The Letters of an 
 
 Apostate Mormon 
 
 to his Son 
 
 By HANS P. FREECE 
 
HANS P. FREECE 
 
The Letters of an 
 
 Apostate Mormon 
 
 to his Son 
 
 By HANS P. FREECE 
 
 Copyrigkt, 1PM, dy Han* P, 
 
 Illustrated by VERONA P. TURINI 
 
WORD 
 
 This is the fifth edition of this little book. When we 
 put the first few hundred dollars into the first edition we 
 were fearful lest our effort, time and money might be lost 
 We dedicated it to the cause of spreading the truth about 
 the Mormon Peril. In one year the first edition was ex- 
 hausted; we were reimbursed our expenditures and the 
 surplus we put into the Mormon work. Again we put our 
 capital into a second edition. Once more we have been re- 
 paid our investment and the surplus once more has been 
 given over to the Mormon work. Thus by charging 50 
 cents for the book we have been enabled to receive a small 
 steady income on the investment, which income we have 
 devoted to the printing of many thousands of pages of anti- 
 Mormon literature which have been distributed free of cost 
 both in England and in America. 
 
 If at any time you wish information on the Mormon 
 question or if you desire literature to combat the Mormon 
 evil drop us a line and we will do our best to fill your need 
 
 Any mail addressed to us in care of Columbia Univer- 
 sity, New York City, will always be forwarded. 
 
 BLANCHE K, STEWART-FREECE. 
 HANS P. FREECE. 
 New York City. 
 
 -4 
 
rary 1 
 
INDEX 
 
 A Tribute to Dr. S. . Wishard, 'The Old Man Eloquent of 
 
 the West" y 
 
 The American Tourist in Mormondom f 
 
 Polygamy IJ 
 
 The First Glimpse of Utah If 
 
 Jorgen 19 
 
 Why I Became a Mormon at 
 
 The Mountain Meadow Massacre 2$ 
 
 The Walk from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City 30 
 
 Early Experience in Utah 33 
 
 More Experience in Utah 3f 
 
 A Mormon Family 43 
 
 A Sad Tale 47 
 
 "The Order of Enoch" 50 
 
 Why I Left the Mormon Church 54 
 
 What I Saw in the Endowment House 58 
 
 Dark Days in Utah 65 
 
 A Paradox 66 
 
 What Fools We Mortals Be" 71 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Hans P. Freece Frontispiece 
 
 Brigham Young's First View of the Great Salt Lake 17 
 
 The Mountain Meadow Massacre tj 
 
 A Polygamist's Home in Southern Utah 4* 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 DR. WlSHARD. 
 
 Almost a score of years ago it was announced to the 
 children of a small mission school in Utah that "there witt 
 be services to-night in the (Mormon) meeting-house. Telt 
 jour parents to come, because the new minister wishes to 
 meet them." The announcement that a Presbyterian cler- 
 gyman would occupy a Mormon pulpit may seem strange 
 to some, but those familiar with the Utah situation will 
 smile because they know that when the Mormons very 
 graciously and gallantly offered the use of their buikKng, 
 the mission teacher and a few scholars, accompanied in 
 some cases by a parent, would comprise the audience. 
 And it was so in this instance, there being present about 
 twelve, all told. The small boys, perhaps, had ideas as 
 to what a Presbyterian was like, but sorrowful was the 
 disappointment when an ordinary looking individual, 
 wearing a square coat And straggling side-whiskers, came 
 into the room, distribut. y smiles and handshakes to each 
 and all. But whatever c disappointment was pictured on 
 their faces gave way to /we and rapture when the deep, 
 sweet tones of "Is my name written there?" came rolling 
 out. It was the first time that they had heard a man's 
 voice raised in song, and such a voice! One small boy 
 sitting behind the writer whispered to his mother, "He 
 looks like a pig, don't he, ma?" to which he received an 
 affirmative reply. That settled it. He must be punished, 
 and he was actually receiving his just dues behind the 
 "meeting-house," after the meeting, when two big broth- 
 ers came to his rescue, and the whipping that a certain 
 boy received has not yet been forgotten. Such was our 
 first meeting with Dr. S. E. Wishard, the "old man elo- 
 quent of the West." To meet him was to love him; to 
 hear him was to trust him; to follow him was to find 
 Christ. One day word came to the mission schools, one 
 fcy one, that Dr. Wishard lay seriously ill at his home in 
 
Ogden. Many prayers ascended to the throne, and were 
 answered. He recovered from his illness, and his years 
 of service in Utah were almost doubled. The work was 
 large, the need was larger. Who can tell of the kind 
 words he spoke? Who can tell of the comfort he gave? 
 Who can tell of the assurance he brought to the strug- 
 gling Christian? Who can tell of the broken hearts to 
 which he has applied the Healing Bairn? Only those of 
 Utah and Idaho who have come to him laden with sor~ 
 sow, and have been pointed to the cross. And for all 
 these kindnesses the Mormon hierarchy has ridiculed 
 him, hated him, and abused him. But he is a man who 
 has stood firm through all these years, and yielded not 
 one whit. He is the one man most feared and hated by 
 the Mormon hierarchy. When Dr. Wishard struck, he 
 struck with the grace of God because of that which was 
 in him. With his faithful band of chosen few he did 
 wage a battle for righteousness through many years. It 
 was a struggle in which there could be no compromise, 
 for he knew that "God is not mocked." Missionaries came 
 and went, health was broken and spent, but this stalwart 
 soldier of the Cross, "shod with the preparation of the 
 gospel of peace, having his loins girt about with truth and 
 bearing the shield of faith," endured the conflict, and 
 when he is called home he will, like the Spartan youth, 
 come to his own bringing his shield with him. 
 
 He has gone from the work in Utah to a well-earned 
 rest, but although in body in Los Angeles, in spirit he is 
 in Utah. In the Utah work "he has fought a good fight, 
 he has finished his course, he has kept the faith; hence- 
 forth there is laid up for him the crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to him at 
 that day." 
 
 Let this be to Dr. Wishard the humble tribute of. a 
 little lad, now grown to manhood, who has fought for 
 him, loved him, and who fain would follow him. 
 
 New York City. HANS P. FREKCE. 
 
 --a- 
 
The American Tourist in Mormondom. 
 
 UTAH, September, 1906. 
 MY DEAR BOY; 
 
 The cry of persecution has for many years been the 
 stock argument and the chief cause for a favorable con- 
 sideration of the Mormon propaganda. This cry pro- 
 tected them for many years in Ohio, Missouri and Il- 
 linois, where it is a significant fact that, in every State 
 where they have settled, the Gentiles of the community 
 have been forced to band themselves together for protec- 
 tion from the assaults of the Mormons. In two States 
 where the Mormons were numerically strong Missouri 
 and Illinois it became necessary for the Gentiles to call 
 oil the State authorities to protect them from their as- 
 saults and ravages. Even to-day, fifty years after the 
 Mormons were driven from Nauvoo by the State militia, 
 the old settlers of that region are every ready to pour into 
 the listening ear harrowing tales of cruelties and inde- 
 cencies practiced by the Mormons. But when we call to 
 mind the fact that the blackest pages of Mormon history 
 have been written in Utah, and that their revolting inde- 
 cencies and murdering of hundreds of American citizens 
 occurred in Utah, is it any wonder that American citizens 
 of the Mormon-infected districts appeal to both Church 
 and State for redress? If the citizens of New York, 
 Ohio, Missouri and Illinois were not able to tolerate them 
 in their midst in the earlier stages of the Church, what 
 must the conditions have been in the West after the 
 complete development of the Mormon propaganda, the 
 height of cruelty, lasciviousness and oppression having 
 culminated after their departure for Utah? 
 
 However, this same cry of persecution has protected 
 them in the West for many years, but the recent Smoot 
 investigation, the earlier case of B. H. Roberts, and the 
 
period of inquiry by the Federal courts previous to the 
 granting of statehood of Utah, make clear the fact that 
 religion and sectarian differences do not enter into the 
 question of persecution, but that it is a matter of obey- 
 ing the laws of the land, the laws of common decency, an<f 
 a demand that the members of the hierarchy shall come 
 within a code of morals that will not be a stench in the 
 nostrils of outraged humanity. Therefore this cry of 
 persecution can no longer be used to work upon the feel- 
 ings of a sympathizing public ; but a new mode of attack 
 has been strongly and effectively organized that of cap- 
 turing the American tourist. 
 
 Every summer thousands of tourists go West. Most 
 of them, the Mormons say about 100,000, stop over HI 
 Salt Lake to visit the Tabernack, hear the organ and see 
 the Temple with all of its myteries. For the conveni- 
 ence of these many visitors the Mormon Church main- 
 tains a bureau of information on the Temple Square 
 Here the sightseers are met by old and young men or 
 pretty girls, to suit the occasion, who receive the visitors 
 with open arms and bland smiles ; they feed the gullible, 
 and make themselves agreeable to the better informed. 
 The finer points of Mormonism, which points are the 
 palatable truths of Christianity appropriated from the 
 Christian Church for the occasion, are explained ; but the 
 real facts of Mormonism are guardedly kept in the back- 
 ground. The common tourist is directed to the auditori- 
 um of the Tabernacle for the organ recital, but the visi- 
 tors of note and the newspaper men are taken to the 
 inner sanctum, and there sit with bated breath during the 
 most pleasing of organ recitals. It often happens that 
 these noted visitors are next shown through the city, and 
 a visit is made to the points of interest. As a natural re- 
 sult, when these visitors are later interviewed by the re* 
 porters from the official Mormon paper, they have many 
 
kind and complimentary words to say in behalf of these 
 apparently abused and misunderstood Mormon people. 
 In fact, they answer the reporter that they have seen no 
 polygamy, no immorality; that the Mormons had received 
 them very kindly, and that the are a peaceful and liberty- 
 loving people. Consequently, when the newspaper men re- 
 turn to their respective papers they give an account o! 
 their trip, and in their articles entirely exonerate the hierar- 
 chy from the many slanders which the (un) Christian min- 
 isters seem to delight to heap upon them. It is safe to state 
 that the annual visiting tourists do more to spread a favor- 
 able view of the Mormon propoganda than the combined ef- 
 forts of the 2,200 Mormon elders on the mission field today. 
 In view of the above, permit us to present the ex- 
 periences of one man only. He is a well-known Presby- 
 terian divine. On his way West he stopped off in Salt Lake 
 to visit a brother pastor, and, incidentally, to learn some- 
 thing of the Mormon system from personal observation. He 
 and the Salt Lake pastor, going to Temple Block, were re- 
 ceived by a young woman who was rather good looking, 
 educated and intelligent, with a pious mien. Questions put 
 to her were met and disposed of with an assurance that 
 begets confidence. The old Doctor was delighted, and in re- 
 ply to his questions as to whether the Mormons still taught 
 and practiced polygamy, she said : "No sir ; we used to, but 
 we don't any more." With such a startling statement from 
 that particular young woman the Salt Lake pastor suggested 
 to his visiting brother that he ask the young lady her name 
 before leaving the grounds. Accordingly, when the party 
 returned to the Bureau of Information the young woman 
 asked the visitors to register, and then gave them some 
 literature (mis) representing Mormonism, with the hope 
 that they would be kind enough to read the same, and thus 
 overcome their prejudice against the abused Latter Day 
 Saints. At this point the gentleman from Philadelphia sag- 
 
gested that she give him her name, so that when he returned 
 to his home he could send her literature presenting his view 
 of the Bible. She readily gave him her name. As the two 
 men left the grounds the visiting pastor grew eloquent in his 
 admiration of this young woman. He was positive that if 
 there were more such young women in the church, poly- 
 gamy would soon be an issue of the past, etc. The Salt 
 Lake pastor quietly took him to his study and produced 
 there Salt Lake newspapers, all of the same date, with the 
 large headlines, stating that some few months before this 
 same young woman had become the mother of a child, and 
 that a well-known polygamist was the father of the child. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
Polygamy 
 
 UTAH, October, 1906. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 When polygamy was officially announced to the Mor- 
 mon Church in Europe many of the converts who had not 
 yet gone to Utah turned from the Utah Branch of the 
 church and joined the Josephites, the Strangites and others. 
 But in Utah the people received it. The original Revelation r 
 together with the sermons of Orson Pratt and Brigham 
 Young, in favor of it, were printed in the Desert News 
 (Extra), September 14, 1852, also in the Journal of Dis- 
 courses, Volume 4, Page 77. 
 
 In Utah a rush was made for desirable wives. Old men 
 married girls, trading their young daughters to one an- 
 other. It was the crowning joy of a great privilege for the 
 true believers. The duty and importance of polygamy was 
 presented Sunday after Sunday. It was the main theme of 
 discourse. Hundreds of girls thirteen and fourteen years 
 of age were either persuaded or forced into it. Girls not 
 yet in their teens were sealed to old reprobates with an 
 agreement with the latter that they should wait until the 
 children should be old enough to act as wives. Events oc- 
 curred which would seem incredible, to-day had we not lived 
 and acted ourselves in those days. If I am not mistaken, a 
 very recent president of the church was married to a four- 
 teen-year-old girl just before he died. 
 
