after a few months of mental anguish and physical suffering death came to her bruised spirit, not as a stern conqueror, but as a welcome deliverer from a bondage against which her whole nature revolted.

This is no romance, it is one of the many sad histories I know to be true; I could recount others still more heartrending, but too many of the tales of plural wives are not only painful but revolting. It is by no means uncommon for a Mormon to marry two sisters, and the marriage of an aged elder with his own youthful step-daughter has even outraged the feelings of a wretched mother; but as a good wife she was bound to submit to this horrible ordeal, for was not this the celestial order of marriage, and undertaken in obedience to direct revelation?

CHAPTER XII.

The President's Secretary, Mr. George Reynolds-Mr. G. Q. Cannon-A religious argument after the President's luncheon-The ox-team wagon journey across the plains-Mormon amusements, theatres, and dances—The effect of stage-plays on the plural wives-Captain Boyd on the Latter Day Saints-The Mormon Bible-The Doctrines and Covenants-"Joseph the Seer's" revelations from the Lord to his wife Emma-The women's right to the franchise and their deprivation of dower-Accusations against the Gentiles-Mormon criminal statistics The Salt Lake Tribune on "Gulled English travellers "--Celestial marriages and divorces-Governor MurrayMrs. Paddick-The duty of Congress.

As I have already stated, nothing could exceed the kindness and courtesy shown to me by the leading Mormons. Shortly after my arrival at Salt Lake City, the President gave a large luncheon party in my honour at the Guardo House. He kindly sent his own carriage to the hotel for me, and his Secretary was desired to explain how a cold had unfortunately detained him in the house, but that he had given instructions that, before proceeding to the Guardo House, I should be driven to the chief points of interest in the neighbourhood, and to the hills, from which a magnificent view of the city could be obtained. I discovered subsequently that the said Secretary who had me thus in charge was the notorious Mr. George Reynolds, one of the few

Mormon husbands convicted of polygamy under the Act passed in 1862, and subjected to the penalty of his transgression. After his two years' imprisonment, however, he returned to his former wives, though I believe he has abstained from increasing their number.

When I arrived at the Guardo House, one of the daughters met me a pleasant girl about twenty years of age, who seemed very proud of the city, and anxious I should admire all its institutions. On entering the drawing-room, the President presented me to a lady, "One of my wives" being the strange formulary! I soon found myself in the thick of apostles, priests, and priestesses. Foremost among the latter was "Sister Eliza Snow," the Mormon poetess, who, in spite of having celebrated her eightieth birthday two or three days previously, had evidently lost none of her vigour and enthusiasm, as she fully showed in an effort she made at the conclusion of the luncheon for my conversion. Opposite me sat Joseph F. Smith, nephew of the Mormon founder, and next him a lady from Stockport, "sealed" to President Taylor for the life that now is and that which is to come. Both of them alluded openly to their relationship, and regretted I did not see the value of forming associations which would last throughout eternity.

President John Taylor is a mild, benevolent-looking old gentleman from Cumberland, and was a Methodist preacher. in England before his conversion to Mormonism; he is a very intelligent but not a strong man, consequently he yields to the advice of his two counsellors, Mr. George Q. Cannon and Mr. Joseph Smith-both of them men of brains, the former, who was born in Liverpool, having to a certain degree the polish of the man of the world as well. None of

CHAP. XII.

ELIZA SNOW.

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Mr. Cannon's wives were present with him on this occasion; he took the young English lady travelling with me-Miss Charlotte Robinson-in to luncheon, and made himself particularly agreeable, talking on many matters with the familiarity of a man who has seen and read much, and taken a keen interest in matters beyond his own immediate religion and circle.

While we were discussing the good things provided, which, I may remark, were excellently cooked, and served by six young ladies, who were evidently related to the President— probably his daughters, the conversation was general. It included the usual topics introduced at such gatherings, and of course the inevitable question, " How did I like America?" Before we left the table, however, "Sister Eliza " attacked me on certain vital questions, likely, in her opinion, to put a Gentile to open confusion. For instance, if I admitted that I regarded the Bible as an inspired book, how could I reject the doctrine of plural marriage, which was decidedly taught in it and practised by Biblical saints "whom the Lord loved"? If I believed that God walked and talked with holy men of old, that He gave them the gift of prophecy, and vouchsafed to them special revelations, why should His power be limited now? Those who were stubborn and stiffnecked in days gone by had refused to listen to God's servants then, just as the Gentiles of to-day reject the teachings of Joseph Smith, and deny the revelations made to Latter Day Saints! When she spoke of the heavenly joys in store for those who had obeyed God's commandments by having plural wives on earth, I ventured to remind her of the answer Christ gave the Sadducees, to the effect that "when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are

given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven;" but in reply there was quite a general chorus to the effect that the marriages had already taken place on earth, and, in short, the verse was held to establish their dicta on the propriety of arranging such relationships in the present world for enjoyment in the next.

The conversation was but another instance of the way in which all things read according to our personal "point of view." As I remarked to my Mormon friends, it reminded me of the story of the dream that during one night the Bible became a blank, and when the people were called together the next day to supply as far as possible the valuable guidance the world had thus lost, each denomination furnished that part of the text that exactly coincided with its own way of thinking, and conveniently forgot the rest! Το reconstruct the Bible upon this system was, however, deemed worse than useless; the work was consequently abandoned, and the blank Bible remained, the legend states, as a witness against the inhabitants of that city for evermore. From time immemorial there have not been wanting in every community those who thus "wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction," and religious arguments are notoriously futile everywhere!

Many present at that luncheon party had crossed the plains long before the Great Pacific Railroad made travelling from New York to Salt Lake City only a matter of a few days' journey, and they gave most interesting accounts of perilous adventures with Indians, and of life in ox-team wagons, when fifteen miles a day was esteemed a fair progress, and every evening saw the emigrants in some newly pitched tent, where they beguiled the weary hours