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 THE FATE 
 
 iMADAME LA TOUR 
 
 A Tale of Great Salt Lake 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. A. G. PADDOCg, 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT 
 1881
 
 Rs 
 
 P3 
 F3 
 
 COPYBIGHT, 1881. 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD, 4 HULBERT
 
 LETTERS 
 
 CONCERNING THE TRUSTWORTHINESS OF THE AUTHOR OK THIS 
 BOOK. 
 
 From GOVERNOR MURRAY. 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, EXECUTIVE OFFICE, | 
 SALT LAKE CITY, April 16, 1881. ) 
 
 I look with interest for the publication of Mrs. Paddock s 
 promised book. Her writings attest her capacity, which, 
 joined with her long residence in Utah, and access to reliable 
 sources of information, suggest a true story well told. 
 
 ELI H. MURRAY, 
 
 Governor. 
 
 From J. S. BORF.MAN, ESQ., late Associate Justice of the Su 
 preme Court of Utah. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. April 27, 1881. 
 
 I learn with great pleasure that it is the purpose of Mrs. A. 
 G. Paddock to publish another volume giving some pictures of 
 life among the Mormons. I know of no one better qualified for 
 that work than Mrs. Paddock. She has been here for some 
 years, and I know from numerous articles which have appeared 
 from her pen and from the active life among these people that 
 she has gathered a vast storehouse of information. ... I have 
 resided in Utah eight years, and been on the bench of the United 
 States Court for seven and a half years of that time, and be 
 lieve that I am tolerably familiar with the Mormon system. 
 
 JACOB S. BOREMAN.
 
 vi LE T 7 EXS. 
 
 From HON. G. S. BLACK, Ex -Secretary of Utah Tern tor} . 
 
 UNITED STATES MARSHAL j OFFICE. ) 
 
 UTAH TERRITORY, 
 SALT LAKE CITY, April 28, iSSi. ) 
 
 MESSRS. FORDS, HOWARD & HULBERT, Publishers, New York 
 City : 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I take pleasure in saying that I have known 
 Mrs. A. G. Paddock for the last ten years, six of which I was 
 Secretary of the Territory. I know of no person in the Terri 
 tory who has given the situation here, and Utah affairs in gen 
 eral, more study than Mrs. Paddock, and her advantages for 
 gaining and ability in imparting information have been the envy 
 of us all. GEO. S. BLACK. 
 
 From MRS. S.. A. COOKE, President Woman s National Anti- 
 Polygamy Society. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, April 16, 1881. 
 
 I have been a resident of this city since 1852, and have been 
 personally acquainted with Mrs. Paddock since 1871, and believe 
 she has access to reliable sources of information on matters con 
 nected with Mormonism. She mentioned my name in her 
 former book, "In the Toils," as a lady who had care of two 
 boys saved from the Mountain Meadow massacre. The eldest 
 of the two boys had a perfect recollection of the scenes in that 
 most horrible tragedy. I do not think Mrs. Paddock would 
 overstate the facts respecting that or many other deeds that 
 have darkened the history of this Territory. 
 
 MRS. SARAH A. COOKE. 
 
 From JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER to Mrs. Paddock on receipt 
 of a copy of her former book on Mormonism. 
 
 DANVERS, MASS., 8 Mo. 18, 1879. 
 
 DEAR FRIEND : I thank thee for a copy of thy story " In the 
 Toils." I had read it in the Alliance with a deep and painful 
 interest. It seems scarcely possible that such a state of society 
 as is there depicted so graphically and forcibly can exist in our
 
 LETTERS. Vll 
 
 country. Yet all history tells us that there are no limits to atroc 
 ities and cruelties which even those who are naturally good 
 and gentle may commit under the influence of religious fanati 
 cism. 
 
 How to deal with this great evil I confess is to me a difficult 
 problem. While it exists I trust that Congress, however demoral 
 ized by party politics, will not admit Utah as a State into the 
 Union. 
 
 Thy friend, 
 
 JOHN G. WHITTIER.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE present tale, while following chiefly the fortunes and 
 misfortunes of a single family (the main incidents of which 
 are only too truthfully related), traces the development of 
 the Mormon system in those distant " valleys of the moun 
 tains," and shows some of the \vays and means of its work 
 ings. I do not pretend to tell the worst of the doings of 
 the Saints, for no decent pen could describe and no decent 
 reader would peruse the shocking facts. On the other 
 hand, I have carefully avoided all such elements as would 
 tend to have any corrupting influence or to offend the sen 
 sitive and pure-minded. 
 
 Louise La Tour is not a creation of fancy. Her story is 
 true ; her sufferings were real ; but I have only 
 
 " Hinted, with delicate half-words 
 And scrupulous reserves, 
 What no one scrupled she should feel in full." 
 
 For my sources of information, I have my own personal 
 observation during a residence of ten years in the city of 
 Salt Lake. I have boarded in Mormon families, have had 
 Mormons living in my own family (though neither my hus 
 band nor myself have ever been Mormons), and have had 
 Mormon neighbors on every side. I have also enjoyed the 
 acquaintance and the confidence of many of those who have 
 represented the Federal authorities here. My husband 
 has been in the Territory since 1858, and has personal 
 knowledge of many matters herein described. I am es 
 pecially indebted to him for the material of the chapters re 
 lating to life in Oregon and California and on the plains ;
 
 x PREFA CE. 
 
 as he himself passed through most of the experiences and 
 adventures there set down, the pictures may be relied 
 upon as true to life. 
 
 The two hundred thousand Mormons of Utah and its 
 neighboring States and Territories are by their religion the 
 sworn enemies of the United States Government ; the mar 
 ried women are voters, who follow the orders of .their hus 
 bands, who in their turn elect the " chosen of the Lord," 
 as directed by the hierarchy ; and by way of strengthening 
 this political, spiritual, social, independent despotism, 
 there were more polygamous marriages during the year 
 1880 than in any previous year since the settlement of Utah 
 by the Mormons. These three facts make the topic of this 
 book one of importance to every thinking man and woman 
 in our common country. 
 
 To myself, the construction of this story out of realities 
 existing on every side of me, which far surpass in strange 
 ness and romance any fiction that could be invented, has 
 been a matter of intense interest. I cannot hope to have 
 clone justice to the materials, but if my story shall succeed 
 in arousing people to think, and to examine into the facts 
 of the unnatural problem of Mormonism, I shall be 
 content. I call it a " problem," because it is not easy 
 among the elements of this theocratic despotism to find a 
 " Republican form of Government," nor out of the debas 
 ing results of polygamy to develop a community of Chris 
 tian American households. In reality there is no " prob 
 lem" about it, for no such solution is possible ; but the 
 public indifference seems to take it for granted that these 
 things "will all come right some day and some how," 
 and therefore it is that I ask a consideration of the system, 
 its ways, means, and results. 
 
 CORNELIA PADDOCK. 
 
 Great Salt Lake, Utah T,-r., June\, 1881.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE 
 
 I. THE ADVANCE GUARD 13 
 
 II. MADAME LA TOUR 22 
 
 III. PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS 35 
 
 IV. MYSTERY BEGINS 48 
 
 V. CELESTIAL MARRIAGE 62 
 
 VI. FORTY-NlNERS 75 
 
 II. THE BROTHERS 87 
 
 VIII. THE PROPHET S PROFITS 101 
 
 IX. PLANS FOR ESCAPE 113 
 
 X. THE BLISTERING DESERT 125 
 
 XI. A CALIFORNIA GULCH 137 
 
 XII. A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT 154 
 
 XIII. THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN 166 
 
 X IV. PRAYER AND SACRIFICE 175 
 
 XV. THE TEST OF LOYALTY iS6 
 
 XVI. PLURAL BLESSEDNESS 197 
 
 XVII. THE DEAD TELL TALI s 209
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE 
 
 XVIII. THE LION AND THE Fox 220- 
 
 XIX. A MYSTERY SOLVED 231 
 
 XX. THE SEALED PACKET 245 
 
 XXI. THE REVOLT 259 
 
 XXII. EPILOGUE 266 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881 285 
 
 UTAH TO-DAY 321 
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE 327
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ADVANCE GUARD. 
 
 IN the early spring of 1847 a body of armed men were 
 gathered on the west bank of the Missouri River. It was 
 not the Missouri of to-day, spanned by railroad bridges, 
 plowed by steamers, its shores bordered with fertile farms, 
 and dotted with cities and villages, but the Missouri of 
 thirty-four years ago, wending its tortuous and solitary 
 way between high bluffs that echoed to the howl of the 
 wolf and the war-whoop of the savage. 
 
 Most of these men wore the homespun dress of the pio 
 neers ; but a few were clad in the buckskin suits adopted by 
 hunters and trappers. Besides the rifles in their hands, 
 more than half of the company carried small arms in their 
 belts, and to a man their faces expressed a grim and fierce 
 determination. 
 
 Viewing them thus, as they stood there in the early 
 morning, the solitary bluffs of the Missouri on their right, 
 the boundless, silent prairie on their left, the spectator, had 
 there been one to note this extraordinary group, would 
 have carried the picture away in his memory as that of a 
 band of outlaws about to start on some desperate errand, 
 with but faint chances that so many as half their number 
 would ever return. 
 
 Still, there were accessories to the picture which forbade 
 the supposition that they were ordinary brigands, bound on 
 an expedition of robbery and murder. 
 
 A few rods distant about fifty wagons were ranged, some 
 of them filled with supplies for a long journey, others load-
 
 14 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 ed with farming implements and sacks of grain, and near 
 these wagons more than three hundred horses and mules 
 were picketed. 
 
 The men, about a hundred and fifty in number, were 
 leaning on their rifles and listening to one of the band, who 
 was evidently their leader. 
 
 He stood on a little hillock, a few feet above his auditors, 
 whom his fiery words held spell-bound. He was in the 
 prime of life, of medium stature, but powerfully buijt, and 
 his face bore the stamp of an iron will to which all must 
 bend, and of that inflexibility of purpose which annihilates 
 all obstacles. His deep-set eyes told of greed, both of 
 money and power, as plainly as the square mouth and 
 heavy jaws revealed the savage in his nature, at once sen 
 sual and cruel. 
 
 He talked rapidly, and his diction was that of a man of 
 the people unpolished, uncultured, and ignorant of even 
 the alphabet of such learning as is garnered in books, save 
 such as he might glean from the Scriptures ; but his rude 
 and forcible eloquence swayed his listeners as a northern 
 gale bends the pines, and when from time to time he ex 
 claimed, " You who are with me, raise your right hands," 
 all hands were uplifted simultaneously, as though some 
 secret spring moved the whole company like one man. 
 
 Pointing eastward, he denounced in scathing language 
 the nation whose frontier settlements lay beyond the river, 
 and invoked upon the people the curse of famine and pes 
 tilence, of fire and sword. 
 
 A deep " Amen" from all his listeners answered him. 
 
 Then stretching out his hand toward the West, he ex 
 claimed, 
 
 " Yonder, a thousand miles beyond the borders of this 
 accursed people, lies the land that is given to us for an 
 inheritance, and there we will build cities, and plant vine-
 
 THE ADVANCE GUARD. 15 
 
 yards, and dwell in peace, while the vials of wrath are 
 being poured out upon the nations of the earth." 
 
 He continued to talk in this strain for a few minutes 
 longer, and then, lifting his hands, pronounced a benedic 
 tion on the armed band that had echoed his curses. The 
 discourse was apparently a preliminary of the real busi 
 ness of the morning, which now began in earnest. 
 
 Teams were harnessed and attached to the wagons, sin 
 gle horses saddled, arms and ammunition looked to, and 
 the train put in marching order, the men being divided into 
 companies of fifties, and those again into squads of tens, 
 each with a captain, through whom the orders of the chief 
 were carried out in detail. By the time the sun was well 
 above the eastern bluffs, teams, horsemen, and footmen 
 were moving westward. Civilization was behind them, the 
 desert before them, and a savage foe on their route ; but 
 not a man hesitated or faltered. Faith in their leader, 
 and a form of fanaticism which made them regard them 
 selves as under the special protection of Heaven, sustained 
 some ; but others, and these by far the majority of the 
 company, were already outlaws, whose presence civiliza 
 tion refused to tolerate, and to them the wilderness offered 
 the only safe refuge. 
 
 Counterfeiting and theft were the least of the offences 
 laid to their charge. Many, if not all of those thus out 
 lawed were accused of the darker crimes of bigamy, trea 
 son, and murder, and the rude pioneers of the border, 
 meeting violence with violence, and punishing glaring out 
 rages by mob-law, had driven them from their midst. 
 
 No fair-minded historian will attempt to cover or palliate 
 a resort to mob-violence. In a country where the courts 
 are open to all, and where, as a rule, any criminal may be 
 tried and punished according to the established forms of 
 law, those who take the law into their own hands are inex-
 
 1 6 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 cusable and yet the peculiar circumstances attending the 
 expulsion of this band of outlaws from the community on 
 which they had preyed make one hesitate to condemn with 
 out reserve those who drove them out. 
 
 The company leaving the banks of the Missouri this 
 morning had no fixed destination. They were scouts 
 whose business it was to discover and take possession of 
 some tract of land that would furnish a refuge for them 
 selves and those whom they represented, and a home for 
 their families. A few of them may have believed that their 
 chief would be divinely guided to the spot that Heaven had 
 set apart for them some Promised Land, flowing with 
 milk and honey but the greater number relied on the 
 sagacity of their leader, and on a certain trapper and plains 
 man in their ranks who knew the country. 
 
 The first month brought them no hardships. The well- 
 watered plains of Nebraska afforded abundant pasture for 
 their animals, and favorable camping-grounds for the train. 
 There were no hostile demonstrations on the part of the 
 Indians. Game abounded, and good rifles, in the hands 
 of men who knew how to use them, kept the company sup 
 plied with meat. 
 
 They reached the crossing of the Platte in advance of 
 the June freshets, and were therefore able to ford the 
 stream without serious difficulty. The river, not more 
 than three fourths of a mile wide at the crossing, and but 
 little more than two feet in depth at this season of the year, 
 is yet a formidable stream to ford, for two reasons. It 
 runs with extraordinary swiftness, and the fine white sand 
 in the bottom, packed hard by the action of the water, 
 forms a thin crust over the treacherous depths beneath 
 shifting, dangerous quicksands, in which the wheels of the 
 loaded wagons sink and cannot be withdrawn. Footmen 
 and horsemen may cross without danger, but if the loaded
 
 THE ADVANCE GUARD. l^ 
 
 teams are allowed for any reason to halt, the wheels break 
 through the thin crust of the river-bottom, and the wagon 
 begins to sink continues to sink until, in a little while, 
 no force can extricate it. 
 
 In the present company there were plainsmen familiar 
 with the crossing, and the method dictated by their experi 
 ence was adopted. The teams were unhitched from all 
 but ten of the wagons. To each one of these wagons four 
 teams were attached, and a spot previously tested by the 
 horsemen was selected for grossing. The teams entered 
 the water in single file, the drivers walking on the upper 
 side, with a horseman for each team riding the stream be 
 low. All the speed that the swiftness of the current would 
 allow was now made, to avoid the quicksands, and when 
 the last of the ten wagons was safe on the opposite bank 
 the teams were unhitched and driven back to aid in bring 
 ing the other wagons across. 
 
 Conducted in this manner, the fording of the stream occu 
 pied nearly the whole of two days. 
 
 The teams attached to one of the last wagons at the 
 crossing becoming unmanageable in the middle of the cur 
 rent, the driver, who walked beside them, was thrown 
 down, and as he rose to his feet the blood that trickled 
 from a wound above the temple mingled with the stream. 
 Was it a foreshadowing of the day, not many years later, 
 when, tracked and followed by his " brethren" to this same 
 river, his life-blood should stain its waters, and the treach 
 erous sands beneath become his grave ? 
 
 When the train resumed its march, after camping for the 
 night on the bank of the river, the one man in the com 
 pany whose trapping expeditions had led him into the re 
 gions beyond, was made their guide across the vast ex 
 panse of rolling prairie stretching westward to the Rocky 
 Mountains.
 
 1 8 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 No pillar of cloud by day or pillar of fire by night was 
 vouchsafed to lead them ; but, as before stated, the ma 
 jority of this band of scouts were men uninfluenced by 
 fanaticism, or any other motive beyond that of placing a 
 safe distance between themselves and civilization, and the 
 buckskin-clad trapper who guided them served their pur 
 pose quite as well as an angel going before them to point 
 out the way. 
 
 Six years before the time of which we write, emigrant 
 trains had begun to cross these prairies, and the mountain 
 regions beyond, on their way to the coast, and four years 
 previous to the date of the present exploring expedition the 
 regular annual overland emigration to Oregon and Cali 
 fornia began, so that a trail which could be easily followed 
 was already marked out,* and the trapper, who had accom 
 panied such trains more than once, was able to assist the 
 leader of the band by suggesting the principal features of 
 the "vision" which was to decide the company in their 
 choice of a location. It was the first of June when they 
 reached the South Pass, a park or mountain valley many 
 thousand feet above the level of the sea. Here, within 
 three hundred yards of each other, are two springs, the 
 one the source of a little creek that, flowing eastward, joins 
 itself to streams that become tributary to the Missouri, 
 finding thence an outlet by way of the Mississippi to the 
 Gulf of Mexico ; the other, the head-waters of a rivulet 
 that widens and deepens as the snows continue to melt 
 and other rivulets join it, until it becomes a river, and its 
 waters, by many and devious channels at length reach and 
 mingle with the Pacific. 
 
 In these springs the leader of the band found an omen 
 of the destiny of himself and his people. 
 
 * See Appendix, Note A, page 328.
 
 THE ADVANCE GUARD. 19 
 
 " Here," he said, " \ve leave the East forever leave it 
 under a curse. We follow the waters of this stream, 
 whose course is toward the West. There is our inherit 
 ance. There we will set up a kingdom that shall yet de 
 stroy and break in pieces all the nations and kingdoms of 
 the earth. The land is ours, and woe to the man or the 
 nation that tries to take it from us. We will never be 
 driven out again. From this time forth it belongs to us to 
 drive others out." 
 
 To the few fanatics in the company these words were a 
 prophecy a message from above. To the others they 
 were a revelation of the ambitious plans of their leader, 
 who nourished the hope of setting up an independent gov 
 ernment somewhere in the fastnesses of the Sierras. 
 
 Let those who exclaim against the idea that a plan so 
 preposterous could ever have been seriously entertained by 
 a man possessing the known shrewdness of that leader, 
 look over the history of the community he ruled, and ask 
 themselves the question whether, in point of fact, it has 
 not been an independent state for more than a quarter of 
 a century. 
 
 Beyond the South Pass the train made excellent time. 
 The weather was everything that could .be desired ; game 
 abounded, their animals were in good condition, and as it 
 was yet early in the season there was no scarcity of water 
 or grass. At a few points along the route the Indians 
 showed faint signs of hostility, but by the sagacious man 
 agement of their leader trouble was avoided. 
 
 It was about the middle of July when they entered the 
 mountain passes west of Green River. Here the main 
 body hatted for a time, and hall a dozen picked men, guided 
 by the trapper before mentioned, were sent out to prospect 
 for a location possessing the advantages of water and a 
 fertile soil.
 
 20 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 After a few days absence the scouts returned with good 
 news. They had found the very spot which their leader 
 assured them he had seen in a vision the site of the future 
 kingdom. 
 
 No time was now to be lost. On the very day that the 
 scouts returned the train was again put in marching 
 order, and on the twenty-fourth of the same month the 
 whole company entered the Promised L^nd through a wide 
 pass leading by a gentle descent into the valley. 
 
 They came in through this pass in the morning, and be 
 fore nightfall they had pitched their camp, taken formal 
 possession of the country, and commenced breaking the 
 soil for the autumn crops that they proposed to put in. 
 
 The valley was watered by a score of mountain streams, 
 which were fed by the melting snows. The soil was deep 
 and rich, needing only irrigation to make it immensely pro 
 ductive, and with a promptness and energy which prom 
 ised well for their future success, a dam was built at once, 
 and ditches dug as soon as the seed was put in. 
 
 Then, as the thousand miles or more which they had 
 traveled must be retraced before winter set in, the main 
 body hastily prepared for their homeward journey, leaving 
 about thirty of their number to hold possession of the coun 
 try, and do what they could toward building houses for the 
 families that were to come on the next year. 
 
 There was no timber for building purposes nearer than 
 the cafions, and to. these the roads had yet to be made ; 
 but the settlers, profiting by the experience of their Mexi 
 can neighbors, made use of an excellent building material 
 that they found ready to their hands. In many places near 
 the site of the " city" their leader had laid out, there were 
 large tracts of the clay used for making adobes or sun-dried 
 bricks. These bricks were easily molded, and, in that 
 climate, soon dry enough for use ; and in the absence of
 
 THE ADVANCE GUARD. 21 
 
 lime a serviceable mortar was made by mixing sand with 
 the mud of the adobe pits, and in a little while, to the sur 
 prise of the red man who came down from his tepee in the 
 hills to interview the new arrivals, the walls of a dozen 
 cabins were taking form and consistence under the busy 
 hands of the colonists. 
 
 Meantime the returning pioneers were experiencing all 
 the hardships of travel on scanty rations over the plains 
 parched by the heat of midsummer. The grass that made 
 such excellent pasturage in June was withered, many of 
 the streams were dried up, and before half their journey 
 was accomplished the rations they carried with them were 
 so reduced that they had to depend almost wholly on their 
 rifles for food. To add to their trials, the Indians stole 
 many of their horses and harassed them in various ways ; 
 but they finally reached the frontier without the loss of a 
 man, and on the last day of October stood again on the 
 banks of the Missouri.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 SPRING has come again in the valley of the Missouri. 
 The vast, treeless prairies on the western shore are a ten 
 der green. As far as the eye can reach, north, south, and 
 west, the grassy sea extends until it meets and blends with 
 the blue of the clear May skies. 
 
 About a mile west of the bluff, and on the north bank of 
 a small stream that empties into the river, there is a settle 
 ment which, from the nature of the buildings and the char 
 acter of the surroundings, is evidently temporary, being 
 little more, in fact, than the camp of a people who for 
 years have had no certain dwelling-place. There are a 
 large number of rude log-cabins, bearing every mark of 
 the haste with which they were constructed, and of the 
 indifference with which their owners regard them. The 
 logs, obtained from the cottonwood grove on the river-bot 
 tom, a little to the north, are still incased in their native 
 bark, and the buildings are roofed with poles and brush, 
 held down and made water-tight by a coating of earth. The 
 circle of cabins is interspersed with tents, and in the rear 
 of each one stands a covered wagon, its white top visible 
 above the low roof, so that at a little distance the whole 
 settlement presents the appearance of one of those canvas 
 towns which, a few years later, sprang up everywhere 
 throughout the West in the wake of miners and railroads. 
 The cattle belonging to the encampment are feeding on the 
 prairie beyond in. the care of the herders, but, with the ex 
 ception of the men thus engaged, the whole population of
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 23 
 
 the settlement are assembled in an open space within the 
 circle of buildings, to listen to their chief and receive his 
 orders. 
 
 The speaker is the same individual who, a little more 
 than a year ago, stood on the bluffs of the river a couple of 
 miles farther south, and prophesied to the band of scouts 
 he led that they should find in the heart of the desert a 
 land flowing with milk and honey. This prophecy he re 
 peats to-day to a company of two thousand souls, men, 
 women, and children, who to-morrow are to break camp 
 and turn their faces westward. 
 
 Among these are many sincere souls, who regard their 
 leader as inspired, and who are ready to follow him to the 
 ends of the earth if need be. 
 
 There are men of wealth camping in those mud-roofed 
 log-cabins, who have offered all their possessions on the 
 altar of their faith, and there are chaste wives and tender 
 mothers, whose presence in the outlawed band can only be 
 explained by their sincere though sadly mistaken belief in 
 the divine mission of the man who stands before them. 
 
 Still, as already stated, the fanatics and those sincere be 
 lievers in the New Gospel who do not merit that title, are 
 not in the majority. There are scores of women in the 
 encampment who are there only because their husbands 
 have chosen to follow the leader who is about to conduct 
 them into the wilderness ; and there are other women 
 many of them whose relations to the leader and his satel 
 lites are such as could not be maintained openly in a civil 
 ized community. 
 
 More than half of the mixed company are children, to 
 whom the journey across the plains presents itself in the 
 light of a long summer holiday, and babes in arms, happy 
 everywhere so long as they can look up into the unclouded 
 heaven of a mother s face.
 
 24 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 When the speaker concluded his address, the " Amens" 
 were less hearty and general than when he spoke to the 
 band of picked men who were to go before the people and 
 prepare the way. Many of the present company were 
 already restive under a despotism which they foresaw 
 would become absolute, when the proposed colony should 
 be established a thousand miles from civilization ; but what 
 could they do ? Some of them were already outlawed by 
 their own acts ; others had surrendered all their posses 
 sions into the hands of those who controlled the organiza 
 tion, and even among the disaffected the feeling prevailed 
 that they had now gone too far to retreat. 
 
 After the assembly broke up, the speaker, disengaging 
 himself from those who pressed around him with eager 
 questions, walked toward the open door of one of the 
 cabins, which, while it differed in no wise from the others 
 outwardly, within was comfortably and in some respects 
 even luxuriously furnished. 
 
 A handsome carpet hid the rough floor, a silken coverlet 
 was spread over the bed that occupied one corner, and the 
 three or four chairs in the room were of costly make and 
 material, though bearing unmistakable marks of having 
 been brought to their present destination under difficulties. 
 
 The only occupant of the place was a lady, still in the 
 prime of life, and with a. face whose beauty must once have 
 been of no common order, though stamped now with the 
 ineffaceable marks of years of suffering. Her dress, like 
 the furniture of her room, was strangely out of keeping 
 with her rude surroundings. 
 
 he was in deep mourning. A robe of soft cashmere 
 trimmed with heavy folds of crape trailed on the carpet as 
 she paced the floor with slow steps. 
 
 A widow s cap covered the heavy coils of hair, once jet 
 black, but now thickly sprinkled with silver.
 
 MADAMl-. LA TO UK. 25 
 
 The face was perfect in outline, hut colorless as though 
 carved out of marble, and thin and worn, as though with 
 long illness or hopeless sorrow perhaps both. The eyes, 
 large, dark, and lustrous, were cast down and half hidden 
 by the long lashes. 
 
 A certain air of proud patience, the offspring of a spirit 
 that disdained complaint, marked both her face and her 
 manner, yet when the eyes were raised for a moment the 
 smouldering fire in them told of passions that, once roused, 
 would brook no control. 
 
 As the leader ot the people paused at her door, she in 
 clined her head slightly, but gave no other sign of being 
 aware of his presence. His face darkened. It was not 
 such a reception as he was accustomed to ; but mastering 
 an evident inclination to resent the disrespect shown him, 
 he said, in bland tones, 
 
 " We missed you much this morning, Sister La Tour. 
 I am sorry you were not able to be out." 
 
 Madame La Tour (for by this name she was known in 
 Ihe world she had left) turned her dark eyes full upon 
 him, with a look under which he quailed for an instant ; 
 but recovering himself, presently he added, 
 
 " I want to speak a few words to you in private, and by 
 your leave I will come in ;" stepping across the threshold 
 as he spoke, and closing the door after him. 
 
 Madame La Tour neither answered nor turned her head, 
 but continued to pace the floor with slow steps, her eyes 
 once more cast down. 
 
 Her unbidden guest seated himself in the nearest chair, 
 and making an effort to appear unconscious of her man 
 ner, spoke again : 
 
 " Sister La Tour, we start at an early hour in the morn 
 ing. All our arrangements are made, and every one ex 
 cept yourself is ready. You are not going to rebel against
 
 26 THE FA TE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 the Spirit of the Lord, and at the last hour refuse to go 
 with us ?" 
 
 In spite of his assumed ease, there was an undercurrent 
 of anxiety in the tone in which he put the last question. 
 The woman stopped suddenly in her walk and faced him. 
 
 " Tell me first," she said sharply and sternly, " what 
 you have done with my daughter." 
 
 " Your daughter is in good hands," was the reply. " I 
 will myself be responsible for her safety." 
 
 " You!" 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the concentrated hate 
 and scorn in her voice as she spoke this single word. She 
 crossed the room again once or twice, then, pausing before 
 him, changed her tone. 
 
 " Only give me back my child," she said, clasping her 
 hands imploringly, "and you may keep all else that you 
 have taken. Will not my money satisfy you- -all of it ? 
 Why should you rob me of my daughter ? What have I 
 ever done to deserve it ?" 
 
 The man s deep-set eyes flashed, and his cruel mouth 
 closed firmly. For some moments he regarded the ago 
 nized face, the suppliant attitude of the proud woman be 
 fore him, with savage satisfaction. When he spoke again, 
 it was to say, in his coldest tones, 
 
 " Whether you ever see your daughter again or not de 
 pends entirely upon yourself. She is going with us, though 
 not in this company, and if you give over your sinful oppo 
 sition to what the Lord has revealed, and join the train to 
 morrow, you will meet her in the place that He has given 
 to us for an inheritance. As for your money" here he 
 dropped the hypocritical cant which he knew was thrown 
 away upon his listener " your offer is liberal, very, consid 
 ering that I have got it already, and that you have nothing 
 to show for it."
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 27 
 
 Madame La Tour made no reply. Her face settled into 
 the expression it had worn before the entrance of her un 
 welcome visitor, and she recommenced her walk across 
 the floor, taking no farther notice of him. He sat a few 
 minutes in silence, then, rising, opened the door and 
 passed out, saying, 
 
 " You can let us know your decision this evening." 
 
 A little group of women stood at the door of the next 
 cabin, and as he came near them he stopped, and, glancing 
 backward, said, 
 
 " Some of the sisters ought to keep an eye on Sister La 
 Tour. She grows worse, and I am afraid will never be right 
 here again," touching his forehead significantly as he spoke. 
 
 " Poor thing !" said one of the women compassionately, 
 as he passed on ; "I didn t know she was so bad as that, 
 though, to be sure, she has never been like herself since her 
 husband died." 
 
 "His death was very sudden, wasn t it?" inquired 
 another of the group, a tall, sharp-featured woman. 
 
 " Well, yes, rather " the first woman answered, hesitat 
 ing a little, and looking around as though to ascertain who 
 might be listening, " and there was considerable talk at 
 the time." 
 
 This vague statement appeared to convey a meaning 
 which the tall woman understood, for she raised both 
 hands with the exclamation, 
 
 " You don t say, Sister Merrit," and then relapsed into 
 silence. 
 