 One man married a woman, her daughter arid her moth- 
 er three generations. Some men even took their own 
 daughters as spiritual wives. So many marriages, formed 
 so loosely, naturally resulted in much divorce. Conse- 
 quently many women were married and remarried again and 
 again to different men. Girls were married and divorced 
 many times,, thus going the rounds of the priests. 
 
 Demoralization set in and vulgarity became rank. When 
 13 
 
I entered Utah there were manifest many sad results. 
 Young girls were mothers, but whether they were married 
 or who were the father of their children were minor ques- 
 tions. Apostle Kimball used to refer to his wives as "m^ 
 cows." 
 
 The entrance of Johnston's Army produced a reaction. 
 The later anti-polygamy legislation was passed and men 
 found it convenient to desert women and children dependent 
 upon them. 
 
 Brigham Young had wives galore. Besides his twenty* 
 three or so of well-known wives in Salt Lake City, he had 
 many spiritual wives scattered throughout the territory. 
 
 That was the worst stage of polygamy. It has gradually 
 l^own better and decreased only under much pressure, 
 From time to time it has taken an upward bound, but as 
 many times has again been partially checked by legislation. 
 
 The Mormon Church, however, still holds to the Revel- 
 ation as a Divine command. They have no intention of 
 giving up polygamy. 
 
 Some of the most fanatical really believe that the day 
 will come when the practice can be openly revived, and that 
 is to come through political influence. 
 
 But the system cannot live in civilization. We need but 
 to observe India, Africa and the Malay Peninsula, where 
 there is a system of polygamy and has always been, and we 
 find those nations at the lowest ebb of civilization and edu- 
 cation. But on the other hand, in England, France and Ger- 
 many, where there is not polygamy, we find those nations at 
 the head of the world's powers and in the advance of civili- 
 zation. If we drag women down and make a slave and a 
 chattel out of them, they will drag their sons down with 
 them. But if we elevate woman and place her by the side 
 of man where God placed her, she will lift her children up 
 with her and thus we will have our nation. 
 
The First Glimpse of Utah. 
 
 UTAH, November, 1906. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 You ask me to tell you about our journey across the 
 plains from Council Bluffs to Utah. My boy, that can 
 never be told. Words cannot be found in the English 
 language to depict those horrible days. It is a story so pa- 
 thetic, so dramatic and so unreal that no author needs draw 
 upon his imagination to depict what might have existed in 
 any stage of society. To tell of their sufferings and their 
 horrible retaliation for wrongs inflicted upon them, calls to 
 mind the crimes of religious fanatics far back in the earlier 
 centuries. 
 
 But we cannot inflict punishment upon the Mormons 
 o-day for crimes committed in those dark days, nor can 
 the prayers of saints wash the blood-stains from the hands 
 of Brigharn Young and the blood-cursed Danites. 
 
 Joseph Smith was a man of commanding mien and pe- 
 culiar genius ; a man to whom it might have been given to 
 .lead thousands and thousands of souls onward and upward 
 to a better life, but who chose the path of crime and de- 
 struction, leading the besmirched souls of his crazed fol- 
 lowers down, down into the depths of darkness and misery, 
 all to gratify a lustful passion. 
 
 Drunk with the influence he exercised over his people, 
 weakened by his own passion and overcome by his own 
 selfishness, he tried to exercise his influence over the pale 
 of the *"White City" and fell, meeting his death at the 
 hands of an infuriated mob. 
 
 With their leader gone, the Saints scattered right and 
 left and the Mormon Church might not even have lived in 
 history had it not been for that indomitable leader, Brighara 
 Young. Gathering a few of the remaining people together, 
 and placing their household goods in hand-carts, they turned 
 
their faces westward and began that memorable journey 
 *Nauvoo, 111. 
 
 that has gone down in history as the most hazardous task 
 ever attempted by man. Almost before the journey was 
 well begun many of their number had died, ancf during 
 that awful winter the old Salt Lake trail was blazed each 
 morning with fresh mounds of earth. 
 
 On the 24th of July, 1847, Brigham Young, with only a 
 few of those who had started across the plains with him, 
 stood on the summit of the Wasatch Mountains on Ensign 
 Peak and looked into the valley beyond. He saw below 
 him only a vast and dry desert, blown with sands and 
 alkali dust. Great Salt Lake glistened in the sun, and as 
 Brigham Young cast his eyes over that dreary waste he 
 said: "Thank God we have found a place where our ene- 
 mies will not care to come!" 
 
 I stood near the same spot not long since and cast my 
 eyes over that same valley. Below, that once dreary waste 
 was now a garden spot. The miles and miles of orchards, 
 the ripening wheat, patches of greenest alfalfa, plowed land 
 all combined to make a beautiful picture, and the entire 
 scene appeared as a beautiful home-woven carpet, spread 
 out in the sun. 
 
 Far to the west could be seen the shining Provo Lake, 
 out of which flowed the Jordan River, winding its way down 
 the valley, and at last emptying into the great salt sea, 
 making a picture not unlike that which Moses must have 
 seen so many centuries ago as he stood and looked into his 
 promised land. 
 
 It would seem as though God had led His children into 
 the most fertile and richest land in the continent. The 
 Mormons like to point it out and explain it in that way. 
 
 The Great Salt Lake, into which two large rivers are 
 continually pouring their streams, has no visible outlet. It 
 rises and falls several feet at several year intervals. Bathers 
 
 16 
 
17- 
 
float on the water's surface and no bottom has as yet been 
 reached. The Jordan River runs through a valley unsur- 
 passed in scenery and fruit-growing. In Southern Utah 
 there is an outcrop of iron ore fifteen miles long and five 
 miles wide, owned by the Standard Oil Company. In 
 Dixie, Southern Utah, the farmer grows figs, almonds, 
 pomegranates and other semi-tropical fruits. Almost all 
 minerals have been found near the surface, and Utah, al- 
 most untouched in mineral development, stands already 
 third in the Union as a mineral-producing state. 
 
 When the business men of the East shall have been 
 assured that their ventures into Utah will not be destroyed 
 and thwarted by Mormon priesthood, Utah will have a 
 great awakening and emigration will set in to such a great 
 extent that the Gentiles will be in the majority. I hope that 
 day may soon come. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
Jotycn 
 
 UTAH, December, 1906. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 I seem to have what some people call a religious weak- 
 ness and in the course of my enthusiasm was led into Mor- 
 monism. But in this letter I want to tell you about a friend 
 of mine. We were thrown together as children. His moth- 
 er died, his father married again, bringing into the home a 
 cruel step-mother. As a result, his father began to lay by 
 en occasional dollar and placed it on interest for the lad. 
 As Jorgen grew up, that was his name, he also worked 
 hard and saved his money, so that when he neared his ma- 
 jority he had almost $1,000 in the bank. He was handsome, 
 prosperous and a good dancer. He moved in the best so* 
 ttety of the community and was considered an all-round fine 
 fellow. But his trouble began with a young woman, the de- 
 tails of which you may assume. The affair brought shame 
 and pain to him, but he still refused to marry the young 
 woman. About this time the Mormon elders came into our 
 community, bringing with them, we believed, the Christian 
 doctrine in all its purity. The Mormon missionaries were 
 kind, they were willing to work on the farms for their 
 board, and the people began to look upon them as superior 
 and Godly men. To these missionaries Jorgen came with 
 his heavy conscience. They told him that the only possible 
 escape from his sin was to join the Mormon Church. "But," 
 said Jorgen, "people say that Brigham Young is a polyga- 
 mist. How do I know that Joseph Smith is not one of the 
 false prophets of which the Bible speaks?" But the elder* 
 said that Brigham Young was not a polygamist, that poly- 
 gamy was not a part of the Mormon system, and that the 
 Book of Mormon opposed polygamy. 
 
 Shortly after this, the Mormon elders held meetings 
 about ten miles from Jorgen's home. He promised to come 
 and bring his father. But being very weary from his hard 
 
 19 
 
day's work, he did not go to church, but went to his room. 
 He realized then that he had broken his promise to the 
 ciders, and for the first time he felt the need of a higher 
 power and at last he knelt by his bed to pray/- He prayed 
 earnestly, tears came to his eyes, his voice choked, and 
 then, what was that on the wall? A light? Yes, surely 
 it was. Yet, it was a testimony from God that the Mor- 
 mons were His messengers. He became a believer and was 
 shortly baptized. 
 
 The summer passed. Winter was well on its course 
 when the Mormon elders began to prepare their converts for 
 the ingathering to Zion (Salt Lake) in the spring. I was 
 one of the last to board the ship. I met Jorgen. What 
 had happened to him? He was downcast, poor and sickly. 
 He had lost the springing step and the buoyant smile. He 
 had lost the hearty grip in the hand-shake and the gleam 
 from his eye. He told me one day: "What shall I do? 
 I have left behind me the sweetest baby and the most inno- 
 cent girl. I have sinned against the girl, against God, and 
 have wronged myself. If I could only die!" No one but 
 myself saw much of his movements during the voyage. 
 
 When we landed in New York we took rail to Omaha 
 
 and started on our journey across the plains. Here again I 
 
 saw Jorgen from time to time, walking sometimes behind 
 
 the carts, sometimes beside them, always forlorn and cast 
 
 down. I saw him go away in the woods to pray. I heard 
 
 him pray aloud on his knees with hands stretched upward, 
 
 praying for relief. He grew weaker and weaker and finally 
 
 was left behind, too feeble to follow the train. He was 
 
 picked up by following ox teams, stuffed into a covered 
 
 wagon on top of some boxes. The wagon jolted and his 
 
 bruises festered. The flies settled on him and soon his sores 
 
 and bruises were full of life. No one cared for him. His 
 
 suffering was indescribable. One evening he was dragged 
 
 out of the wagon, utterly helpless, and placed in a tent. The 
 
 next morning he was dead. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
Why 1 Became a Mormon. 
 
 UTAH, January, 1907. 
 MY DEAR BOY : 
 
 I hardly know how I happened to become a Mormon. 
 My earliest recollections go back to the farm in Denmark 
 where I was reared by a man who was a stranger to me. He 
 used to tell me that I was crazy when I was about sixteen, 
 met the Mormon elders and listened to them. But it hurt 
 me most when 1 was called crazy for listening to and sym- 
 pathizing with a people in whom there was no guile, but 
 were preaching repentance to the world. I had always been 
 an innocent boy, neither drinking nor gambling, nor swear- 
 ing, and yet I was ridiculed for listening to what I thought 
 was the Word of God. But I have changed my mind. The 
 Mormons taught us that we should some day be gods, and 
 if we would accept the faith we should soon be able to 
 perform miracles. Did not Jesus say : "You shall do greater 
 things than these because I go to my Father?" So it waj> 
 that many of us believed that the Mormon priests were 
 capable of performing miracles, and in time we should do 
 likewise. I remember a blacksmith who had received the 
 Celestial powers, and it was said he was performing mira- 
 cles ; but when 1 came to Utah and looked him up, this 
 glory had worn away. 
 
 Lest Satan should put doubt into our hearts, prepara- 
 tions for our departure to America were hurriedly made. 
 On board the ship we were under the command of certain 
 priests of the Melkisidec Order. We believed that they 
 would perform miracles. One day a storrn came up and 
 the waves threatened to sink the ship. T was sure that the 
 elders would still the sea, but they huddled together 
 frightened like the rest of us. But surely they would raise 
 the dead ! No, they died by the score and were thrown into 
 the sea. But it was rumored that they had healed many sick 
 
 21 
 
and cast out devils in the steerage. By and by some of the 
 weaker passengers were taken ill and became filthy and were 
 removed to other parts of the ship. I could not understand 
 We had been taught from the beginning that we should 
 all eat and dress alike and should be equally blessed and 
 kept by God. But in our eagerness to come to Zion, the 
 city of God, we forgot these minor matters. The priests 
 read to us daily from the Book of Life (Mormon books) 
 and spoke to us in the name of God. Said one priest : "You 
 have no need of the Bible. I am your Bible. From me 
 cometh the living words of God." But one day this man 
 of God found it necessary to knock down one of the 
 brethren because he insisted that the priest had falsely taken 
 from him some of his emigration funds. The priests would 
 take our money and buy our tickets and provide for our 
 food, and I had heard many complaints to the effect that 
 they were defrauding the believing followers. And such is 
 life. But to be knocked down for asking justice, it meant 
 for this brother that he lost his faith and as soon as we 
 landed in New York he went his way. For a Mormon 
 priest to strike a brother was permissible, because he did it 
 with authority from God, We were taught in Utah for many 
 years that it was our duty to knock down any man who 
 spoke against the Lord's Anointed, i. e., Brigham Young. 
 
