one fashionably-dressed wife, therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the support of half a dozen under such circumstances would prove impossible. Consequently it has been jestingly proposed by those who believe that Mormon husbands "pay for everything," that the army of French milliners recently ejected from Constantinople should be despatched to Utah, as most likely to break the bonds of polygamy asunder. But Mormon ingenuity might even discover some means for checkmating the French milliners. Anyhow, Brigham Young circumvented poor Mrs. Stenhouse, who told me that, partly for employment and partly for selfsupport, she started a little business in this direction in Salt Lake City. A bonnet was ordered for Brigham's favourite wife; subsequently Mrs. Stenhouse received an order to make bonnets for all his wives, and gloves, ribbons, and laces were supplied in addition. The bill amounted to 275 dollars; but when it was presented, the poor woman found the wily prophet had ordered "that the amount should be credited against her for tithing.”

The matter, however, is too serious, and involves too many grave interests, to admit of being for a moment treated from a jesting point of view; and I confess that the extirpation of polygamy by brute force is to me equally repugnant. The British Government certainly found it impossible to crush the crime of infanticide in India without military measures; the Abolitionists in America vainly combated by other means, for two generations, the institution of slavery, and at last moral forces had to be supplemented by the strong arm of the law. It would almost seem that the legislative opportunity now open is Utah's last chance to initiate peaceable reforms from within. The law of the United States cannot be much longer defied with safety. I fancy this is

CHAP. XII.

APOSTLE TEASDALE.

199

almost acknowledged within the citadel itself, for Bishop Sharp, whom I met while in Salt Lake City, on his return from Washington, observed, "No power but the Almighty can save the Mormon people; if God does not pilot the ship, it will go down." Not that the Latter Day Saints themselves are ready to "go back" on their so-called principles: Apostle George Teasdale, who may be taken as a representative speaker, in a recent address at the Assembly Hall, “bore testimony" to his unshaken faith in the tenets of the one true religion revealed by the angel at Moroni, and to “the priesthood which was then established upon earth." He continued: "Have we any occasion to fear the people or nations? No! I don't go back on one principle of the revelations. I believe in the doctrine of plural marriage as much as I do in baptism for the remission of sins. I would not give up one of the principles of this gospel. I do not fear the face of man as I fear the face of God. I should fear to go behind the veil and meet those who would know that I had given up any of the principles of eternal truth. I bear my testimony that plural marriage is a necessity, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cannot exist without it. It is one of the marks of this Church."

It is impossible for the United States Government to delay the settlement of this question, and escape from the charge of wilful neglect and incapacity; it may also expect considerable outside pressure if it does not deal with the problem quickly, and in a thoroughly practical way. The majesty of the law can alone be vindicated by a well-aimed blow at the power of the Mormon chiefs. Polygamy must be suppressed by unflinching enforcements, unless the nation is willing to let it spread and flourish for ever over the western portion of America.

CHAPTER XIII.

American hotel despotism: Hours for meals-The journey across the desert from Ogden-The disappearance of the Indians and buffaloes from the railroad tracks-The flight of antelopes-The Sierra-Nevada mountains-San Francisco-Palace Hotel-Bell-boys and hotel servants generally-Chinatown in its New-Year garb-Cable-cars -Drives to the Cliff House through the park and to the PresidioWooden houses-Fires and the Fire Brigade-Dr. Hardy's Foundling Hospital on Golden Gate Avenue.

THERE is no despotism more thorough than that of an American Hotel. Breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and supper are served between fixed hours, and neither love nor money will obtain anything to eat save at those fixed periods. The unhappy traveller who arrives after the supper-room is closed must go to bed fasting; and still worse is the plight of those who leave before the breakfast hour, for sleep may relieve the sufferings of the former, but what is to become of those who start on a long journey fasting? The fact is that the cooks, and most of the waiters, in American hotels only come into the house at specified times for their appointed duties. The key is turned on the larder and store closet, and food cannot possibly be had till the return of the man in possession. The English custom of having meals when they are required, is utterly unknown and undreamt of in their philosophy. Not even a cup of coffee could we obtain before we left the Continental

CHAP. XIII.

HOTEL DESPOTISM.

201

Hotel at Salt Lake City to catch the early express passing through Ogden, and but for my skilful companion's spirit lamp, which enables her to furnish a cup of tea “on the cars," together with a luncheon basket kindly provided for us by the wife of the English banker, we should have perished by the way! We were told that we should have an hour for breakfast at Ogden, but our train was late, and there was barely time to secure our tickets and catch the San Francisco express.

Our journey for the first day was dull enough: vast deserts of sand had to be crossed, but towards nightfall a heavy snow was encountered, and droves of antelopes came flying down in such numbers from the mountains that while they crossed the track the train was obliged to come to a full stop.

A few Indians, here and there, en route, had been visible at the smaller dépôts, besmeared with yellow ochre, and dressed in red blankets, their untidy squaws ornamented like themselves with cheap jewelry, all of them ready to beg for a ten cent piece or tobacco, but showing no trace whatever of the war-like red man of romantic story. The most characteristic Indians I ever saw during my three tours in America was at the Indian delegation at Philadelphia. Lone Wolf, Doghater, Milkyway, Chewing Elk, Grey Eagle, Heap o' Bears, Yellow Horse, and Yar-Lou-Pee, were introduced to me in the charge of Captain Alvord. They were accompanied by their interpreters and squaws, and when presented with flowers, passed them, to my amusement, with every sign of contempt, to the ladies. But the Indians of the plains are almost myths as far as the railroad vision extends, though there are several Indian reservations

in the interior. Winnemucca, near Paradise Valley, is so named after the chief of the Piute tribe, who is now about seventy-eight years old, and much respected by his followers.

In these degenerate prosaic days no particular excitements are afforded the railroad traveller. The Piute and the Shoshone, like the poet's "rolling seas of shaggy humpbacked buffaloes," who break like thunder against the foothills, are things of the past as far as he is concerned. A train is still sometimes attacked by bandits-especially on the southern road-if there is known to be a sufficient prize on board, but otherwise the Pacific tourist, as a rule, now travels as calmly across those vast stretches of desert as the London cockney does from Shoreditch to Bow, at least as regards the dread of any human violence.

The unmanned tempest that rides and reigns in these regions is the Conqueror, however, before whose sway man will be for ever powerless, even when aided by Nature's greatest discovered force. The wild winds of heaven have blown trains from the track ere now; and when the snow descends, as American snow is wont to descend-five feet of snow in the Sierra-Nevada mountains sometimes fall in a day-engines are rendered powerless, the cars are frozen to the rails, and hopelessly imbedded in the drifts. Passengers have sometimes been thus imprisoned for twenty-four hours, and finally had to make their escape on foot to a “rescue train" half a mile the other side of the snow-drift.

Some such fate seemed likely to befall me during this journey to San Francisco, for it soon became evident that there was bad weather ahead, and by the time we began the ascent of the Sierra-Nevada mountains it was all the train