 " I ll tell you what it is, Sister Merrit," interposed the 
 third sister, who had not yet spoken, " I think she sees 
 more trouble about her boys going off with that Gentile 
 emigrant train, than about anything else." 
 
 " Nonsense, Sister Purdy," answered Sister Merrit 
 sharply, " she s glad to have her boys get away. If they
 
 28 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 hadn t joined the train she would have sent them back 
 home to Canada, and she d be on her way there herself 
 now if it wasn t for this trouble about Louise." 
 
 " Who is Louise ?" asked the tall woman. 
 
 " Don t you know ? I thought you did, or I wouldn t 
 have said anything. Louise was her oldest daughter, and 
 a proud, headstrong piece she was too ; but a great 
 beauty, as they say her mother used to be in her young 
 days. After Brother La Tour died his widow was obliged 
 to go to St. Louis on business, and while she was away 
 Louise boarded in Brother Joseph s family. When the 
 mother came back she got it into her head somehow that 
 there was something wrong ; but the Prophet was killed 
 that same month, and we all had too many troubles of 
 our own to think much about Sister La Tour s affairs. 
 For the next two years, and until we left Nauvoo, the 
 girl stayed with her mother, and seemed somehow greatly 
 changed. She was only fifteen when her father died, and 
 not much more than seventeen when I saw her last ; but 
 it seemed as if she had grown old in two years. Her 
 mother was more wrapped up in her than ever, and would 
 hardly allow her out of her sight a moment ; but when we 
 left Nauvoo (Sister Purdy can tell you what a time we had 
 crossing the river on the ice, and what hardships we went 
 through afterward), a good many families were separated 
 for a while on account of the confusion and trouble. 
 Among the rest, Sister La Tour and her daughter were 
 parted accidentally, and," lowering her voice to a whisper, 
 " she has ntver seen the girl from that day to this ; but 
 she has got it into her head that Brother Brigham has her 
 hid away somewhere, and that s why she never speaks to 
 him if she can help it." 
 
 " But, Sister Merrit," interrupted Sister Purdy anxiously, 
 " you know the poor woman is out of her mind."
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 29 
 
 " She was all right before this last trouble," Sister Mer- 
 rit answered, " and if that ain t enough to drive a mother 
 out of her mind, I don t know what is." 
 
 " H m ! seems to me there s a good many queer things 
 happening among us. If I d a known before I left Ver 
 mont all that I know now I wouldn t be here." 
 
 It was the tall woman who spoke ; and she finished her 
 remark in spite of a warning gesture from one of the others, 
 who perceived that a stout, bullet-headed man, one of the 
 original pioneers, was approaching within hearing dis 
 tance. He passed them, however, with only a civil " Good- 
 morning," and when he was out of sight the woman who 
 had given the history of the missing Louise said, in a low 
 tone, 
 
 " Sister Wade, we all have a right to our opinions, but 
 sometimes it s just as well to keep them to ourselves. We 
 are out of the States now, and after to-morrow morning it s 
 hardly likely that many of us will ever see them again. I 
 found out, even when we was where we could turn back, 
 that it didn t pay to make enemies of the heads of the 
 Church, and I m sure that after we start on this journey 
 we ll have to keep on good terms. with them." 
 
 " If / thought that," Sister Wade answered, " I should 
 not start at all." 
 
 " Yes, but," rejoined the other, " could you persuade 
 your husband to give up going with the rest ?" 
 
 Sister Wade s countenance fell. She looked like a reso 
 lute woman ; but it was plain that she was now confronted 
 by a difficulty that could not be easily disposed of. 
 
 " I ve never talked to him about it," she said evasively ; 
 and after a few more words the conversation dropped, and 
 the women separated. 
 
 Meanwhile Madame La Tour s guest was walking 
 rapidly toward his own domicile, a building constructed,
 
 30 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 like the others, of logs, but larger than any of them, and 
 divided into several rooms. His face expressed the con 
 sciousness of a hard-won victory, and as he passed out of 
 the hearing of the women to whom he had spoken, he said 
 aloud to himself, 
 
 " She will go." 
 
 The front door of his own house was open, and within a 
 plain-looking woman was busily engaged in packing. 
 
 He passed her without speaking, and knocked at an 
 inner door. It \vas opened by a tall, handsome, well- 
 dressed woman, whose face indicated in a marked degree 
 the same traits which his own looks revealed pride, am 
 bition, and unconquerable self-will. 
 
 This woman, who had forsaken husband and children, 
 and thrown position and reputation to the winds for his 
 sake, had meant to rule the man who ruled all others ; but 
 while she was conscious that she had failed in this, she was 
 wise enough to make the most of his confidence, and of 
 the degree of influence she possessed. 
 
 As he closed the door behind him, she asked, with evi 
 dent anxiety, 
 
 " Have you succeeded ?" 
 
 " I have," was the answer. " She will go with us to 
 morrow, and, what is of more consequence, her money and 
 her family go. I have no wish to see her return to Canada 
 to spread an evil report ; but still she will always make 
 trouble, and we could have spared her better than we can 
 spare the children or the property." 
 
 " What do you want with the children ?" she asked, 
 eying him keenly. 
 
 " What does any one want with children ?" was the re 
 joinder. " How could the kingdom be built up without 
 them ? Philip is a likely boy, who will be a man in three 
 or four years ; and, boy as he is, he would cut off his right
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 31 
 
 hand for me to-day. The little girls will be women by the 
 time we get fairly settled, and they will have their mother s 
 beauty, though, it is to be hoped, not her temper." 
 
 " I see." The woman s face was a study as she pro 
 nounced these words. " But how did you manage to get 
 the mother s consent ?" 
 
 " I told her she should see her daughter in Zion, but 
 never anywhere else. She made me no answer, but her 
 face showed that she was conquered. We used to think 
 Brother Heber a fool, but he was wiser than any of us 
 when he carried off the girl." 
 
 " Brother Heber thought only of himself," the woman 
 answered, her lip curling slightly as she spoke ; " but how 
 about the money ? Those boys who have gone through to 
 the coast may make you trouble about that yet." 
 
 " They are welcome to try, after they get there." 
 
 The tone in which the last sentence was spoken, and the 
 look that accompanied it, conveyed a meaning not to be 
 mistaken. The woman turned a little pale. 
 
 " There are risks," she said. 
 
 " Not for me," he interrupted ; " I never take any risks." 
 
 Has not history the history of a long succession of 
 crimes whose responsibility was always shifted upon 
 others borne out this assertion ? 
 
 The remainder of the day we are describing was a busy 
 one in the settlement. Goods were packed, tents taken 
 clown, wagons loaded, and before the sun set all the prep 
 arations for their long journey were completed. Their 
 Hocks and herds, which were to be taken with them, were 
 corraled near at hand, and the horses picketed outside, so 
 that there need not be an hour s delay in the morning. 
 
 The family of Madame La Tour, consisting of a hoy of 
 sixteen, two little girls of ten and twelve, and a couple of 
 servants, had been busy as the others, and by the time
 
 32 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 darkness settled clown on the encampment nothing re 
 mained in their house except the bed, which the mother 
 occupied on this last night with her little girls. Philip, 
 the son, slept in the ambulance in which they were to 
 travel, and the servants, Pierre Roche and Joan his wife, 
 who had come with the La Tours from their old home in 
 Quebec, kept guard over the goods in the wagons. 
 
 Before following the fortunes of the emigrants any far 
 ther, it becomes necessary that we should give a brief his 
 tory of this family, whose members will occupy a prominent 
 place in the present narrative. 
 
 Francis La Tour was a descendant of one of the oldest 
 French families who were among the founders of Quebec, 
 and for nearly two hundred years there never lacked one 
 of his name and blood to fill the honorable place which his 
 ancestors had made for themselves. The family were 
 Catholics, and in his youth Francis, at that time their only 
 male representative, was strongly inclined to a monastic 
 life ; but the beauty of a neighbor s daughter won him 
 from his resolves, and after his marriage, as sometimes 
 happens, he passed from one extreme to the other ; and 
 whereas he had begun by yearning for a monk s cell he 
 ended by casting off the faith of his fathers altogether. 
 The consequence was that a coldness grew up between 
 himself and his old friends, and he decided at length to 
 seek a home elsewhere. The point he selected was St. 
 Louis ; and when he settled there he had already a family 
 of six children, three sons and three daughters, growing up 
 around him. His children were bright, handsome, and 
 affectionate ; his wife was devoted to him ; he had every 
 good that wealth can bestow, and yet Francis La Tour was 
 an unhappy man. 
 
 In casting off the faith in which he was reared, he had 
 by no means cast off his religious aspirations, and his state
 
 MADAME LA TOUR. 33 
 
 now was that of a man seeking rest and finding none in 
 any form of belief. 
 
 It was at a time when his mind was in this state which I 
 have tried to describe, that the emissaries, sent out by the 
 community calling themselves " Latter Day Saints," found 
 in him a willing hearer. He was disquieted by doubts : 
 they offered him a certainty. He was tired of comparing 
 the rival claims of the .systems of religion that were taught 
 in books : they would lead him at once to a living prophet, 
 through whom Divinity would speak directly to him. His 
 case was met. 
 
 Whatever faults these missionaries may have had, diffi 
 dence and hesitation were not among them, and the cer 
 tainty that they assumed, the boldness with which they 
 spoke, and the promptness with which they acted, had their 
 effect. Francis La Tour was among their earliest con 
 verts, and within six months after his baptism he removed 
 to Nauvoo, and like one of old, sold all his possessions, and 
 laid the price at the feet of those who did not display the 
 least unwillingness to receive it. 
 
 Strangely enough, however, as soon as his property was 
 in the hands of the Church, his health began to fail, and he 
 died after a short illness, leaving his widow, whose faith 
 was by no means as strong as his own, to make the best 
 terms she could for the support of her children with those 
 who held her property in their hands. 
 
 The two older sons were, like their mother, only partially 
 convinced of the truth of the New Gospel ; but Louise, the 
 oldest daughter, and Philip, the third son, shared their 
 father s faith, and looked up to the Prophet Joseph as 
 almost divine. It is true that Philip was little more than a 
 child, but he was one of those who are religiously disposed 
 almost from the cradle. Louise was differently constituted, 
 but her father was her idol, and anything that he believed
 
 34 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 was sacred in her eyes. It was her own wish to board in 
 the family of the Prophet after her father s death, and her 
 mother gave a reluctant consent only when Louise urged, 
 as a final argument, 
 
 " If father could speak, he would say that was the place 
 for me." 
 
 The business which called Madame La Tour to St. Louis 
 detained her nearly six months, anci when she returned to 
 Nauvoo the air was rife with whispers of strange doctrines, 
 chief and most repulsive of which -was that of Celestial Mar 
 riage ; for it was in the State of Illinois, and as early as the 
 year 1843, that this doctrine became one of the cardinal fea 
 tures of the religion of the Saints of the Mormon Church, 
 and there is abundant evidence to prove that the practice 
 antedated the promulgation of the doctrine by half a dozen 
 years at least.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 MADAME LA TOUR, like most persons reared in the 
 Catholic faith, had exalted ideas of the sacredness of the 
 marriage tie, and when the report (only too well authenti 
 cated) came to her ears that the Prophet Joseph had taken 
 a score of young girls as his spiritual wives, and that a 
 number of women already married had been "sealed" to 
 him for eternity, horror and loathing took the place of the 
 kindly feeling she had entertained toward him for her hus 
 band s sake. Her daughter was no longer an inmate of 
 his house. She had taken her home on the day she re 
 turned, and she now felt that her child had been rescued 
 from the brink of destruction. This comfort, however, 
 was short-lived. 
 
 Within a month after her return, the Prophet, exasperated 
 by a report that Madame La Tour was about to go to St. 
 Louis with her family for the purpose of denouncing him, 
 sent her a message, the import of which was that she 
 might go when and where she pleased, but she could not 
 take Louise, who had been sealed to him ; and Louise, 
 when confronted with the messenger, did not deny it. 
 
 The unhappy mother never recovered from this crushing 
 blow, and the kind-hearted women who thought her " a 
 little out of her mind" were not altogether wrong. Her 
 daughter s disgrace bowed her proud spirit to the earth, 
 and when Louise, now thoroughly cured of her infatuation, 
 begged that she might not be forced to go back among 
 those whom she could never look in the face again, her
 
 36 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 mother yielded so far as to consent to remain in Nauvoo 
 until they could find some retreat far from all who had 
 known them in the past. 
 
 . The one thought of both was to hide forever from the 
 world ; and the mother, thrown back in her grief and de 
 spair upon the faith of her childhood, vowed herself to a life 
 of prayer and penance in the refuge that she hoped to find. 
 
 At this time, however, all their property was in the 
 hands of the authorities of the Church. Indeed, if it had 
 not been for a small annuity which Madame La Tour pos 
 sessed in her own right, they would not have had the 
 means to live from day to day. 
 
 Matters were in this state when the Prophet Joseph, with 
 several of his counselors, was arrested by the civil authori 
 ties and conveyed to the prison, where he met his death at 
 the hands of an infuriated mob. His murder had the effect 
 that might have been anticipated. In the eyes of his de 
 voted followers it crowned him with the glories of martyr 
 dom, and the whole people, accepting it as the gage of 
 open war between themselves and the world, saw the 
 necessity of a closer union among themselves, and began 
 to look forward to the establishment of a commonwealth of 
 their own, at a safe distance from their enemies. 
 
 Madame La Tour found her embarrassments greatly in 
 creased by the Prophet s death and the consequences that 
 ensued. Her only home was among his followers, and in 
 the eyes of the world she was identified with them. Her 
 daughter refused to return to their former friends, and her 
 property was still held by the Church. Besides all this, 
 the man who from the first had determined to succeed to 
 the dead Prophet, and who already, within six months after 
 his death, exercised a greater power over the people than 
 Joseph had attained to in a lifetime, was her bitter and 
 unrelenting enemy.
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 37 
 
 By means best known to himself, he had become the 
 trustee of her property, and conceiving the idea of securing 
 it as his own, proposed to make her his spiritual wife. 
 The unmeasured scorn and indignation with which she re 
 pelled the first intimation of his purpose, he could neither 
 forget nor forgive, and while outwardly patient and con 
 siderate in his manner toward her, he only bided his time 
 to wreak on her such a vengeance as she never dreamed of. 
 
 Long before they left Nauvoo, he began to prepare for 
 the accomplishment of his purpose by throwing out art 
 fully-worded hints regarding her insanity. 
 
 He intrusted the abduction of her daughter to other 
 hands, upon his established principle of taking no personal 
 risks ; but it was his act nevertheless, and only the begin 
 ning of his vengeance. 
 
 At first, Louise s separation from her family was so 
 arranged as to appear accidental, and her mother hoped 
 to find her somewhere in the company of fugitives who were 
 making their forced and perilous march to the next halting- 
 place chosen by their leaders. It was not until they 
 reached the western bank of the Missouri that she learned 
 the truth. There, in an Indian country, where redress 
 was impossible, and where her enemy had already 
 strengthened himself by an alliance with the chiefs of the 
 savage tribes around them, he sought an interview with 
 her, and obtained it by the promise of giving her news of 
 Louise. 
 
 The substance of his communication, when made, was 
 that the spirit she had lately shown rendered her an unfit 
 guardian for her daughter, who besides being the child of 
 the Church, left in its care by her father, was the wife of 
 their martyred Prophet, and as such the especial charge of 
 his successor. 
 
 The bereaved mother did not break out into ravings, as
 
 38 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 her tormentor hoped she would ; the blow was too direct 
 and stunning. For a time all her faculties seemed be 
 numbed, and during most of the years that followed she 
 appeared as we have seen her on the day preceding the 
 departure of the emigrants for their new home in the heart 
 of the wilderness. 
 
 ******* 
 
 It will be perceived that Brigham Young, in the charac 
 ter of successor to the murdered Prophet, assumed powers 
 that the former never pretended to. Already, within less 
 than a year from the time that his claim to the office on 
 which he had seized was confirmed by the people, he had 
 entered upon the exercis e of that absolute temporal power 
 which afterward grew to such proportions that he felt him 
 self able to defy the Government of the United States. 
 
 And yet, not one of all those who have attempted to 
 analyze his character has given a satisfactory solution of 
 the secret of his extraordinary ascendency over his follow 
 ers.* A man of the people, born and nurtured in poverty, 
 barely able to read and write, living in obscurity until 
 nearly forty years of age, and moreover quite destitute of 
 personal courage,! for nearly a quarter of a century he 
 held the lives, liberty, and property of the Saints in his 
 hands, and exercised in all things the power of an absolute 
 and irresponsible despot. At the time of which we write, 
 his complete domination over his followers (numbering 
 many thousands in both hemispheres) was shown by the 
 fact that, while he led in person the small company of two 
 
 * See Appendix, Note B, page 331. 
 
 t The present writer has seen Brigham Young in the hands of the 
 Federal authorities, pale, trembling, and suffering all the agonies of 
 extreme physical cowardice ; and it is notorious that in the zenith of his 
 power he never ventured outside his own gate without an armed 
 guard.
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS, 39 
 
 thousand souls which composed the van ot the moving- 
 army of pilgrims, the marching orders which he left behind 
 him were obeyed to the letter by the Saints who were set 
 tled in comfortable homes, as well as by those who tarried 
 in camps, and thenceforward the plains were white with 
 the wagons of the emigrants, who came at the call of their 
 leader from almost every country and clime, to gather 
 round the standard which he had set up in the wilderness. 
 
 The first company, with which the Prophet traveled, was 
 provided with everything necessary for a speedy and pros 
 perous journey, and as many of the men in this company 
 were already under the ban of the law for various offenses, 
 the Zion toward which they journeyed was to them a city 
 of refuge, which it was desirable to reach as soon as pos 
 sible. 
 
 There was another reason which operated still more 
 powerfully with their Prophet to urge forward the com 
 pany he led. Among the spiritual wives who had been 
 sealed to the Prophet Joseph were a number of married 
 women, whose husbands knew nothing of their relations to 
 him. In some cases the deceived husband was absent on 
 a foreign mission, which would keep him from his family 
 four or five years. In other instances, though the husband 
 continued to live with his wife, concealment had been s& 
 successfully practiced that he did not even suspect her ot 
 infidelity ; but in either case a discovery which could not 
 fail to be attended with unpleasant consequences was to be 
 guarded against just now.* 
 
 Injured husbands had made much of the trouble which 
 resulted in the downfall of Nauvoo, and the Prophet Brig- 
 ham, who in the character of Joseph s successor claimed 
 and appropriated a number of his wives, meant to estab- 
 
 * See Appendix, Note C, page 331.
 
 40 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 lish himself securely in the mountain fastness which was 
 to be the seat of his kingdom, before the husbands of these 
 women learned the truth. Then, being clothed with abso 
 lute power, he would acknowledge them openly as his 
 wives, and make them members of his household. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 Madame La Tour felt keenly the degradation of being 
 forced to make her journey with this company of outlaws, 
 and of women who had sacrificed truth, honor, and virtue 
 on the altar of their false faith ; but there were others 
 among the emigrants whose sufferings in this respect were 
 far greater than her own. 
 
 Polygamy had been secretly practiced, not only by the 
 leaders of the people, but by many of their followers, for 
 six years past, and now, having left the farthest borders of 
 civilization for a home in the wilderness, all disguises were 
 thrown off, and women who had been wholly ignorant of 
 the acceptance of polygamy by their husbands were con 
 fronted with the "spiritual wives" (and in some cases with 
 their children also), and requested *to receive them as mem 
 bers of the family ! 
 
 In Nauvoo, women who refused to accept what was 
 known there as the spiritual wife doctrine could only be 
 subjected to ecclesiastical penalties, and threatened with 
 eternal punishment ; but here, in the heart of the Indian 
 country, with no human tribunal to which appeal could be 
 made, with no help at hand, the penalty which the Mor 
 mon code prescribed * could be visited on offenders by 
 abandoning them to the tender mercies of savages and 
 wild beasts. 
 
 * If a woman refuse to give other wives to her husband it shall be 
 lawful for him to take them without her consent, and she shall be destroy 
 ed for her disobedience. REVELATION ON CELESTIAL MARRIAGE, 
 Section 25.
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 41 
 
 There were many wives in that company who could nqt 
 otherwise have been brought to submit to the indignities 
 heaped upon them ; and among these there were some 
 who would have chosen to perish in the wilderness rather 
 than to continue their journey with the women who had 
 robbed them of their husbands ; but these wives were also 
 mothers, many of them with babes at the breast, and for 
 their children s sake they endured all things. 
 
 It was for her child s sake that Madame La Tour had 
 undertaken her dreary pilgrimage across the plains, in the 
 company of those she despised and loathed. The word of 
 the Prophet alone could not have convinced her that 
 Louise was to be taken to the place to which the emigrants 
 were bound ; but what he had said to her was only a con 
 firmation of what she had learned from other sources, and 
 she had now no reason to doubt that her daughter, if not 
 already in the mountains, would be carried there some 
 time during the present summer. 
 
 A mother s love triumphs over all difficulties, and per 
 ceives no impossibilities. She did not ask herself how she 
 should rescue her child when found. Surely, after all her 
 sacrifices and sufferings, God would provide a way. 
 
 There was no one near her in whom she could confide, 
 or of whom she could ask counsel. Her son Philip, 
 though affectionate and obedient to her, looked up to the 
 Prophet as a divine being, and the latter spoke truly when 
 he said that the boy would cut off his right hand for him. 
 Catherine, her second daughter, inherited her mother s 
 spirit, and if she knew the truth about her sister, would 
 say or do some rash thing which would bring trouble 
 upon all of them ; and Blanche, the youngest, was only a 
 child. 
 
 Her servants, it is true, were faithful and attached to 
 her ; but they were stolid specimens of the Canadian peas-
 
 42 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 a,ntry,"whose slow wits were of little use in any matter not 
 connected with their daily tasks. 
 
 She had one friend in the company outside of her own 
 family, but just now this friend had sore burdens of her 
 own to bear. 
 
 Helen Woodford was the wife of a high priest whose 
 place was near the Prophet, and whose counsel and aid 
 had been of the greatest value to the Saints in their past 
 difficulties and perils. 
 
 He was a man of more than ordinary ability, and by far 
 the superior of their leader in birth and culture-, but he was 
 one of the few who merited the title of fanatic. He had 
 already sacrificed fortune, friends, and social position for 
 the sake of his faith, and the event proved that he was 
 ready to do much more than this at the command of the 
 Prophet. 
 
 He had always been proud of his wife, who was a 
 woman of fine mind and noble .presence, and apparently 
 their marriage was,in every sense a happy one. 
 
 They had three boys, bright, handsome children, idolized 
 by both parents, and so far as their friends knew, their 
 domestic sky was without a cloud ; but in reality, the storm 
 which finally wrecked their home began to gather as far 
 back as the days when the Prophet Joseph first whispered 
 to those nearest him that he had a " revelation" command 
 ing the Saints to take unto themselves many wives. 
 
 Woodford, from the fact that he occupied a position of 
 trust and confidence, was one of the first to hear of this 
 " revelation," and although the immediate effect of the 
 disclosure was to shake his faith in the new religion and 
 its Prophet, he was finally brought to accept the doctrine 
 of celestial marriage as true. Still Ifis affection for his 
 wife, and perhaps also a little wholesome fear of conse 
 quences (for it must be remembered that at this time and
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 43 
 
 for some years afterward the Saints were, to a certain ex 
 tent, amenable to the civil law), kept him from putting his 
 belief in practice. 
 
 It was not the will of the Prophet s successor, however, 
 that the " revelation" should remain a dead letter, and a 
 strong pressure was brought to bear upon the leading men 
 of the Church who had still some love for their wives, and 
 some regard for decency and good morals, to bring them 
 to practice its teachings. 
 
 Woodford was among the number of those who, as a 
 test of their loyalty to the Church, were required to take 
 more wives, and in the end he consented to do so, and two 
 young girls were sealed to him on the same day, " for time 
 and eternity." 
 
 The need of secrecy, however, was still recognized, and 
 for many months Helen Woodford knew nothing of the 
 irreparable wrong done her. 
 
 When her suspicions were at length awakened, her hus 
 band was absent on a missionary tour, from which he did 
 not return until the day when ihe first company of emi 
 grants were preparing for their march across the plains. 
 Long before this the quick eye of the wife had discerned 
 a change in him for which she was at a loss to account ; 
 and now, while he was, if possible, more tender in his 
 manner toward her than ever before, she could not help 
 perceiving that he was ill at ease, and oppressed by some 
 unusual anxiety. 
 
 Still, strangely enough, the fears which she had begun to 
 entertain during her husband s absence did not now trou 
 ble her, and after they started on their journey she did not 
 once suspect the true cause of his gloom and restlessness, 
 until the day came which he had determined upon for end 
 ing all concealment. 
 
 The emigrant train had now been about a week on the
 
 44 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 road, and was a little more than a hundred miles west of 
 the Missouri. It was near sundown, and they had camped 
 for the night, when Woodford entered the Lent in which 
 his wife sat, accompanied by two young women, one of 
 them carrying a baby in her arms, and the other leading 
 by the hand a child a little more than a year old. Helen 
 rose with a feeling of: surprise, but still with no premoni 
 tion of what was coming, and at the same moment her 
 husband led forward the woman on his right, saying, 
 
 " This is my wife Mary, and this is our child." 
 
 Then turning immediately to the one on his left he 
 added, 
 
 " This is my wife Emily, and the little one in her arms 
 is our child." 
 
 Helen did hot break out into reproaches, nor did she 
 scream or faint. She walked quickly and silently out of 
 the tent, and continued to walk until a little rise of ground 
 hid the camp from her sight. She was following the 
 course of the stream that ran near the tent. Somewhere, 
 perhaps, it might be deepenough to afford her a resting- 
 place under its waters. Still farther. She was now a mile 
 from camp, and yet the peaceful stream, creeping between 
 its grassy banks, was so shallow that she could touch the 
 bottom with her hand. She sat down beside it, and gazed 
 into the water. 
 
 " There are other ways," she said aloud, remembering 
 the pistol that was lying in a corner of her trunk, with a 
 sense of disappointment that she had not brought it. 
 
 How long she sat there she did not know. She was not 
 thinking ; she was not even conscious for a part of the time ; 
 but at last her trance was broken by a voice that she knew 
 the voice of her first-born. 
 
 " Mother ! mother !" the boy called, in accents of agony 
 and terror.
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 45 
 
 He did not see her. Darkness was settling down, and 
 the fringe of willows on the bank hid her from view. 
 
 " Mother ! mother ! where are you ? Oh, she is lost !" 
 and then sobs drowned his voice. 
 
 That sound called the mother back to life. She rose 
 slowly to her feet. " Here, my son," she called, and in a 
 minute more the lad was clinging about her neck. 
 
 " Oh, mother, why did you go so far ?" he said through 
 his tears. " Edward and I have hunted everywhere tor 
 you, and the Indians are all around. Poor little Arthur is 
 alone in the tent crying for you. Come, mother ;" and 
 leaning on her son, henceforth her only stay in life, Helen 
 retraced her steps. Half way to the camp they met the 
 second boy sobbing and wringing his hands, while he con 
 tinued to call for her, and little Arthur, her baby, had 
 cried himself to sleep in the tent. 
 
 She lifted the little fellow, sobbing even in his slumber, 
 from the cold ground on which he lay. Of what had she 
 been thinking ? Was her life her own to end when it be 
 came unbearable ? No. It belonged to her children, and 
 for their sakes she would live it out. 
 
 She sat down on the side of her bed, with her boy in her 
 arms, and rested the little sleeping head on her bosom. 
 There was healing in the touch of the baby hands. There 
 was balm in the soft breathing close to her bruised and 
 bleeding heart. 
 
 The older boys moved about quietly, building the camp- 
 fire and cooking the supper, and when all was ready, 
 Robert, the eldest, said, 
 
 " Shall I go and call father ?" 
 
 " No," the mother replied, wondering at herself that she 
 could speak so calmly ; "he has something to attend to, 
 and will come by and by." 
 
 She did not ask the boys whether their father had sent
 
 4-6 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 them to search for her ; and it was well perhaps that she 
 knew nothing of what passed in the tent after she left. 
 Emily, the younger of the two women, looking at her as 
 she passed out, was terrified by the expression of the 
 white, set face. 
 
 "Go after her quickly, Brother Woodford," she said; 
 " she means to put herself out of tn*e way." 
 
 " You do not know Helen," he answered. "This is a 
 heavy cross for her, and she wants to be alone for a little 
 while. She needs to pray for help to receive you in the 
 right spirit." 
 
 " You don t mean to say," exclaimed Mary, " that she 
 knew nothing about us until you brought us right in before 
 her?" 
 
 " Brother Brigham counseled us to reveal nothing before 
 the appointed time," was the answer, " and I have obeyed 
 him." 
 
 " Then I must say, Brother Woodford, I don t wonder 
 that she went out in the way she did, and for my part I 
 wouldn t have stirred a step to come here to-night it I d 
 known that she had never been told a word before, it 
 wasn t treating her right, nor us either." 
 
 " Mary," said Brother Woodford severely, " such lan 
 guage in reference to the counsel that is given us is most 
 unbecoming, and I cannot allow it in any member of my 
 family. " 
 
 Mary looked subdued. It was plain that she stood 
 greatly in awe of her lord, who according to the teaching 
 she had received held her salvation in his hands. 
 
 Both she and Emily were simple-minded, unsophisticated 
 girls, whose credulity had been their undoing, and they 
 were not so lost to all womanly feeling as to wish to force 
 their presence upon the wronged and outraged wife. It 
 had been Woodford s purpose to follow the example of the
 
 PILGRIMAGE OF THE SAINTS. 47 
 
 Prophet, and make them members of his household at 
 once ; but they both refused to remain that night. They 
 had made the journey thus far with a relative, and they 
 announced their intention of returning to his camp for the 
 present. " We will give Sister Woodford a little time to 
 get reconciled ; I know I should need it in her place, Emily 
 said, with a touch of genuine feeling.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 MYSTERY BEGINS . 
 
 THE days lengthened into weeks, and the weeks into 
 months, but the emigrant train had not yet come in sight 
 of the mountains that girt the Promised Land. 
 
 Incumbered as they were with women and children, with 
 flocks and herds, and with heavily-loaded wagons carrying 
 all manner of supplies for the new settlement, their prog 
 ress was necessarily slow, but there was little sickness and 
 no death in the company, and the savages who had 
 annoyed the scouts did not show any disposition to molest 
 the train a fact which the devout believers in the new 
 gospel regarded as a sign that Heaven had interposed 
 specially in their behalf. 
 