 As I look back over those early years, they seem to me 
 a dream. I am near the brink of the grave and I do not 
 care which way the wind blows, but at that time we had 
 come to the long-looked- for Zion, the city of God which 
 should be taken up into the skies to meet the coming of the 
 Saviour, and that coming should be in a few years. As we 
 lay resting in the tithing-yard we were much encouraged 
 and rejoiced to see Brigham coming to shake hands with 
 vs. As many as were able were put into the line. Behind 
 Brigham came Heber Kimball, the First Counselor, dressed 
 In a summer suit and coatless. He is the man whose re- 
 
ligious writings compose the vilest and most revolting stuff 
 that I have ever seen in print. He was smiling and saying 
 pleasantries to the eager emigrants. Brigham was then 
 Prophet, Seer and Revelator for the entire world. As I 
 lay near the fence too weak even to stand I thought that 
 if he would only say "Arise," or if I could touch the hem 
 of his garment I would immediately take up my bed and 
 walk. 
 
 To my surprise, God's chosen people in Zion appeared 
 much as other human beings. They did not have all 
 things in common as did the Saints in the olden days. 
 They were not all dressed alike. Some were well-to-do, 
 while others were poor. Farmers had come into the settle- 
 ment and they were poorly clad, while the smaller children 
 had very few clothes on them. My attention was attracted 
 to one young man who wore buckskin pants and around 
 his hips was buckled a revolver, and cartridges were in 
 his belt. I was told it was customary to carry fire-arms, 
 and that Brigham's sons made a practice of it. I could not 
 understand why such was necessary in the city where all 
 vas love and brotherly kindness. 
 
 To my great surprise, our hand-carts were taken from 
 us to pay a debt to Brigham when the supply trains had 
 come to meet us. We had purchased those carts in Council 
 Bluffs, and the provisions which had come to us through the 
 rescue party had been donated by the people. Still, Brigham 
 took our carts to pay for them. I did not understand, but 
 it did not occur to me for one moment Brigham could pos- 
 sibly r 1 o wrong or make a mistake. 
 
 We were left to shift for ourselves. My wife and I 
 had each a blanket, one tin cup, each a suit of clothes and 
 a few other rags and a frying pan. Such were our sole 
 possessions, and I was still weak and helpless from my 
 long siege of mountain fever. I again saw my wife, the 
 tender girl-bride that she was, crying, and as I think of that 
 
 23 
 
day now, although it is many years ago, the tears force 
 themselves out. She had been first helping this one and 
 then the other to pull the hand-cart across the plains. She 
 had buried her mother, and I was helpless, without a 
 covering for our heads. And so it was that the pure, deep 
 love which we had had for each other when we left our 
 native land had been worn away on the dreary deserts. 
 The real joy that had been ours had gone, never to come 
 back, and she realized it then more than ever before. 
 
 YOUR FATHER, 
 
 34- 
 
The Mountain Meadow Massacre. 
 
 UTAH, February, 1907. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 You have asked me several times what I knew of the 
 Mountain Meadow Massacre. I dislike to bring to mind 
 those dark days, and would that all might forget those 
 awful crimes. If the leaders of the Mormon Church to-day 
 would live within the law of the land, and observe the rules 
 of common decency, I would refrain from writing of this 
 event or any of the other dark deeds. But since Reed 
 Smoot so boastfully declares that he is "not ashamed of the 
 position and the power of the Mormon Church to-day and 
 the more I study the history of the church the more am 
 f convinced that it is at all times the same/' it is well that 
 you know some of the things of which Reed Smoot is not 
 ashamed. 
 
 The murdered emigrants were of the Methodist faith 
 and were on their way to California to seek new homes. 
 The chief cause of the massacre was a desire on the part of 
 the Mormons to come into possession of the new wagons, 
 fine horses and the abundant farming implements which the 
 emigrants had ; all valued at about three hundred thousand 
 dollars. The first policy was to starve the emigrants. Ac- 
 cordingly one of the apostles was sent ahead of the train 
 to warn the settlers that they must sell these emigrants food 
 for neither man nor beast. For a time this apostle actually 
 traveled with the emigrants, camped near them, and advised 
 them where they might camp and recoup their tired animals 
 before setting out on their journey across the desert. Jt 
 was on the very spot advised as a resting-place by the 
 apostle, a veritable trap, where the massacre occurred 
 Cane Springs, about forty miles south of Cedar City. 
 
 On their way thither, as they were passing througfc 
 25 
 
Cedar City, a young man, Aden by name, met a man whom 
 liis father had befriended in Kentucky a few years previous, 
 when the former had been a Mormon missionary in that 
 state. He gave Mr. Aden a meal and allowed him to take 
 some onions away from him. This kindness was deserving 
 of punishment from his Mormon neighbors, and one, 
 Barney Carter, pulled a picket from the fence and struck 
 him over the head, and from that day to the time of his 
 death he remained an idiot. 
 
 This company of emigrants were no sooner camped at 
 Cane Springs than they were attacked by a band of Indians, 
 who subsequently proved to be a band of painted Mormons 
 manoenvering under command of John D. Lee, Lieutenant 
 at Cellar City, he being under Brigham Young, the then 
 Governor of Utah Teritory. Their repulse was quick and 
 decisive. The emigrants threw up embankments, but they 
 were not in a position to protect themselves, because they 
 were camped between two knolls, from whose tops the Mor- 
 mons poured in a cross-fire. It was the place selected for 
 them by the apostle, and they had fallen into the trap. 
 
 The vigil kept by the besiegers was so severe that it was 
 instant death to ?o to the spring for water, only a short 
 distance away. Several men were shot down attempting 
 to reach the spring. One of the most cruel and revolting 
 deeds was the cold-blooded murder of two little girls as 
 they were po : ng after water. The attempt to commit this 
 massacre while posing as Indians proved futile. Accord- 
 inglv, John D. Lee resorted to strategy. The besiegers 
 were called off, and in a short time the immigrants saw a 
 co^'rrny of soldiers approachme bearing the Stars and 
 Stripes. Men heaved a sigh of relief, women wept for joy, 
 and the old pastor of the flock knelt down and thanked 
 Go-1 for deliverance. Mr. Lee is said to have shed tears 
 when he saw the plight and awful suffering of the people. 
 Kind-hearted Mr. Lee! He had come to their rescue! First 
 
 26 
 
3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
lie must talk to the Indians and appease their supposed 
 wrath. Retiring for a pretended consultation, he returned, 
 stating that the Indians had promised to stop the siege, but 
 the emigrants must give up their arms to him, as he was 
 the accredited military authority under Governor Brigham 
 Young, otherwise he could not protect them. Give up their 
 arms ? Certainly. Guns, pistols and knives were given up 
 and placed in the wagons with the dead and wounded. The 
 women and children followed behind the wagons and the 
 men came next, each guarded by one of Lee's men, and the 
 company headed toward Cedar City. And now, God help 
 them! When they reached the point of the hill, Bishop 
 Dame cried out, "Israel, do your duty !" And at that com- 
 mand the soldiers murdered the men in cold blood, and 
 then ran forward to join the Indians, who had previously 
 been concealed in the cedars, to complete the massacre. O 
 God! was it not enough that those innocent and tender 
 maids should see fathers and sweethearts slain before their 
 eyes, and then die with them, before they should suffer a 
 thousand deaths and shame? But we close the awful scene. 
 When night came stealing down the mountain side it hid 
 from vulgar gaze the nude and mangled bodies of 130 hu- 
 man beings. The murderers had stripped the bodies and 
 left them to become carrion, 
 
 The spoils were sold later at auction by the bishop at 
 Cedar City. The bell on the tabernacle in that city to-day 
 is said to have been taken at the "Siege of Sebastopol," as 
 the Mormons leeringly termed the slaughter. The bodies 
 were finally buried by a lone Mormon, but not until the 
 bones had been picked clean by the coyotes and vultures. 
 ' r v years later representatives of the War Department, 
 as they were camped on the spot, investigating the massacre, 
 buried the remaining bones. Over these bones were erected 
 a monument, and a cross placed thereon, on which was 
 written: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the I^ord." 
 
 28 
 
The monument put up by the United States soldiers has 
 almost fallen away, but the remains of the foundation may 
 yet be seen. The meadow to-day is not the beautiful spot 
 that it was. It would seem that the curse of God has fallen 
 on the soil. Where the green grass cheered, there is bleak 
 soil, and the wind blows an unwelcome chill into one's bones 
 as he stands and views the scene of that awful crime. The 
 floods have washed a large and unsightly ravine through the 
 center of the barren waste, and it is almost impassable even 
 on foot. As far as I am able to ascertain, the last Indian 
 who had a share in the massacre died last summer at Pan- 
 guitch Lake, in Southern Utah, during the tent meetings 
 which the Presbyterian missionaries were conducting there 
 at that time. I have been told that there is but one sur- 
 viving white man who took a part in the massacre, a man by 
 the name of Knight, living in Southern Utah. Mr. Higbee, 
 who was first in military authority during the massacre, died 
 a year ago in Cedar City. The latter part of his life was a 
 hell on earth. He was partially insane most of the time, 
 and his fears of imaginary foes and the shrieks of murdered 
 women and children ringing in his ears made an awful 
 Nemesis which pursued him to his grave. 
 
 YOUR FATHER, 
 
 20 
 
The Walk from Council Bluff i to Salt Lake City. 
 
 UTAH, March, 1907. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 In the spring of 1859 a company of men and women 
 were camped at Florence Hill, seven miles west of Omaha, 
 Neb. We were all newly made Mormon converts, having 
 just arrived from Denmark after passing through perils on 
 the sea and the land. We were divided into hundreds and 
 tens, after the custom of the Israelites, and a man, Rowley, 
 was my captain. We had been instructed to build small 
 handcarts after a special design given to Brigham Young by 
 God. We were assigned two men to a cart and a very nice 
 young man was my partner. The first day's journey was de- 
 lightful, but before long the wheels broke off. It seemed 
 strange that these carts, specially designed by the Almighty 
 and warranted by Him to stand the journey, should wear out 
 so soon. Yet it did not occur to any of us that we might 
 possibly be dupes. In a few weeks I was utterly worn out 
 and finally fell to the ground, unable to proceed further. 
 My wife hitched herself into my place, and with a strange 
 man toiled day after day, pulling the cart, while I toiled on 
 behind the best I could. Besides pulling at the cart all day, 
 when evening came she had to prepare food for eight per- 
 sons. She was but a girl, a bride of a few months, taken 
 from the ball-room, as it were, from the pleasures of girl- 
 hood, and had given up all to go with me into Mormondom. 
 All was disappointment to her, and her life was being filled 
 with hardships. I was delirious with the mountain fever 
 and she had to care for me. Still worse, the entire company 
 was running short of food. There was nothing left but a 
 little flour, and soon that was gone. But we must move on, 
 on, on. Men grew weak and fell in their tracks. I shall 
 never forget one evening, while lying in the tent, that the 
 captain said to my wife's father, just after the camp had 
 
 30- 
 
been pitched: "Your wife has fallen by the roadside some 
 distance back." My wife was by the fire, trying to prepare 
 fomc ox soup, and I could see what an awful struggle she 
 was having to stifle the tears. Soon her father returned, 
 carrying her mother on his back. She was more dead than 
 alive. We buried her next morning before we left camp. 
 We had left Florence Hill with a few ox teams to draw 
 heavier loads, but they had died one by one and we were 
 now not only without food, but we had double loads to 
 draw. Some of the sick and worn oxen were killed and 
 we made soup. This we drank with a relish without bread 
 or vegetables. Naturally the entire company was diseased. 
 
 I recall one morning while camping near a stream that 
 we discovered some berries on the bushes. As we were 
 finding relish in them, the cry was raised that a relief party 
 from Salt Lake was in sight. I will never forget the cries 
 of joy that rent the air, the prayers offered and tears of 
 gladness that were shed. The poor souls fell over each 
 other, begging and crying for the food. I was able to move 
 toward the wagons by the aid of a stick in my right hand. 
 Some fell and were unable to rise. Some rolled down the 
 hill and embankment. It seemed an age before we could 
 get anything out of the wagons. Flour and water were 
 stirred together and poured into the frying pan, and as soon 
 as it was hard we seized and ate. I have never tasted any- 
 thind so delicious. No one knows what it is to suffer for 
 food until he has tried it. If a man gets hungry enough he 
 will eat anything that he can find. I remember a young 
 mother with a babe that was often trailing far behind. I 
 wondered how she could keep up her strength without food. 
 It afterward developed that she picked her food from the 
 carcasses which we left lying along the trail. There was a 
 girl in her teens who had left a home of luxury against the 
 will of her parents to go into Mormondom and save her soul. 
 Reared in luxury, she was now offering her gold ring for 
 
 LL | r _, 
 
a meal of flour. With tears in her eyes, she cried piteously : 
 "I am so hungry so hungry !" The provision train brought 
 needed relief, but not until many had died. However, 
 when we entered Salt Lake there was plenty, and we who 
 had survived forgot our sufferings and took joy in the fact 
 that we were now in Zion among the Lord's anointed. 
 
