, the eloquence of whose emissaries is