 At length, late in August, and near the close of a long 
 day s march, dim, bluish masses began to appear upon the 
 western horizon. They might have been taken for clouds, 
 so faint and far-away they looked ; but as the sun sank 
 out of sight among them, their jagged outlines were clearly 
 defined, and the light of the next morning showed plainly 
 what they were the rocky peaks of the mountains about 
 whose base wound the trail followed by the scouts the year 
 before the mountains which were to be as a wall between 
 the inheritance of the Saints and the world with which they 
 were at war. 
 
 About a dozen men, mounted on the best horses in the 
 train, were now dispatched in advance of the main body to 
 give notice to the colonists in the valley of the approach of 
 the emigrants. The difficulties of traveling with so many
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 49 
 
 incumbrances increased greatly as they entered the mount 
 ains, but the certainty that they would reach the end of 
 their journey in a few days at the farthest lightened all 
 burdens, and the whole company seemed cheered and in 
 spired by the near prospect of rest from the fatigues ot 
 their toilsome march. 
 
 It was the first of September when the train reached 
 Emigration Cafion, for so the pass leading into the valley 
 had been named by the scouts. The day was one of the 
 loveliest of the year, and the scene that burst upon their 
 view as they emerged from the caflon was such as to leave 
 no doubt in the minds of the faithful that their Prophet had 
 been divinely guided to the spot, while the large number 
 of his followers, to whom a remembrance of the world they 
 had left was unpleasantly associated with the idea of 
 sheriffs, prisons, and the penalties of violated law, regard 
 ed with the greatest satisfaction the defences which nature 
 had built up around this new stronghold. 
 
 The improvements made by the colonists in the valley 
 were not very extensive. About a dozen adobe houses, and 
 as many more log-cabins had been built ; the fall grain put 
 in the year before had been reaped and threshed, and a few 
 acres of ground planted with potatoes and other vegetables. 
 
 The square set apart for the Prophet (a plot of ten acres 
 in the heart of the city) had been partly surrounded by a 
 rude fence, and an adobe .house had been built in the cen 
 ter. In one corner of this square \vas an inclosure known 
 then (and ever since) as the Tithing Yard. Into this in 
 closure those wagons whose freight was most valuable 
 were driven, and a guard was placed over them " that the 
 Indians might not be tempted to commit depredations :" 
 so the owners were told. 
 
 The wagons loaded with Madame La Tour s goods were 
 taken to this place, and also the ambulance in which she
 
 5 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 had made the journey. A smaller wagon, containing their 
 camp outfit and a few necessaries for daily use, was un 
 loaded at the door of the cabin which was designated by 
 the Prophet as the one they were to occupy. 
 
 Madame La Tour had been ill during the last week of 
 the journey, and when her bed was made up in the cabin, 
 and her children had done what they could for her com 
 fort, she sank into a stupor from which it was difficult to 
 arouse her. She continued in this state much of the time 
 for ten days, and Philip was obliged to go to the Tithing 
 Yard in search of medicines and other necessaries which 
 were in the wagons left there. 
 
 The Prophet, who supervised the smallest details as well 
 as the largest undertakings of the community, was the per 
 son to go to so the man on guard informed Philip when 
 he made known his errand. Accordingly the boy waited 
 on his Prophet-master, who received him very kindly, but 
 told him the wagons must not be unpacked until his 
 mother was able to look after her own business. 
 
 " And meantime," he added graciously, " I will lend 
 you anything and everything you may need." 
 
 With Philip the word of the Prophet was law, and he 
 accepted this arrangement without question. When his 
 mother was able to sit up, she learned for the first time 
 where her property was, and immediately sent Philip and 
 Pierre with a written order for the wagons and their con 
 tents. This order was received as civilly as Philip s verbal 
 request of the week before ; but the Prophet assured his 
 young disciple that they could not deviate from the rule 
 they had adopted, which was not to deliver up anything 
 until identified and claimed by the owner in person. 
 
 " In a few days at the farthest your mother will be able 
 to come herself," he said ; " and, as I told you before, I 
 will see that you have everything you need."
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 51 
 
 Madame La Tour made no comments on this message 
 when she received it. It was, to her, ^sufficient evidence 
 that her enemy meant to hold everything and reduce her 
 to a state of complete dependence on him ; but no good 
 could come of talking to her son about anything that she 
 felt or feared. Now, when it was too late, she saw that 
 she had placed herself wholly in the power of the man 
 whom she knew to be an unrelenting tyrant cruel as 
 death, remorseless as the grave. 
 
 Only a single faint gleam of hope lighted the dark pros 
 pect before her. Her elder sons, who had rebelled against 
 the Prophet s rule, and who hated everything that per 
 tained to this false faith, might yet be able to help her. As 
 before stated, they had gone through to the coast with an 
 emigrant train in the spring. To their mother, who was 
 ignorant of the geography of the country, it seemed that 
 the place to which they were bound could not be very much 
 farther west ; perhaps it was just on the other side of the 
 mountains. If it were only possible to communicate with 
 them, they would find means to bring her out of this val 
 ley, the air of which seemed already poisoned. 
 
 And yet, even if a way of escape opened, she could not 
 avail herself of it until her daughter was found her 
 daughter whose fate she dared not conjecture. 
 
 Louise was not in the valley. It is true, her mother at 
 first entertained a suspicion that the pioneers had taken 
 her with them the year before, but she had given up this 
 idea months ago. A much larger company of emigrants, 
 composed chiefly of those fugitives from Nauvoo who had 
 remained east of the Missouri, was now on the way. 
 
 It was expected that the train would arrive some time in 
 October, and from information furnished by Mrs. Wood- 
 ford, Madame La Tour was confident that her daughter 
 would enter the valley with this company.
 
 52 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Yet, supposing this to be true, her mother might never 
 see her face. The valley of Great Salt Lake, the site of 
 the city the Prophet had laid out, was by no means the only 
 spot selected for settlement. Even now, before either men 
 or animals had recovered from the effects of the long 
 march across the plains, scouts had been sent north and 
 south to prospect the country. The colonists who came in 
 the year before had wonderful stories to tell of the beauty 
 and fertility of other valleys farther south, while the trap 
 per who had acted as their guide, and who still remained 
 with them, assured the new-comers that there were thou 
 sands of acres of rich grass lands a little to the north. 
 
 It was the policy of the Prophet to take possession of 
 these lands and settle them as rapidly as possible ; and 
 about twenty families in the present company had already 
 been detailed to colonize the valleys lying south of Great 
 Salt Lake, while a still larger number of the company ex 
 pected in October would be sent north as soon as they 
 arrived. 
 
 Fortunately for the prosperity of the new settlement, 
 many of the colonists were practical farmers, and this year 
 as well as the year before a number of the wagons in the 
 train were loaded with agricultural implements, and with 
 seed for the ground that was already broken to receive it. 
 
 Necessity is a stern taskmistress, and under her com- 
 pelling hand the settlers worked as probably few of .them 
 had ever worked before. Buildings went up as if by 
 magic, irrigating ditches were dug, and a large area of 
 ground was ready for the fall planting by the time the sec 
 ond company of immigrants arrived. 
 
 Meanwhile the La Tours continued dependent on the 
 Prophet, who under various pretexts delayed the surren 
 der of their goods ; and while their neighbors were break 
 ing ground to plant the grain for the next year s bread, or
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. S3 
 
 building themselves comfortable houses, they remained 
 in the cabin which had been assigned them on the day of 
 their arrival, without the means of improving their present 
 condition or making any provision for the future. 
 
 Pierre Roche and his wife had been ordered to accom 
 pany the colonists sent south, and they had gone, taking 
 with them, by the Prophet s direction, the wagon and ox- 
 team which were the only vestiges of Madame La Tour s 
 property outside the Tithing Yard. Soon after they left, 
 the Prophet sent for Philip, " to talk matters over," as he 
 said. Assuming a most fatherly look and tone, and put 
 ting his arm around the shoulders- of his young disciple, 
 the leader of the people began. 
 
 " My dear boy, what I have to say to you to-day is of a 
 very painful nature, and because it is painful I have fool 
 ishly put it off from time to time ; but now I feel that 
 something must be done, and for this reason I have sent 
 for you. You know that your mother s health has been 
 failing for two years past ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You have also noticed that she is greatly changed in 
 other respects ; but you are so young, and the change has 
 been so gradual, you do not see as others do that her mind 
 is quite gone." 
 
 , " Are you sure it is so bad as that ?" The boy s face 
 was white with distress and fear. " I know she is not as 
 she used to be ; but she is not my mother cannot be 
 mad ?" 
 
 " I could not bear to say the word, but that is just the 
 truth. She is mad, and unless she is watched very care 
 fully she will do something dreadful to herself or other peo 
 ple. You cannot be with her all the time, and your sisters 
 are not old enough to take care of her, so I have engaged 
 Sister Purdy, who, you know, is a very good woman, to
 
 54 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 stay with her and watch her, and help your sisters about 
 the house. For yourself, though you are so young, you 
 must be a man, and take a man s place. The support of 
 your mother and sisters and a great many cares besides 
 will now fall upon you, and because I love you for your 
 father s sake as well as your own, I want to help you. 
 You have proved before this that my counsel is worth 
 something." 
 
 Beginning in this strain, the Prophet detained his lis 
 tener for two hours, while he poured into his ears " coun 
 sel" upon every possible subject connected with his present 
 or future life. 
 
 When Philip at length started for his home the sun had 
 set, and he felt a little troubled at the lateness of the hour. 
 
 He never left his mother and sisters alone after dark ; 
 but he comforted himself now with the thought that Sister 
 Purdy was already at the cabin, as the Prophet had assured 
 Tiim that she would go there before night. 
 
 Still, in spite of this assurance, he was uneasy, and as 
 the shadows settled down upon the valley he quickened 
 his steps. When he came in sight of the cabin no light 
 was visible, but this did not seem strange to him, as he 
 knew his mother usually hung a blanket inside ot the one 
 window, in which a square ot muslin did duty in the place 
 of glass. He hurried on, and was soon opposite the 
 door. 
 
 Here he stopped, as though a strong hand had arrested 
 him. The door, which opened outwardly, was swinging 
 on its hinges, and there was neither light nor sound from 
 within. At another time this might not have alarmed him ; 
 but now, with the Prophet s words, " Your mother is mad," 
 still ringing in his ears, he stood rooted to the spot by a 
 vague terror. Then, before he could collect his scattered 
 thoughts, two figures, which in the increasing darkness he
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 55 
 
 did not at first recognize, ran toward him, and in a minute 
 his sisters stood beside him. 
 
 " Oh, Philip !" Blanche exclaimed breathlessly, " we 
 have run so fast, and we were afraid mother would be 
 angry with us for staying so late ; but indeed we could not 
 help it." 
 
 " Why, where have you been ?" he asked. 
 
 " Oh, only for a ride with Brother White and George 
 and Dolly. W r e had gone around the corner just for a lit 
 tle walk, when Brother White came along with his wagon 
 and told us to jump in. We said we must ask mother first, 
 but he told us he stopped at the house and asked for us, 
 and she said we might go. Then we rode oh, ever so far ; 
 and when we got back to his house he took us out and 
 told us to run home as fast as we could." 
 
 " You did very wrong to go without asking mother your 
 self," Philip said severely, and yet hardly knowing why he 
 blamed his sisters. " Come, let us go in. Poor mother is 
 alone, and has no light. The candles must be all gone. 
 1 forgot to ask this morning ;" and with a feeling of self- 
 reproach, much too poignant for the apparently slight 
 cause, he led his sisters to the open door. 
 
 Within all was silent and dark. 
 
 " Mother," he called gently. 
 
 There was no answer. 
 
 " Mother ! Oh, mother ! Where are you ?" all three 
 cried, this time, aloud, and in terrified tones. 
 
 Still there was no response. 
 
 " Where can she be ? Oh, something dreadful must 
 have happened !" Catherine exclaimed, and Blanche began 
 to cry. 
 
 " Hush, girls," Philip said authoritatively, though his 
 own voice trembled a little. " I have a match in my 
 pocket, and will make a light. Catherine, you feel for
 
 56 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 some paper on the box by the door, while I gather a few 
 splinters." 
 
 In a couple of minutes, and with the exercise of much 
 care lest the one match should go out, the splinters were 
 lighted, and Philip, taking a couple of them in his hand, 
 entered the cabin, followed by his trembling sisters. 
 
 Everything was just as when they left in the afternoon. 
 Their mother s bed was undisturbed, and her hood and 
 shawl hung on a nail above it. Philip drew aside the 
 blanket which served as a partition between the front room 
 and the shed in the rear. That, too, was silent and 
 empty. 
 
 " Mother is lost," Blanche said, still crying. 
 
 " You talk like a silly child," Philip answered sharply. 
 " We all stayed away so late she did not like being alone, 
 and she has gone to Sister Woodford s." 
 
 " Then," said practical Catherine, " why did she leave 
 her hood and shawl ?" 
 
 Philip was about to answer when he made the discovery 
 that the splinters he carried would not burn a minute longer, 
 and Catherine, who thought she remembered seeing a can 
 dle in the box that served them tor a cupboard, began to 
 search for it. 
 
 " Here it is," she exclaimed presently. " Now, at any 
 rate, we shall not be in the dark." 
 
 When the candle was lighted Philip said, 
 
 " Girls, you must stay here quietly while I run over to 
 Sister Woodford s. I will not be gone long, and you can 
 fasten the door till I come back." 
 
 The words were scarcely spoken when they heard a step 
 outside, and Sister Purdy appeared at the open door and 
 began to make hurried excuses for being so late ; but 
 noticjng Philip s pale face and his sisters frightened looks 
 she stopped short, and exclaimed,
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 57 
 
 " Why, children, what on earth is the matter, and where 
 is your mother ?" glancing past them into the empty room. 
 
 " Mother has gone to Sister Woodford s, I think," Philip 
 said. 
 
 " She has not, for 1 stopped in there myself as I was com 
 ing down ; I don t see what you were all thinking of to 
 leave her." 
 
 Philip checked the incautious woman by a whispered 
 word, and then said aloud, 
 
 " Sister Purdy, if you will stay here with the girls, I will 
 go and find my mother." 
 
 He spoke quietly, but his heart throbbed so it almost 
 seemed to him that the others could hear its beating ; and 
 not daring to trust himself to utter another word, he hur 
 ried out into the darkness. 
 
 He was only a boy, and he loved his mother dearly. If 
 harm had come to her, was he not to blame for taking so 
 little care of her ? Why did he not beg the Prophet to 
 allow Pierre Roche and the faithful Joan to stay with them ? 
 The Prophet loved him like a father, so he kept saying to 
 himself, and would not refuse anything he might ask. 
 
 Bitter self-reproach mingled with the grief and dread 
 that oppressed him ; but he never for a moment dreamed 
 of reproaching his leader, to whom he was now hurrying 
 as fast as his trembling limbs would carry him. To-night, 
 as in every other trouble of his life, he turned to this hard, 
 remorseless man, who, to him, was always so tender, and 
 whom he regarded as almost divine. 
 
 The Prophet listened with an air of profound solicitude 
 to Philip s hurried and agitated recital, and as he finished 
 sighed heavily. 
 
 " That which I have feared so long has happened at 
 last," he said. " Your mother has wandered away, at 
 the very time when I was planning to guard against such
 
 58 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 a thing. Sister Purdy is much to blame for not going to 
 her at an early hour as I directed ; but, my dear boy, 
 don t be too much cast down. I will have the settlement 
 searched thoroughly, and will send parties of men beyond 
 the limits to look for her in every direction." 
 
 " Will some one start out with me now ?" Philip asked 
 eagerly. 
 
 " You could not do a great deal to help," was the 
 answer. " You lay your trouble too much to heart. Go 
 home and take care of your sisters, and leave the search to 
 me. You know I will do everything that can be done." 
 
 With this assurance Philip was forced to content him 
 self. He had never disobeyed the Prophet or questioned 
 his decisions, and he could not begin now ; so with a heavy 
 heart he returned to the cabin to wait and watch alone 
 through the long hours of the night, after his sisters had 
 sobbed themselves to sleep ; for Sister Purdy left as soon 
 as he came in. 
 
 There was nothing for her to do there, she said, and she 
 might learn something by inquiring around. 
 
 The night seemed endless to the lonely watcher. He 
 was so young, barely sixteen ; and though he had known 
 sorrow before, he had never been called to bear anything 
 so hard as this. Long before dawn the single candle 
 burned low in the socket that held it, and went out.. Then 
 he watched the stars and waited for day, his ear strained 
 meantime to catch every sound. 
 
 With the first hour of daylight a messenger came from 
 the Prophet s own household. The settlement had been 
 thoroughly searched long before midnight, he said, and at 
 daylight parties of men had gone out in every direction, 
 through the valley in the foot-hills, and toward the Jordan. 
 As soon as either party found any trace to follow, they 
 would send a man back to the settlement with word ;
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 59 
 
 meantime the Prophet especially required Philip not to be 
 anxious or ala/med. They were all doing their best, and 
 without doubt his mother would be home before many 
 hours. 
 
 The messenger brought a basket of provisions and other 
 necessaries, and added many kind and sympathizing words 
 on his own account. Philip needed all the comfort that 
 was offered him. He looked haggard and ill after his long 
 night-watch, and when his sisters waked and found their 
 mother still away, he had all he could do to soothe awd 
 quiet them. 
 
 Blanche cried incessantly, and Catherine made remarks 
 quite in keeping with her temperament, which shocked 
 and distressed her brother. 
 
 " Mother hasn t been ten steps from the door since we 
 came here," she declared, "and she wouldn t go away 
 from the house unless somebody took her. Besides, if she 
 went out of the settlement she had to go past some of the 
 houses ; and don t you suppose they would notice her, 
 walking bareheaded, and with her silk wrapper on ? That 
 was the dress she wore yesterday, and all her other dresses 
 are here, and her shawl, and everything. There s nothing 
 gone except what she had on when she sat in that chair," 
 pointing as she spoke to her mother s empty seat, at the 
 sight of which Blanche s sobs grew louder. 
 
 Catherine was three years younger than her brother, but 
 tall and well developed ; almost a woman already in ap 
 pearance. Her mind, too, seemed of late to have matured 
 rapidly, and she often surprised those around her by the 
 expression of ideas quite in advance of her years. She had, 
 moreover, as we have previously noticed in these pages, 
 her mother s spirit, and she had imbibed from her a dis 
 trust of the Prophet and his teachings. Now, in spite of 
 her brother s efforts to check her, she continued to express
 
 60 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 her opinion that her mother never left the house alone, and 
 that nobody had taken much pains to find her. 
 
 " Catherine," Philip said at length, when at the end of 
 all patience, " if anybody is to blame it is yourself. I left 
 you here to take care of mother. You knew she was sick 
 and needed you, and you ought not to have gone outside 
 the door until I came back." 
 
 This reproach silenced the girl, who loved her mother 
 above everything, and who had all the time been secretly 
 blaming herself for leaving her alone, though when she 
 went out with Blanche the day before, it was at her 
 mother s request. 
 
 Meanwhile the day was passing, and there was no news 
 from any of the parties who were supposed to be search 
 ing the valley ; but late in the afternoon Philip was again 
 summoned to the Prophet s residence. This time he was 
 received with expressions of the deepest sympathy, and 
 with an exhortation to lift up his heart in prayer for 
 strength to bear whatever might come. 
 
 " It was not until past noon," the Prophet said, " that 
 we got the least clew to follow. Then Miles Hayward, the 
 trapper, who was leading the search in the direction of the 
 river, came upon foot-prints here and there. The marks 
 were those of a woman s foot, small and delicate, but the 
 track was not easy to follow, on account of the bunch-grass 
 and the loose sandl Still, as all the marks seemed to point 
 toward the river, they thought they could not do better 
 than to follow it up and down, and in the willows near the 
 . bank Miles found this." 
 
 He took something from the table, unfolded it, and held 
 it up before Philip s eyes. It was a fine cambric handker 
 chief with a monogram in the corner. Philip knew it only 
 too well, and reached out his hand for it with a cry of 
 anguish.
 
 MYSTERY BEGINS. 6 1 
 
 "Stop," the Prophet added, retaining the frail token; 
 " I have more to tell you. 
 
 " Near the place where the handkerchief was found, 
 there were more foot-prints, and just at the water s edge 
 the bank was broken, as though by some person slipping 
 down. 
 
 " Now, my dear boy, I have done my duty. I shall pray 
 for you, and all the people are praying now that you may 
 have strength to bear your affliction ; but more than this 
 we cannot do. A dozen men are already dragging the 
 river, in the hope of recovering your mother s body, but if 
 they fail (and I own I fear they will fail), try to be re 
 signed to the will of God. It is in times of trouble that the 
 true Latter Day Saint shows the strength of his faith. Go 
 home now to your sisters, and comfort them, and let every 
 body see that your religion is worth something."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 MEANTIME, where was Louise La Tour, the daughter for 
 whose sake the mother had risked all, and, as it seemed, 
 lost all ? 
 
 She was not in the valley, nor had she been there. She 
 had remained with those followers of the Prophet who had 
 temporary homes east of the Missouri ; but in order to 
 understand her condition and surroundings it will be 
 necessary to go back to the time of her father s death.* 
 
 To-day, men and women who were among the disciples 
 of the Prophet Joseph in his lifetime, but who have since 
 then renounced Mormonism, account for the influence of 
 this man, coarse, ignorant, and wicked as he was, over a 
 multitude of followers of a far different character, by say 
 ing that he possessed wonderful mesmeric powers. 
 
 While he lived, his strange gifts were supposed by them 
 to be supernatural ; and men whose sense of right com 
 pelled them to denounce the wickedness which they after 
 ward discovered in him were at a loss to account for what 
 had seemed miraculous powers, conferred on him from 
 above. 
 
 Whatever may have been the secret of this power, the 
 fact, which cannot be disproved, remains on record, that for 
 many years he exercised an almost unlimited influence 
 over persons who were greatly his superiors in mind and 
 
 * See Appendix, Note D, page 333.
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 63 
 
 education, and whose previous lives had been irreproach 
 able. 
 
 When the doctrine of Celestial Marriage was first taught 
 by him, many of those who listened to his teachings sup- 
 posed that they referred to a union purely spiritual ; and 
 when the truth at length came out, numbers forsook and 
 denounced him, but among those who remained his adher 
 ents there were hundreds whose motives and character had 
 hitherto been above suspicion. And, stranger than all, 
 many of the women who became his plural wives were of 
 good families and, up to that time, of unblemished fame. 
 
 Wives whose fidelity to their husbands had never been 
 questioned, and young girls who had been watched over 
 from infancy by Christian mothers, were among his earli 
 est victims. 
 
 \Vhen Louise La Tour became a member of his house 
 hold she was only fifteen. She had been carefully brought 
 up and tenderly watched over by both parents, and in 
 heart and mind was still a child, as ignorant of evil as her 
 five-year-old sister Blanche. In stature, however, she was 
 a woman, and already the perfect outlines of her supple 
 form, the contour of her lovely face, the soft rose-tints of her 
 cheek, and the liquid luster of her dark eyes made a pic 
 ture so fair to look upon that, had not the mother been blind 
 to the fact that the child who was but yesterday in the 
 nursery was no longer a child to any except herself, she 
 would never have risked such priceless treasure unguarded 
 for an hour. 
 
 Louise, who saw the Prophet only through the medium 
 of her father s faith, -was all docility and obedience when 
 placed in his care, and at first received whatever he taught 
 without question. 
 
 W 7 hen he told her that, to secure her future salvation, she 
 must be " sealed" to him for eternity, and that it was her
 
 64 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 father s dying request, she consented to the ceremony, 
 without understanding in the least what it meant. 
 
 When she received the first intimation of the Prophet s 
 real designs, she was in a room in the Endowment House, 
 to which she had been carried in a fainting state. The 
 barbarous rites in which she was forced to participate, and 
 the fearful oaths she was compelled to take,* had the effect 
 of paralyzing her faculties, and long before the conclusion 
 of the ceremonies (which lasted eight hours without inter 
 mission) she was nearly insensible through fatigue and 
 terror. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Even to her mother Louise could not repeat the history 
 of the weeks that followed that dreadful day. She was in 
 the power of her destroyer. It seemed to her that he held 
 her, body and soul, and when her mother came to take 
 her away, she had sunk into the lethargy of despair, and 
 prayed for nothing but death. 
 
 Madame La Tour saw that her child was ill and 
 wretched, but she had not the faintest suspicion of the true 
 cause until the day when the Prophet claimed Louise as 
 his wife. Then, as we have seen, her plans for escaping 
 from Nauvoo with her family were frustrated, and they 
 were compelled to remain with the Mormons until they fled 
 westward. 
 
 On the day that the fugitives crossed the Mississippi, the 
 greatest confusion prevailed in their ranks, and no better 
 time could have been chosen for the abduction of Louise, 
 which had been resolved upon months before. 
 
 It is a historical fact, perfectly well authenticated, that 
 the large number of women who were sealed to the 
 Prophet Joseph during the last two years of his life were 
 
 * See Appendix, Note E, page 334.
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 65 
 
 divided after his death among those nearest him in office, 
 and that such as were thought most desirable were appro 
 priated by Brigham Young, the Prophet s successor, and 
 by Heber C. Kimball, his First Councilor. 
 
 The unhappy Louise was apportioned to Kimball, a 
 coarse, brutal wretch, whose name deserves to be handed 
 down to everlasting infamy. The promise from Brigham 
 Young, that he should be allowed to add her to the num 
 ber of his wives, was quite sufficient to induce him to take 
 all the risks attendant on carrying her off, and months 
 before the exodus from Nauvoo he had a place prepared 
 for her in Iowa, where many of the fugitive Mormons found 
 temporary homes. 
 
 Louise s prison (for such it proved to be) was a three- 
 roomed log-cabin in a small clearing. The building, though 
 rudely constructed, was tolerably comfortable and well 
 furnished, and she was told that her mother and the chil 
 dren would make it their home for a time. 
 
 For a couple of months she saw nothing of Kimball, and 
 knew nothing of the motives of those who brought her to 
 the place. Like her mother, she at first supposed that her 
 separation from her family was accidental, and as she was 
 kindly treated by the couple who had charge of the cabin 
 she felt no uneasiness except that caused by not seeing her 
 mother as soon as she expected. 
 
 When Kimball at length found time to visit his captive, 
 and the knowledge of the fate to which she had been con 
 signed burst upon her, the shock was too much for her rea 
 son, and for many weeks she rared in delirium. 
 
 The brute to whom, according to the decree of the new 
 Prophet, she was now bound for life, took a savage pleas 
 ure in making her feel that he was her master, and that 
 she was wholly in his hands, without the faintest hope of 
 escape or redress.
 
 66 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 During the whole time that her mother and brothers re 
 mained in the Mormon settlement on the west bank of the 
 Missouri, she lived in this cabin, not fifty miles from them, 
 as ignorant of their fate as they were of hers. Kimball 
 visited her frequently during the first year, but long before 
 the end of the second year he grew tired of her, and when in 
 the summer of 1848 she was taken across the Missouri to 
 join the second company of emigrants to Salt Lake valley, 
 she had not seen him for months. 
 
 The unspeakable fear and loathing with which she looked 
 forward to his coming never failed to make her ill when 
 the time at which she expected him drew near, and at the 
 close of her first year s imprisonment no one would have 
 recognized in the pallid, hollow-eyed, wasted woman who 
 still answered to the name Louise, the beautiful girl whom 
 her mother remembered so fondly. 
 
 Now, however, ix months respite from his hated visits, 
 together with the dawning hope that he had grown tired 
 of her and would come no more, seemed to have given her 
 a new lease of life, and with returning health a little of 
 her old beauty and spirit came back also. 
 
 Kimball was not in the company with which Louise was 
 to cross the plains. He had gone on with the first train, 
 taking several of his wives with him. 
 
 As those who knew him best will testify, he had one 
 good trait that of providing abundantly for the physical 
 comfort of all dependent on him. His numerous families 
 were always well housed, well fed, and well clothed, and 
 Louise s custodians, John Burch and the woman who held 
 the relation to him of fourth wife, were supplied with 
 everything necessary for themselves and their charge upon 
 the journey. When they reached Salt Lake they found 
 comfortable quarters ready for them ; but Louise was kept 
 a closer prisoner than when in Iowa. Kimball did not
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 67 
 
 come near her that autumn, nor the following winter, and 
 for many months she saw no one except her jailers. She 
 was still ignorant of the fate of her family, and knew noth 
 ing of what took place in the settlement. 
 
 The slow months followed each other, with nothing to 
 mark their lapse except the change from autumn to winter, 
 and from winter to spring changes which she watched 
 wearily from the one window of her room. Once a day, 
 when the weather permitted, she took a short walk with 
 her keepers along a solitary path leading to the bench 
 north of the settlement. She met no one during these 
 walks, and had she done so she would not have thought of 
 making any appeal for help. She knew that she was in the 
 heart of the wilderness, a thousand miles from the borders 
 of civilization, and that the only human beings near her 
 were the slaves of the Prophet, whom she believed to be the 
 author of her past sufferings and her present imprisonment. 
 
 All hope of escape had long since died within her, and she 
 had nothing left to look forward to except the possibility of 
 meeting her mother, whom she felt sure the Prophet would 
 yet find means to bring to the valley, if he had not already 
 done so. 
 
 The winter which, mild and short as it was, seemed in 
 terminable to the captive girl, came to an end at last. 
 With the opening of spring the whole settlement was alive 
 with the work of preparation for planting a large area of 
 ground. An additional immigration of several thousand 
 souls was expected early in the summer, and as the colony 
 was forced to depend mainly on the season s crop for food, 
 the entire laboring force of the settlement was taxed to its 
 utmost during the process of breaking ground and putting 
 in the seed. 
 
 At this time Louise s keepers were also fully occupied 
 with outdoor work, and as she showed no disposition to
 
 68 THE FATE OF MADAAfE LA TOUR, 
 
 wander off, she was allowed the liberty of the house and 
 lot. The ground belonging to the cabin was not inclosed, 
 and there was nothing to mark the existence of a street 
 near it except the path mentioned before, which led up to 
 the foot-hills. Late one afternoon in March, when Burch 
 and the woman who kept the house were away, Louise was 
 sauntering listlessly about the borders of the spot of ground 
 that had been plowed for a garden, when she saw a 
 slender, girlish figure hurrying down the path toward the 
 cabin. 
 