 I am now an old man and have had many years to live 
 under Mormon influence. Joseph Smith and Brigham 
 Young and others high in the church have said that they 
 have as much right to organize and control a church as had 
 the Pope. But if this is a land of religious freedom and 
 personal liberty, the lawmakers of our land ought to see 
 to it that such men be not permitted to take an ignorant lot 
 of people out on the plains over a thousand miles from 
 habitation and leave them without food or relief. The situ* 
 ation in Utah is just the same as it was in the days of the 
 beginning. What right has Joseph F. Smith to keep these 
 many thousands of people in ignorance and bondage and 
 collect from them tithes amounting to almost two millions 
 per annum, and use that sum of money for any purpose 
 desired and make no accounting of it to the people? And 
 this he does under the special command of God. What right 
 has Joseph F. Smith to maintain a harem of five establish- 
 ments in Salt Lake City and bring illegitimate offsprings 
 into this world? And this he pretends to do under the 
 blasphemous assumption that he is God's anointed. This 
 hierarchy has fastened itself upon the superstition and ig- 
 norance of these thousands of followers and the govern- 
 ment ought to see to it that coming generations shall have 
 a right to the privileges which accrue to them because they 
 have been born under the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
 32 
 
LEAK BOY: 
 
 Eariy Experience in U:ah. 
 
 UTAH, April, 1907 
 
 u was quite a common thing when I first came to Utah 
 for a woman to leave her husband and become the concu- 
 bine of a man who was higher up m the priesthood. The 
 more priesthood a man had, so much higher would he sit in 
 the heaven^ seais. i have known m.-ny such instances. In 
 fact, this world was but the organization for the coming life, 
 an ihe hgher a man stood here in the rites of the church 
 so much higher would he stand in Heaven. The bonds of 
 matrimony on this earth were not sacred. Children were of 
 no avail except that each one counted one in the contest 
 wherein the man who had produced the most children here 
 on this earth would receive the prize for industry in Heaven. 
 For that reason, also, if a man had but two wives and his 
 neighbor had several, these wives might go te the neigh- 
 bor an-! help him to produce children, and thus get glory 
 when the final decision was rendered. But with my wife 
 and myself there was a difference. We had been married 
 on the ship by an apostle and whatsoever he bound on earth 
 was bound in Heaven. (Read Smoot has that power now.) 
 In our ignorance we were happy in this belief, and it is well 
 that it was so, for could I have looked into the future I 
 should not have been here to tell the tale. We stood to- 
 gether as two stray sheep upon the barren hills of Utah, 
 looking forward to green pastures, but our lot was to be- 
 come serfs to a band of cruel and blasphemous fiends call- 
 ing themselves the special servants of God. 
 
 Next morning when I awoke in the camping yard, most 
 of the emigrants had already gone : some to relatives, others 
 to find employment. Near our bed was a few measures ol 
 meal and a squash which had been given to us by the Saints 
 When we came into the city. When I had built a fire and 
 
 33 
 
tiaci put the frying pan on to fry the squash my wife sat up 
 from under our one ragged quilt and said: "Oh! what a 
 headache I have." She looked ill. No wonder. She had 
 been crying most of the night. She was too sick to move; 
 otherwise I believe she would have gone from me that morn- 
 ing, leaving me in possession of our quilt and scant pro* 
 visions never to return again. Just then her father came 
 up with a brother in the Gospel, whose acquaintance he had 
 made. Seeing her condition, they took her to the house of 
 ? widow ( ?) in the town, and spreading the blanket on 
 clumsy, home-made bedstead, they laid her on it. The fol- 
 lowing three weeks she lay near death's door, suffering and 
 delirious. When the fever had broken she had practically 
 forgotten where she was and how she had come. She 
 asked about her mother and her father. She had forgotten 
 that her mother had died seven weeks before on the plains. 
 This same morning, when the fever had broken, a brother 
 Came in and suggested that the Bishop be called to lay hands 
 on her, which, of course, would make her well and save her 
 life, because the members of the priesthood had power to 
 heal disease and cast out devils. It did not occur to me at 
 the time that the Bishop might have been called earlier and 
 administered the rights when she was very low and was not 
 expected to live. But the idea that a Bishop was to come 
 made me excited. Could it really be that one of the priest- 
 hood was to visit my wife and lay hands on her? Surely 
 she would soon recover. He came a man of medium size. 
 His trousers of homespun were bespattered with mud and 
 lime. His denim shirt was torn and his shoes were made 
 from untanned cow-skin. Could this man be a great Bishop? 
 He took a bottle of olive oil out of his pocket. He poured 
 his palm full of oil, and, smearing it over the sick woman's 
 head, said: "In the name of Jesus Christ I anoint you." 
 He then called his companion, and the two, laying their 
 hands on her body, the Bishop said : "I command the evil 
 
 34 
 
spirus herewith to leave the body of t...s sister, and in the 
 name of Jesus J command the Devil to forever depart from 
 this house." The Bishop then prophesied that "from this 
 moment the woman will be well. She shall become a great 
 mother in Israel and in the days to come her children shall 
 rise up and call her blessed." She did improve from that 
 time, of course, and about two weeks later I secured em* 
 ployment from one of the twelve apostles, Erastus Snow. 
 He employed me for a bushel of wheat per day and my 
 dinner. And such a dinner, delicious, and so much. A big 
 piece of meat was put on my plate, but I did not dare to 
 touch it lest it was put there just to try me. But how could 
 it be that these of the priesthood could fare so sumptuously, 
 while so many others were actually starving? We ha-1 been; 
 taught in Denmark, before embarking for America, that all 
 the Saints lived and fared alike. 
 
 The next Sunday I went to the Tabernacle to hear Brig 
 ham Young preach. I had just found a seat when Apostle 
 Kimball, Brigham's right-hand man, came in and took his 
 seat on the platform, and immediately Brigham called him to 
 say a few words. When he began to speak the people 
 smiled, and then shortly they burst out laughing, all but* one 
 woman who blushed, then turned pale, got up and went out 
 Then Kimball said something more as she disappeared and 
 the congregation laughed again. Being a foreigner, I could 
 not understand, but coming out of the building I met one 
 of my own countrymen, and, walking down the street, he 
 explained to me what had been said in the Tabernncle: 
 "You noticed," he said, "that Apostle Kimball came in late. 
 When Brigham called him to speak he stated that the reason 
 why he was late was because . . . (here the language of 
 the reason given by the Apostle is so filthy that we must 
 omit it. as it is unprintable) ... . Here you noticed that 
 the people laughed, but Kimball said : 'Don't be mistaken 
 f did not mean to be vulgar, for I was reared by a deal 
 
 -35-r 
 
mother who was as fine a woman as ever (he , 
 
 ga.n we must omit the woHs). You noticed that the peo- 
 
 out %S? i ' Iady ' wh was insulted W! S3 
 
 out When he saw her start for the door, he said: 'I came 
 pr-tty near saying . . ( ngain we must Qmit } 
 
 I won't." The brother, in conversation, said' that 
 s woman who went out was not a Mormon anyway 
 
 Phis newly found countryman proved to be from San 
 Pete County, and he offered to take my wife and myself to 
 his town, where he thought we might find employment. 
 h our ragged quilts, the frying pan and a feather bed 
 ch her father had given us, our sole possessions, we 
 Started on the 125-mile journey with the ox team. The very 
 first night that we camped we fell in with a man who was 
 taking two women to the Endowment House, where they 
 Were to be "sealed to him for time and eternity." He had 
 his wife with him, a woman of about sixty. The one woman 
 to whom he was going to be sealed was about forty, rosy- 
 cheeked, looking well, but her mouth was slightly twisted 
 to one side. The other woman was about thirty. She had 
 been a dressmaker in Denmark, was crippled, and wore 
 crutdhes. As we sat around the sage-brush fire, the con- 
 versation naturally turned toward the principles of polyg- 
 amy. "It is this way," said the man. "Jesus in a parable 
 said, 'In that day it will be as a man going into a far coun- 
 try.' He called his servants and said unto them, 'To yon I 
 will give five talents/ meaning five wives ; to the other he 
 gave two, and to the other one. When the Lord returned 
 he found that the servant to whom he had given five wives 
 had increased by rearing many children. The second servant 
 had also reared as many children as possible with his two 
 wives, but the man with one wife had been unfortunate. 
 Then the Lord will take the one wife from the one man and 
 give her to the one that has five, and who has increased his 
 talents, and will say to him, 'Well done thou good and faith- 
 
ftil servant; take thou this other man's wife. Thou hast* 
 been diligent with a few wives. I shall make thee Jord over 
 many.' But the one man who had a wife but dj<J not in- 
 crease his talents shall never be permitted to enter into the 
 joy of the Lord. 1 know this is true, because the Prophet, 
 Joseph Smith, told us 'these things, and he said that thqcjiil- 
 dren were the inheritance of the Lord/' 
 
 I felt very much built up 'in the holy faith after this con- 
 versation, and turning, looked at my wife, but she seemed 
 dissatisfied. 
 
 During our jdurhey to San Pete County, this newly 
 found friend told me of his early experiences. He had been a 
 tailor in a large city in Denmark. He had come to Utah ju^t 
 before Johnston was ordered to march here with his regi- 
 ment. He had been sent with others to oppose Johnston's 
 entrance to Salt Lake Valley. He had never been on a 
 horse before, but he was placed on an old mule with an old 
 saddle and was given a gun. He could not guide the mule 
 and he sat on its back, hunched up, while the other boys 
 drove it. All he could do was to cling to the saddle or fall 
 off. How the poor fellow suffered. Stiff and sore and 
 miserable. They assembled in the pass at Echo Canon, but 
 he did not think that much was accomplished, as Johnston 
 did not try to get in. In fact, the Mormons had succeeded 
 in driving away his mules and oxen and burning his supply 
 trains. Brigham Young had prophesied that in the name of 
 the Holy Priesthood the soldiers would never be able to enter 
 Salt Lake City. Kimball prophesied also that if any of 
 them did come they would each be killed as one man of trffi 
 Lord should chase ten of the enemy and ten should chase a 
 thousand. Kimball cried out in the Tabernacle that ths 
 blood of the enemy of God should yet run through the 
 streets. But when the army did come the next year, my 
 friend said that the Lord had directed Brigham Young tD 
 take his people and go southward for a journey, as the sot- 
 
 37 
 
diers were going to burn Salt Lake City. But when the 
 soldiers marched peacefully through the valley and camped 
 on the banks of the Jordan River, Brigham returned to Salt 
 Lake City and announced that he had done that just to try 
 the Saints. He said that the Lord had purposely sent the 
 Gentiles to Utah with tools and implements to be dropped at 
 the feet of the Saints for a little flour and hay and straw. 
 But the Lord also commanded that no one should deal with 
 the soldiers but Brigham Young. But some of the brethren 
 traded with the soldiers on their own account and came very 
 near "going to hell and losing their souls" because of it. 
 And so it developed that the Lord had sent the army, not to 
 destroy the Saints, but to supply them with the necessities 
 for everyday pursuits. 
 
 But to my great surprise and disappointment, my friend 
 was in doubt whether Brigham could know the plans of the 
 Lord; at least, he never did tell anything until it was all 
 over and done. 
 
 When we arrived in San Pete County we were taken 
 into a family of five, and we all lived in a log room measur- 
 ing seven feet by twelve. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
More Experience in Utah. 
 
 UTAH, May, 1907. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 My wife and I lived with this family of which I told you 
 in my former letter, for about three weeks. She helped with 
 the routine house duties and 1 worked about the farm. Thej 
 fed us on potatoes and biscuits, the best they had. It seemed 
 impossible for me to get enough to eat, so great was my 
 hunger after my fever while crossing the plains. I would 
 eat until there was no more in sight and would feel ashamed 
 of mvself. Shortly after this, one Sunday morning I broke 
 a walking stick from among a bunch of willows, and, taking 
 my coat under my arm, started toward the west. At even- 
 ing I arrived at a settlement and found there a relative ol 
 my wife's who had been in Utah almost two years. 
 
 Kere was more to eat. I sent for my wife and she hired 
 out for a bushel of wheat per week, and at the end of fou/ 
 weeks she was to have a chicken in with the bargain. 
 
 Tms relive of my wife's told me many things that had 
 happened th* year before in their town. He showed me the 
 log "meeting-house," where a certain young man had been 
 ruined. The elders of the church had ordered him to come 
 to the meeting-house with others, and when he was inside 
 a blanket was thrown over his head, a high Mormon 
 official himself used the knife. The young man was lefj 
 bleeding profusely, and from that day until his death, many 
 years afterward, he was "luny" and was running around thf 
 country a harmless fool. I saw also the place between two 
 settlements where one cold winter's evening a man had been 
 dragged from his wagon, had inflicted upon him the grossest 
 indecency with awful pain, and left in the snow. He dragged 
 himself to the town on hands and knees and the trtiil of the 
 blood showed all the way. These things were done in the 
 name of the Lord, and we thought they were all right. b* 
 cause the priesthood said they were. These were days *j 
 
 39 
 
reformation. Some were treated this way by the kjides 
 for vengeance, but this cruelty was inflicted upon others 
 because they were small men. It was the purpose of tl;e 
 church to have only large and strong men in Zion. The 
 women were fostered, but the small men were (we cannot 
 print tre indecency inflicted) and the result was tliey 
 usually became weak-minded or complete idiots. 
 
 There were very few skeptics or apostates, and these 
 few did not let it be known, because Brigham Young had 
 said that he would not be treated as had been Joseph Smith, 
 and he decreed that apostates should not flourish in Utah 
 even if he should unsheath his bowie knife and put them all 
 to death. 
 
 They told us wonderful tales of the superhuman power 
 of the elders. It always seemed strange to me that I could 
 never witness any of these miraculous deeds. An old woman 
 with whom I had become acquainted and who had crossed 
 the plains before I had come, told me that during the journey 
 one of the oxen had fallen sick and could not rise. The 
 elders came together, laid hands on it, prayed, and the ox 
 then rose and walked. She told me of a man who had 
 broken his back. The elders laid hands on him and prayed. 
 The bones began to crack so loudly that they could be heard 
 over much of the camp ; the back was made well, the man 
 arose, and went to his dinner. When I looked as though I 
 hardly believed these tales, she upbraided me and said: 
 "Don't you know that Joseph Smith once upon a time called 
 a certain man to help him do his work, and the man being 
 a farmer, in the field busy with the plow that the Lord 
 sent an angel to plow the land while the man was away 
 with Joseph Smith?" 
 
 She then told me that her husband had been to England 
 as a missionary and had brought back a young woman with 
 him who had become his second wife. She said: "Oh! no 
 woman can ever know what I have suffered since. Night 
 after night I have lain on my lonely bed, alone and com- 
 
fortless. I have walked the floor for hours, and have walked 
 to and fro through the night between my cabin and the 
 cabin where he always stays with his other wife." Years 
 afterward she said to me : "Thank God ! I am all over it now. 
 I do not care for anything now. I am not a woman only a 
 stone." She broke down and cried, and I left the houst 
 with doubts as to the hardness of such a life because I haB 
 not yet been tried by the curse of polygamy. 
 
 This woman's husband was made a Bishop, but he w$3 
 not successful in demanding tithes and money from thj 
 people, so he was made a patriarch. He had the power tD 
 bestow blessings upon all those who could pay for then* 
 He usually charged a bushel of wheat per blessing. 
 
 YOUR FATHER, 
 
A Mormon Family. 
 
 UTAH, June, 1907. 
 MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 1 once know an old Mormon who had come from Nau- 
 voo with Brigham Y'oung, after Joseph Smith had been shot. 
 He was called an "Elder in Israel." He had several sons, 
 and 1 want to tell you first about one of them, whom we will 
 call No. 3. He is dead now. He left a wife, who is 75 
 years old, and she looks better and happier to-day than she 
 did years ago, because she says now she is free. She no 
 longer lives in terror lest her drunken and domineering hus- , 
 band should come home and knock her about. His wife 
 No. 2 is also living. She walks along the way, bent, looking 
 absent-minded, but yet thinking of days gone by when she 
 might have lived a happy and pleasant life had it not been 
 for the curse of polygamy. On one occasion he ordered 
 lias wiie No. 2 to move out of her dug-out and go and live 
 with wife No. 1 in a log cabin. Rut her woman's intuition 
 told her that it would be impossible for the two women to 
 live together. Her husband became so enraged at this re- 
 fusal that he carried straw into the dug-out and strew it 
 about the room and bedding and was on the point of setting 
 fire to it to burn her out, and would have done so, had not 
 one of her sons rushed at his father with an axe and driven 
 him away. 
 
 His third wife is dead now. She was a pretty, innocent 
 girl, in her teens, when she became his wife. She had left 
 an ardent lover and married into polygamy because she 
 4 thought she was doing the will of God. She had never 
 forgotten her first love, and her husband knew it and chafed 
 under it. One day he invited htr to go riding with him and 
 he took her on a hay-rake. When they came to a ditch 
 full of water he seized her, new hat and all, and threw her 
 into the ditch. She died shortly afterward from the ex- 
 posure and her death scene was one of pity, cursing polyg- 
 amy, and she died without a elimmer of hope. 
 
43 
 
This man had a goodly number of children by his other 
 Wives One of them a married man, some time ago w 
 tent to the msanc asylum. His wife, by hard and constant 
 work, has supported their children. Her one hope is to get 
 away from the county and secure a divorce before her 
 brutish husband shall again be permitted to return to her 
 
 His other sons are drunkards for the most part and are 
 constantly fighting. If they cannot find a common foe, they 
 fight each other. On one occasion two of them (half-broth- 
 ers) were fighting over a saddle and the one had almost 
 ucceeded in killing the other when neighbors, having been 
 summoned by the screaming mother, came to her rescue. 
 
 One of his daughters, the mother of several children, 
 and whose husband died two or three years ago, has just be- 
 come a mother again and the father of the child is a married 
 man. Poor woman, she said to me: "Oh, if I could only 
 have committed suicide before the child was born! But I 
 could not leave my fatherless children without care or pro- 
 tection. But I may have to kill myself yet, for I have not a 
 friend in the world." 
 
 This son No. 3, the father of these twelve polygamous 
 children, had always kept out of the penitentiary, although 
 he was a murderer. He had killed an Indian once, who had 
 been converted to the Mormon Church for his own protec- 
 tion, because he had been assured that Mormons would 
 never kill Indians who were Mormons. This was in the 
 days when the Danites were flourishing in Utah. This T n - 
 dian had lived peaceably among his white brothers for 
 years: but in his innocence he had to die to satisfy the 
 passion of a brutish, vulgar polygamist. 
 
 But another son, the brother of No. 3 (we will call him 
 No. 2) had also married two wives, and afterward a widow. 
 But the latter knew how to handle him. No d^nb* that 
 might be attributed to her earlier experience. He h-u 1 ^o 
 cornean'- r" ->s she said and he did not often hrve opportuni- 
 ties to viV f his first tw> wives. The third wH ronW ^ot 
 allow it. They lived each in a log cabin somr ' rwny, 
 
 44 
 
and it was said that he furnished only their flour and wood, 
 kit their half-grown boys always followed their father into 
 Ac field with hoes and shovels and. worked on the farm. 
 They were a tough set. I saw one of them one day walk 
 along the sidewalk and with a sharp hatchet cut down a long 
 row of young shade-trees. All the neighbors were afraid 
 of these boys, for such a tough crowd could rule the whole 
 neighborhood during those early days. I have seen these 
 boys on the street half dressed and barefooted in the coldest 
 winter days, with half frozen feet, but they were always 
 fighting and stealing. 
 
 But the son No. 2 was not as shrewd as his brother. He 
 could readily steal calves and chickens, and consequently his 
 family suffered. By and by his first wife became insane. 
 She had come from a fine family, but now in a strange land, 
 kungry and cold, and suffering from disappointment in 
 polygamy and Mormonism, she naturally lost her mind. 
 One day I saw two of her sons fighting like roosters. Their 
 old father could not separate them and the neighbors were 
 finally called in to pull them apart. 
 
 One of these boys married a young girl and then did not 
 support her. He said he had as much right to starve a 
 woman as anybody. 
 
 But the "old man/* as his sons called him the last I 
 saw of him he was wandering over the country without a 
 home, carrying an old coat under his arm. 
 
 But there was still another son of this original "Elder 
 in Israel" We will call him No. 1. When I first met him 
 I could tell by his old but substantial-looking trousers that 
 he had seen better days. He was also a polygamist mar- 
 ried two sisters ; but he was past the prime of life, and as 
 he grew older his family grew larger. But he was a good- 
 looking man, had small feet and a large head. He was al- 
 ways ready to stand up for the other fellow, but during the 
 eight or nine years in which I knew him he had but one 
 fight At that time he hit a brother in the churdt over tke 
 
head with a hoe, breaking the handle. I saw the brother 
 wash.ng the blood from his face at the ditch shortly a fte" 
 ward and he took it quite cool. No doubt the man assault- 
 ing was reprimanded by the Bishop for his unbrotherly 
 
 -that is, since he was a poor man. 
 
 One of this man's sons committed suicide and one of 
 his daughters was sent to the insane asylum. She was the 
 mother of a large family. 
 
 All these misfortunes and bad characteristics could be 
 traced directly back to the old grandfather, the "Elder in 
 Israel." 
 
 But the children of the son No. 1, whose mothers were 
 sisters, were of a different character. These sisters had 
 come from an old Christian home. They were religious and 
 taught their children ta fear God, pray for Brigham Young 
 and pay their tithing. This just shows that a polygamist 
 mother can have some influence over her children. 
 
 This old "Elder in Israel" was a thief, liar and a hypo- 
 crite of the worst stripe. His children inherited his wicked- 
 ness. He had no faith and was a Mormon simply because 
 he was then privileged to have all the wives he wanted, and 
 he was supported and taken care of by the church. He wai 
 given an office, too. The facts were that he knew too much 
 about Brigham Young and the Danites when the United 
 States was investigating in Utah, and to protect himseli, 
 Brigham Young was compelled to make him his bed-fellow 
 and support him. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
A Sad Tale. 
 My DEAR BOY: UTAH ' Wy, 1907. 
 
 A few years ago I attended a funeral. Let me tell you 
 the story of the old man's life. Thank God- one more 
 comrade has gone beyond the influence of the Morm" 
 
 curse. 
 
 In the month of October, 1899, a starving old man came 
 o me, pleading for something to eat. I could hardly believe 
 my eyes. Just thirty-nine years before this same man had 
 been a guest at my home in Central Utah. He was at that 
 time on his way to the Endowment House in Salt Lake Citv 
 with his wife, her baby and the hired girl, where he intended 
 to make the latter his plural wife. On the morrow his wife 
 expressed a desire to remain at my home until her husband 
 and his newly-acquired wife should return from Salt Lake 
 City. As soon as they were on their way and out of hearing 
 the mother, with her babe held closely to her breast, came 
 rushing into the house, flung herself on the floor, and'cried: 
 "Now they have gone. My God, my God, how can I bear it ! 
 I would rather see him in his grave than go off with that 
 woman/' With frightened excitement the little babe held 
 closely to its mother's neck while she sobbed : "If it was not 
 for this little thing, I could drown myself. But how can I 
 destroy my child ?" We tried to comfort her by saying that 
 her husband was only obeying the law which the Lord had 
 given to Joseph Smith, the prophet, and that her husband 
 was a good man in that he was obeying the commands of 
 God in taking another wife. The wretched woman, having 
 calmed herself somewhat, but still sitting on the floor with 
 her child, continued: "Oh! if I had only done it! But I 
 could not. How many nights I have wandered on the banks 
 of the creek near our home, intending to throw my child 
 into the water and then drown myself ; but I could not I 
 
 -47 
 
afraid that I might strangle my baby and then not have 
 flic courage to take my own life. And then I would think of 
 my husband sitting in the kitchen with the hired girl, and 
 make a ne^r resolve to end my life, but the roaring of the 
 >ld water would frighten me away. Going to the house, I 
 would find them sitting together in the dark kitchen, he 
 lavishing all of his affections upon her, with never a kind 
 word for me. Sometimes I would speak sharply to them, 
 tnd then again softly, almost always weeping, but he never 
 toves me, nor does he speak a kind word to me. It is always 
 the same cruel rebuke of 'You are an apostate, a devil, you 
 do not love the Lord, nor will you heed His commands." 
 
 Ten years after the above events he was sent on a mis- 
 sion to Europe, Returning in two years, he brought back a 
 beautiful, innocent Danish girl just in her teens. They were 
 married in the temple before going to his southern home. 
 In the meantime, his first wife had gone to make her home 
 with a grown son. When he arrived home with his new 
 bride, his second wife refused her admittance. She in turn 
 was beginning to reap the fruits of the Mormon curse. He 
 also realized within the next few years that to live the Mor* 
 mon religion required an abundance of natural grace. On 
 one occasion when he was leaving the dwelling of his second 
 wife she followed him to the river's bank, pushed him into 
 the deep water, and then, when he had reached safety and 
 had gone to his third wife, the second still followed and 
 threw stones at them through the window. The poor young 
 and inexperienced girl was overcome with fright. She had 
 been taught by the Mormon missionaries that Zion was a 
 land of love, peace and plenty. It was a sad awakening for 
 fcer. Although she had just become a mother, she decided 
 quickly, and that night went out from that roof never to 
 fcturn. 
 