 There was something strangely familiar in the outlines 
 of this figure, in the poise of the head, and the free, alert 
 movements something that made Louise s heart beat 
 quickly, and drew her toward the path. 
 
 The person she was watching came a few steps farther 
 in the direction of the cabin, then turned and seemed 
 about to take another way, when Louise, hardly knowing 
 what she did, called, 
 
 " Catherine !" 
 
 The girl stopped abruptly, turned round and looked to 
 see from whom the call came, then moved toward the 
 speaker in a hesitating manner. 
 
 " Did you call me ?" she asked. 
 
 Louise, without a thought of consequences, sprang 
 across the ditch that divided the garden from the common, 
 and hurried to the spot where she stood. 
 
 " Catherine ! Sister ! Don t you know me ?" she said, 
 holding out her hands. 
 
 " Louise ! Ma belle soeur !" 
 
 The language of their childhood sprang unbidden to the 
 lips of the younger girl, as with a glad cry she threw her 
 self into her sister s arms. 
 
 It was some moments before either spoke again. Then 
 Louise, with a caution born of experience, cast her eyes in
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 69 
 
 every direction in search of a possible witness of their 
 meeting. No one was in sight, and winding her arm 
 about her sister, she said, 
 
 " Come, cherie, let us go into the house. I am all alone, 
 and I can see from the window if any one comes, and let 
 you out of the back door." 
 
 " Poor sister ! Then you have to watch and listen too. 
 I am learning to do so ; but I don t like it one bit. When 
 I begin to talk about anything, Philip says, Hush ! some 
 one might hear you, or Look out ! there is somebody 
 coming ! 
 
 By this time the girls had reached the cabin. Louise 
 drew her sister into her own room, carefully closing both 
 doors atter her. When they were seated she clasped 
 Catherine s hands, and with her whole heart in her face and 
 voice asked, 
 
 " Our mother ? Is she here ? Is she well ?" 
 
 It was a hard question, but Catherine answered it more 
 wisely than many an older person might have done. 
 
 " I believe mother is here and well ; yet I don t know in 
 what house she is. But see ! I did not know in what 
 house you were until now. " 
 
 " Tell me all that you do know," Louise urged, with 
 feverish eagerness, holding her sister s hands so tightly 
 that she hurt them. 
 
 " I will, but first you do not believe in the Prophet, as 
 Philip does ?" 
 
 " Believe in him f No !" 
 
 Something of her old spirit flushed Louise s cheeks and 
 gleamed in her dark eyes as she gave this answer. 
 
 " I am glad of that ; and now, I ll tell you what I know 
 and what I think. We came here with the train from win 
 ter quarters early last summer. Mother was sick at first, 
 but she got better, so that she could walk about the house
 
 70 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 and lot. We were not very comfortable, for our things 
 were all in the tithing-yard, and they would not let us have 
 them. Philip had to go up every day, nearly, and ask for 
 a little something that we were obliged to use. 
 
 " One day, when he was gone, mother told me to take 
 Blanche out for a walk. We meant to be back in half an 
 hour, but when we were out of sight of the house Brother 
 White came along with his children in a wagon, and told 
 us mother said we might ride with him. 
 
 " I thought then that he told the truth ; but now I believe 
 it was something made up, and you will see why. He took 
 us a long way from the settlement, and did not bring us 
 back till after dark. When we got home we met Philip at 
 the door (the Prophet had kept him till after dark too), and 
 mother was gone. They pretended to believe that she was 
 out of her mind, and had wandered away to the river and 
 been drowned said they found her handkerchief on the 
 bank, and I don t know .what else. I did not believe it at 
 the time, and the next week little Benny Spiers said to me, 
 
 " I was playing below the hill when your mother went 
 away, and I saw her. Brother Atwood was with her. 
 
 " I hushed the child up, for I knew it would be a bad 
 thing for him and for me if it was found out that he had 
 told me such a thing. 
 
 " I have never breathed a word of it to Philip nor 
 Blanche ; but in my heart I am sure that mother is alive 
 and somewhere in this country, though maybe not in this 
 settlement ; and I mean to keep looking for her till I find 
 her, if it takes years and years." 
 
 Louise heard her sister through without attempting to in 
 terrupt her. When the story was finished, she sat silent, 
 her face white and rigid, her large dark eyes unnaturally 
 bright. 
 
 " Why do you look so strangely ?" exclaimed Catherine.
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 71 
 
 " You need not feel as though what the people say might 
 be true. Mother is alive, and we shall find her." 
 
 "Yes, you are right, petite sceur. Mother is alive, or 
 if" 
 
 Louise stopped. The dark suspicion that had crossed 
 her mind must not be breathed to any one, least of all to 
 her young sister, who was comforted and upheld by the 
 hope of finding the mother alive and well. 
 
 " Tell me something more," she said, after a moment s 
 hesitation, " I cannot understand why mother came here. 
 Surely it was not her own wish." 
 
 " No, it was not. I know something about that which I 
 cannot tell to Philip. On that last day at winter quarters, 
 when everybody was getting ready to start, the Prophet 
 came to our house. Mother was alone in the front room, 
 but I was in the little shed at the back, and I heard him 
 tell her that she might see you here, but never anywhere 
 else. That is why she came." 
 
 " And our brothers, Charles and Francis, are they here 
 too ?" 
 
 " No. They left winter quarters before we did. They 
 are somewhere west of this place, with the Gentiles. They 
 think of the Prophet just as you and I do." 
 
 The sisters talked for a few minutes longer, Louise evad 
 ing a direct reply to any of Catherine s questions relating 
 to herself. Then, as the sun sank lower, and the time of 
 her keeper s return drew near, she repeated her caution not 
 to let any one know of their meeting, and sent her sister 
 away by another path in the rear of the cabin. 
 
 Catherine was to come up the hill again the next day if 
 possible, and Louise was to let her know, by a sign agreed 
 upon, whether it would be safe for her to venture near the 
 house. 
 
 That night, as it happened, John Burch was to spend
 
 72 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 with one of his other wives, and the woman Hannah camp 
 home alone, and in a rather despondent mood. She was a 
 simple-minded creature, who had been sealed to Burch be 
 cause she thought her salvation depended on him, and who 
 manifested a dog-like attachment and fidelity to the master, 
 who treated her much as he might have done if he had 
 bought her in the market-place. She had been hard at 
 work all day with him in the field, and would have counted 
 it a privilege to cook his supper and wait on him at night ; 
 but of course it was quite right that he should go over to 
 the other house, where Abigail and Sarah were living with 
 his first wife. Abigail had one boy, and Sarah two, and 
 poor Hannah bewailed her own childless condition as she 
 and Louise sat alone at supper. 
 
 " Brother Brigham says it s want of faith," she observed. 
 " He was a-preachin only last Sunday in the Bowery, that 
 if a woman hed all the faith in plurality that she orter hev, 
 her reproach would be took away, an she d be the 
 mother o thousens. I ve prayed an* prayed fur more 
 faith, an I ve tried an tried to be reconciled to Brother 
 Burch s stayin over to t other house so much as he does 
 lately, but some way my heart ain t right." 
 
 Louise felt called upon to offer some comfort to the poor 
 creature, who had always been kind to her. 
 
 " You are doing the best you can, Hannah," she said, 
 " and I would not worry. There is Eliza Snow, whom you 
 all look up to. She has no children, and nobody blames 
 her for want of faith." 
 
 " Oh, but, Sister Louise," the woman answered, lower 
 ing her voice as though there might be listeners even there, 
 " You don t know all that I do about Sister Liza. You 
 see she went into plurality when everybody was agin it, 
 an when the Gentiles an the law an all was after us. 
 That was a time when it took a power o faith to kerry a
 
 CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. 73 
 
 woman through, an Sister Liza hed faith ; but in them 
 days the sisters that was in plurality didn t dare to own 
 their children, an the trouble that Sister Liza went 
 through, no tongue could tell. It ain t a mite of wonder 
 that she hain t hed no children sense." 
 
 Hannah was growing unusually communicative, and 
 Louise thought that by drawing her out she might learn 
 something to her own advantage. 
 
 " On these lonesome evenings," she suggested, " I 
 would like to sit with you, if you are willing, and to pass 
 the time you might tell me something of the sermons at the 
 Bowery, for you know I have never heard one." 
 
 " I m sorry I didn t think of that afore. Twouldn t 
 a bin near so lonesome for neither of us. But after this 
 you re goin to the Bowery on Sundays. Them was the 
 orders Brolher Burch got yesterday." 
 
 Louise did not know whether this change boded good or 
 ill. If she was to have her liberty, the time might come 
 when she could meet her brother and sisters unhindered ; 
 but such meetings, if allowed, might be used to entrap 
 them or herself in additional difficulties. 
 
 For her own part it seemed that she had little more to 
 fear. Her enemy had done his worst, and she could think 
 of no deeper pit that might be dug for her. But the 
 others ! She thought with a throb of fear of Catherine s 
 beauty. She was growing tall and womanly too. Oh, why 
 had she ever been brought here ? 
 
 Hour after hour, during the long night, Louise turned 
 upon her sleepless pillow, calling up and dismissing one 
 plan after another for escaping from the valley with her 
 sisters. 
 
 She did not share Catherine s belief that their mother 
 still lived. Indeed she was not sure that she wished to be 
 lieve it. Better, far better, that she should be dead and
 
 74 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 safe in heaven, than alive and in the power of the remorse 
 less, unpitying tyrant who had already brought such mis 
 eries upon them. 
 
 But the girls, her innocent sisters ! It seemed almost as 
 though she could hear her mother s voice bidding her 
 watch over them, 
 
 Then another Voice, one that had saved her from despair, 
 whispered, 
 
 " Fear not, tor /am with thee." 
 
 In the darkness and silence of the night, in that lonely 
 cabin, the helpless girl, cut off from all human succor for 
 herself or those she loved, turned toward the unseen, 
 mighty Helper. 
 
 She had drifted far, very far, but not beyond the reach 
 of the Hand that built these mountain walls, which had 
 seemed to shut her in, away from hope or help. 
 
 " /am with thee." 
 
 It was as though all the resources of heaven and earth 
 had been placed within her reach. A great peace fell upon 
 her, and, laying her head once more upon her pillow, 
 Louise slept as she had not slept since the day she left her 
 mother s roof.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FORTY-NINERS . 
 
 THE sunny August day was wearing to a close. The 
 scattered clumps of fir and mountain-laurel cast long 
 shadows across the rocky trail, up which a heavily-loaded 
 wagon-train was slowly winding. 
 
 A couple of women and half a dozen very young children 
 sat on rolls of blankets in front of the canvas covers, but 
 with this exception, all belonging to the train men, 
 women, and children toiled up the steep ascent on foot. 
 
 It was a rough way to climb, and a long one, but all 
 were cheerful and hopeful, for the fertile valleys of Oregon 
 lay just beyond, and the stout-hearted pioneers, who had 
 traversed the prairies and forded the rivers west of the 
 Missouri when the snows began to melt, crossed the Rocky 
 Mountains before summer had softened the winds that 
 swept down from their peaks, encountered the perils of 
 the Desert, threaded with alkali streams of the Snake 
 Plains and the bands of alert and dangerous savages on 
 their borders, were not to be discouraged by any difficul 
 ties so near the journey s end. 
 
 Moreover, the summit was close at hand, and the sun yet 
 two hours high. If they pressed forward steadily they might 
 view the land of promise from that Pisgah before the dark 
 ness hid it, although it was not promised by a " Prophet." 
 
 The women of the company fell a little in the rear of the 
 wagons. The children made frequent excursions into the 
 chapparal, returning with their arms filled with flowers 
 and branches of blossoming shrubs. About half of the
 
 76 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 men were occupied with attending- to the teams and loose 
 cattle belonging to the train. The remainder walked, 
 some of them in advance of the wagons, and some a few 
 yards in the rear, with their rifles in their hands. 
 
 At the head of the advance guard two young men paced 
 side by side. They were of the same height and build, and 
 performed the difficult feat of keeping step along the 
 rugged trail with military precision. 
 
 Of the two who walked behind these, one was a tall, 
 loose-jointed Missourian, clad in jeans, and carrying a gun 
 as long as himself. The other was a small, wiry man, 
 whose grizzled locks were covered by a cap of panther- 
 skin. The tail of the panther depended from the rear of 
 the cap, serving the double purpose of an ornament and a 
 trophy. 
 
 His buckskin shirt and breeches were trimmed with a 
 profusion of beads and fringes, and in addition to such 
 arms as the others carried, a tomahawk with a handle two 
 feet in length was fastened to his belt. Just now his keen 
 black eyes were fixed on the summit before him, as he ob 
 served to his companion, 
 
 " It mought be a bad job for us to git over thar jist 
 dark, with all these wimmen folks on our hands. Ef I was 
 alone on the trail, I wouldn t see a mite of trouble about 
 the time of day, but with wimmin an babies to take care 
 on, I d like a few hours more o daylight to look for Injun 
 signs." 
 
 The Missourian, who answered to the name of Long 
 John, gave a backward glance toward the men nearest the 
 wagons. 
 
 " Twouldn t do no good to broach that idee to any of 
 them" he said. " You an I an the boys ahead, bein 
 single men, hain t so much to lose if the Shastas should 
 cut up rough, but them that owns the wimmen an babies
 
 FOR T Y-NINERS. ^ 7 
 
 are a borrerin trouble enough without our sayin a word 
 to help the thing along. 
 
 " That s so," assented the other ; " but it mought be as 
 well to speak to the boys about bein on the look-out ; I ll 
 jist mention it to em anyhow ;" and raising his voice a little 
 he called, 
 
 " La Tour !" 
 
 Both heads turned simultaneously. 
 
 " Thar, I knowed it," he chuckled. " It s jist the same 
 as pullin the string that ties em together." 
 
 In response to his signal the young men now halted for 
 him and the Missourian to come up with them. 
 
 As we have said, they were exactly of a size, and one 
 face was so like the other that it seemed as if their own 
 mother would not have been able to distinguish between 
 them. There was the same clear olive complexion, the 
 same liquid black eyes, soft as a woman s, and the same 
 features. Their comrades had long since given up the 
 effort to tell them apart in any other way than by their 
 dress. Both wore gayly-braided hunting-shirts, but the one 
 was blue and the other gray. As they stood side by side, 
 tall, erect, with their rifles poised lightly over their shoul 
 ders, the trapper s eyes dwelt on them admiringly. 
 
 " If them two was gals now, what a fortin they d have 
 in their faces," he observed sotto voce to the Missourian. 
 
 "Yes," answered Long John ; " but neither on em car 
 ries a gal s heart under all that braidin . There ain t a 
 man in this train that I d rayther have with me in a life-an - 
 death tussle with Injuns or any other varmints." 
 
 " That s so," replied the trapper heartily, ignoring the 
 fact that his own merits as an Indian fighter had been 
 passed over. " They re clear grit, both on em, an long 
 headed too, for youngsters." 
 
 By this time they were within a rod of the young men,
 
 7 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 who advanced a little to meet them, still keeping side by 
 side. 
 
 " What is it, comrades ?" asked the wearer of the blue 
 hunting-shirt. 
 
 " The matter is, Francis, my boy," answered Long 
 John, " that we want to take a observation from the peak 
 without makin any stir in the train. Carter, here, thinks 
 that ef the Shastas air goin to cut up at all, we kin look 
 out for em in these mountaings, an we four kin push on a 
 little ahead an watch fur signs." 
 
 " All right" it was still Francis who was spokesman 
 " but see the sun. We have no time to lose. Shall we 
 lead on ?" 
 
 "Go ahead, boys," answered the trapper. "We ll be 
 right with you." 
 
 The little party quickened their steps until a bend in the 
 trail hid the wagons from them. 
 
 " I don t deny," said the trapper, " that I m some oneasy 
 about this late crossin of the divide, but jist at this time 
 the Shastas is more likely to be on their huntin -grounds 
 than on the war-path, an they hain t troubled last year s 
 emigration, neither on the way nor sence they ve took up 
 their land." 
 
 " Mebbe that s because there was nigh onto three hun 
 dred rifles, an three hundred good shots to use em, in last 
 year s emigration," observed Long John. " An Injun hez 
 as much sense as a white man about takin too many 
 chances." 
 
 " There s somethin in that, I know," answered the 
 trapper ; " but then, Injuns hez other kinds of sense too 
 more n they git credit for. They don t, ginerally speakin , 
 go on the war-path for nothin , an they know what good 
 treatment is. Now, most folks thinks that all the good In 
 juns is six foot under ground, but I ve lived alongside of
 
 FORTY-NINERS. 79 
 
 em too many years to believe that. Jist to show you what 
 I mean, I ll give you a little experience I had last winter. 
 
 " I was trappin on the Rattone Mountains, an I d built 
 me as tight a cabin as you d wish to see, an* had every 
 thing comf table. One night, jist as I was cookin my 
 supper, two Injuns come to the door, an old one an" a young 
 one. They looked more beat out than I ever see Injuns 
 look afore. They d been out a follerin elk, an had the 
 worst kind of luck, an the old Injun had had a fall an 
 hurt his leg. 
 
 " I took em in, cooked em a good supper, give em my 
 two best bar-skins for a bed, an sent em off in the mornin 
 with a tip-top breakfast an provender enough to last em 
 that day. 
 
 " Well, about a month afterward the same thing hap 
 pened to me. I was out after elk ; follered em all day 
 with no luck, made the best shift I could for the night, an* 
 next mornin started for my cabin, but lost the trail some 
 how. 
 
 " I tramped all day, till late in the afternoon, an* I kin 
 tell you it wa n t much of a pleasure trip. At last, when I 
 was about to give out (for to make bad wuss, the weather 
 had turned colder n the North Pole, an it was a snow- 
 in ), I struck a wickiup that was by itself in a little gulch. 
 
 " I didn t know what kind of a welcome I d git, but the 
 smoke a-curlin from the top was sech a temptation that I 
 jist walked right up to it an" what do you think ? it was 
 the lodge of the old Injun that I d took in a month afore. 
 
 " Well, you may say what you like, but that thar Injun 
 peared as glad to see me as ef I was his brother. He 
 brought me right in, give me the best he had to eat, kep 
 me over night, an sent his boy with me for a guide next 
 day." 
 
 " I don t dispute that there s good Injuns a few of em
 
 8o THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 above ground, though, bein so scattered like, they must 
 have a powerful lonesome time," remarked Long John. 
 
 " I can t say as any of em ever put theirselves out to 
 cook my vittles for me ; but I ve seen the day when they 
 moughta took myskelpas easy as fallin off a log, an they 
 didn t do it. It s nigh onto two years ago that it hap 
 pened. I was with the ox-train that was haulin freight to 
 Santa Fe~. Me an Tom Bradshaw was the extry hands 
 that trip, an w-e was full three miles behind the train, 
 a-drivin the animals, that had got to be tender-footed. 
 
 " We was joggin along careless like, thinkin mostly of 
 camp an our supper, when all of a suddent we heard a 
 noise like thunder or the tramp of the biggest kind of a 
 herd of buffaloes, an lookin away off to our right, we see 
 a terrible cloud o dust a-risin. A minute afterward a 
 band of twenty-five or thirty Injuns galloped out of the 
 dust an made for us. Behind em, as fast as the dust 
 cleared away, we could see more Injuns, all of em riclin 
 like mad, straight onto us. If ever any fellers hair stood 
 up, it was mine an" Tom Bradshaw s jist then, an when 
 the head Injuns got to us, they jerked their ponies up till 
 they a most stood straight on their hind feet, an give a 
 yellseems as ef I could hear it now ! The screech of a 
 thousand painters would be the softest kind of a hush-a-by 
 alongside of that Apache whoop ; for they was Apaches, 
 as we found out afterward ; somewhere near a hundred 
 young warriors. Our poor, tender-footed cattle, that could 
 hardly creep along, was that scared that they broke into a 
 gallop, an Tom Bradshaw an me jist stood stock still, 
 a-waitin to have our hair lifted, it seemed like ; but after a 
 bit we found out that the Apaches was only havin a little 
 fun of their own. 
 
 " They jabbered a few minutes in their own lingo, then 
 treated us to all the English they kno wed, which was the
 
 FORTY-NIsVERS. 8i 
 
 cuss words they d picked up from the freighters, an 
 wheeled round an galloped off as they d come." 
 
 By the time that Long John s narrative was finished the 
 party stood on the summit, about a quarter of a mile in ad 
 vance of the train. The trapper s keen glance swept the 
 horizon, and rested finally on a peak to their right. A less 
 practical eye would have perceived nothing there, but Car 
 ter had spent twenty-five years in the mountains and on the 
 plains, and his sight and hearing were those of an Indian. 
 He descried a thin blue column of smoke rising skyward, 
 and announced to the others : 
 
 " A signal-fire ! The Shastas air a-givin notice to the 
 bands to the north an 1 west that we re a-comin ." 
 
 " That means war," Long John remarked, though more 
 in the tone of one putting a question than asserting a fact. 
 
 The trapper shook his head. 
 
 " No, not for sure, by no means. You see, Injuns 
 don t go much on -stationary, an post-offices is sliurse be 
 twixt here an the line ; consequently they does their letter- 
 writin by lightin a little brush on the peaks, an consid- 
 erin that any one on em kin see that thar smoke fifty 
 miles as the crow flies, it ain t a bad way." 
 
 " Then you do not think the Shastas are hostile ?" in 
 quired one of the young men. 
 
 " No ; an I ll tell you why. Ef you look sharp, you ll 
 see the tops of their wickiups a-showin in the chapparal 
 down there on the foot-hills. Now when Injuns is hostile 
 there ain t nary lodge in sight, an you won t come across 
 no warriors neither, except it s a little party of three or 
 four that meets you an makes a show of bein friendly, to 
 find out how many men there is in the train ; but when you 
 see their tepees right along thelrail, you don t need to bor- 
 rer no trouble, for there won t be no fightin ." 
 
 Long John confirmed this statement, but added, as a
 
 82 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 conclusion deduced from his own experience, that the sav 
 ages were " onsartin critters," who might be friendly to-day 
 and on the war-path to-morrow. 
 
 By this time the men who were acting as the advance 
 guard of the train had reached the summit. These men 
 were husbands and fathers, who had lives far dearer than 
 their own to protect, and one after another approached the 
 trapper with anxious inquiries as to the look-out ahead. 
 His cheerful assurance that there was no danger, and that 
 good treatment would keep the Indians friendly, was re 
 ceived with expressions of relief and thankfulness, and the 
 whole party, freed from the apprehensions that had kept 
 them on the look-out for signs of trouble, directed their 
 attention to the view before them. 
 
 The valley, which lay almost at their feet, stretched 
 away to the north as far as the eye could reach. On the 
 south it was bounded by a spur of the range on which they 
 stood, and twenty miles to the west a succession of grass- 
 covered benches led up to another chain of mountains, 
 whose sides were hidden by a heavy growth of fir and 
 cedar. The sun was already dipping behind these western 
 peaks as the rear guard of the train came up, and it was 
 agreed on all hands to defer further observations until 
 morning, as, according to Carter s reckoning, they had 
 barely time before dark to reach a spot of which he knew, 
 that would afford a favorable camping-ground. 
 
 The whole company began the descent in good spirits, 
 and the animals, as though they realized that plenty of 
 grass and water would be their reward, behaved admira 
 bly, so that by the time the first stars began to twinkle 
 faintly in the sky, the train entered the park or mountain 
 valley in which they were to camp for the night. On three 
 sides of this park the rocky peaks of the range rose like a 
 wall, and through the pass by which they entered, a clear
 
 FORTY-NINERS. 83 
 
 stream, fed by unfailing mountain springs, leaped and 
 rushed downward on its way to the valley below. 
 
 These emigrants were not outlaws fleeing from just 
 punishment, or fanatics seeking some spot in the wilder 
 ness upon which to erect the altars of a faith at war with 
 the spirit of the age and the genius of civilization. They 
 were the sturdy yeomanry of the Mississippi valley, them 
 selves the children of piqneers, bred on the frontier, and 
 trained to combat the difficulties and face the dangers of 
 border life. The wonderful reports that had reached them 
 of the beauty and fertility of the valleys of Oregon, together 
 with the inducements offered by the Government to settlers, 
 were to them a sufficient reason for undertaking the peril 
 ous overland journey of more than two thousand miles, 
 with their wives and little ones. 
 
 Brave, hardy*, and adventurous, the very children par 
 took of the spirit of the enterprise, and talked wisely of the 
 land that father was going to take up, and of the way they 
 would work to help him put in the crops ; and if the young 
 mother with her baby at her breast quaked inwardly at. the 
 thought of the savage bands, the original lords of the soil, 
 who still roamed over the fertile valleys in which their 
 cabins were to be built, she gave no sign of her fears. 
 
 Thus far all had gone well with the train. Sickness 
 had not thinned their ranks, and they had escaped the bul 
 lets and arrows of the red man. Now the goal of their 
 hopes lay before them : the beautiful valley stretching away 
 to the north, the richness of its soil proved by the tall 
 grass which waved over it, the foothills clothed with luxuri 
 ant pasture, the cafions and mountain-sides covered with 
 timber and abounding in game, and the streams stocked 
 with fi sh. The land was theirs. They had nothing to do 
 but enter in and possess it, and they well deserved this 
 goodly heritage. As we have noticed previously, all of
 
 Q4 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 them except Long John, the trapper, and the brothers La 
 Tour, were men of families, and they brought with them 
 the wish and the determination to rear their children as 
 worthy citizens of a great and free country. To-night, as 
 they sat round their camp-fires, they talked not only of the 
 farms they were to acquire and the homes they would build, 
 but of the churches and school-houses they hoped to see in 
 the valley before ten years rolled round ; and those who 
 know the history of the State they helped to found, know 
 too how nobly the men of Oregon have redeemed the 
 pledges of those early days. 
 
 The La Tours had joined the company, not so much for 
 the land they might acquire as for the sake of escaping 
 from the bloodhounds that the Mormon priesthood set 
 on the track of their recalcitrant followers ; and the emi 
 grants, with ready sympathy for refugees from tyranny of 
 any sort, had received them with open arms. Their bear 
 ing since they joined the train had been such as to make 
 them general favorites, and honest Dick Bradley, the 
 happy owner of a pretty little wife and a sturdy year-old 
 youngster, expressed the sentiments of the whole company 
 when he said, m . 
 
 " Better boys than them thar never saddled a horse nor 
 drawed a bead, an ef the redskins sh d pop me over, I d 
 trust em to bring Jinny an the baby through safe." 
 
 Yet the brothers, though outwardly cheerful, and always 
 ready with an encouraging word for the despondent, and 
 a smile so sunny that the youngest toddler in camp would 
 run to meet them, carried a heavy load of concealed anxiety 
 under the brave exterior they maintained. They were 
 " mother-boys," both of them, to the very core of their 
 affectionate hearts, and " La belle mere" whom they wor 
 shiped with what has been truly and beautifully called the 
 fairest type of first love, was a prisoner in the hands of her
 
 FORTY-NINERS. 85 
 
 enemies. They had meant to carry her with them, but all 
 their entreaties had been powerless to move her to take a 
 single step without Louise. They thought of her still as 
 on the banks of the Missouri, not dreaming that she could 
 be induced to accompany the Mormons to their new home ; 
 and their hope, a faint one it is true, but still something to 
 cling to, was to make a home here to which they might yet 
 bring all of their scattered family. 
 
 The number of acres which a single man could take up 
 was only half the liberal grant made by the Government to 
 the head of a family ; but the two brothers had been as one 
 ever since the days when they lay in the same cradle in the 
 old home in Quebec, and the land of both would make a 
 noble farm a little kingdom for the mother when they 
 should bring her here. So, comforting themselves with a 
 dream that was never to be fulfilled, happy in their love 
 for each other, and pleased with the life of freedom and 
 adven^ire that opened out before them in the new North- 
 West, they joined heartily to-night in the rejoicing that filled 
 the camp. 
 
 " Tell ye what," observed the trapper, as he poised a 
 slice of venison on the end of the sharp stick that answered 
 for a spit, " this here valley is jest as nigh bein the Gar- 
 cling of Eden that the Good Book tells about, as any land 
 that lays out door. I was raised in Vermount, an I hate to 
 speak disrespectful of the country on account of the old 
 folks, that lived an died thar, so I alwuz make a pint of 
 sayin that Vermount is a mighty nice State to emigrate 
 from ; but when I look at this here country, an then think 
 of the rocks an stumps an* stone-heaps that had to be 
 plowed around for every bushel of corn that was raised 
 back thar, seems as ef the old folks, ef they know it, won t 
 blame me for advisin everybody raised thar to emigrate 
 young. You see, the old man was a deacon, an never said
 
 86 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUJK. 
 
 nothin worse in his life than I declare, besides bein one 
 of the patientest souls that ever drawecl breath ; but I ve 
 seen him look as ef it would a bin a powerful relief to his 
 mind to make some onscripteral remarks when he was a 
 plowin the side-hill above the barn. 
 
 " You ve heerd the story, most likely, of the traveler in 
 Vermount that seen a man a-scoopin somethin out of a 
 crevice between the rocks with a long-handled hoe, an 
 asked him what on arth he was a doin . 
 
 " Doin ? says the man, why, I matryin together up 
 dirt enough to kiver them pertaters. You don t s pose 
 they d grow ef I left em bare to the sun ? 
 
 " Now I ain t a-goin to say I know that to be so, because 
 its somethin I didn t see myself, but there s enough that I 
 hev seen to make me thank the Lord that the way opened 
 for me to move on toward sundown as soon as I got to be 
 a man. I d ruther have a hand-to-hand tussle with the 
 varmints in this country than with the rocks an tumps 
 back thar ; an seems as ef I relish the game I shoot out 
 here more n I used ter the sheep an cattle we killed on the 
 farm. I alwus pitied the poor things, they had sech a hard 
 time a-pickin their livin where there was two stones to 
 one blade of grass, an it seemed cruel to kill em after 
 they d made out to grow up on such pastur."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE BROTHERS. 
 
 THE emigrants, safely sheltered by the walls which na 
 ture had built around their camp, slept the sound sleep 
 they had earned so well, undisturbed by dreams of their 
 savage neighbors in the cafions below, and rose when the 
 earliest signs of dawn appeared in the sky, to prepare for 
 the last stage of their journey. 
 