 And now it is forty years since first I saw the man. The 
 fesf of his property has been deeded to his second wife. He 
 
is penniless. His second wife, now the legal one, will not 
 recognize him or even permit him to be at the home that had 
 once been his own. 
 
 Can this old man sitting before me now be that ame 
 young man, who, forty-five years before, in the Woom of 
 his youth and so joyfully taking the young girl to the temple 
 to obey what he believed to be the command of God to 
 Joseph Smith : "My people shall enter into polygamy and t 
 man shall have more than one wife or be damned"? Now 
 tie is lame, with a sore which never headed. He wander* 
 from place to place, now towards his home but he cannot 
 go there, not even for a mouthful of food. His oldest soa 
 will not receive him, and his daughter with a home of her 
 own wilt not grant him admittance. Such are the fruits of 
 polygamy. Attempts to visit any of his wives or children 
 are met with rebuke and rebuff, and so he wanders, a starv- 
 ing, broken-down, sad old man, and all this because he ha* 
 tried to live his religion. 
 
 The last time I saw him he was coming to my home 
 with a freighter who had permitted him to ride in his wagon. 
 In our last conversation I reminded him of his wife and 
 children, but he said : "No, my folks do not care for me.* 
 His wife had a tale to tell just as pitiable. He would steal 
 into the kitchen at night, eat what he could find, and then g* 
 away before daylight One morning, however, when hit 
 wife came into the kitchen she found him with a rope 
 around his neck hanging to a rafter, cold and dead. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
'The Order of Enoch" 
 
 UTAH, August, 1907. 
 Mr DEAR BOY: 
 
 Did you ever hear of the "Order of Enoch"? It was 
 decreed by Brigham Young one day that the "Saints should 
 have all things in common." In the town where I lived we 
 had not only provisions and store-houses in common, but all 
 ate at the same table. On one occasion Erastus Snow, one 
 of the twelve apostles, objected, and said it was no more 
 necessary for all to eat at the same table than to sleep in one 
 bed. The grumblers became so numerous that in 1875 
 Brigham Young called a halt ; and thus the Lord had made 
 another mistake. 
 
 With me, the "Order of Enoch" had become an import- 
 ant factor. We had been taught (and I believed) that 
 through this means we would all be taken up into Heaven. 
 Thus it was that I began to doubt and wished that I could 
 leave the church with a clear conscience. Several years after 
 this I was "cut off" from the church because I had said that 
 the twelve apostles were not the apostles of God ; that there 
 was no power in the name itself ; that we might as well call 
 them twelve shoemakers or any other old thing. Not satis- 
 fied with the following I had in my own town, I went to 
 Other settlements and preached the gospel of apostacy. My 
 followers were abused and called crazy, but we were a sin- 
 cere and peaceable company. Our contention was that self- 
 preservation is the first law of nature, and without it nothing 
 can live. 
 
 It can easily be seen that when the "Order of Enoch" 
 was broken up and the property divided, there was but little 
 for each man. This had simply been a scheme on the part 
 of Brigham to get the church brand on our cattle and our 
 stores into his barn. 
 
 When I came to Utah years before, I came because I 
 meant it; I was sincere; I had believed all that had been 
 
 50 
 
It grieved me that the "ali-thing^onjmon" idea 
 was given up. For that was my faith; it was built on th0 
 principle contained in the Bible where we read that in the 
 days of the Apostles of Christ the saints should live together 
 and have all things in common. It has been my position to 
 deal out provisions and wearing apparel during the "order." 
 I had seen the wants of poor families when there had not 
 been anything to give them. 
 
 I began to study the Gospel for myself, and when I 
 think of the visions and the dreams which I had experienced, 
 let me warn all religiously inclined people to beware : Re- 
 ligion is all imagination for me to-day. Yet it is just as 
 natural for a man to seek fame through a corrupt religion as 
 it is for a man to grow rich through licensed dishonesty. 
 
 The Mormon Church claims to be the only true church 
 on the earth. But we have yet to find the first church or 
 government that has remained true to its first principle. 
 When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness he 
 said: "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." 
 And when the people asked: "What shall we do?" he an- 
 swered : "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that 
 hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." 
 When Christ began to preach He told the people the same 
 story, for He admonished them not to turn away him that 
 asketh, nor him that wisheth to borrow. A nci so it was that 
 the saints and the apostles had come to the conclusion that 
 the only way in which you could do unto others as you would 
 have others do unto you was to have all things in common. 
 
 But the world has declared that it cannot be, and so we 
 stand helpless until we are willing to be led. For what god 
 is there that can force a people into happiness against their 
 will? If you hate one another, you will have sorrow, but if 
 you love one another you will have joy. Let the church and 
 the nation learn this lesson, that to live and let live, to love 
 and let love, are the only means through which there can be 
 Bad happiness and salvation. 
 
The Atonnoa priesthood has failed to lift the heavy 
 millstone from the heart of the inner soul. Salvation doe* 
 not come through the priests or false prophets, but by the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by this ye shall know and be 
 known if ye love one another. 
 
 One day when I had spoken, some people came forward 
 to encourage me on the stand I had taken, and one woman 
 told me the following story: "I do not care now, for you 
 have opened my eyes. I know now what polygamy means 
 and I wtm't be afraid of my husband any more. You know,, 
 my first husband was almost a crank on polygamy, but other- 
 wise he was good enough. But I could not stand his other 
 wife and so I left him. When he married me the first wife 
 left him ; in fact, she had to, because he did not care for her 
 any more. You should have seen how he treated her as we 
 were coming home from Salt Lake, where we had been mar- 
 ried in the temple. One day when she had been walking 
 for a distance and wanted to get into the wagon, he would 
 not stop. She screamed and held to the wagon, but our hus- 
 band drove all the faster. I cried out: 'If you don't stop, 
 HI jump out!' He told me afterwards that she was crazy, 
 but who wouldn't be crazy in her place ? She finally had to 
 leave him, but she got the property, for she was his first 
 and legal wife and had never been divorced. The first wife 
 and our husband had been born and brought up as children 
 In northern Europe. Their parents having died when they 
 were small, they were taken and brought up as brother and 
 sister in the same family and were deeply attached to each 
 other. They wandered together many a moonlit night talk- 
 tog of future plans and happiness. They were married and 
 came to Utah, but polygamy ruined their happiness. He 
 began to follow the girls about But what could be done? 
 It was not only allowed, but also commanded. One evening 
 while going home from a party he actually left her standing 
 In the street while he followed a girl going in another direc- 
 tion. 'I cried kmdly after him,' she said, 'and had it not been 
 
for the little child which I carried in my arms I should have 
 jumped into the near-by creek. He came back and took me 
 home, then turned and went away, I knew not where, and 
 did not return until late at night" 
 
 But while the woman was talking, some one called her 
 and she left. And as I was thinking over what she had 
 aaid, I called to mind the many times I had been in court 
 and had heard phiral wives falsify in order to protect these 
 polygamous husbands. I have seen older men wander away 
 from home after having raised a polygamous family, but 
 the women usually stay to the end and seldom commit sui- 
 cide or go crazy. I know of but one instance only where 
 one woman cut another's throat, although they often 
 threaten to poison and kill each other. A woman in polyg- 
 amy may act desperately, hang or drown herself, but on the 
 witness stand she will defend her husband, and in testimony 
 meeting she will declare that she knows that polygamy 
 comes from God ; that it is the happiest life, and that she 
 would live in no other way. She believes that her potyg- 
 amous husband is a god and a king. Then she will go home 
 with a heavy heart, crying, scolding, screaming and threaten- 
 ing to run away. But by and by she realizes her position; 
 lier husband will be a god and king ; she will be a queen, aatf 
 will rule nations and worlds forever, 
 
 YOUR FATH 
 
J Left the Mormon Church. 
 MYDEA*BOY: UTAH, September, 1907. 
 
 Do not be disturbed about the rumors in regard to my 
 actions when breaking away from the Mormon Church I 
 bad not intended to tell you of those miserable, dark days of 
 discouragement and persecution, but since others are taking 
 pains to falsify and cast aspersion on proper motives, I shall 
 from time to time attempt to tell you why I took the steps 
 that I did. 
 
 It was about the year 1877 that I last attended the gen- 
 eral conference of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. 
 Brigham Young, with his twelve apostles, occupied the plat- 
 form in the tabernacle. Apostle Orson Hyde, being the first 
 speaker, delivered an address on the resurrection of the body 
 and the state of life hereafter, whereupon Brigham Young 
 arose and stated that while he knew nothing in regard to 
 the resurrection of the body and the life hereafter, yet he 
 knew as much about it as Brother Hyde. 
 
 I had been in the Mormon Church about twenty years 
 and was beginning to feel skeptical in regard to Brigham 
 Young's doctrine, but the thought had not entered my mind 
 that Joseph Smith could have been a false prophet. I felt 
 keenly disappointed, and about a year after my visit to Salt 
 Lake I became convinced of Brigham Young's falsity, and 
 feeling sorry for my townsmen in this delusion, I decided to 
 take a stand openly. Being a frequent speaker, I took the 
 platform one Sunday and told the people that the priesthood 
 could not bring happiness, but the love which we have for 
 our fellow-men. With outstretched hand I cried : "Do you 
 not know that when you do good you will feel happy, but if 
 you harm anyone you will feel sorrow? That the priest- 
 hood ha* power only as granted by the people? That the 
 law of tithing is but the invention of man? That the gospel 
 is to love and not hate your brother? Do you hear? Do 
 
you not know that the Mormon Church has been led astray 
 by priestcraft and that the church to-day is no more than 
 any other church unless we live the better life? We shalt 
 each be judged by our own acts. I will prove to you that 
 we have Mormonism in our own hands, and that if we live a 
 Christian life, then are we the Church of God, independent 
 of the priesthood." 
 
 I had broken the ice and was a happier man. But such 
 sufferings as were to follow ! I was pronounced an apos- 
 tate, a sinner, an ungodly wretch. My outbreak was the talk 
 of the town. I was hated and accused of vile things, but 
 I felt that I was right and a few of my townsmen rallied 
 to my support, protecting me from cruel vengeance of the 
 Mormon authorities. I became a fanatic, and in my zeal 
 fled to the mountains, and for three days preached to the 
 trees and prayed through the night. When hunger, thirst 
 and fatigue had weakened my mind and body I began to 
 dream and see visions. Yes, with wideopen eyes it seemed 
 that I looked upon two heavenly messengers and voices from 
 above were saying, "Preach repentance to these peopled 
 Later the angel Gabriel seemed to come, assuring me that 
 he would be my Guardian Angel. The third night found 
 me so famished that I intuitively turned toward home. Com- 
 ing to a field, the first edibles I could find were some raw 
 potatoes, after which I had eaten I was afraid that I had 
 sinned because I had vowed to fast three days. 
 
 However, it was almost twelve o'clock. In the morn- 
 ing, having slept, I felt better and was prepared for any 
 questions that my friends might ask, or for abuse from my 
 enemies ; had I not been visited by heavenly beings who had 
 commanded me to preach repentance with the assurance that 
 the angels would protect me? A few of the best citizens 
 came to my support and pledged themselves to stand by me r 
 saying that my teaching was from God. They felt that 
 Brigham had gone astray, and in fact he had said more 
 
 55 
 
than once that he was not a prophet, and that if the people 
 could see as he saw they would all leave the church. Our 
 Httle band was dropped from the church and a series of 
 ridicule gave way to abuse and persecution. We were hate* 
 and pronounced a set of insane people. On myself and 
 family came the most bitter hate and vituperation. How- 
 ever, we f eh it incumbent upon ourselves to tell the people 
 that Brigham Young had led the church astray. We 
 preached that man should have but one wife, that the law 
 of tithing was from man, that God did not dwell in houses 
 built by hands, but in the hearts of his children. From tiro 
 time forth we would be free from the tyranny of Mormon- 
 ism. We exhorted men to love each other and to follow 
 the teachings of Jesus Christ only. So zealous did I become 
 in my endeavors that a marshal marched me out of aa 
 assembly and a polygamist followed me out of town, declar- 
 ing that I had disturbed his family in that I was preaching 
 against polygamy. By this time, about 1885, those who had 
 promised to stand by me were losing their zeal ; some went 
 back to the Mormon Church, others became infidels, while a 
 few cast their lot with the Presbyterians who were begin- 
 ning to open mission schools in Utah. 
 
 As for mystelf, my property was gone, my fervor for 
 telling the story of my visions was ebbing away and I was 
 beginnig to doubt the existence of anything supernatural in 
 my experience. I was doubting myself. Of the women 
 whom I had taken for my wives, one was in sympathy with 
 me, and the other, although still a Mormon in faith, wished 
 to remain my lawful wife. 
 
 With the help of my wives and small children we set our 
 faces toward the problem of securing lost property and gam- 
 ing a livelihood. After seven years of hard labor, my daugh- 
 ters working in the fields, we began to reach an independent 
 state. My children have now gone away to their vartou* 
 callings, one especially to tell of the blighting effects of Mor* 
 monism. Old age is creeping on and we are almost alone. 
 
And 1 shall say that while I write my eyes feel wet, or did 
 a drop of water fall on my paper? Not from sorrow, but 
 satisfaction of attempted duties, perhaps not performed, 
 wkh a hope for the future and wanderings of the deep, deep 
 mysteries of life 
 
 You* FATHER, 
 
What 1 Saw m the Endowment House. 
 MY DEAR BOY: UTAH, October, 1907. 
 
 M, went through. We stepped into a little room where t 
 great man McAllister, who was noted for his atup nes 
 toward the Saints when taking their names, greeted us S 
 a growl and a frown. He said that "you might as well spS 
 
 an ass as to try to tell a foreigner anything." We were 
 text led into another room, undressed and smeared with 
 
 grease. We swore by God and all the powers to be faithful 
 and to do all in our power to destroy the enemies of the 
 Mormon Church. Next we put on our ghost-like clothes and 
 burial suit and proceeded to a larger room, where Heber 
 Kimball was stationed to crack jokes with the half-naked 
 congregation. When we proceeded into the next room the 
 Devil came also, but we were immune from his powers. 
 Although he had caused Adam and Eve to fall, he could 
 not approach us ? because we had received new names, and 
 we had lost our identities. My new name was a secret until 
 
 1 heard some one yell into the ear of a deaf brother, "Your 
 new uame is Abraham." I gave a sudden start, for I thought 
 that name was for me alone. 
 
 Forty years have rolled by, and every man with whom I 
 have had conversation has told me that his name was Abra- 
 ham. We went through various sundry performances and 
 toward the close of the day my wife and I were placed on 
 each side of a narrow table, myself kneeling on a low stool 
 Brigham Young, who was lounging on a sofa with several 
 apostles and one of them sitting on a chair, carelessly leaning 
 back, with his feet on the table, married us for time and 
 eternity. My wife had been baptized for several dead rela- 
 tives and they were sealed to me for time and eternity, which 
 
 -58- 
 
. 
 
 could stand in prayer-meeting and declare 
 polyga^was a revelation from God. And, in fe 
 uosoeve^l not enter into polygamy should be damned" 
 
 ^ 1 f - WaS m Ur tOWn a y Un S S irl > a Morm ^nvert, 
 who had just come from Denmark. She was poor, dressed 
 plainly, but was very neat. She was invited to our house a 
 number of times and my wife insisted that she should stay 
 be one with us, and finally become my second wife. (For 
 [ must have at least another wife in order to fulfill all 
 righteousness.) But my first wife should be the queen and 
 should rule her family for time and all eternity. The double 
 sorrow of married life began when I admitted to her that 
 we had been out walking together one day. I hesitate to 
 write you of the unpleasant affair of the morning when we 
 began our journey to Salt Lake City to go before the priest- 
 hood and receive that pretended benediction which has since 
 kept all three of us burning in a continuous hell. Upon our 
 departure the demon of jealousy entered the heart of my 
 first wife and she has struggled with it from that day to this. 
 A neighbor told me this story when I came back : 
 
 "When you were only a few rods from the house and 
 the wagon was still in sight, she ran out, crying : 'How shall 
 I stand it? They have gone. If he had only known what I 
 have suffered all this time he would not have done it. But 
 now it is too late. What shall I do ?' She acted like a crazy 
 person and could not be comforted." When we came back 
 from Salt Lake City with the girl as my wife all should have 
 been well. My first wife appeared pleased enough, but there 
 was something wrong. My second wife in innocent girlhood 
 was wondering what wrong she had done. She has not 
 gotten over it to this day, but is wondering how she could 
 
 59 
 
been so ignorant 
 
 You have often asked how I came to leave the Mor- 
 mon Church. In 1877 I was beginning to doubt the truth of 
 Mormomsm, and especially Brigham Young; for he himself 
 had said that he was no prophet, although he had been 
 "profitable" to the Mormon people. I believed at that time, 
 however, that the Kingdom of God had been established by 
 Joseph Smith. I felt that I must have an angel come from 
 heaven and tell me all about it, so that I might know the 
 truth, but here my real trouble began. I thought of my dead 
 parents and brothers and prayed that they might show me 
 the way. Should I come out and take the stand against the 
 church? But I had two families. What if I should fail? 
 
 Thus it is to be religiously intoxicated, a malady coming 
 no doubt to the more ignorant people. It may be construed 
 as a strong imagination; but could it not be the same as 
 when a drunken man sees snakes in his boots? I suffered 
 with the former. I felt sure that I had been visited by my 
 dead mother, and also by an angel with whom the Devit 
 himself was hobnobbing. One night I heard a ringing voice 
 say: "Speak repentance to these people." I saw two per- 
 sonages in the sky looking down at me. It was then that I 
 broke away, for I had been called by a voice from heaven. 
 But the mystery to me to-day is to wonder how a delusion 
 could have such a power over people. 
 
 I could convince people, and every word I spoke went 
 deep into their hearts for a time. I soon discovered that 
 the leaders of the church cared very little for God and the 
 church; only the priesthood. After undergoing much per- 
 secution in the town where I lived, and having received some 
 encouragement I took my Bible and the Book of Mormon 
 one Sunday morning and went to a neighboring town to tell 
 iny story. I called on the Bishop ; he was an infidel. And 
 when I told him of Brigham Young's mistakes he kindly 
 slapped me on the shoulder and said : "Ha, ha I I thought 
 
you knew better/' That afternoon I preached on the streets, 
 for I could not get a house. One of the apostles had pre- 
 ceded and warned them to have nothing to do with me. In 
 the next town I met the Bishop and his counsellors in his 
 office. He told rne in an insulting way that he was not smart 
 enough to understand my point; that he had been told be- 
 fore to look out for me, and that I was a dangerous person. 
 However, I stayed in the town, preached on the street, and 
 received encouragement. The next town I entered I found 
 the people gathered on the street waiting for me. They 
 appeared to be an ignorant and superstitious lot. After 
 preaching to them, they refused me admittance to any of 
 their homes. That night at eleven o'clock I left for the next 
 town, and it was next morning before I could find food or 
 friends. 
 
 One Sunday I entered a larger town than usual and met 
 a liberal class of people ; but they refused me the use of their 
 church or school-house. I stationed myself near the meeting- 
 house door and when the crowds had collected about me 
 I held up the Book of Mormon and declared that, according 
 to this, their own book, the church had wandered away from 
 God. One man spoke up and said: "Come, let's get out of 
 here. That man is crazy." Another man stepped forward 
 from the crowd, shook hands with me, and to my great con- 
 sternation I recognized in him the man who had baptized 
 me in my native home when I became a Mormon convert. 
 He informed me that he had left the church years ago when 
 ke had discovered that Joseph Smith and the Book of Mor- 
 mon were false. This bit of truth has been worth to me 
 much more than all the visions and dreams that I have ever 
 
 lad 
 
 There is a time for all things. I did not then realize that 
 my life had been in jeopardy. A Bishop had told his people 
 hi church that nothing was too bad for a man who would 
 * his influence to preach against the Gospel of Je&us 
 
Christ, and that he would destroy my family. Another 
 polygamous Bishop told his folks not to use their right hand 
 In greeting me, but to shake hands with the left. He said 
 I had evil influence over people, and I couldn't blame him, 
 for two of his wives had already left him because of my 
 preaching, 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
Dark Days In Utah. 
 MYDEAKBOV: UTAH, November, 1907. 
 
 During these days that I was tramping around I had bee. 
 seeking a God that did not exist ; a God that would direct me 
 in every-day life-such as what to wear, eat and drink. 
 Bngham Young had said : "Yes, the priesthood of God snatt 
 yet direct how we shall shape our clothes; yes, even tell us 
 how to build a pig-pen/' It was with such anxiety to know 
 what the Lord wanted me to do that I was led away by 
 superstitious dreams and visions. One evening, after having 
 tramped around all day and the night before, I went away 
 from speaking to a hostile crowd and went to sleep on a 
 shed. While sleeping I heard a voice say: "It is now as it 
 was in the days of old. In long hair there is strength." I 
 looked around, but saw no one. So I felt sure I had had a 
 vision. Indeed the Saints in the olden days did not cut their 
 hair; one can see it in their pictures. Samson wore long 
 hair. This was a revelation. So I did not have my hair cut 
 for a long time. As my hair grew I felt stronger in the faith. 
 
 Coming into town one day, I met the Bishop and asked 
 permission to use the meeting-house. On going to other 
 families I learned that they had all been warned of my com- 
 ing and consequently presented a hostile front. I crawled on 
 top of a barn with my long hair and began to preach repent- 
 ance and the whole town came out to see what that "crazy" 
 man was doing just what I wanted them to do. 
 
 Once I came into a town and asked the Bishop for the 
 meeting-house. He said I could have it if after I had spoken 
 he could appoint some one to answer me. The elder ap- 
 pointed to do that was a polygamist, a fortune-teller, and, 
 what is more, a thorough infidel. I knew him very well 
 He said that my doctrine was all right, but I was about forty 
 years too late, as Joseph Smith had promulgated that long 
 ago. He asked me, "When did you lie? I heard you saj 
 
once that the Mormon Church was the true church of God, 
 and now you say it is not?" He turned to the congregation 
 and said, "Which statement shall we believe?" He con- 
 tinued, "No, let us choose the priesthood of God and let this 
 intruder go where he belongs. Let us have our wives and 
 children safe." The people were much disturbed and ex- 
 cited. It was whispered that had this happened back in the 
 fifties some one would have been appointed to put me out 
 of the way. One man came to me in the night and warned 
 me to flee. I was told afterward that certain individuals 
 were disappointed that night when they came seeking me 
 where I had slept. 
 
 That same evening I came to a family of friends who 
 were interested in my cause, and the woman of the home 
 said that I could not expect to succeed if I went around 
 the country in old clothes and long hair. I had given my 
 property to the needy. My hair had been growing and I 
 must have looked peculiar. She said, "You must work on 
 and be successful. Think of the freedom of mind that we 
 have had since you began to work for us. We are not afraid 
 now to oppose polygamy, because we have learned that 
 many are against it. All we need is a leader to take the 
 first step. But you must not appear odd in this work. You 
 must command respect and dignity." I was on my way 
 home, where I had a large following, and I finally agreed to 
 let her cut off my long hair. When it was done I was 
 sorry. I had gone away with long hair and had pretended 
 that therein lay my strength in influence. What would my 
 fellow followers think about it? A strange feeling of weak* 
 ness began to creep over me and I felt my strength giving 
 way. My career had been remarkable and my followers 
 could be numbered in almost every town. Was it all imagi- 
 nation or was it real ? 
 
 The first man I met when I came into town was a friend, 
 tat he had a mind of his own. Said he, "I have been waiting 
 
to see you, but now you have had your hair cut." One of 
 tny wives just looked at me and the other said, "I thought 
 you couldn't stand that long hair." Another friend cried 
 after me, "You have had your hair cut; it is all over town 
 that the new prophet has had his hair cut and has given 
 up his mission." The first Sunday I met with my followers. 
 Those who had stood by me in adversity and had been my 
 staunch friends through all my career said, "We put our 
 faith in you and depended on you, but now you have had 
 your hair cut. What next ?" Another young man said that 
 the best thing that we could do, if we could do it at all, was 
 to establish a new sect, and there were already enough of 
 those. 
 
 It seemed as though all my friends were deserting me 
 because of my hair having been cut. But the real reason was 
 that most of my property had been given away to the needy, 
 and there was no material benefit to be reaped. My enemies 
 rejoiced and I was almost heart-broken. These few years 
 $f mental and physical struggle had been sapping my vitality, 
 and thus I came back to my home and for the sake of my 
 children I began life anew. But it seemed almost impossible 
 to catch up the broken thread and many a time a silent pang 
 came to my heart and I grieved that I had been born. Many 
 oned to me, for I had not a friend on earth. I had been 
 deceived and I was called a deceiver. I wandered along the 
 creek and asked myself if the stream should be my silent 
 a night have I wandered around the little pond as it beck- 
 resting-place and death be my friend. But I suddenly 
 awoke; my two noble wives had not forsaken me though 
 opportunities had been presented, for polygamy was not 
 dead. Many suitors had offered their hand and I had seen 
 them prowling about at night. Should I leave these two 
 true women and nine helpless children? No, not until I 
 had ta 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
MY DEAR BOY: 
 
 A Paradox. 
 