 Daybreak in these primeval solitudes seemed like the 
 birth of light in a new world. All the shy wild creatures 
 whose haunts are in the forest afld the mountains came out 
 from their coverts. The deer bent their beautiful necks to 
 drink of the little lake that lay in a basin half way up the 
 gorge. The rabbits nibbled the short, sweet herbage, or 
 sat soberly on the bare hillocks, gazing about as if admiring 
 the landscape. Every leafy shelter was alive with birds, 
 whose chirpings and twitterings, beginning before the stars 
 faded, swelled gradually into a triumphant chorus of song 
 as the sun cast his earliest rays upon the fleecy patches of 
 cloud that hung over the mountains. 
 
 No human sound came up from the valley below. No 
 sign that man had invaded this corner of nature s domain 
 was visible from the spot where the new-comers had rested 
 for the night ; but as they left the park and began to descend 
 the pass they perceived tiny spirals of smoke, curling up 
 ward from unseen fires, and in another half- hour the deer 
 skin lodges of the nomads of this western wilderness were 
 in plain sight. 
 
 The Shastas, the emigrants nearest neighbors for the
 
 88 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 present, seemed to have confidence in the peaceable inten 
 tions of their visitors, for the village beside the trail was 
 tenanted only by the women and children of the band, who 
 showed a mild curiosity with regard to the appearance and 
 belongings of the pale-faces, but manifested no signs of 
 fear or displeasure. Through the trapper they communi 
 cated the information that their braves had gone to the 
 hunting-grounds, which were five suns distant, and that if 
 deer and elk were plenty they would be home before two 
 moons. A little trading was also done, a few well-dressed 
 skins being exchanged for the trinkets dear to the savage 
 heart, and a bright brass kettle, which was regarded by 
 numbers with covetous eyes, was left in the chief s lodge 
 as a gift. Then the train moved on, followed for a mile or 
 more by a procession of scantily-clad, dusky juveniles, who 
 were loath to lose sight of the wonderful pageant. 
 
 By the middle of the afternoon they reached the end of 
 their journey, and camped in what seemed the richest por 
 tion of the valley. There were about one hundred and fifty 
 families in the company, and it was necessary that they 
 should keep together as closely as possible for mutual help 
 and protection. Their claims were staked out in the best 
 way for the accomplishment of this object, and in the center 
 of the land thus taken up, a fort, surrounded by a stockade, 
 was erected while the cabins of the settlers were going up. 
 
 Long John was a millwright, and the wagons in the 
 train belonging to him were loaded with the necessary 
 machinery for a saw-mill, one of the first wants of the new 
 settlement. The useful trades were well represented 
 among the colonists, and not only every man and woman, 
 but every child in the company above the age of seven, 
 knew enough of farm work to lend a hand in some depart 
 ment of what was to be the principal industry of the settle 
 ment.
 
 THE BROTHERS. 89 
 
 Thirty years ago, and on the frontiers, life was simple, 
 and artificial wants were few. It is really surprising how 
 much comfort and happiness our colonists managed to ex 
 tract from a mode of living whose details would appall the 
 stoutest-hearted of those philosophers who are wont to 
 advise their friends to "go west." 
 
 If in the press of work attendant on breaking ground for 
 putting in the crops, no time could be found to have lum 
 ber sawed for flooring, the good housewife got along very 
 well with a floor of earth, hard packed and well swept. If 
 glass was wanting, a doeskin, dressed thin and oiled, took 
 its place in the window. If the supply of dishes fell short, 
 the youngsters of the family ate with excellent appetites 
 from blocks of wood nicely hollowed and scraped smooth. 
 When the small store of groceries they had brought with 
 them began to fail, and the nearest trading-post was more 
 than two hundred miles away, the honey which the bees, 
 with commendable forethought, had laid up in hollow 
 trees for just such an emergency, supplied the place of 
 sugar, and if the women missed their cup of tea they did 
 not say so. 
 
 Spinning-wheels and hand-looms, which had already 
 grown obsolete in the East, were among the most valued 
 possessions of the colonists ; and as the years passed and 
 their flocks of sheep increased on the range, and acres of 
 flax blossomed on their farms, fathers, mothers, and children 
 were clothed from head to foot in suits, by no means to be 
 despised, that had been " raised on the land." 
 
 Game and fish abounded almost at their doors ; wheat 
 that was sown the first autumn yielded a bountiful harvest 
 that was ready for the reaper by the following June ; and 
 the crops of all sorts that were gathered from the ground 
 planted in the spring filled their bins and granaries to over 
 flowing.
 
 90 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 And while outward prosperity attended the colonists, the 
 roofs of their lowly cabins sheltered scenes of domestic 
 peace. No baleful shadow, the outcome of a faith that 
 crushes the purest instincts ot humanity, sat at their hearth 
 stones. No tyrannical priesthood made the people its 
 slaves. No " blood-atoner" dogged the steps of those who 
 saw fit to go elsewhere. 
 
 The next year and the year following witnessed a still 
 larger immigration, the beginning of that steady influx of 
 population which, in the course of a decade, covered the 
 whole country with farms, and built up scores of busy 
 towns where only a little while before the red man had been 
 the sole tenant of the soil. 
 
 Early in the fall of 1852 a small train from the States ar 
 rived, which had come by a different route from that taken 
 by the first settlers. They had encountered many difficul 
 ties on the way, and by the time they reached Echo Cafton 
 their animals were so jaded and footsore that they feared 
 they would not be able to get through. They turned aside, 
 therefore, into the Mormon settlements, to exchange their 
 nearly worn-out teams for fresh ones, and to get such sup 
 plies as the settlers might be able to furnish. 
 
 They represented the Mormons as numerous and appar 
 ently thriving, but by no means disposed to entertain stran 
 gers. However, by the exercise of a little strategy, which 
 Ward, the captain of the company, said bethought entirely 
 justifiable under the circumstances, they obtained what 
 they needed by paying two prices for everything, and went 
 on their way unhindered. 
 
 " I don t think nature intended me for a hypocrite," 
 Ward said, " for the bit of acting I went through with in 
 Salt Lake was the hardest work I have done in twenty 
 years. You see, as soon as we struck the settlements, we 
 could tell by the atmosphere of the place that we were not
 
 THE BROTHERS. 91 
 
 welcome. The men gave us black looks, and the women 
 disappeared in-doprs as soon as the train came in sight. 
 No one would talk with us, until after a time I got a small 
 boy to direct me to the Bishop s house. 
 
 I knocked at the door boldly, and the man who opened it 
 proved to be the Bishop himself. I stated our case to him, 
 enlarged on the reputation of the saints for hospitality and 
 generosity, said we knew if we could reach their settle 
 ments we should be cared for, and finally begged of him a 
 letter to President Young. 
 
 " The old fellow was completely won over. He ordered 
 his people to let us have the supplies we wanted (for which, 
 by the way, we paid a big price), and invited me to break 
 fast in his own house. After breakfast he made up his 
 mind to go with us to Salt Lake, and through him I ob 
 tained the privilege of paying my respects to the Prophet. 
 
 " To him I praised everything that I saw in Utah, and, as 
 I flatter myself, made so good an impression that I had no 
 further difficulties. I think if the folks at home could know 
 what diplomatic abilities I developed out there I should get 
 a foreign mission at any rate." 
 
 " But with all yer diplomatic abilities, ye didn t git 
 ahead of that old coon on a bargain," drawled Jim Badger, 
 one of the party. " Our hosses an cattle wor blooded 
 stock, wutha mint of money, ef they wuz tender-footed, an 
 we hed to trade em fur mustangs an the orneriest horned 
 critters that ever lifted a hoof ; an fur the garding truck 
 an other provender they sold us, we paid em in hard cash 
 more n would hev bought a good-sized farm out here." 
 
 " That s all so," answered Ward, " but I saw we were 
 in a place where it was Hobson s choice. One of these 
 days I ll get even with them on the animals." 
 
 The La Tours, as soon as they heard that the strangers 
 had stopped in Utah, paid a visit to their camp, in the hope
 
 92 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 of learning something of their relatives, of whom they had 
 never been able to hear anything since the day that they 
 parted with them at winter quarters. Though they did 
 not think that their mother and the younger children would 
 go with the Mormons except upon compulsion, they were 
 by no means so sure about Philip, and they believed also 
 that Louise was in the Prophet s power, and that she was 
 in Utah, if alive. 
 
 Captain Ward could give them no information, but while 
 they were talking with him another of the company came 
 up an Illinoisan named Spencer, who had relatives among 
 the Mormons. 
 
 " Here is a man," said Ward, " who had a better chance 
 than I to look around, and he may be able to tell you what 
 you wish to know." 
 
 As the brothers stepped forward to meet Spencer, he ex 
 claimed, 
 
 " I have surely seen one of you before ; but no stop. 
 It was a younger man ; only a boy, in fact." 
 
 "Where did you see him?" In their eagerness the 
 brothers both spoke at once. 
 
 " In Salt Lake. He was a youngster of about eighteen, 
 I should say, but as tall as either of you, and so like you 
 that the resemblance quite startled me at first." 
 
 " Did you talk with him ?" 
 
 " No. I did not even hear his name mentioned. You 
 see, the Mormons don t encourage sociability between 
 their people and outsiders. I know them of old ; and when 
 they are fixed so that they can have things their own way, 
 it won t do to ask too many questions about their affairs. 
 I would have liked to question my own relatives, especially 
 the women, who looked downcast enough to make me sure 
 their lot was a hard one ; but I was certain that I should 
 make trouble for myself and for them too by doing so."
 
 THE BROTHERS. 93 
 
 " The fact is," interposed Ward, " we found ourselves 
 in the hands of the Philistines, and were forced to remem 
 ber that discretion is the better part of valor. A little im 
 prudence would have cost us a great deal more than the 
 garden truck that Badger tells about. We none of us 
 dared to appear as though we were inquiring into their 
 concerns, but if you have relatives there and wish to find 
 out about them, I think I know of parties to whom in 
 quiries could be addressed. 
 
 " You know we came in by the southern route, and in 
 Shasta valley we met some old friends of mine on their way 
 to the diggings in Yreka Flat. There were half a dozen 
 apostate Mormons with them fellows who had got tired of 
 Prophets and polygamy and all that sort of thing, and left 
 Salt Lake without bidding anybody good-by. From the 
 stories they told I should say they had a lively time getting 
 away. They started out to hunt stray stock, and it appears 
 they managed to have the animals stray a good ways, and 
 timed their search so as to fall in with a train bound for 
 California. They were young fellows, all of them, and 
 from what I saw of Utah I can t blame them for leaving." 
 
 That night, when the brothers were alone, they talked 
 long and earnestly about the advisability of disposing of 
 their land and going over into California, where they might 
 possibly hear something of their family. There were many 
 recruits from Oregon in the army of California miners, and 
 the La Tours had more than once been on the point of 
 going ; but now, as on many other nights when they had 
 talked the matter over, they went to bed without reaching 
 any conclusion. 
 
 The brothers still slept side by side, as they had done all 
 their lives. Their claims adjoined each other, and a cabin 
 built upon the line answered the legal requirements of a 
 dwelling upon each farm.
 
 94 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 The unexplained physical and mental sympathy that 
 often exists between twins was so strong in their case that 
 in many respects they could hardly be said to have a 
 separate existence. They dropped asleep together, waked 
 at the same moment, and even their dreams were alike. 
 To-night, going to bed at a late hour, they slept until long 
 past midnight, then both waked with a shudder of alarm. 
 
 " Dear brother;" said Francis, " I have had such a 
 dreadful dream." 
 
 " And I," answered Charles. " I dreamed that I saw 
 our mother in a little room, cold and bare like a prison- 
 cell. She sat on the edge of a narrow bed, and when she 
 tried to rise I saw that there was a chain about her waist 
 that fastened her to the spot. Her hair was white as snow, 
 and her lace pale as the dead." 
 
 " I saw all that too," interrupted Francis, " and yet in 
 spite of everything there was a peaceful, almost a happy 
 look in her eyes, as they met mine. What can it mean ?" 
 
 * I do not know any more than you, and we shall not 
 find out by staying here. Let us not wait any longer, but 
 start for California at once. If we cannot sell our land, we 
 can rent it." 
 
 " I was thinking just the same. If we meet those young 
 men from Salt Lake we can at least find out whether our 
 mother and the little girls are in Utah. Philip is there, 
 without doubt. It could have been no one else that this 
 man Spencer saw." 
 
 " And the little girls are almost women now. Think 
 what a place that must be for them, with no one able to 
 protect them !" 
 
 The brothers slept no more that night, and the next 
 morning set about making the necessary arrangements for 
 leaving. It was not a difficult matter to find a purchaser 
 tor their land among the late arrivals, and with the price
 
 THE BRO THEA S. 95 
 
 
 
 of it safely stowed away in the leather belts which enabled 
 the men of the Coast in those days to become their own 
 bankers, they started on their journey, carrying with them 
 the good wishes of the whole settlement. 
 
 In 1852 the road over the Siskiyous was not what 
 it is to-day, but it was a very good road of its kind 
 nevertheless. Up and up the steep sides of the moun 
 tain, now winding to the right, now making a sharp 
 turn to the left, here creeping along the edge of a preci 
 pice, and yonder sinking almost out of sight in a nar 
 row defile, the trail led at length to the open plateau 
 overhung by the frowning summit of Pilot Knob. Here 
 our travelers caught their first glimpse of the Land of Gold 
 that wonderful country whose hidden treasures are cov 
 ered, not by desert sands and bare, bristling rocks, but by 
 an emerald carpet, embroidered with all the hues of earth 
 and sky. 
 
 The brothers lingered on the plateau until the declining 
 sun warned them that it was time to be on their way, if 
 they expected to reach the valley by % nightfall ; but the pic 
 ture spread out before them was one which might well ex 
 cuse delay. Who that has even looked upon it can forget 
 it ! What traveler who has explored the valleys and 
 climbed the mountains of the Pacific Slope can lose the 
 memory of the charmed landscapes that make all other 
 scenery appear tame and cold ! 
 
 A little way from the foot of the mountain they began to 
 perceive signs of human occupancy. Herds of cattle were 
 grazing on the slopes, trails branched off from the main 
 road in different directions, and finally the rock chimneys 
 and clap-boarded roof of a long low building came in 
 view. Our travelers horses quickened their speed of their 
 own accord, and even the pack-mules began to move more 
 nimbly as they came in sight of the watering-trough, hewn
 
 96 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 out of an immense log, and filled by a pipe leading from 
 one of those mountain springs whose clear waters show 
 the form of the tiniest pebble or insect at the bottom. 
 
 The building needed no lettered sign to announce 
 " Entertainment for Man and Beast." More than a dozen 
 wayfarers were resting in various picturesque attitudes on 
 the porch, while in front of the stables a small band of 
 horses and mules were being divested of packs and saddles. 
 
 A number of the travelers were Oregonians, who, after a 
 prosperous summer in the mines, were returning to their 
 families, and among these the La Tours found one or two 
 acquaintances who had spent the last six months on Yreka 
 Flat. They confirmed Captain Ward s account of the 
 Mormon boys who had lately come to the mines, and were 
 able besides to give the names of some of them names 
 vhich the brothers remembered in connection with the 
 flight from Nauvoo, and the year they had spent at winter 
 quarters. 
 
 The company that filled the inn was a genial one, the 
 supper was good, and the stories, of the " diggin s" which 
 followed it were well flavored with the marvelous ; yet the 
 brothers, who were eager to be on the way, found the even 
 ing a long one, and by sunrise next morning they were 
 ready for their journey. 
 
 A ride of ten hours through a rolling country covered 
 with grass, with here and there a patch of timber, brought 
 them in sight of their destination. 
 
 Yreka Flat, in those clays, came under the head of " new 
 diggings." About half a dozen cabins of the rudest con 
 struction were scattered around, but the majority of the 
 miners had been too busy during the summer to think of 
 building cabins ; and besides, what need was there of a 
 house in those months when rain never fell, and the air 
 was as soft as a baby s cheek ?
 
 THE BROTHERS. 97 
 
 The day s work was over, and all along the gulches camp- 
 fires began to gleam, casting a bright glow on the faces of 
 the masculine cooks, who were making coffee, frying 
 bacon, or engaged in the more arduous task of mixing 
 bread in their prospect-pans. 
 
 They were a merry crew, these miners. They sang and 
 whistled as the cooking progressed, and when supper was 
 ready seated themselves comfortably on the ground, with no 
 complaints about the absence of tablecloths and napkins, 
 and ate and drank with an appetite that it was worth 
 crossing the Sierras to find. There was no trouble about 
 clearing the table after the meal, and dish-washing was a 
 brief and infrequent ceremony, observed chiefly out of 
 respect to the traditions of the past. 
 
 Our travelers were received with that open-handed hos 
 pitality which was a distinguishing characteristic of the 
 " Forty-Niners," and before the evening wore away they 
 were rechristened according to the custom of the Coast. 
 Every man in the camp bore an appellation which had a dis 
 tinctive meaning, the arbitrary title by which he was known 
 in "the States" having been dropped, along with other 
 relics of an effete civilization. Henceforth the new-comers 
 were to be designated as the " Turtle-Doves," and if a neces 
 sity arose for speaking of them separately a thing which 
 rarely happened they were distinguished as Number One 
 and Number Two. 
 
 Early the next morning Christopher Columbus so 
 named because, according to his own version of the history 
 of the Coast, he was the original discoverer of all the rich 
 diggings known to fame proffered his services to the late 
 arrivals in the capacity of instructor and general adviser. 
 
 " This here camp is gittin considerable played out," he 
 remarked. " Diggin s was struck last spring, an sence 
 then there s been nigh onto a thousand of the boys at work
 
 9^ THE FATE Ol- MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 on the Flat. Mebbe a hundred out of the lot has made a 
 clean-up of from three to ten thousand dollars, an ef you 
 count alongside of them all the claims that s bein worked 
 now, you can see with half an eye that the ground s bin 
 pooty well prospected. The pay streaks is worked out, an 
 by the time snow flies these diggin s 11 be as lonesome as 
 a last year s bird s-nest ; but I ll tell you what I ll do," 
 lowering his voice to a confidential half-whisper; "I ve 
 got a big thing on the crick, jest the other side of the 
 mounting. 
 
 " I reely don t like to tell it as big as it is, because you 
 mought think I was a-lyin . I hain t done much work on 
 it : jest staked out the claim, an sunk a shaft eight foot, to 
 the bed-rock. Well, now, you heerd the boys talk last 
 night about half a dollar to the pan, as though that was big 
 pay. I didn t want to say anything to discourage em, but 
 ef I thought I hadn t got nothin to look forrerd to but a 
 pay streak that u d average half a dollar to the pan, I d 
 throw up the sponge an quit the country. 
 
 " As I was tellin you, that there claim of mine ain t had 
 much work done on it ; but the dirt I took out of the bot 
 tom of the shaft went fifteen dollars to the pan." 
 
 " Mining is new business to us," Francis ventured to 
 suggest, " and we want to look about a little, and get 
 what information we can before deciding upon anything." 
 
 "Well, ginerally speakin , that s the best plan; but 
 when a feller that s new to the diggin s has a chance to go 
 in with some one that s bin on the Coast since airly in the 
 spring of 49, an took out more dust than a mule-train 
 could pack down-hill on the ice, it s different. Now, I 
 don t mind sayin that I ve kinder took to you boys, an 
 I ll make you an offer that I wouldn t make to everybody. 
 Ef you ve a notion to go in with me on that there claim, 
 you kin have a one halt intrist for five hundred dollars, or
 
 THE BROTHERS. 99 
 
 a two thirds intrist for a thousand. You see, two thirds 
 gives you the control, an that s a big thing for you." 
 
 At this point the conference was interrupted by loud calls 
 for " Christopher" from a neighboring group of miners ; 
 and with a hasty apology to his new friends and a promise 
 to see them again, the proprietor of the rich placer claim 
 on the " crick" moved away in answer to the summons. 
 
 The young men looked after him with a mingled expres 
 sion of amusement and relief. The fortunate owner of the 
 wonderful gold deposit was a trifle seedy in his personal 
 appearance. The rim of his hat had disappeared, with the 
 exception of a single piece which hung down behind, while 
 a bristling crop of sandy hair showed through an aperture 
 in the crown. His flannel shirt, his sole upper garment, 
 had evidently been fashioned from the half of a pair of 
 blankets which had seen long service before relinquishing 
 their first form and design. His breeches, skilfully patched 
 with remnants of flour-sacks, stopped half way below the 
 knees, and were met by the tops of boots that had never 
 been a pair. 
 
 The brothers were still following the receding figure of 
 the great discoverer with their eyes, when a friendly hand 
 was laid on the shoulder of each, and turning they con 
 fronted Lucky Jim a blue-eyed, jovial ne er-do-weel, 
 who had followed up all the strikes on the Coast without 
 making a dollar, but who seemed nevertheless as happy 
 and care-free as though he had found the world an oyster 
 already opened for him. 
 
 " The boys noticed Columbus going up your way, "he 
 said, " and they sent me around, not to notify you that he s 
 the biggest liar on the Coast, for they reckon you can find 
 that out for yourselves, but to tell you how to get rid of 
 him. 
 
 "When he comes back with an offer to sell you two
 
 loo THE PATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 thirds of his claim he ll ask a thousand dollars for it at 
 first, and finally drop to a hundred or less just tell him 
 you ll take an interest if he can get the Professor to go in 
 with you. You see, he swindled the Professor out of five 
 hundred dollars when he first struck the diggings, and 
 came mighty near getting the top of his head shot off when 
 the Golden Treasure turned out to be salted." 
 
 " That is a good idea," said Francis, who usually spoke 
 for both. " We were wondering how we should answer 
 him ; for no doubt if we declined buying an interest in his 
 claim on the crick, he would bring forward a dozen 
 others, each one better than the last." Then after a brief 
 pause he added, 
 
 " May we trouble you to assist us in another matter ? 
 We came here hoping to find three young men from Utah, 
 who, so we were told, were in this camp." 
 
 Jim nodded. " I know the boys you mean," he said, 
 " but they re with a party that s gone over the mountain for 
 supplies. They will be back in about a month. You have 
 just missed seeing them, for they left only four days ago."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE PROPHET S PROFITS. 
 
 THE spring of 1853 opened with every indication of a 
 prosperous year for the Mormon settlements in Utah. The 
 heavy overland emigration to California during the two 
 previous years had been of great benefit to the Saints. 
 Many large companies were compelled, on reaching Salt 
 Lake, to make such exchanges and purchases as Captain 
 Ward s train had made, and it is scarcely necessary to 
 add that the Mormons always had the best of the bargain. 
 Many other companies had unwisely loaded their wagons 
 with supplies of all kinds that their jaded teams could not 
 possibly drag across the desert, and these supplies were 
 unloaded in Utah and sold for a trifle, or, in many cases, 
 given away. 
 
 There were still other small companies that entered the 
 borders of Utah and were never seen again. This was es 
 pecially true of returning Californians, who attempted to 
 cross the Territory with the treasure they had taken from 
 the mines of the Coast. 
 
 At this time Brigham Young was at once the ecclesias 
 tical, civil, and military head of the colony. He was Gov 
 ernor of the Territory, by Federal appointment, ex-officio 
 commander of the military, and he assumed also to be the 
 vicegerent of ihe Almighty. His power was that of an 
 absolute and irresponsible despot,* and this power he exer 
 cised for more than twenty years, without let or hindrance 
 from any quarter. 
 
 * See Appendix, Note F, page 337.
 
 102 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 To say that he held the lives, liberty, and property of the 
 people in his hands is to make an assertion that falls short 
 of the truth. He had it in his power to condemn those who 
 fell under his displeasure to a fate more terrible than death, 
 and to cause the slow years of a wretched life to drag out in 
 the midst of tortures such as Loyola never dreamed of. 
 
 And like the savage tribes of the American wilderness, 
 he punished those who offended him, not merely by causing 
 them to suffer in their own persons everything that his 
 cruel spirit could devise, but by putting those who were 
 dearer to them than their own lives to torture and shame. 
 
 Because Madame La Tour had incurred his bitter hate, 
 it pleased him to sacrifice her daughter, who had never 
 offended him. That he might torture her mother through 
 her, Louise La Tour, beautiful, gifted, and refined, was 
 made the slave of a brute whose very presence was an in 
 sult to a pure woman. Then, when this wretch tired of 
 her, and wished to throw her aside, he was prepared to 
 give her to another of those beasts in human form who 
 were among his familiars ; but here, it seemed, his hand 
 was stayed. He who sent His angel, and shut the lions 
 mouths ; He who walked beside His chosen ones in the fur 
 nace seven times heated had heard the cry that went up 
 in the silence of the night from a soul bereft of earthly 
 hope : Louise was no longer alone. She realized the en 
 compassing, all-pervading presence of the Helper of the 
 helpless ; she felt that an invisible Hand was turning aside 
 the shafts aimed at her. Her first encouragements were that 
 about that time human friends were raised up for her in unex 
 pected quarters. The first wife of Kimball, known among 
 the people as Sister Vilate, whose sufferings had not yet 
 culminated in the madness that preceded her death, was 
 moved with a strange pity for the hapless girl, whose his 
 tory she knew only too well. She visited her in Burch s
 
 THE PROPHET S PROFITS. 103 
 
 cabin, watched over her like a mother while she remained 
 there, and finally induced her husband to give Louise her 
 freedom. 
 
 In Utah, as in Asia, a man who is displeased with one 
 of his many wives, or who has grown tired of her, gives 
 her a bill of divorce and sends her away,* and Sister 
 Vilate was able to persuade Kimball to give Louise such a 
 bill ; but could not procure for her the privilege of liv 
 ing with her brother and sisters. As soon as she was 
 divorced the Prophet had her removed to his own house 
 hold, ostensibly to act as governess for some of his children, 
 but really that there might be no hindrance in the way 
 when he should see fit to marry her to one of his followers. 
 
 She had now been two years in his family, and, as yet, 
 no further harm had befallen her. She attended faithfully 
 and quietly to her daily duties, and won the hearts, not 
 only of the children under her care, but of the women in 
 the Prophet s household. She was always gentle and 
 patient, and, so far as those around her could see, content 
 with her lot. 
 
 In the mean time both her sisters had grown to woman 
 hood. Blanche, at fifteen, was as tall as Louise herself, 
 and Catherine, though only seventeen, had the face and 
 manners of a mature woman. They still lived with their 
 brother, and the little household, as Louise found out at an 
 early day, was often in straitened circumstances. 
 
 Madame La Tour s effects, which were brought to the 
 Territory, had never been restored to her family, but the 
 Prophet had continued his plan of " assisting" Philip by 
 furnishing him with small supplies from time to time. He 
 had also loaned him a team, and with this and his own 
 labor the young man had done his best to support his 
 sisters. 
 
 * See Appendix. Note Ci, page 342.
 
 104 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 His loyalty to the Prophet never wavered, though his 
 inherited pride made him restive under what seemed his 
 constant dependence on others. At length, one day, when 
 emboldened by some unusual kindness on the part of his 
 leader to speak freely to him, he ventured to ask some 
 questions about the money which his father at his death left 
 in the hands of the authorities of the Church, to be held in 
 trust for his children. 
 
 " My dear boy," the Prophet said, in his most paternal 
 tone, " have you ever asked yourself how much it has cost 
 the Church to provide for all of you, and take care of you 
 as you have been taken care of ever since your father s 
 death ?" 
 
 Philip was silent and abashed for a moment. 
 
 " I thought," he faltered at length, " that my mother had 
 a small income which lasted as long as she lived. I know 
 she had still a little money when we came here." 
 
 " Yes, money which I loaned her," was the cool response. 
 " The fact is, Philip, it is now ten years since your father s 
 death, and he left a large, and in some respects a very 
 helpless family to be cared for. All of you had been used 
 to luxuries, and we did our best to provide for you in such 
 a way that you should not feel the loss of anything. We 
 would have been glad to take care of you without using any 
 part of the little sum which your father left ; but that was 
 not possible." 
 
 " Do you know what that sum was ?" Philip wondered 
 at his own boldness as he made this inquiry. It seemed 
 to him like calling his Prophet to account. 
 
 " I cannot give you the exact figures without consulting 
 my books," was the answer. 
 
 " I have heard my mother say something about thirty- 
 five thousand dollars," Philip began, more timidly than 
 before.
 
 THE PROPHET S PROFITS. 105 
 
 " Thirty-five thousand ! Why, your father did not have 
 one third of that sum when he came to Nauvoo. As I have 
 said, I cannot tell you the exact amount he left, but this 
 much I do know, there is only five hundred dollars coming 
 to you. That was just the balance in your favor the last 
 time I looked over the account, and I calculate to give you 
 a deed for the house and lot you occupy for the five hun 
 dred. To be sure, the place is worth more than that, but 
 you are like a son to me, and I am glad to do you a favor, 
 no matter what the cost may be to myself." 
 
 What could Philip say ? In his heart he knew that the 
 Prophet was doing him an injustice, but he would not ad 
 mit the fact even to himself. The man who stood between 
 him and God, who was the mouthpiece of the Almighty, 
 could do no wrong. He felt as a Christian might feel, when 
 tempted to question the ways of Divine Providence, to ask 
 " Why hast thou dealt thus with me ?" 
 
 But more severe tests of his loyalty awaited him. Dur 
 ing the summer of 53, in spite of his utmost efforts, he 
 could not keep want from his door. His own and his sis 
 ters clothing grew shabby and worn, and their meals were 
 coarse and scanty. Catherine fell sick, and their prospects 
 became more gloomy than ever, when a company of return 
 ing Californians stopped in Utah on their way to the States, 
 and brought Philip the first news he had had of his absent 
 brothers since the day that he parted with them. They 
 brought also what, in the present distressed condition of 
 the family, was a most welcome gift namely, a hundred 
 dollars in gold, which Charles and Francis had sent to their 
 sisters. The next morning, while Philip was consulting 
 with Catherine as to the best manner in which to lay out 
 the money that had arrived so opportunely, a messenger 
 came to summon him to the Prophet s presence. 
 
 " Philip," said his leader very gravely, as soon as the
 
 106 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 youth stood before him, " I have sent for you and for a 
 good many of the younger brethren to-day, to remind you 
 that the work of the Lord is standing still, because you do 
 not bring your tithing into His storehouse. Thousands of 
 poor Saints are waiting to gather to these valleys of the 
 mountains, but we have no means to help them on their 
 way. We are commanded to hasten the building of the 
 Temple, but the Church has no money no, not so much as 
 to finish the foundation. I grieve to say it, but I feel that 
 the wrath of God will be poured out on this people if their 
 tithes are not paid in full. I have looked to you to set an 
 example to the others ; but you must know yourself that 
 your tithing has not been paid for many months." 
 
 " We have been so very poor," Philip began humbly. 
 
 The Prophet s eyes flashed. " Take care," he said. 
 " You can t deceive the Almighty. This very minute you 
 have one hundred dollars in gold in your possession." 
 
 " It is not mine," Philip found courage to say. 
 
 " Yes, I know," was the triumphant answer. " It is not 
 yours, but the Lord s. Are you going to keep it back ?" 
 
 " That is not what I meant to -say. The money belongs 
 to my sisters. It was sent to them." 
 
 " And you are going to make that an excuse for with 
 holding your tithing? Ah, Philip," shaking his head 
 mournfully, " I did not expect this of you. I am afraid 
 your heart is not right." 
 
 " I want to pay my tithing," Philip answered, " but you 
 do not know how destitute we are, and Catherine is sick." 
 
 " More excuses ! I thought I had taught you to give up 
 everything to the Lord, and trust Him to provide for your 
 wants." 
 
 Philip was silenced. The pale face of his sister, the 
 vision of his home, so bare of comforts, and his own sense 
 of right availed nothing against the subtle arguments of his
 
 THE PROPHET S PROFITS. 107 
 
 chief, backed by the assumption of divine authority, and in 
 the end he not only paid over all the money his brothers 
 had sent, but drove his only cow to the Tithing Yard to 
 settle the arrears which the Prophet declared to be still 
 due.* 
 
 Louise knew all this, but she could not interfere in any 
 way, nor had she any means with which to help her sisters. 
 She taught the Prophet s children, and was boarded and 
 clothed for her services ; but she had no money. Cather 
 ine seemed nearer to her than any other member of their 
 scattered family, and the thought of her sickness and desti 
 tution wrung her heart ; but she was not even allowed to 
 visit her. 
 
 How Philip accounted to his sisters for the disposition he 
 had made of their money she could not learn ; but she 
 heard enough from others to know that he redoubled his 
 own exertions to provide for them, so that before winter 
 set in they were at least saved from actual suffering. 
 
 Early in December, Philip, whom she sometimes saw at 
 the Prophet s house, brought her word that Catherine was 
 to be married at Christmas ; and to her great relief, when 
 the name of her intended husband was mentioned, it was 
 that of a young man who, as she had good reason to be 
 lieve, was thoroughly cured of his faith in Mormonism. 
 As a matter of course, this was not a thing to be talked of 
 publicly. No man in Utah who valued his life ever uttered 
 a whisper of dissent in those days, except to friends whose 
 faith in the Prophet was as weak as his own ; but Robert 
 Kenyon had never been suspected of heresy, and for a year 
 past he had been employed much of the time about some 
 buildings that were being erected upon the ten acres which 
 were set apart for Brigham Young s private grounds. In 
 
 * See Appendix, Note H, page 343.
 
 loS THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 this way it happened that he often met Louise, and the free 
 masonry which existed among the disaffected soon made 
 them aware of each other s views. His acquaintance with 
 Catherine had been short, but it seemed to be a case of love 
 at first sight on both sides. The Prophet, for a wonder, 
 had no objections to make to the marriage when Robert, 
 with due humility, asked his consent, and he was likewise 
 gracious enough to grant their request to be married by 
 him in his office, without going through the Endowment 
 House, Kenyon alleging Catherine s delicate health as a 
 reason for wishing to put off receiving their endowments 
 until spring. 
 
 Soon after the marriage the Prophet, in a fit of good na 
 ture, gave Louise permission to visit Catherine in her new 
 home. This was almost the first opportunity that the sis 
 ters had enjoyed of talking freely together since the 
 memorable day when they met on the path above Burch s 
 cabin. On the few occasions when Louise had been 
 allowed to visit her family, Philip had been at home, and 
 when she and Catherine met elsewhere it was always in 
 the presence of others. 
 
 To-day Louise found the young wife alone. They talked 
 long and earnestly of their own affairs, and of their mother, 
 whom Catherine, with strange persistence, still spoke of as 
 living, though she admitted that she had never been able 
 to find the faintest trace of her existence since the day that 
 she disappeared. 
 
 " And I have tried too," she said ; " secretly, of course. 
 One must be secret about everything in this miserable 
 country. I feel as though I was breathing an atmosphere 
 of lies all of the time, and it suffocates me ; but I have 
 worked in the dark, and in underhand ways, like all the 
 rest here, because I wanted to find mother." 
 
 " And you have discovered nothing ?"
 
 THE PKOPlfET S PROFITS. 109 
 
 " No, nothing ; but, my dear, I must not make you un 
 happy on this first visit, by dwelling on a sorrow that can 
 not be healed. Come, let us talk no more about it. I will 
 get dinner, and you shall help me. We will take our din 
 ner alone, because Robert will not be home until long 
 after dark to-night." 
 
 While they were sitting at table, Catherine asked suddenly, 
 
 " Have you heard the news about Margaret Denys ?" 
 
 "No. What of her?" 
 
 " She was sealed to Apostle Woodford yesterday." 
 
 " I can t say that I am surprised," Louise answered, 
 " for nothing that is done here surprises me ; but her hus 
 band will be home in a few days, and unless he has 
 changed greatly there will be an outbreak that will end 
 just as that affair of the Penfields ended last year. George 
 Denys is not the man to stand quietly by and see his wife 
 given away to another, even though that other may be an 
 apostle." 
 
 " But in this case there has been no giving away," 
 Catherine answered. " It is all Margaret s own doings. 
 She asked for a divorce herself, and asked several times 
 before she got it. For my part, I wonder how a man like 
 George Denys ever came to love such a woman ; but I sup 
 pose he was taken with her pink cheeks and blue eyes, just 
 as Apostle Woodford is taken with her now." 
 
 " Margaret is weak, not wicked," Louise said earnestly. 
 " I believe she really loved her husband once loved him 
 even when he went away on this mission ; but he has been 
 gone three years, and during all this time she has been 
 listening constantly to such talk as we are all compelled to 
 listen to every Sunday ; and being, as I said, weak and 
 easily influenced, she believes that the apostle will give her 
 a place in the next world that she could never reach as the 
 wife of plain George Denys."
 
 no THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 " I have no patience with such folly," Catherine began ; 
 but she stopped short when she saw the pained look on her 
 sister s face. She did not know all of Louise s history, but 
 she had heard enough and guessed enough to be aware 
 that she too had once listened willingly to teachings that 
 afterward bore bitter fruit. 
 
 " I hope some person who has a little influence with 
 Denys will be the one to break the news to him when he 
 comes," she said after a few minutes silence. 
 
 " So do I," Louise answered. " I don t want to see him 
 throw his life away, as he will be sure to do if he acts as a 
 husband would act anywhere else under the same circum 
 stances." 
 
 " Louise, you know what became of Penfield. Is not 
 that true ?" 
 
 " Don t ask me." Louise shuddered, and her pale face 
 grew still paler. " What I know I cannot help knowing. 
 I would be ignorant if I could. I would gladly be blind 
 and deaf while my home is inside those walls, but what I 
 am forced to know I do not want to recall." 
 
 " I should be afraid in your place," Catherine said, 
 " that since I was not blind and deaf, the Prophet would 
 take a sure method of making me dumb." 
 
 Louise shook her head. " Brigham Young fears nothing 
 from one like me. He thinks that I am completely crushed 
 that I am his slave, body and soul, but even if this were 
 not so, I should not feel myself in any danger." 
 
 " And why not, pray ?" 
 
 " I believe in God." 
 
 Catherine made an impatient gesture. 
 
 " Don t misunderstand me," Louise continued. " I was 
 not thinking of the God these wretches worship a God of 
 blood and cruelty but of our mother s God of the God 
 she taught us to pray to in the dear old home. You have
 
 THE PROPHET S PROFITS. ITT 
 
 not forgotten, have you, the nursery with the high windows 
 and the crimson hangings, and the bed by which we used 
 to kneel ? I could not forget it if I should live a thousand 
 years." 
 
 Catherine s face softened. " I remember," she said 
 gently, " though it is almost like a dream now ; but you 
 know that ever since I was eight years old I have heard 
 the name of God used as a shield for all manner of wicked 
 ness." 
 
 "Yes, I know," Louise answered, "and I have seen 
 hands that were red with murder raised in prayer ; but is 
 that a reason why I should not pray to the God who abhors 
 the evil that is done in His name ?" 
 
 It is not to be supposed that at the time referred to a 
 conversation like the foregoing could be safely carried on 
 under ordinary circumstances. The system of espionage 
 adopted by the Mormon leaders at the very outset had now 
 been brought to such perfection that every person s com 
 ings and goings were strictly watched, and the private 
 affairs of every family were as well known to the priest 
 hood as their place of residence. No one dared marry or 
 be given in marriage ; move from one place to another, 
 buy or sell, or make any business or domestic changes 
 whatever, in opposition to " counsel." 
 
 Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and 
 neighbors, were required to be spies upon each other, and 
 the secret police shadowed every man s steps. 
 
 Louise s visit to her sister, however, was made by the 
 Prophet s express permission, and neither she nor Cather 
 ine were suspected of the slightest leaning toward apostasy. 
 Louise said rightly that her own spirit was supposed to be 
 completely crushed, and in general her master took no 
 more notice of her and attached no more importance to her 
 presence than if she had been a five-year-old child.
 
 112 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Robert Kenyon s house was not watched as that of a 
 suspected person would have been, and the sisters, seated 
 in an inner room, with closed doors and windows, knew 
 there was no danger that their low-toned conversation would 
 be overheard. 
 
 They would have been bold indeed if they had uttered 
 such opinions or mentioned such facts where there might 
 possibly have been unseen listeners ; for no one s life was 
 worth an hour s purchase who was known to question the 
 authority of the Prophet, or to denounce the crimes of the 
 priesthood. And then, too, the Mormon hierarchy knew 
 how to take life with unheard-of refinements of cruelty. 
 
 Oh, if the dark recesses of the cafions had a voice, if the 
 blood that stains the sod could speak, if the night-wind 
 could bear on its wings the cries that fell on unpitying 
 ears, what a tale of horror would be unfolded ! But the 
 dead are silent. The crumbling skeletons hidden under 
 piles of rocks do not stir in their resting-places. The 
 bottomless springs of the south, in which many a victim of 
 priestly cruelty has found a grave, keep safely that which 
 was committed to them, and the cries of the tortured cap 
 tives in the Black Vault have never been* able to pierce the 
 thick walls and smite on the ear of the passer-by.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PLANS FOR ESCAPE. 
 
 IT is high noon upon the Wasatch peaks. The May sun 
 light, reflected from vast beds of untrodden snow, fills the 
 whole atmosphere with a blinding glare. The mountain 
 torrents, swollen by the streams that pour into them from 
 every gorge, rush down their steep channels, and leap from 
 ledge to ledge with a noise like that of an avalanche. 
 
 A few birds flitting in and out of the stunted timber 
 along the gulch are the only living creatures in sight. A 
 rough and narrow trail, rendered more uneven and difficult 
 by detached masses of rock which have rolled down from 
 the sides of the mountain, follows the course of the stream 
 that takes its rise at the highest point of the divide which 
 must be crossed in order to reach the valleys east of the 
 range. 
 
 A wagon-road could not possibly be built over this 
 divide, and the route would be considered impracticable 
 by horsemen less accustomed to difficult feats than the 
 pioneers of the Great Basin. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, travelers crossed the 
 range by a road several miles to the north, which was pass 
 able for teams during the summer months ; but the two 
 horsemen who could be descried a long way down the 
 cafion had reasons of their own for choosing the southern 
 trail. 
 
 The foremost of the two was Robert Kenyon, the. hus 
 band of Catherine La Tour. He was a young man, not 
 over three-and-twenty, but a giant in stature, and the cool
 
 1 14 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 and intrepid spirit which looked out from his gray eyes, 
 joined to his skill in the use of arms, would have made him 
 a formidable match for an adversary. Yet neither his 
 strength, his skill, nor his courage availed him anything 
 here, where, if he dared to assert his manhood, spies would 
 dog his steps by day, and assassins lie in wait for him by 
 night. 
 
 His companion was tall and slenderly built, with long 
 hair and beard, once brown, but now thickly sprinkled with 
 silver. His face was very pale, he stooped slightly, and 
 his whole aspect was that of one lately recovered from 
 severe sickness. This man was George Denys, the re 
 turned missionary whose wife had been given to Apostle 
 Wood ford. 
 
 About half way up the cafion the trail widened for a few 
 rods, and in a little opening among the rocks the travelers 
 dismounted for their noonday meal. The wind blowing 
 from the snowy peaks made the day cold in spite of the 
 sunshine, and Denys shivered perceptibly. 
 
 " Shall I light a fire ?" asked his companion. 
 
 " Yes, if you will," was the reply. " This is as safe a 
 spot as we shall be likely to find for talking over our 
 affairs," glancing *as he spoke at the sheer precipice that 
 rose for a hundred feet above their heads, and the rushing, 
 roaring torrent beside the trail. 
 
 When the meal was over, the two men seated themselves 
 by the fire with their backs to the rocks, and in such a 
 position as to command a view of the trail for a consider 
 able distance above and below. Kenyon was the first to 
 speak. 
 
 " If these precious scoundrels that run the Church don t 
 change their minds between two days," he said, " I will 
 be off by the end of the month just think of it, on a mis 
 sion : sent by the Prophet himself to .build up and extend
 
 PLAA S FOX ESCAPE. 115 
 
 the kingdom in the western borders of the country that he 
 claims by right of discovery. I could hardly help laughing 
 in his face when he blessed me last week as a special prep 
 aration for this work. I wish I could get a report of the 
 blessing pronounced on me when the old fox finds that I 
 have outwitted him, and that Catherine and I are safe in 
 California. " 
 
 " I am glad to see you in such good spirits," was the 
 reply; " but I must remind you that the need of caution 
 will not cease when you reach Carson. A good many 
 brethren who are weak in the faith meet with fatal acci 
 dents, or are killed by Indians, even there." 
 
 " I suppose that is so ; but you see, I shall not grow 
 weak in the faith until I have shaken the dust of that place 
 from my feet. I shall remain and attend diligently to all 
 my duties until the next train bound for California or 
 Oregon comes along, and then good-by. The only thing 
 that troubles me is the idea of stealing away as I must as 
 anybody must who gets away at all like a thief in the 
 night. 
 
 " You are a happy man to have no greater trouble." 
 
 Denys dropped his head in his hands and was silent for 
 some minutes. When he looked up again there was a spot 
 of color on his pale cheeks, and his voice trembled slightly. 
 
 " I cannot do otherwise than wish you God speed," he 
 said, " though your going will leave me without a friend to 
 whom I dare speak. You deserve your liberty, and I pray 
 that you may get it. You and your wife are here only be 
 cause ytmr parents brought you into the Church when you 
 were too young to act for yourselves, while I deliberately 
 abandoned a Christian home, and broke the heart of my 
 gray-haired father, for the sake of joining myself to these 
 wretches, and shut my eyes to the crimes they committed 
 in the name of religion until I was made a victim myself.
 
 Ii6 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 That is the thought that always checks me when I am 
 tempted to exclaim, My punishment is greater than I can 
 bear. 
 
 "It is not a reason, though, why you should stay here 
 until worse comes upon you." 
 
 Denys shook his head. " For me there is nothing worse 
 to come," he said. " I had nothing in this life except 
 Margaret, and after she was taken from me I was incapa 
 ble of feeling any added wrongs. When she died, killed 
 by the miseries that awaited her in that polygamous house 
 hold, and by her own remorse, I knew they could not stab 
 me again through her. If she had lived, they might have 
 done so, for I loved her loved her to the last." 
 
 Kenyon s face expressed both astonishment and incredu 
 lity. His companion observed his look and went on : 
 
 " You wonder that I did not hate her. Why should I ? 
 The poor child only obeyed the doctrines that I myself had 
 taught. Like you, she was brought up in this accursed 
 community, and knew no other religion. How then could 
 I blame her ? I did not blame her. I pitied her from my 
 soul, and from my soul I was thankful when death released 
 her from her sufferings." 
 
 " And yet, what she did or was led to do uprooted all 
 your faith in Mormonism." 
 
 " True, because, as I have said, when other crimes were 
 committed I was only a spectator ; this time I was a vic 
 tim. If you could know how constantly the image of my 
 wife was with me every day of those three years of ab 
 sence, and how the hope of seeing her kept me up* on our 
 terrible return trip across the plains ! It was late in Sep 
 tember when we reached Iowa, and common prudence 
 warned us not to attempt the journey until spring ; but the 
 other men had families in Salt Lake as well as I, and we 
 thought we would brave anything rather than stay away
 
 PLANS FOR ESCAPE. 117 
 
 from them six months longer ; at least that was the way I 
 felt, and I persuaded the others to make the venture with 
 me. 
 
 " You know a little of what we suffered, but you could 
 not begin to realize our hardships without experiencing 
 them yourself. Yet, as I said, the thought that every 
 mile we traveled brought us nearer home kept us up, and 
 then and then the message which told me I no longer 
 had a home was brought to me just as I caught sight of 
 the house that was mine once." 
 
 Again Denys buried his face in his hands, and shook as 
 if in an ague-fit. Kenyon laid his arm gently around his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "George, old friend, don t call that up," he said, as 
 tenderly as a woman. 
 
 The giant carried an affectionate and impressible heart 
 in his broad bosom, and the sight of this hopeless sorrow 
 was more than he could bear. 
 
 " Come, rouse yourself," he continued. " You are a 
 man, and too good a man to stay among these cutthroats. 
 In the world outside you may find, if not happiness, at 
 least occupation that will keep you from brooding over 
 your troubles, and friends who will stand by you. Prom 
 ise me that you will make the attempt to get away." 
 
 " I can do nothing just now. There is no chance of my 
 being sent west, but it is just possible that I may be 
 chosen to accompany the emigration to San Bernardino in 
 the fall." 
 
 " Now that you speak of it, I think I have heard your 
 name mentioned in connection with that mission. You 
 know, I suppose, that the Prophet" Kenyon placed an in 
 describable emphasis on this word " is well satisfied with 
 your conduct, and has the greatest confidence in you." 
 
 " Yes, I know."
 
 n8 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " And that puts you in a position to help others. Cather 
 ine feels much anxiety about her sister Louise, who is not 
 allowed to go with us." 
 
 " Louise ! I thought her one of the Prophet s worship 
 ers." 
 
 " Louise loathes and detests him and his teachings, and 
 she has borne up so well under sufferings that would kill 
 most women, it seems to me she deserves to escape ; but 
 just now the way is barred. I think, however, that you 
 may be able to do something toward helping her." 
 
 "I ?" 
 
 " Yes, if you go to San Bernardino. If she could get 
 there it would be possible for her to communicate with her 
 brothers, who are in California." 
 
 " No one could be more willing than I to help her or any 
 one else who wishes to get away from here ; but I cannot 
 do anything to befriend her while she thinks me still a slave 
 of the Prophet." 
 
 " I will find means to let her know where you stand, and 
 will give you the key to the signals by means of which she 
 and Catherine are able to say what they wish when in the 
 presence of others. Poor girl ! She may need a friend 
 badly enough when we are gone." 
 
 " I am surprised to learn that she feels as you say she 
 does. The family seem very much attached to her, and I 
 supposed she was with them from choice." 
 
 " You do not know her history then ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Perhaps I ought to tell you. It can do no harm for 
 you to know it now." 
 
 Then choosing his words as carefully as possible, but 
 still keeping back no part of the truth, Robert Kenyon 
 unfolded a tale which, so it seemed to his listener, should 
 have causad the very stones at their feet to cry out against
 
 PLANS FOR ESCAPE. 119 
 
 the stupendous system of villainy and outrage which had 
 enthroned itself in these valleys under the name of religion. 
 
 " It is monstrous incredible !" Denys exclaimed when 
 the recital was ended ; " and yet, why should it not be 
 true ? There is no form nor degree of crime that the lead 
 ers of this people are incapable of. Rest assured, Robert, 
 that this poor girl will have at least one friend when you 
 are away, and I will make for her the effort that it seemed 
 not worth while to make for myself. If there is a possi 
 bility of getting her away from this valley I will find it 
 out." 
 
 " That is spoken like yourself, George, and Catherine 
 and I will go with lighter hearts, knowing that you will 
 befriend her." 
 
 By this time the sun had declined perceptibly from the 
 meridian, their fire had burned out, and Denys, rising, 
 called his companion s attention to the fact that it was time 
 for them to be on their way if they did not wish night to 
 overtake them in the mountains. 
 
 The errand on which they were sent took them to a 
 small settlement which had been recently made in one of 
 the fertile eastern valleys. 
 
 " See how this curse is spreading," Kenyon observed to 
 his companion as they came in sight of the valley. 
 
 " If the deluded Saints continue to gather to Zion at the 
 present rate, in ten years Brigham Young will have his 
 subjects scattered over the whole country between the 
 Rocky Mountains and the Sierras." 
 
 " I hope before that time the Government will see the 
 necessity of laying a strong hand on him," Denys said ; 
 " and if the nation does not hear something of his crimes, 
 it will not be my fault." 
 
 Two weeks after the friends returned from their journey, 
 Robert Kenyon and his wife left Salt Lake in company
 
 120 THE J- ATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 with about twenty families who had been ordered out to 
 build up a Mormon colony within the limits of the present 
 State of Nevada. For many years after taking possession 
 of Utah, Brigham Young devoted much attention to estab 
 lishing outposts (called stakes of Zion) beyond the present 
 territorial lines,* and the men selected as pioneers were, 
 for obvious reasons, those on whom he supposed he could 
 rely implicitly. It occasionally happened, however, that 
 his cunning overreached itself, and that men who wished 
 to be sent to those outposts, in order that they might es 
 cape from his rule, were able to counterfeit loyalty to the 
 Church so successfully that they were chosen by him to go 
 on such missions without soliciting the privilege. 
 
 Apart from the hope of escape, there was nothing to 
 tempt even the most adventurous to those distant settle 
 ments, and those who were not influenced by such hopes 
 went only because they dared not disobey " counsel." 
 The valleys of Utah are fertile, well watered and easily cul 
 tivated, and the climate is delightful ; but beyond the west 
 ern limits of the Territory the face of the country is so 
 mountainous and the narrow valleys are so sterile that 
 even at this date few of them have an agricultural popula 
 tion. 
 
 The emigrant train set out late in May, 1855. The 
 women of the company took leave of their friends with 
 tears, and the men looked depressed and anxious all ex 
 cept Kenyon and his wife, whom the Prophet praised pub 
 licly for obeying counsel cheerfully. 
 
 Kenyon had found means to keep his word, both with 
 Denys and with Louise, and they understood each other s 
 true position ; but for more than two months they had no 
 opportunity of communicating unobserved. 
 
 * See Appendix, Note I, page 344.
 
 PLANS FOR ESCAPE. 1 21 
 
 At length chance, or rather, shall we not say ? the Provi 
 dence which watches over the helpless and oppressed, 
 opened the way for them to talk freely of the only plan of 
 escape that seemed practicable. One of the Prophet s 
 wives living at Provo, a settlement forty miles south of 
 Salt Lake, sent for Louise to assist in the care of her sick 
 child, and Denys, who owned a good team, was asked by 
 Brigham to take her there. 
 
 It was not customary to make excuses when requested 
 by the Head of the Church to perform any service, and 
 Denys ready consent awakened neither surprise nor suspi 
 cion. As for Louise, she made ready for the journey with 
 the air of quiet resignation with which she obeyed all the 
 commands of the Prophet ; but she nevertheless contrived 
 to leave the impression that she went unwillingly. 
 
 Their road lay through an unsettled portion of the coun 
 try, bare of timber, as is the case with all the valleys of 
 Utah, and affording no hiding-place for spies. For almost 
 the first time since she left her mother s house Louise felt 
 herself unwatched. The man beside her was her friend, 
 and more than this, he rejected all the claims of the system 
 that set spies and assassins on the track of those who dared 
 to think for themselves. 
 
 They rode for a little way in silence ; then as the signs 
 of human habitation began to disappear, and they realized 
 that they were alone, and, for a few hours at least, free from 
 espionage, they began to talk over the chances of escape. 
 
 " It is now more than a year and a half since I returned 
 to the valley," Denys said, " and if any one had told me at 
 first that I could live so long while forced to breathe this 
 accursed atmosphere of treachery, cruelty, and murder, I 
 would not have believed him." 
 
 " I wonder you did not make an effort to get away last 
 year," Louise remarked.
 
 122 THE I- ATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " You forget that I was sick for many months. I hoped 
 I should die that seemed the easiest and shortest way out 
 but I was disappointed, and with returning health came 
 the feeling that perhaps there might be a life worth living 
 somewhere beyond these mountains that shut us in. You 
 know I did not come among the Mormons as a child. 
 None of my people were led off with me, and my father s 
 family would, I think, receive me even now." 
 
 " I am thankful for you that you have such friends. I 
 have no one but my brothers, and my only hope is to reach 
 them." 
 
 Louise did not look very hopeful as she spoke, for in her 
 heart she was asking herself, 
 
 " How would my brothers receive me if they knew all ?" 
 
 Denys did not reply immediately, and when he spoke 
 again it was to say, 
 
 " I suppose you know that the company bound for San 
 Bernardino starts next month." 
 
 " I have heard so. Are you going with them ?" 
 
 " I can go if I wish. I have been offered the choice be 
 tween San Bernardino and a mission to the States." 
 
 " But you will go to the States, of course," Louise said, 
 and in spite of herself there was an undertone of disap 
 pointment in her voice. 
 
 Denys turned and faced her. " If I had only myself to 
 think of," he said, " I should go to the States, but I prom 
 ised your sister and her husband that I would help you, 
 arid therefore I am going to San Bernardino." 
 
 " And do you think it possible to gain permission for me 
 to go too ?" 
 
 " Yes. There is one way by which I think I can succeed 
 in getting you a place in the company." 
 
 " Name it." 
 
 " I fear I may both shock and pain you ; but I assure
 
 PLANS FOR ESCAPE. 123 
 
 you it is the only possible chance for you. You must go 
 as my wife." 
 
 Louise s pale face flushed scarlet, and her eyes dropped. 
 
 " You have not heard my history, or you would not think 
 of such a thing," she faltered, almost inaudibly. 
 
 " I have heard your history all of it," was the answer, 
 " and the knowledge of your cruel wrongs makes me 
 doubly anxious to help you. Do you think that, in my 
 eyes, the least shadow of blame attaches to you, because 
 you have been made the victim of a system which I myself 
 have helped to uphold ?" 
 
 " You arc good and generous," Louise said at length, 
 after a long silence, " and you are the only friend I have 
 now ; but it seems like making a poor return tor your 
 goodness to consent to be your wife. I know nothing 
 about such love as happier women have experienced such 
 love as Catherine feels for her husband 
 
 Denys stopped her. " My poor girl," he said, " I un 
 derstand that. Neither of us can talk of marriage as men 
 and women do who have not passed under this blighting 
 curse ; but I will take the best care of you that I possibly 
 can, and do my utmost to bring a little brightness into 
 your life, and I have no fears but that the friendship be 
 tween us will grow into a more tender affection." 
 
 " There is one thing you have not taken into account," 
 Louise said. " If Brigham Young knows that I desire such 
 an arrangement, or that I consent to it even, he will never 
 sanction it. The only way in which he can be brought. to 
 agree to it, will be by allowing him to think that I am un 
 willing." 
 
 " I see ; but I believe I can manage that. I will go to 
 him as soon as you return. He has already counseled me 
 to take a wife, and he will expect me to fix upon some one 
 before the company start. We all know that a woman s
 
 124 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 consent is thought to be a matter of small importance, and 
 he will not be likely to ask me if I have secured yours. 
 Are you willing that I should speak to him ?" 
 
 " I am. If it is for the best I think there will be no ob 
 stacles, and if it is not for the best for both of us, I mean 
 I shall pray that some other way of escape may open." 
 
 " You still pray, then ?" Uenys looked at her half pity 
 ingly, half inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes. I pray as my mother taught me to when I was 
 an innocent child, with no foreboding of misery and 
 shame." 
 
 There were tears in her dark eyes as she spoke, and 
 Denys felt an answering moisture in his own. 
 
 " You are not altogether unhappy, then," he said at 
 length. " I would to God 1 could pray, but I cannot. 
 And yet, poor child, your wrongs have been greater than 
 mine, and inflicted in the name of religion too. Maybe I 
 should feel differently if I had not once believed in this ac 
 cursed system, as firmly as I used to believe in my mother s 
 God."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BLISTERING DESERT. 
 
 EARLY in August, 1855, the families chosen to make the 
 difficult and perilous journey to the coast by the way of 
 Arizona, for the purpose of founding a Mormon colony, 
 were instructed to hold themselves in readiness to start on 
 a day s notice. 
 
 On the evening after receiving these instructions, George 
 Denys repaired to the Prophet s office, in obedience to a 
 message from him. 
 
 A few days before this he had signified his wish to marry 
 Louise La Tour, and the man who held their destinies in 
 his hands had answered that he would " think about it." 
 From present indications it appeared he had thought 
 favorably. He received Denys graciously, and said with 
 out preface, 
 
 " I am willing to give Louise to you, but I suppose you 
 know it can be only a marriage for time. She is sealed to 
 Brother Joseph for eternity." 
 
 " I am aware of that," was the reply. " Have you 
 spoken to Sister Louise yet ?" 
 
 " I have, and she is very sullen more so than I have 
 ever known her to be but there is no question about her 
 obeying me. She has never dared to rebel against coun 
 sel, and she knows better than to begin to do so now." 
 
 The sinister look that so many in Utah have abundant 
 cause to remember, darkened the face of the Prophet as he 
 spoke, and without another word he touched the bell on
 
 126 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOCK. 
 
 his table. It was answered by one of the guards who 
 always kept the door. 
 
 " Let Sister Louise know that I want her here," he said. 
 
 The man went out and returned in a few minutes with 
 Louise, who appeared pale and downcast enough to justify 
 the account of her sullenness. 
 
 " Louise," said her master, " Brother Denys, whom I 
 wish you to look upon as your husband, is present." 
 
 Louise did not raise her eyes. 
 
 " Step this way," the Prophet commanded in his harsh 
 est tones. 
 
 The girl obeyed. 
 
 " Now, Brother Denys, stand up and take her hand." 
 