 UTAH, January, 1908. 
 
 Here is a paradox. The Mormons claim that the de- 
 nominations doing religious work in Utah are stirring up 
 unnecessary strife and discord, and that their presence is 
 and has always been a detriment to the good and welfare of 
 the state. 
 
 Then, strangely, on the other hand, they claim that if 
 Mormonism was left alone and persecution would cease, 
 there would be no Mormon question. What does this mean? 
 The first statement is either false and they will have to 
 acknowledge that the denominations are a benefit to Utah 
 and her people, or that Mormonism is a bad thing and a 
 benefit would accrue to the etate should it cease to exist. 
 
 The fact of the case is that the work of the denomina- 
 tions has been of great service to the Mormon people. In 
 the first place, the work of the Mission Schools has forced 
 the Mormons to adopt a system of education, and has also 
 compelled the priesthood to drop from their present-day 
 teachings some of the most absurd and degrading doctrines. 
 Furthermore, when I was an ardent worker in the Mor- 
 mon Church .we were taught by the priesthood that no other 
 church would ever be able to come into Utah; that God 
 would not permit His most holy people 'to be contaminated 
 by the influences, of the wicked and filthy sects known as 
 Christians, and that He had established His church in Utah 
 and all other sects would sooner or later (no doubt later) 
 be subservient to the Mormon priesthood. 
 
 The doctrine was promulgated to us that we should 
 have all the wives we wanted; that each man should have 
 a church, a harem, or what not, all of his own, a sort 
 god, and all of these minor churches should find its general 
 bead in the Mormon priesthood. 
 
&ut strange 1 have it from good authority that the 
 Book of Mormon was never printed with the intention of 
 founding a church, but was gotten up to sell. The book 
 was a curious concoction and the most significant fact of it 
 to-day is that it expressly forbids polygamy. No man can 
 be a believer in the Book of Mormon and be a polygamist 
 iPolygamy was brought into the church through natural cir- 
 cumstances in the life of such a man as Joseph Smith proved 
 himself to be. HlKlbrCffi I 
 
 In the beginning of the career of Joseph Smith and 
 until the Mormons had been driven out of New York, Ohio, 
 Missouri, and settled in Nauvoo, polygamy had never come 
 into the church. Joseph Smith was a good preacher, kind to 
 his friends, and of marked personality. He preached Love 
 and God to his people. It was natural that his young con- 
 verts should go to him with all confidence. They felt that 
 they could come to him with many troubles and discourage- 
 ments. Every minister of the Gospel becomes an adviser 
 to men, women, and also some girls. Many affidavits have 
 been advanced to show beyond any question that Joseph 
 Smith not only abused the confidence of trusting girls, but 
 used disgraceful methods and trickery to force them under 
 his power. He was never brought into court for any of 
 these crimes, so it is impossible to legally prove that he* was 
 a criminal in that sense. At any rate, as it was expressed at 
 that time, "His wife, Emma, would not stand for it." And 
 so it became necessary for an angel to come to Joseph Smith 
 in the night, bearing in his right hand a two-edged sword, 
 with which he threatened to cut Joseph in two if he did not 
 marry all of these young girls who had no husbands ; and 
 so polygamy was introduced into the church. 
 
 The Mormon Church has not increased because of the 
 doctrine of polygamy. Lust has not been the means of 
 bringing the great mass of people into the church. Al- 
 though most of the converts have been drawn from the 
 poorer classes, yet they are of such intelligence and social 
 
standing that they naturally abhor such 
 *amv. Th P f art is that many peop , e who . 
 
 hh 
 
 has been a doctrine of the church, and it is not 
 
 practiced by Brigham Young or others in Utah " In Deiv 
 mark when it was rumored that Brigham Young had twelve 
 wives and we asked the elders if it was true, they said that 
 he did not. In after years I met this same man in Utah who 
 had assured me in Denmark that Brigham Young did not 
 have twelve wives and asked him why he told me a false- 
 hood. He answered that he did not falsify, because at that 
 time Brigham did not have twelve wivies, but about thirty. 
 If polygamy was promulgated openly among prospective 
 Mormon converts there would be few accessions to the 
 church. But once having joined the church and having 
 accepted the priesthood as infallible they are compelled, for 
 the sake of a heavenly home and a glory hereafter, to accept 
 and practice polygamy. When a man goes into polygamy 
 he becomes distinctly Mormon. He is, under the circum- 
 stances, set against law and against his fellow-citizens wh* 
 stand for law and order. 
 
 He becomes one of the "despised Mormons" against 
 whom, according to priesthood teaching, all the wicked 
 world has combined to destroy. He is identified with crime 
 and he necessarily stays with his fellows. Few men have 
 die courage in the face of these circumstances to come out 
 and publicly acknowledge that he has been duped. 
 
 It must not be imagined that because these men have 
 become the victims of this system that they are bad at heart. 
 One morning I saw a Bishop pull off his coat and give it tft 
 a boy who was going to the hills for a load of wood. At 
 another time I saw a Bishop pull a poor woman's toot! 
 without price because she asked him; and when she cried- 
 because it hurt he took a dollar out of his pocket and gave 
 it to her. I knew a "brother" who once took an older 
 woman as his plural wife so that he would feel it incumbent 
 
opon himself to support her. But such deeds as these are 
 the great exception. At heart the great mass of the Mormoa 
 people are of that kind-hearted class whose sympathies can 
 be reached by smooth-flowing words. They form the bul- 
 wark of the church, pay the tithing, and any good that is ia 
 the church is there because it is a part of the make-up of 
 these poorer people who have become the victims of such de- 
 signing leaders as Smith, Roberts and Smoot. These hard- 
 working people, earnest in heart, pay the lawyers who go to 
 Washington to pave the way for apostles and priests who 
 Are sent to have laws enacted which will give them still 
 greater power over their victims. They pay Smoot's attor- 
 neys, support Joseph F. Smith and five women to whom he 
 is not married, in all their riotous and sumptuous travels 
 and migrations. 
 
 It is the same spirit that actuates the simple-hearted and 
 simple-minded Mormon missionary to go out without script 
 or purse and preach the gospel as he has been instructed by 
 his "file leader/' 
 
 These missionaries go and return, work hard, very hard, 
 lor the rest of their days, to support their families and pay 
 Iheir tithing and die happily in ignorance. The great power 
 of Mormonism is carried on the shoulders of the hard-work- 
 ing, honest men, who are for the most part European work- 
 ingmen, tillers of the soil, as well as the "blue blood" from 
 the South. The Southern States are becoming their richest 
 field. 
 
 The trusting simplicity of these converts is remarkable 
 They are taught and actually believe that when they have 
 hands laid upon them for the "gift of the Holy Ghost/' thai 
 they do and have power to heal the sick. Every Sunday here 
 at home the elders, boys whom I have known from child- 
 hood, bless bottles of oil, after which performance it con- 
 tains divine healing properties, and the patient to whom it 
 is administered will become whole. Almost every day the 
 elders are called to the sick-bed to lay hands on the stricken. 
 
and if the patient recovers it was through the power of the 
 priesthood. If he does not, it is because of his lack of 
 faith. 
 
 It fc now about thirty years since I stood in Utah all 
 alone, having left the church under striking circumstances. 
 For twenty-nine years I had been a firm believer and an 
 ardent advocate of the faith. How could I under the cir- 
 cumstances take up with any other sect? I began to live 
 and act in the light of my knowledge and convictions and 
 then it was in my loneliness that I found a clear conscience. 
 
 It was freedom. How sweet and how pleasant it was 
 to be free from the fear of the priesthood ; to be no longer 
 under the dominance of the false prophet, of those things 
 which every Mormon recognizes in his heart of hearts is 
 wrong and tyrannical, but from which he cannot escape and 
 from which he must pretend that he does not care to escape. 
 
 The rank and file of the Mormon Church are waiting 
 for some one of their number to rise up, who has a heart 
 big enough and intellect enough to openly denounce Joseph 
 F. Smith, Smoot, Brigham H. Roberts and others who are 
 living in luxury from the tithes of those oppressed people. 
 From time to time petty attempts have been made to throw 
 off the severest form of this bondage, but each insurgent 
 has been immediately and severely dealt with. When Moses 
 Thatcher opposed the violation of their covenants with the 
 government, he was immediately deprived, of his place as 
 apostle, deacon and elder. He was ruined in business ; he 
 took to his .sick-bed, and while he lay apparently dying a 
 committee of the priesthood waited on him and compelled 
 him to sign a document to the effect that all these calamities 
 had come upon him because he had opposed the Lord's 
 anointed. 
 
 YOUR FATHER. 
 
"What Foot we Motab Be- 
 ll Y DEAR BOY : 
 
 It is not the religious man that is honored in the Mor- 
 mon Church, but the keen hypocrite. The smartest and the 
 hrewdest are made Bishops. Often when a man loses the 
 faith he remains in the church for business reasons. I knew 
 of a young man coming home from a mission who had lost 
 his faith, but he did not speak against the church and its 
 elders. After he had caroused with the other boys and had 
 been drunk a few times he was appointed a Bishop. When 
 I think of Brigham saying, "If you could only see as I can 
 see you would apostatize/' it could only mean that we were 
 only a set of fools. When Apostle Kimball said that he 
 believed that the Bible was inspired just like any other good 
 book was inspired, it was the same as to say that it was not 
 inspired. I remember at one time when one of the apostles 
 had read a passage from the Bible he laid it down and began 
 to preach about a saw-mill which he wished the brethren to 
 build up close to the timber line. And this was all meant 
 to save souls for God's Kingdom. 
 
 The Book of Mormon, once supposed to be the founda- 
 tion of the Mormon Church,, is now considered dangerous 
 for faithful Mormons to read. I know that from experi- 
 ence. I read it over and over again until the church could 
 not hold me. A Bishop told a brother that if he did not 
 stop reading the book he would become an apostate. This 
 same brother was afterwards brought to trial for heresy and 
 when he attempted to read his answers from the Book of 
 Mormon he was compelled to put. it away. 
 
 The doctrine of the Mormon Church is also subject 
 much change. It is a repetition of the attempt on the part 
 of Joseph Smith to retranslate the Bible. He began by 
 putting more into it, and he had gone over but a small por- 
 tion of the book when his friends began to call his attention 
 to numerous contradictions that were creeping in. 
 
 71 
 
It was the only safe course for them to pursue when 
 they stated that the Bible and other books were nothing in 
 comparison to the "Living Oracles." Brigham Young was 
 a prophet to the people and his words were inspired com- 
 ing directly from God to the people. The Mormon leaders 
 today would gladly erase from the records some of the 
 sayings of Brigham Young, Apostle Kimball, Jedediah 
 Grant and others. They would gladly blot out the dark 
 and bloody deeds that have been traced to the responsibility 
 of these inspired men. But the records stand and history 
 cannot be changed. Now they are trying to place some of 
 these indecent doctrines in the background of their propa- 
 ganda. 
 
 There is an old man, one of my neighbors, who sat at 
 the feet of Brigham to learn. He learned the "Adam God" 
 doctrine. Now the young men of the church are trying to 
 eliminate that part from the active creed. The other Sun- 
 day this old man wished to speak. He arose and began to 
 discourse on the "Adam God" theme. Those in authority 
 sitting behind his back began to jerk his coat-tails. He 
 turned and said, "What fur you pull my coat-tail?" When 
 he continued, they tried to pull him down again. This time 
 he said, "You young pups, you don't know anything. 
 Brigham Young told me that this was the truth. You young 
 fellers are goin f off after the Presbyterians. I will tell the 
 truth." He was not allowed to speak, however. 
 
 The Book of Mormon originally was against polygamy. 
 That was before Joseph Smith's awful record of rank im- 
 morality had come to light. Now some of the young people 
 are in a mood to eradicate polygamy from the doctrine of 
 the church. Verily the "Living Oracles" are convenient 
 
 One time when two priests came to tell one of the 
 brethren, an older man, the way he should walk, he said he 
 did not believe that Adam was our God. But one of the 
 priests clapped his hands in the old man's face and said 
 that he would have to believe or get left. It was taught then 
 
that no man could get into Heaven unless he had a recom- 
 mendation from the Bishop. It was taught also that Brig- 
 ham Young would be our God in heaven and Joseph would 
 be the same as the Saviour who was crucified. But Hyram 
 Smith, his brother, who had protested against polygamy, 
 would be in disgrace. I have listened to this hard doctrine 
 and pondered it through the valleys of Utah. I have hunted 
 and still hunt in vain for words of salvation. The other 
 day a Mormon said to me, "Come, join us and receive the 
 truth." I could only answer, "Oh, man ! knowest thou thy- 
 self?" 
 
 YOUR FATHER,