 As soon as this direction was complied with, the Prophet 
 repeated the marriage service. Louise s replies were in 
 audible, and her master s cruel satisfaction manifested 
 itself in every look and tone. He believed that he was 
 sacrificing a reluctant and shrinking victim, and the satanic 
 malignity which was so strong an element of his character 
 made it a pleasure to him. He would add this night s 
 work to the list of his revenges, and yet the punishment 
 which Madame La Tour had drawn down upon herself and 
 her children would not be complete. 
 
 "Now, Brother Denys," he said, when the ceremony 
 was concluded, " take your wife home with you. The train 
 starts at nine o clock to-morrow, and you have no time to 
 lose. Never mind about your clothes, Louise, I will have 
 them sent over in the morning." 
 
 " May I not say good-by to the children ?" Louise asked. 
 
 " No. You should have thought of that before." 
 
 " Have you any farther instructions for me ?" Denys in 
 quired. 
 
 " No. Brother Calder has all the necessary orders for 
 the company. Good-night."
 
 THE BLISTERING DESERT. 1^7 
 
 The Prophet turned to the papers on his table and the 
 two who were thus dismissed passed out. 
 
 Once beyond the gate and in the sheltering darkness, 
 Denys pressed encouragingly the trembling hand that rested 
 on his arm ; but neither dared speak. Their prison doors 
 were ajar, but a single word might close them again. 
 
 Denys was boarding at the house of the Ward Bishop, 
 and it was necessary that he should introduce his wife to 
 the rather numerous family of his host. Louise went 
 through this ordeal with the same sad and subdued air that 
 she had worn for days previous, and some of the women of 
 the family made commiserating remarks as she left the 
 room ; but others were of the opinion that she ought to be 
 content with her lot. 
 
 " She s a first wife now," observed Sister Ann, who was 
 herself the bishop s fourth spouse, " and Brother Denys is 
 so easy-tempered she ll have her own way in everything. 
 I don t know, lor my part, what she s got to complain of." 
 
 " Maybe she don t want to go on this mission," suggest 
 ed Sister Emma. 
 
 " It is more likely that she wanted some one else," said 
 the youngest wife, who, if report could be believed, had 
 looked much more kindly on a handsome stripling in the 
 neighborhood than on the gray-haired bishop. 
 
 Meanwhile the subject of their conversation was sitting 
 with her husband in a room piled half full of luggage that 
 should have been put into the wagons before night. 
 
 " I did not expect that we would start to-morrow," 
 Denys said, " and I did not think that I should be allowed 
 to bring you here to-night, or I would have made some 
 better arrangements for your comfort. Indeed, I hardly 
 dared hope that I should be permitted to take you with me 
 at all." 
 
 " I do not believe that the Prophet made up his mind
 
 128 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 until after he talked with me," Louise replied ; " but he got 
 the impression that I was very unwilling, and that decided 
 him." 
 
 " Just imagine what his feelings will be when he learns 
 the truth," Denys said, and in spite of the dark past and 
 the difficulties and dangers that lay before them, both 
 smiled. 
 
 It was well indeed for them that their whispered confer 
 ence was not overheard well too that those who saw them 
 start out the next day were confirmed in the belief that 
 Louise went most reluctantly. 
 
 The emigrant train was composed of fifteen wagons, 
 representing as many families. The men were most of 
 them young, and, like Denys, recently married. Polyga 
 mous families could not be colonized in San Bernardirfo. 
 The American flag yet waved over the whole of the vast 
 Coast region which Brigham Young claimed as a portion 
 of his dominions, and the day concerning which he uttered 
 so many prophecies the day when all human governments 
 should fall before the power he represented had not yet 
 dawned. The members of the company were all supposed 
 to be sound in the faith they professed, and in every way 
 fitted for their responsible mission. They had been select 
 ed by the Prophet himself with especial care, and yet at 
 least three of the men besides Denys intended that their de 
 parture from Utah should be a final one, and it happened 
 eventually that not one of the fifteen families ever returned 
 to the valley. 
 
 The emigrants were well provided with necessaries for 
 their journey, not because the Church authorities had con 
 cerned themselves about making such provision, but be 
 cause they had sufficient means of their own to supply them 
 with ordinary comforts. The first stage of their route lay 
 through the settlements that had been made, at irregular
 
 THE BLISTERING DESERT. 129 
 
 distances, all the way from Salt Lake to the southern line 
 of the Territory. This portion of the journey was not 
 marked by any incidents worthy of notice, nor attended by 
 any hardships, but after crossing the divide south-west of 
 Mountain Meadows, the character of the country changed 
 entirely. It was near the middle of September when the 
 company encamped at Resting Springs the last point at 
 which pure water is found before entering the desert. 
 They remained in camp several days to rest and recruit, for 
 they knew that for the next hundred and fifty miles their 
 powers of endurance would be taxed to the utmost. 
 
 At four o clock on the morning of the isthof September, 
 the company broke camp, and were on their way before 
 the first signs of day appeared in the east. It was neces 
 sary that they should make twenty-five miles or more be 
 fore sunset, in order to reach the next watering-place the 
 Amagos, a stream so strongly impregnated with alkali 
 that it has been named the Poison River by the unfortunate 
 travelers who have tasted its waters. 
 
 The wheels of the loaded wagons dragged heavily. The 
 mules sank to the fetlocks at every step, and the men who 
 walked beside the teams waded ankle deep in the loose, 
 shifting sand. As the day advanced, the sun beat down 
 upon them with a pitiless glare, and not a breath of 
 air stirred upon the face of the desert. 
 
 On every side, as far as the eye could reach, stretched an 
 unbroken expanse of sand, gray as ashes. Not even a 
 rock broke the monotonous view ; not a hillock interposed 
 between them and the farthest verge of the horizon where 
 sand and sky met. 
 
 The sun sank at night in the gray waste ; the stars came 
 out overhead, and still the train toiled on. At length, just 
 as the moon rose to light their way, the narrow channel of 
 the Amagos came in view.
 
 130 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 The shallow waters of the sluggish stream looked clear 
 and bright in the moonlight, and the toremost drivers 
 began to urge their teams toward it. 
 
 "Stop," cried Calder, the captain of the company. 
 " Don t you know that these waters will kill every animal 
 in the train ? Halt where you are. There is a spring a 
 little to the right that is safe." 
 
 The caution came too late. The loose cattle belonging 
 to the train, tortured by thirst, had pressed forward to the 
 brink and were already drinking. 
 
 The teams attached to the wagons were halted in obedi 
 ence to orders, and a search was made for the spring, 
 which, when found, proved to be brackish, but not unwhole 
 some ; still, by Captain Calder s advice the company used 
 for themselves only the water which they had brought in 
 kegs from Resting Springs. 
 
 At starting, few of the emigrants had any adequate idea 
 of the hardships and perils of the journey, but a single 
 day s experience on the desert had given rise to grave 
 anxieties even in the minis, ~>i those most inured to the diffi 
 culties of overland emigration. 
 
 Captain Calder had for his guidance a rude map, drawn 
 by one who had been over the route before, and a few notes 
 relating to the points at which water might be found ; but 
 the sandy expanse over which they traveled afforded no 
 landmarks whatever, and it was an easy matter to miss the 
 sunken springs on which they depended. Their water- 
 casks, which had been filled before entering the desert, 
 held what was thought to be a sufficient supply for a four 
 days journey. This included a scant allowance for the 
 teams, and a very small reserve to be used in case of de 
 lays, but a single day s trial convinced them that there had 
 been a mistake in their estimates. 
 
 The heat, the fatigue, and above all the extreme dryness
 
 THE BLISTERING DESERT. 131 
 
 of the atmosphere, aggravated thirst in man and beast, and 
 it required all of Captain Calder s authority, in addition to 
 the combined good sense of the company, to prevent drink 
 ing largely in excess of the day s allowance. 
 
 The second night on the desert was spent at Salt Springs. 
 The teams already began to show signs of exhaustion, and 
 it was necessary to drive carefully, for their losses from the 
 effects of the poisonous waters of the Amagos had reduced 
 their stock so that there were no relays. 
 
 The intensely salt waters of the springs would have been 
 quite as fatal as those of the Poison River, if drank, and at 
 this camping-ground the teams had to be supplied from the 
 rapidly-diminishing contents of the casks. The third and 
 fourth days journey brought no changes, except that their 
 progress was slower, and the allowance of water dealt out 
 more scanty. 
 
 It was confidently expected that the train would reach 
 Bitter Springs on the evening of the fourth day, but when 
 the sun set on the wide waste of sand there was not the 
 faintest sign of water in sight. 
 
 " We have "traveled very slowly," Captain Calder said, 
 " and it would not surprise me at all to find out that we 
 have made at least ten miles less than we calculated upon 
 in the last two days. The springs are only a little way 
 ahead that is certain and it seems equally certain that 
 we must reach them to-night if we expect to save our 
 animals." 
 
 Acting upon this suggestion, the nearly worn-out teams 
 were urged forward for three hours longer, but when the 
 moon rose, nothing was visible except the same endless 
 stretches of barren sand that daylight showed. Their ani 
 mals could be driven no farther, and with the gloomiest 
 forebodings they made th^ir camp for the night. 
 
 All the lives in the company might now depend upon the
 
 13- THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 teams ; so the mules and oxen again received their share 
 of the little water left in the casks, and at daybreak the 
 wagons were lightened by throwing out the most cumbrous 
 articles, and the train again put in motion. 
 
 On and on through the blistering sands they toiled till 
 noon, and still no water ! The fear which had been gain 
 ing ground since morning now amounted to a certainty. 
 They had lost their way. Whether the springs lay to the 
 right or the left of the route they had passed over, it was 
 impossible to tell. A council was called to determine 
 whether it was wiser to turn back and make an effort to 
 find them, or to push ahead to the sink of the Mohave ; and, 
 in view of the slight chances of coming upon the springs if 
 the search was made, the latter course was decided upon. 
 
 There was no accurate scale of distances on Calder s 
 map, but as nearly as could be ascertained they had at 
 least sixty miles to travel. The prospect was disheartening 
 enough, and those who had joined the expedition only be 
 cause they dared not disobey " counsel" were loud in their 
 complaints, and quick to blame Captain Calder as being, 
 in part, the cause of their misfortunes. On the other hand, 
 those who looked upon the end of their journey as the door 
 of escape from priestly tyranny, were courageous and 
 calm, though by no means hopeful. 
 
 Captain Calder was not one of these. He had been put 
 in charge of the company by a power whose decrees he did 
 not venture to question, and his connection with Mormon- 
 ism was of such a nature that he had no plans of escape, 
 but he was the very man for the trying position he filled 
 brave, determined, enduring, fertile in expedients, and 
 above all, patient with the murmuring, despairing com 
 pany, who were ready to say with those of old, 
 
 " Why hast thou brought us into this wilderness to kill 
 us with thirst ?"
 
 THE BLISTERING DESERT. 133 
 
 Another day, and yet another, and still only the brassy 
 heavens above and the burning sands below. On the even 
 ing ot the sixth day the last drop of water was served out. 
 Everything that could be left had been thrown out of the 
 wagons, and even the weakest of the women walked by 
 turns ; but in spite of all that was done to save them the 
 teams began to drop by the way. 
 
 The tortures of thirst in an open boat at sea could not 
 begin to compare with the sufferings of those whose last 
 remnant of strength was taxed to the utmost to struggle 
 through the deep, hot sand on foot, without a drop of water 
 to moisten their parched tongues. 
 
 On the morning of the seventh day two men ot the com 
 pany and one woman were found to be unable to stand on 
 their feet. In answer to their half-despairing, half-sullen 
 request that the company would goon and leave them, Cap 
 tain Calder had them put in the wagons that could best 
 bear the added load, but when the train made the next halt 
 their sufferings were ended. 
 
 A shallow grave in the sand received their bodies, and 
 the survivors looked in each other s faces, mutely asking, 
 
 " Who will be the next ?" 
 
 " My poor child," Denys whispered to Louise, " I 
 thought to save you ; but I have only brought you into zhe 
 desert to die." 
 
 Louise s dark eyes were unnaturally large and bright, 
 but she raised them to his face with a steadfast look. 
 
 " Better, far better, to die here than live there," she 
 answered. 
 
 When the train again attempted to move, not more than 
 half of the teams were able to drag the wagons, and the 
 least courageous of the company broke out afresh into 
 lamentations, but Calder silenced them with a gesture. 
 
 " Look !" he exclaimed, as soon as he could get their
 
 134 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 attention. " Yonder are the mountains I am certain of it, 
 and the river is a long way this side of them." 
 
 " What of that ?" was the despairing answer. " We 
 can never reach it." 
 
 " Don t give up now," and the resolute tone in which he 
 spoke was not without its effect ; "I will tell you what we 
 will do. The river is not now more than ten miles from 
 us. I have often heard that animals traveling over the 
 desert can scent water that distance. We will set ours 
 free, and the strongest men among us will follow them, 
 and, believe me, before many hours we shall be back with 
 water plenty of it." 
 
 " We may as well try it," one of the men answered. 
 
 " When all s done, we can but die at the worst, and we 
 are certain to die if we stop here another night." 
 
 " That is true," said Denys ; " and I believe with the 
 Captain that the animals will be our best guides. How 
 many are able to follow them ?" 
 
 Half a dozen men stepped forward at the summons. The 
 rest had sunk upon the ground in the apathy of despair. 
 Calder and Denys at once began the work of setting the 
 oxen and mules free. The poor creatures staggered feebly 
 forward, with their parched tongues hanging from their 
 mouths. The men kept behind, but without making any 
 attempt to drive them. When they had gone about half a 
 mile in this manner, the foremost mule raised his head, 
 snuffed the air eagerly, and started off in a straight line, 
 followed by the others, who, like him, quickened their pace. 
 The men kept a few yards behind, and were watched by 
 anxious eyes, that were strained to keep them in sight until 
 the moving figures merged into a black line, then a speck, 
 a point, and they were gone. 
 
 How slowly the hours of watching dragged past ! The 
 thirst that grew each minute more intolerable seemed to
 
 7 777i BLISTERING DESERT. 135 
 
 parch the whole frame. Some were sunk in a stupor, 
 happily unconscious of their sufferings or of the lapse of 
 time ; but to those who retained their faculties the sun 
 appeared to stand still in the heavens. 
 
 Still they waited and watched, cheating themselves at 
 times with the belief that they saw a moving speck in the 
 dim distance, until at length the tardy sun dropped below 
 the horizon, and the far-off mountains, the desert, every 
 thing, faded into the dull gray of twilight. Then the dark 
 ness swallowed up the landscape, and the awful stillness of 
 a night in the desert settled down upon them. 
 
 " Wherever they are now," said one of the women, 
 " they must stop until the moon rises." 
 
 " No," answered Louise, who still had strength enough 
 left to encourage the others, " Captain Calder has his com 
 pass, and the stars are shining. They will not wait a 
 minute for the moon." 
 
 The event proved that she was right, for the moon was 
 just beginning to show its upper rim above the horizon 
 when the night air bore to their ears a faint sound the 
 distant hail of those for whom they watched. 
 
 They replied with the loudest shout which their parched 
 throats could utter, and then the women embraced each 
 other and thanked God, while the men staggered to their 
 feet and pressed forward toward their returning comrades. 
 There were only five Calder, Denys, and three others 
 among them a young man whose wife had begged piteously 
 that he would not leave her. 
 
 It was almost like a resurrection from the dead when the 
 precious drops that had been carried so far moistened the 
 black lips and burning throats of the sufferers, and the 
 good news that was brought with the water infused hope 
 and courage into souls that an hour ago were sunk in the 
 lethargy oi despair.
 
 13 6 THE FATE OF MADAAIE LA TOUR. 
 
 They had found the Mohave. The men they had left be 
 hind with the animals were camped where there was not 
 only an abundance of pure, sweet water, but plenty of 
 grass, and beyond the river the country was green and 
 fresh. They were out of the desert. 
 
 What a night of thanksgiving that was ! The sufferings 
 of the past few days were almost forgotten in the joyous 
 certainty that in the morning they would leave the desert 
 behind them, and when, a few hours later, the three men 
 who had been left on the river bank returned with their 
 teams, there was an eager bustle throughout the camp, an 
 activity that the night before would have seemed utterly 
 impossible, as every one aided or attempted to aid in the 
 preparation for starting. 
 
 Before noon all the company were resting in the shade 
 of the timber that fringed the banks of the Mohave. No, 
 not all, for three of their number rested under the sands of 
 the desert ; but even the sincere sympathy that was felt for 
 those who were bereaved could not dampen the joy of the 
 survivors in the first hour of their deliverance. 
 After a week s rest in the valley of the Mohave, the 
 march to the coast was resumed, and a little past the mid 
 dle of October they entered San Bernardino. 
 
 As we have previously intimated, Brigham Young 
 showed his sagacity in the choice of men. for this colony, 
 by fixing upon those who had means of their own. 
 So it had happened that these settlers had money 
 enough to establish themselves comfortably on the lands 
 near the town ; but Denys and the three others who 
 had decided to cut loose from the community announced 
 that they wished to look around a little before deciding 
 upon a location, and they " looked around" to such pur 
 pose that within three weeks they had taken passage at San 
 Pedro on a steamer bound for San Francisco.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 
 
 THE autumn of 1852 lingered long in the northern val 
 leys of California, as if to give the busy miners ample time 
 to prepare for winter. Late comers to Yreka Flat rejoiced 
 in the mild October weather, and prospecting was pushed 
 vigorously along every creek and gulch within the limits of 
 what is now known as Siskiyou County. 
 
 The La Tour brothers, who had steadily declined buying 
 the various " rich claims" offered them, joined this army 
 oi prospectors in company with Lucky Jim, whose over 
 flowing cheerfulness and unflagging courage were not his 
 only good qualities : Jim had never made anything for 
 himself, but he had more than once helped others to make 
 something. He had a keen eye for " indications," and if 
 he had been so minded might have told as many stories 
 of discoveries as the redoubtable Columbus ; but he had a 
 constitutional antipathy to work, and if by any chance a 
 few hundred dollars came into his hands, the money was 
 sure to vanish like the dew. 
 
 Guided by him, the La Tours started out toward 
 Shasta Butte, a solitary peak rising in the form of a sugar- 
 loaf to the height of fourteen thousand feet, with a crown 
 of eternal snow. From this proud elevation the mountain 
 looks down upon the timbered spurs that guard the ap 
 proaches to it, and the bristling tops of the firs and cedars 
 that fill the caflons. 
 
 Here nature showed an untamed front. No human 
 sound broke the silence. The hand of man had left no im-
 
 138 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 press upon the face of the wilderness. To the little party 
 of three, who were the first to invade these solitudes, the 
 gloom of the forest in which they camped for the night 
 was most oppressive, but when sunrise dispelled the shad 
 ows of the valley, and the lofty trees whose branches 
 shut out the sky grew vocal with the songs of birds, their 
 courage rose, and they felt themselves equal to an encoun 
 ter with the Spirit of the Mountain. 
 
 Their camp was upon one of the numerous creeks which 
 are fed in summer by the melting snows of the peak, and 
 whose channels even in winter contain sufficient water for 
 mining purposes. 
 
 Somewhere along this creek it might be that they should 
 find the El Dorado they were seeking, and immediately 
 after breakfast they started out on foot to explore the gulch 
 through which it flowed, leaving their horses picketed 
 within a few rods of the embers of their fire. Each man 
 carried his gun ; and the remainder of the luggage, the 
 chief items of which were the pick, shovel, and prospect- 
 pan, was impartially distributed. Lucky Jim had given 
 " the boys" various lessons while on their journey, re 
 garding the signs they were to look for, and this morning 
 he repeated and emphasized his instructions as they walked 
 along. 
 
 " You see that black sand, " he remarked ; " well, though 
 that is not always an indication of gold, it s a pretty sure 
 thing, and if you don t find it you may as well try another 
 gulch. Then these boulders they re quartz, and maybe 
 there s no gold in them ; but in this country, where you 
 don t find quartz you won t find gold. I call the quartz 
 and the sand together good indications ; but for a sure 
 thing you want something like this," stooping as he spoke 
 to pick up a rough fragment of rock which his experienced 
 eye at once perceived to be " rich."
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 139 
 
 The brothers pressed closer to look at the bit of quartz 
 that lay in his open palm. It needed no magniiying-glass 
 to show the yellow specks in its broken suriace. 
 
 " You see, boys," he continued, " this hasn t traveled 
 far, otherwise its edges would be rounded, and its sides 
 worn smooth. The ledge must be very near, and we will 
 move on a few rods until we find a favorable place for sink, 
 ing a shaft, and then get to work." 
 
 A little more than two hundred yards up the creek the 
 gulch forked, and another stream came in from the left. 
 
 " This is the place to stop," Jim said, indicating a little 
 flat below the junction of the streams. " The ledge may 
 be in either gulch, but we are quite safe in sinking a shaft 
 here." 
 
 It was still early in the morning, and Jim, announcing 
 that he would " take the first shift," seized the pick and 
 went to work with a will. Like many other people who 
 dislike long tasks, he could put in some very vigorous 
 strokes at the beginning, and the brothers, who had done 
 more hard work during their four years in Oregon than he 
 had in his lifetime, looked on and admired the rapidity 
 and precision of his movements, as he broke the ground 
 and tossed out the gravel. After about half an hour s 
 work he stopped, posed himself gracefully, with the han 
 dle of his shovel as a support, and began to descant on the 
 various theories of placer-mining. Francis allowed him 
 to talk for a few minutes, and then claimed the pick and 
 shovel, and applied himself so cliligen .ly to increasing the 
 depth of the shaft that in less than an hour his pick struck 
 the bed-rock. 
 
 Jim, who had been watching as well as talking, now 
 filled the prospect-pan with some of the -last dirt taken out 
 of the shaft, and proceeded to wash it. 
 
 The operation of " panning," though simple enough in
 
 14 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 theory, requires considerable skill in practice. The pros 
 pect-pan, which is much the shape of an ordinary milk- 
 pan, except that it Hares more toward the top, being fairly 
 tilled with the dirt, is held under the surface of the stream, 
 shaken from side to side, and every few moments jerked 
 up and down in such a manner as to cause an ebullition 
 of the water, when the dirt and lighter gravel are washed 
 out, while the pan is tipped a little to one side and shaken 
 carefully to get rid of the black sand. 
 
 A miner who understands his business will go through 
 the whole operation in five minutes, and have the precious 
 dust left clean and shining in the bottom of the pan. At 
 the expiration of that time Jim gave a triumphant shout. 
 
 " We ve got her, boys ! Here she is ! Sing Hail Co 
 lumbia ;" and with a few stronger expressions, that would 
 not look well in print, he exhibited the result of his work. 
 
 " Half an ounce to the pan ! The boys will say that is 
 one of Christopher s strikes, but all the same we ve got it." 
 
 The glittering bait, which, once seen, never fails to lure 
 the beholder onward through months and years of search 
 in the hope of finding the hidden treasures of the earth, lay 
 before their eyes shining particles of coarse gold, like 
 grains of sand, and in the mass a nugget the size of a pea. 
 
 The brothers felt a strange thrill, a quickening of the 
 pulses, a sudden eagerness and elation. The gold fever 
 had not impelled them to come, but it seized upon them 
 now, with this evidence of the buried wealth of the moun 
 tains before their sight. 
 
 Lucky Jim, to whom the experience was not altogether 
 new, was the first to come down to practical details, and 
 in a few words he explained to the others what must be 
 done in order to secure the benefits of the discovery to 
 themselves. In conformity with his instructions, four 
 claims, each two hundred feet long, were staked out, one
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 141 
 
 for discovery and three pre-emption claims, and a notice 
 was posted beside the shaft. 
 
 " We could organize a district by ourselves," he said, 
 " for there s three of us, and that meets the requirements 
 of the law ; but the boys down on the Flat have always 
 stood by me, and I d like to give them a show. One of us 
 will have to go back to the camp to-morrow anyway, to 
 get a whip-saw and a few other tools, and the strike will 
 leak out. What do you say, boys ? Are you willing that 
 the others should come in ?" 
 
 "Why not?" said Francis. "The gulch is not ours. 
 They made us welcome when we reached their camp, and 
 I have no wish to keep out anybody who wants to 
 come." 
 
 This sentiment called forth a hearty response from Jim, 
 embellished with various emphatic expressions which we 
 forbear to quote. He now felt that they had done nearly 
 enough for one day, but the brothers were of a different 
 opinion, and both of them worked so energetically that be 
 fore night the bed-rock was stripped for a distance of five 
 feet above and below the shaft, and the prospect-pan was 
 filled and passed to Jim a score of times. 
 
 As may be supposed, none of the dirt " panned out" 
 quite equal to the first sample, but at night, when Jim pro 
 duced the scales he carried and weighed out the gold, the 
 result of their first day s work amounted to a little over 
 ninety-seven dollars. 
 
 " Now, that s what I call fair wages," he said, surveying 
 the " pile" complacently. "What shall we do with it, 
 .boys ?" 
 
 " Put it in the company s purse," said Charles. 
 
 "Yes," added Francis, "that purse you showed us 
 yesterday. It will answer just as well as a banking-house 
 for the present."
 
 142 THE FATE OF MADAME LA 7 OUK. 
 
 Jim accordingly produced from one of his numerous 
 pockets a stout buckskin bag about sixteen inches long. 
 
 " This will hold five thousand dollars in dust," he said, 
 " and after it is filled we can put the balance in yeast-pow 
 der cans and cache it under our fireplace." 
 
 In the morning their camp, which had been moved to the 
 vicinity of the mine, was the scene of unusual activity, and 
 soon after sunrise Jim started for the Flat, taking with him 
 the two pack-mules to bring back supplies. 
 
 " We may as well lay in pretty much everything we 
 want for the winter," he remarked, " for we are going to 
 have work enough to keep us busy, and there won t be 
 many days to spare for trips to the Flat or anywhere else." 
 
 Jim spoke in a matter-of-fact way, as though hard work 
 was the staple of his life, and for the moment he really de 
 luded himself with the idea that he was going to turn over 
 a new leaf and "strike his best licks" on the Star of the 
 West for by this poetical appellation the claim was to be 
 known henceforth. 
 
 He carried with him, in addition to the gold panned out 
 the day before, fifty dollars advanced by the brothers to 
 increase the funds of the company to an amount sufficient 
 to purchase the necessary tools and supplies. He was 
 likewise the bearer of a message to the Mormon boys, who 
 were supposed by this time to have returned from Marys- 
 ville. His last words on taking leave of his comrades 
 were, 
 
 " I don t mean to blow about this strike of ours, but if 
 the boys find out anything for themselves, I shall take it 
 that you will make anybody welcome that happens to fol 
 low the trail." 
 
 During the day the brothers occupied themselves, as 
 their more experienced partner had advised, in cutting 
 down a beautiful sugar-pine that grew near their shaft,
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 143 
 
 and dividing its straight, smooth trunk into logs twelve feet 
 in length. These logs were to furnish lumber for the 
 sluice-boxes that they proposed to construct. 
 
 As this lumber must be whip-sawed, it was necessary 
 also to prepare a pit, and here their own knowledge of 
 wood-craft proved quite as serviceable as Jim s instructions. 
 
 Two saplings about eight inches through, and growing 
 within three yards of the side of the hill, were selected for 
 the posts of the pit. These were cut off six feet from the 
 ground, and one end of the logs, which were to be the sides 
 of the frame, rested on the stumps, while the other end was 
 bedded in the hill. A couple of transverse logs and the 
 two short, movable sticks of timber called blocks, com 
 pleted the pit, and then the miners had as good a substi 
 tute for a saw-mill as Northern California could furnish at 
 that period ; or, at least, they would have when their whip- 
 saw should arrive. 
 
 All this preparatory work took time, and the sun set on 
 the first day of Jim s absence without a single shovelful ot 
 dirt having been disturbed in the vicinity of the shaft ; but 
 on the morning of the second day they returned to the 
 more fascinating employment of stripping the bed-rock 
 and washing out the gold. 
 
 These men of eight-and-twenty were still young enough 
 in heart to feel a boyish delight in being able to-day to 
 manipulate the prospect-pan almost as skilfully as their in 
 structor, and the gold which they deposited in the safe 
 depths of a tin can glistened more brightly in their eyes 
 because they had washed it out themselves. 
 
 Jim had told them that he should start out on his return 
 trip long before daylight, and as the distance from Yreka 
 Flat was only twenty miles, they began to look for him by 
 the middle of the afternoon ; but the day wore away without 
 bringing any signs of him until near sunset. Then a
 
 144 Til E FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 cheerful hail was borne up the gulch, and as they an 
 swered it they started down " to meet the supply train," 
 as Charles observed. They had not gone many rods be 
 fore they caught sight, through the trees, of the white 
 horse that Jim 1 ode, and in a few minutes the two pack- 
 mules likewise emerged from the shadows. 
 
 Jim looked happy, but withal a little secretive, as though 
 he knew something that was almost too good to tell. In 
 answer to their questions, he assured them he had had tip 
 top luck, but he did not get down to particulars until the 
 mules were relieved of their packs, and he himself seated 
 by the fire with a great mug of smoking coffee in his right 
 hand. 
 
 " You see," he began, " I didn t talk much when I got 
 to the camp, but just went around quietly buying up the 
 supplies. I paid out your money first, but when it came to 
 weighing out the dust, the boys began to ask questions. I 
 told them we d been at work for a while in the mountains, 
 and had cleaned up a few ounces, but that didn t seem to 
 satisfy them. I started out before daylight, as I told you I 
 should, but this horse of mine showed the way as plain as 
 that pillar of fire they used to tell about in Sunday-school 
 when I was a youngster, and by sunrise I could see a 
 black line stretching away behind me toward the Flat 
 somewhere about a mile long, I should say. I didn t wait 
 for anybody to overtake me and ask more questions, but 
 by the time I reached the timber they had got almost 
 within hailing distance, and hark ! What is that ?" 
 
 All three listened intently as the night wind bore a faint 
 sound to their ears a sound that grew more distinct and 
 increased in volume, until they recognized the " O-o-oh 
 J-o," the well-known hail of " the Coast, " uttered by a score 
 of throats. They answered it in concert, and the sound 
 was taken up and repeated, this time singly, until, as they
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 145 
 
 conjectured, it had passed all the way down the gulch to 
 the stragglers just entering the timber. 
 
 " Here are plenty of pine-knots," said Francis. " Let 
 us make a blaze that they can see ;" and 
 
 " On hospitable thoughts intent," 
 
 the original pioneers of the gulch piled the fire with the 
 resinous material at hand, until a ruddy column of flame 
 shot upward to the branches of the tall trees, making fan 
 tastic lights among their dark shadows. 
 
 In twenty minutes more the head of the advancing col 
 umn halted and dismounted at their camp. 
 
 " Right smart blaze, this yer is," observed a tall, lank, 
 grizzled individual, with a free and easy air of good comrade 
 ship, " an it was a cute idee of yourn to light it. We 
 mought a me-yandered round in this pesky timber all 
 night an not found yer, for the rocks mixes up sounds so s 
 ter lead a feller offen the trail every time." 
 
 " Are the others near enough to see the light ?" inquired 
 Francis. 
 
 " Some on em is, an the balance 11 camp in the edge 
 of the timber till mornin , I reckon." 
 
 " How many are there ?" asked Charles. 
 
 " Well, now, I couldn t rightly say. There was fifteen 
 or twenty jest behind me an Dick, but I looked back when 
 we was on the last rise of ground outside the timber, an it 
 peared to me ez ef there was a percession that stretched 
 pooty much all the way from Yreka to the foot-hills." 
 
 Here the conversation was interrupted by fresh arrivals. 
 The new-comers scattered around among the trees, lighted 
 other fires, and set about cooking supper. Lucky Jim did 
 the honors of the camp in a style peculiarly his own, and 
 the brothers treated their uninvited visitors with frank cor 
 diality. Small parties of ten or twelve continued to arrive
 
 I4 6 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR.. 
 
 at intervals until after midnight, and when the camp finally 
 settled down to repose, at least one hundred men were 
 wrapped in their blankets and disposed in attitudes more 
 or less graceful upon the ground. 
 
 With the first rays of light the whole camp was astir. 
 Time was money, when the man who was only five minutes 
 ahead of you might make the strike that you ought to make. 
 
 The Missourian who was first on the ground waked 
 while the stars were yet shining, and rose so softly as not 
 to disturb the slumbers of his " pardner" who shared his 
 blankets ; but when he sought out the lower boundary of 
 the " Star of the West," that he might locate a claim ad 
 jacent thereto, behold, a shadowy figure was stooping over 
 a recently driven stake. Somebody was in the act of post 
 ing a notice on the claim that would have been his if he 
 had waked half an hour earlier. 
 
 With a whispered ejaculation which did not include a 
 benediction on the early riser, he silently paced off two 
 hundred feet, and drove his own stake. He had barely 
 affixed his notice (written over night on the back of an old 
 envelope) when he heard a step behind him, and turning, 
 faced " Vermont," a tow-headed, innocent-looking youth 
 from the Green Mountains. 
 
 "Jest a minnit too late, wa ant I?" he drawled. 
 " Curus, neaow, ain t it, heaow a feller kin make mistakes. 
 I sot eaout to stake a claim jest above the Western Star, or 
 whatsomever they call it, an when I got to the fork I stud 
 ied a minnit abeaout whether I d better take the right or 
 the left, an I calkilate that s -jest where I missed it. If I d 
 went straight ahead, I d a took the left, but arter studyin* 
 on it I took the right, an blamed ef I didn t stumble ag inst 
 a stake afore I d went three steps. J struck a match, an 
 there was a notice that must a bin posted last night by 
 the feller they call the Parson. I was mad some but
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 147 
 
 I faced abeaout an took t other fork, an there was Dick 
 Turpin jest ahead of me. Twa n t no use to pick a quar 
 rel with Dick, an so I come deaown this way ; but there s 
 a notice stuck to the bottom of the Western Star, and here 
 you be." 
 
 " Thet s so," said the Missourian with much decision ; 
 " an this yer camp don t go a cent on floatin notices. 
 Twouldn t be healthy, don t yer see ? I ve bin in camps 
 afore now whar sech things was done, an the feller what did 
 it dropped off mighty suddent ; but, see yer now, I hain t 
 nothin agin ye, an I don t mind yer stakin out a claim 
 ter jine this yer one o* mine. Dick s my pardner, ye 
 know, an I was kinder savin it for him, but bein he s lo 
 cated his n already, ye r welcome ter this," and with the 
 air of a monarch bestowing a principality he waved his 
 hand toward the lower boundary of his claim. 
 
 The recipient of this offer made all haste in the direction 
 indicated, for it was now beginning to grow light, and mov 
 ing figures appeared here and there in the timber, show 
 ing that the camp was fully awake. 
 
 Breakfast was postponed this morning in favor of the 
 more important business of staking claims, but by ten 
 o clock most of the prospectors discovered that they were 
 hungry, and for the next half hour they formed sociable 
 groups around the fires that were kindled to boil their 
 coffee. After breakfast Lucky Jim announced that a mi 
 ners meeting would be held at eight o clock P.M. for the 
 purpose of organizing the district. 
 
 " Christopher Columbus orter be here now ter give the 
 camp a name," suggested one of the new-comers, and the 
 words were scarcely spoken when a gray felt hat, with a 
 tuft of sandy hair rising through the crown, became visible 
 above a boulder that obstructed the view of the trail up 
 the gulch, and a minute afterward the great discoverer
 
 I4 8 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 hailed his friends with the air of a man sure of his wel 
 come. Columbus traveled usually on foot. 
 
 " A hoss is well enough ef yer hain t nothin ter do but 
 tend on him," he was wont to remark confidentially ; " but 
 a man like me, thet hez other business, orter patronize Foot 
 an Walker s line." 
 
 It was by the above-named line that Christopher had ar 
 rived this morning. His luggage consisted of a gunny- 
 sack and the half of a pair of blankets. The dust of travel 
 still clung to him, but nothing could diminish the grand 
 eur of his air or abate his cheerful readiness to advise and 
 instruct the camp. 
 
 " Pooty well fur a starter," he observed, taking in the 
 gulch, the stakes, and the prospect-holes at one compre 
 hensive glance ; " but, boys, yer orter keep ter the right. 
 That thar left-hand fork ain t no count. Color of the 
 rock shows it. Country rock, every squar inch. Yer 
 mought as well look fur a pay-streak in wood ashes." 
 
 Breakfast was over, but Columbus borrowed one of the 
 still burning fires, and proceeded to toast a very small sec 
 tion of a rind of bacon. 
 
 "Yer hain t got a flapjack left over, hev yer?" here- 
 marked incidentally to his right-hand neighbor. " I wa ant 
 goin ter miss th strike ef I never had a bite of bread, an 
 I started off thout bakin enny." 
 
 Half a loaf was tossed to him, and the bacon rind being 
 now browned to the required crispness, he reached over 
 and touched Vermont, who was gathering up his cooking 
 utensils. 
 
 " Couldn t borrer a coffee-cup of yer, could I ?" he in 
 quired. " Kem afoot myself, anj hadn t much show ter 
 pack things." 
 
 The cup was handed out. 
 
 Next, Columbus interviewed Dick Turpin on the subject
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 149 
 
 of coffee, and got the quart cup filled with that beverage. 
 Jim loaned the necessary amount of sugar, and the great 
 discoverer proceeded with his breakfast. By the time he 
 had finished his meal the prospectors were scattered up 
 and down the gulch, no one remaining within speaking dis 
 tance except Lucky Jim and his partners, who were con 
 sulting as to the ways and means of getting out the lumber 
 for their sluice-boxes in the shortest possible time. 
 
 " The boys that travel on foot will be along to-day by 
 dozens," Jim averred, " and plenty of them will be glad to 
 work a little while for a grub stake. I can t handle a 
 whip-saw myself more s the pity. If my father had put 
 me to that instead of studying law, I might have been good 
 for something." 
 
 Christopher pricked up his ears at these words. The ac 
 complishment which Jim had neglected to acquire he was 
 a proficient in, or, in other words, he was a capital " top- 
 sawyer," an artisan much in request and not always to be 
 found in new camps. He sauntered slowly toward the 
 group, and addressed the partners with the air of one will 
 ing to grant a favor at any cost to himself. 
 
 " I wuz sorter wild, ez a boy," he remarked ; " an my 
 old man put me ter whip-sawin , kinder in hopes ter tone 
 me down. I wuz sot alwuz ter make a clean job of what 
 I undertook, an I put my mind ter thet thar whip-sawin 
 tell thar wa ant a man could hold a candle to me in th 
 hull kentry. Now, seein ye r sorter put to it fur hands, 
 I don t mind takin holt fur a week, jest ter commodate 
 yer." 
 
 Jim managed to convey a hint to his companions that 
 Christopher could really do what he boasted in this par 
 ticular line, and Francis asked him to name his terms. 
 
 "Waal, now," he said reflectively, "I hadn t consid 
 ered thet thar. I sh d like ter blige yer "thout mentionin
 
 150 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 wages I shd reely now but I wuz recknin ter prospect 
 some this winter, an I sh ll want suthin fur a grub stake. 
 What d ye say ter ten dollars a day and board ?" 
 
 Francis glanced toward Jim, who made an affirmative 
 sign. 
 
 " All right," he said. " You may consider yourself en 
 gaged. Are you ready to go to work now ?" 
 
 Columbus hesitated a moment. 
 
 " My breakfast wuz rayther light," he said, " owin ter 
 my not havin enny show ter pack pervisions from t other 
 camp. P raps it ud be as well ter cook dinner fust." 
 
 Jim s blue eyes twinkled, but he answered gravely, 
 " That is so. Help yourself, old man," at the same time 
 handing out a liberal supply of " pervisions," and pointing 
 to the embers of their fire. 
 
 Jim and Francis now turned their attention to the work- 
 necessary to be done on their claim before putting in the 
 sluices, while Charles held himself in readiness to accom 
 pany Columbus to the pit. Owing fo the confusion that 
 had prevailed ever since Jim s arrival, this was the first 
 opportunity Francis had found of speaking to him alone. 
 
 " Did you see the boys ? Had they got back from 
 Marysville ?" he asked, as soon as they were out of Chris 
 topher s hearing. 
 
 Jim shook his head. " No, not the ones you mean," he 
 answered. " The train got in four days ago, but the Mor 
 mon boys decided either to winter in Marysville or go far 
 ther south. They made a little raise on the Flat, and they 
 want to spend their -money." 
 
 La Tour s face showed his disappointment. Jim ob 
 served it, and added, 
 
 " You will see them in the spring, never fear. They 
 will be dead broke by that time, and will come back to the 
 Flat to look up their friends and go to work again. They
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 151 
 
 are good fellows, every one of them ; but they have been 
 so tied down all their lives that liberty makes them a little 
 wild. 
 
 " I can understand that," Francis said, and then ab 
 ruptly changed the subject. 
 
 In the course of the day the stragglers to whom Jim 
 alluded began to arrive on foot. They had, as a rule, 
 limited wardrobes and scant luggage, but they were rich 
 in expectations, and in every face shone the cheerful cour 
 age which sustained many a poor fellow through a long 
 succession of reverses, until his comrades finally made a 
 grave for him in the sands from which he hoped to dig his 
 wealth. 
 
 These pilgrims increased the numerical strength of the 
 camp to one hundred and fifty before night, and when, 
 punctually at the appointed hour, the miners meeting was 
 called to order, the blaze oi the pine-knot flambeaus lighted 
 a sea of faces, rugged, bronzed, unshaven, but keen, reso 
 lute, and expressing in every lineament that tireless energy 
 and unflagging perseverance which have done so much to 
 build up the great State they helped to found. 
 
 The Parson, a tall, thin, solemn-looking native of the 
 Middle States, who was said to have occupied a pulpit at 
 some former period of his life, was duly elected chairman 
 of the meeting, and Jim, whose penmanship was the won 
 der and envy of his associates, was chosen secretary. 
 
 The first business before the meeting was the adoption 
 of a set of by-laws fixing the boundaries of the district, and 
 the number of feet to be included in a claim ; also defining 
 the conditions which must be complied with in order to 
 hold such claim. 
 
 When the article relating to boundaries was read, Co 
 lumbus rose to his feet, and waving his hand majestically, 
 began :
 
 152 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Tears ez ef them thar lines wuz pooty narrer fur a 
 kentry like this. In the spring of 49 I helped ter organize 
 Gouge Eye districk, an we tuk in ten mile squar, an 
 lowed five hundred foot fur discovery an five hundred foot 
 pre-emption; an when I mined in South Ameriky " 
 Here the president s mace, otherwise the knobbed stick in 
 the Parson s right hand, came down heavily upon the boul 
 der that served as a desk. 
 
 " Time s up," he announced. " Only one minute al 
 lowed for remarks." 
 
 The article fixing the district boundaries was put to vote 
 without further argument, and adopted. Then the second 
 article, allowing two hundred feet for each claim, was 
 taken up. 
 
 Poker Bill, who reached the camp just before sunset, and 
 found notices posted all the way along the gulch, wished to 
 offer a few remarks before this was put to vote. He 
 thought that by allowing two hundred feet for pre-emption 
 all the mining ground was virtually given over to a few 
 monopolists, while poor men like himself, working-men, 
 who were the bone and sinew of every camp, were de 
 prived of their rights. In his opinion the claims should be 
 cut down to one hundred feet, that all might have an equal 
 show. 
 
 This proposition brought half a dozen holders of claims 
 to their feet ; but the Missourian, whose grizzled head 
 towered far above the others, was first seen by the chair, 
 who ruled that he had the floor. 
 
 " A pooty arrangement ez ever I heerd on," he ex 
 claimed. " A few on us must go ahead and prospect the 
 kentry, make the trails an take all the risks, an then arter 
 we git our claims staked out, in comes a lot o lazy cusses 
 that never struck a lick sence they wuz born, an up an 
 sez, Half o that, ef you please. Now wat Fi e got ter say
 
 A CALIFORNIA GULCH. 153 
 
 is jest this : the man ez wants half o my claim kin come 
 an take it," laying his hand significantly as he spoke upon 
 the shot-gun that rested against the tree beside him. These 
 remarks were loudly applauded by a portion of the meet 
 ing, and when the question was put to vote, the article was 
 adopted as first read, by a two-thirds majority. 
 
 After disposing of the by-laws, the only business before 
 the meeting was the choice of a recorder for the district, 
 and Francis La Tour was nominated and declared elected 
 by a heavy majority. If there had been any other office of 
 trust and profit to fill, the miners would have nominated his 
 brother for it ; for the " Turtle Doves" had confirmed the 
 good impression made by them on the night of their arrival 
 at Yreka Flat, and they had the whole camp for their 
 friends. Besides, the fortunate locators of claims that 
 prospected well felt that they owed something to those who 
 led the way to Shasta Butte, and the late comers who 
 had no claims as yet were quite sure that the brothers had 
 discovered diggings that it would pay to prospect to the 
 very head of either gulch ; for, in the face of Christopher s 
 decision several parties had staked claims in the left-hand 
 fork and panned out coarse gold in considerable quanti 
 ties. 
 
 Viewed in any light the new camp was a promising one, 
 and the men who had ]ust organized " Chespar District" 
 felt comfortably certain that they had " struck it rich."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 
 
 " FATHER, are you sure that God has called us to gather 
 to Zion in this way ?" 
 
 " My child, how can I doubt it ? He has not left himself 
 without a witness in these last days. It is now as it was in 
 the beginning. Signs that none can gainsay follow the 
 preaching of those who have counseled us, in his name, to 
 undertake this journey. Have faith and patience, my 
 daughter, and these light afflictions, which are but for a 
 moment, will work out for us a far more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory." 
 
 The person to whom this exhortation was addressed rose 
 slowly from the ground on which she was sitting, as though 
 fearful that she might be doing wrong to rest by the way. 
 She was a slender, delicate-looking girl of sixteen. Her 
 golden brown hair fell in a mass of tangled curls almost to 
 her waist. Her face, fair still in spite of exposure to sun 
 and wind, was perfect in its outlines, though thin and pale 
 as if from sickness or starvation. Her violet eyes, large, 
 liquid, and just now full of tears, were cast down as she 
 received her father s gentle rebuke, and her beautiful 
 mouth quivered like that of a grieved child. 
 
 Had she done wrong to put such a question ? And yet, 
 who could help it ? Here they were she a delicate girl, 
 and her old father who had never before known hardship 
 far from home, friends, and country, and plodding wearily 
 on foot across the American wilderness, whose rugged 
 mountains, and sandy wastes, and rushing torrents that
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 155 
 
 must he forded, were in such sad contrast to her dreams of 
 a land flowing with milk and honey. 
 
 The company to which they belonged numbered six 
 hundred, and all of them, young or old, sick or well, strong 
 or infirm, must make the terrible journey of a thousand 
 miles on foot ; and more than this, they must drag their 
 scanty outfit of bedding and clothing and a portion of their 
 food in hand-carts. 
 
 They had left the Missouri River late in August. It was 
 now November. But little more than half their journey 
 was accomplished, and their road, marked already by the 
 graves of those of the company just ahead who had fallen 
 by the way, was strewed with the dead bodies of the weaker 
 ones, who had started out with them full of hope and faith. 
 
 The weather grew each day more inclement, the streams 
 they had to wade were icy cold, and, worse than all, their 
 scanty rations began to fail so rapidly that death by starva 
 tion stared them in the face. 
 
 Jessie Wilton and her father were living happily in their 
 English home when the emissaries of the Mormon Church 
 sought them out, and so wrought upon the credulous, sim 
 ple-hearted old man by their " miracles," " prophecies," 
 and " gifts of healing" that he was induced to sell all he 
 had, and after placing the proceeds in the hands of the elder 
 who had charge of the emigration, set out with his mother 
 less child on this journey, whose goal was the Zion hidden 
 in the mountains a city fair as Jerusalem the Golden so 
 the girl s dreams and the old man s simple faith pictured it. 
 
 The hundreds who had started with them on their toil 
 some pilgrimage were sustained by the same faith. Some 
 where in the valleys of the mountains God had promised to 
 hide his chosen ones until the evil days were overpast, and 
 now he called them to witness the fulfillment of his promise, 
 and share the security and peace of his Saints.
 
 156 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Alas for their simple trust, for the hopes that day by day 
 grew weaker, as cold and starvation thinned their ranks, 
 and the pitiless storm beat upon their unprotected heads ! 
 No wonder that the faith of the most devoted began to 
 waver, when the bitter winter of the northern Territories 
 overtook them midway on their journey ; for those who told 
 them of the glories of the Zion beyond the mountains had 
 prophesied that " the seasons and the elements would be 
 controlled for their benefit, and though they would hear of 
 storms on the right and on the left, not one would be per 
 mitted to break upon their path." 
 
 Jessie had been dragging the hand-cart since morning, 
 for her father had grown so weak from exposure and hun 
 ger that he was barely able to totter by her side. At Flor 
 ence, where the final arrangements for the journey were 
 made, one hand-cart was assigned to every five persons ; 
 but there were many little children and even babes in arms 
 in the company, which reduced the number of those able to 
 draw the carts to three in each squad, and often there were 
 only two, who divided the labor between them. 
 
 Fathers put their little children, too young to walk, upon 
 the already overloaded carts, and dragged them until na 
 ture gave out. Husbands attempted to carry their sick 
 wives in the same manner, and feeble old men and women 
 with frost-bitten hands and feet were helped as far as pos 
 sible by those who were younger and stronger ; but day by 
 clay the number of those able to help others, or even to 
 help themselves, diminished, until at last Death, the Friend 
 and Helper of a humanity that can bear no more, stretched 
 out the only hand that was offered to the sinking victims. 
 
 The day was wearing away, and the biting wind chilled 
 even the strongest to the very marrow. Jessie, who saw 
 that her father was every moment growing weaker, begged 
 him to get on the cart.
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 157 
 
 " I can pull you a little way, father," declared the girl, 
 who had eaten nothing that day except a fragment of hard 
 biscuit. " Look ! there is a storm coming, and we are far 
 behind the others. Do let me try to draw you along." 
 
 " No, my daughter," he answered. " Do you hurry on 
 and send some of the men back to help me ; or, maybe I 
 can go a little farther ;" but even as he spoke he tottered 
 and fell. 
 
 " Father ! father ! I cannot leave you !" she cried in 
 anguish. " You will be frozen to death long before any 
 one can come for you," and with all her strength she tried 
 to lift him, but could not. 
 
 " Oh, what shall I do ?" She wrung her hands as she 
 looked in vain for some sign that they were missed by those 
 ahead. " If I could only build a fire ; but I have nothing, 
 not even a match." 
 
 She pulled the scanty supply of bedding from the cart, 
 wrapped her father in it, and rubbed his stiffening limbs ; 
 but his eyes were already dim with death. 
 
 "Listen, daughter," he said feebly, "for these are my- 
 last words. The men who counseled us to take this jour 
 ney were, mayhap, mistaken ; but never charge their mis 
 take on our covenant-keeping God. Fifty years have I trust 
 ed him, and his goodness has never failed. I commit you 
 to his tender mercies. Good-by, my Jessie, my little girl. 
 I cannot see your dear face, but I shall see you where they 
 hunger no more where all tears are wiped away. I am 
 going to your mother. Don t cry, Jessie father s little 
 girl." 
 
 The fluttering breath grew fainter, then ceased. The 
 snow-flakes began to sift down upon the face that was as 
 cold as they. The desolate orphan ceased to sob. Her 
 head sank upon her father s breast, and in a little while she 
 would have slept with him, but three of the strongest men
 
 158 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 in the company, detailed to look after the feeble ones who 
 fell behind and to bury the dead, came up at this moment 
 and lifted her, only half conscious, into the cart. 
 
 One of the men now hurried forward with the girl, and 
 the other two, after satisfying themselves that life was ex 
 tinct in the motionless figure before them, dug a shallow 
 grave, and without coffin, without funeral rites, without a 
 mourner (for those who laid him away in his last resting- 
 place felt that he was to be envied), the body of the old man 
 was committed to the frozen earth. 
 
 A couple of hours afterward, Jessie, restored to con 
 sciousness, began to ask, 
 
 " Where is my father ?" 
 
 " In heaven, child," said one who sat near. " You 
 surely do not wish him back ?" 
 
 " No. Oh, no, I remember now ; but I was going with 
 him. Why did you hinder me ?" 
 
 There was little time for rest, and still less for tears, that 
 bitter night. The storm which began before sunset in 
 creased in violence, and the howling winds blew down the 
 tents which were their only shelter, and drifted the snow 
 into their feeble fires. Morning found the living chilled 
 and exhausted, with neither strength nor courage for the 
 day s journey, and in the snow that surrounded the camp 
 lay the bodies of five who, during the night, had taken the 
 journey from which none return. 
 
 All the dead were hastily buried in one grave, and then 
 the survivors, with little hope that another sun would rise 
 on any of them, again pushed forward. 
 
 Numbers dropped by the way as they toiled slowly on 
 ward, but they dared not stop, for they knew that their 
 utmost exertions would barely enable them to reach a 
 camping-ground which would afford fuel for their fires. 
 At length, just before night overtook the exhausted com-
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 159 
 
 pany, they were met by messengers who were as welcome 
 as angels from heaven two men who had ridden on in ad 
 vance of half a dozen wagons sent out from the valley with 
 provisions. 
 
 The good news they brought infused life into the perish 
 ing multitude, and superhuman exertions were made to 
 reach a good camping-ground sixteen miles ahead, where 
 also there were some abandoned log-cabins that would 
 afford them shelter. By almost incredible efforts on the 
 part of those who had charge of the train, this station was 
 reached on the evening of the next day, but twelve more 
 of their number were left dead in the snow. 
 
 Here it was decided to make the most comfortable camp 
 possible under the circumstances, and wait for the relief 
 which was on the way ; but on the first night in camp all 
 that was left of their scanty rations was dealt out. The 
 only food now remaining in the company was a few pounds 
 of rice and hard bread, which had been reserved for the 
 sick and for the youngest children, and for two days they 
 endured the pangs of starvation. 
 
 There were fifteen deaths in these two days, and when 
 on the morning of the third day the long-looked-for wagons 
 drove into camp, many more were too far gone to be bene 
 fited by the food they brought. After a day s rest the 
 train was again put in motion ; those who were unable to 
 drag their carts being allowed to load their effects into the 
 wagons, while those who could not walk were permitted to 
 ride. 
 
 Thus heavily loaded, the wagons, drawn by oxen, moved 
 slowly along with the hand-cart train, stopping every now 
 and then to bury some one for whom help had come too 
 late. 
 
 It was a noticeable fact that many women and young 
 girls kept on their feet and continued to drag their carts,
 
 160 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 while the men beside them dropped to the ground dying or 
 dead. In some instances the young girls were the only 
 survivors out of a large family when the train finally 
 reached Salt Lake.* Three bright young English girls saw 
 father, mother, and five brothers die one after the other of 
 cold and starvation, while they remained able to pull their 
 carts, and entered Salt Lake in safety. 
 
 Jessie Wilton was among the number gifted with this 
 power of endurance. She walked every step of the way 
 from the Missouri to Salt Lake valley, and for more than 
 two thirds of the distance dragged the hand-cart which had 
 been assigned to her and her father at starting. When she 
 reached Salt Lake she was thin and haggard from starva 
 tion, but no other consequences of the terrible journey were 
 manifest. 
 
 She was ragged, shoeless, and penniless also, for her 
 father s little hoard, which had been intrusted to the elder 
 who persuaded them to come, had disappeared ; but, unlike 
 many others, she had a home to go to. Her mother s 
 uncle, a well-to-do Englishman who had settled in the val 
 ley three years before, received the orphan into his childless 
 household, and in a few months she began to bear some 
 likeness to the " singing bird," the old father s darling, 
 who had made his home glad for so many years. 
 
 But, for a time, it seemed almost as though she had 
 escaped the peril" of the wilderness only to fall into greater 
 perils in the Zion which she had long since ceased to com 
 pare to "Jerusalem the Golden." With returning health 
 and strength all her winsome, girlish beauty came back, 
 and from the glossy braids of golden-brown hair that 
 crowned her shapely head to the tiny foot whose light press 
 ure scarcely left a print on the earth, she was too fair to 
 
 * See Appendix, Note J, page 346.
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 161 
 
 know an hour s safety in that den of beasts, had she not 
 been guarded as she was by her uncle, whose position, in 
 fluence, and money made it a matter of policy with the 
 authorities to conciliate him, and by her aunt, who at 
 heart detested Mormonism and all things connected with it. 
 
 Though many of the leaders of the people looked upon 
 her beauty with longing eyes, and more than one hoary- 
 headed apostle with a score of wives asked her in marriage, 
 Brigham Young refused to compel her uncle to sacrifice 
 her. . 
 
 " The girl shall choose for herself," was his stereotyped 
 answer to all petitions, until more than one came to believe 
 that he designed her for himself. In this, however, they 
 were mistaken. The reigning favorite in the Prophet s 
 harem at this time was herself a beauty of no common 
 order, and withal a jealous one, and her influence over him 
 was sufficient to hinder him from taking a wife whom she 
 would have regarded as a rival. 
 
 While matters were in this state, it happened that Philip 
 La Tour met the violet-eyed maiden at her uncle s house. 
 Philip was now twenty-four years old, and in spite of the 
 advice of his elders he still remained single ; but possibly 
 this was because the girls who arrived with each year s 
 emigration were appropriated by gray-haired representa 
 tives of the priesthood as soon as they reached the valley. 
 
 Blanche, his only remaining sister, had lately been mar 
 ried to a neighbor s son, a young man whose good heart 
 and sound principles had thus far survived the blighting 
 influences of Mormonism, and thus Philip was left quite 
 alone in the home that, by untiring industry, he had suc 
 ceeded in making comfortable and even pleasant. 
 
 He was still as fanatical as ever in his religious belief, 
 and the tenth of all his earnings, together with consider 
 ably more than a tenth of the money which he received
 
 1 62 THE FATE OF MADAME I. A TOUR. 
 
 from time to time from his brothers in California, was 
 regularly paid into the Prophet s coffers. Yet, in spite of 
 the continual drain consequent upon this payment of tithes, 
 he prospered, and in spite of Mormonism his daily life was 
 irreproachable, thanks to his inherited integrity and the 
 lessons his mother taught him in childhood. 
 
 He was a fine specimen of physical manhood tall, lithe, 
 strong-limbed- and with a handsome face and a winning 
 smile that would have made him a dangerous rival of the 
 graybeards around him, had such rivalry been possible. 
 
 Jessie, who was not yet so thoroughly converted to Mor 
 monism as to prefer exaltation in the next world as the 
 tenth wife of an elderly apostle, to happiness in this world 
 as the one wife of a man who loved her, found the hand 
 some youth a pleasant acquaintance dangerously pleasant 
 in a community where young men and maidens were so 
 closely watched, but where, after a couple of months, he 
 told the story that has been told so many thousand times 
 since the first pair of lovers met in Eden. Not even the con 
 cluding assurance that he had first sought and obtained 
 the Prophet s approval could dampen the joy that glowed 
 in the depths of her violet eyes and flushed her soft cheeks 
 as she gave him his answer. 
 
 But alas ! when the wedding-day came, there was that 
 to endure which not only dampened joy but well-nigh 
 crushed out life. By the Prophet s express command, they 
 were to be married in the Endowment House, and the 
 hideous ordeal through which the poor girl was compelled 
 to pass inspired such terror and loathing that when she 
 knelt for the last time in the " sacred circle," and was 
 ordered to repeat with the others the fearful oaths of blood 
 and vengeance which completed the vows that made them 
 the slaves of the Prophet forever, she fainted quite away, 
 and was carried from the room insensible. When she re-
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 163 
 
 covered consciousness, all the other candidates had passed 
 " beyond the veil" except her lover, and with him beside 
 her she submitted to the final ceremony and was ushered 
 into the sealing-room. Before her own marriage took place, 
 however, she was an unwilling witness of the nuptials of a 
 plural bride, while the first wife knelt beside the altar, 
 silent and tearless, but with such a look of anguish and 
 despair on her white face that the memory of it haunted 
 the beholder for years. 
 
 In spite of Jessie s loving faith in the man of her choice, 
 the torturing question, 
 
 " Shall I ever be compelled to act such a part ?" forced 
 itself upon her as she saw the wretched wife place the hand 
 of the youthful bride in that of her husband, and bow her 
 head in answer to the question, 
 
 " Do you give this woman unto this man, even as Sarah 
 gave Hagar to Abraham ?" 
 
 When it came her turn to kneel with Philip at the same 
 altar, the vision of that pallid face, stamped with the seal 
 of death the death of hope and happiness and love 
 seemed to rise between her and the man who held her hand 
 in a tender and loyal clasp, and at the very threshold of her 
 new life the sweetness of wedded love was mixed with the 
 bitterness of a nameless dread. 
 
 She could not say, even to herself, 
 
 " I fear that some day my husband will ask me to yield 
 my place to another." 
 
 She trusted him fully, she loved him wholly, and yet, as 
 they left the accursed mysteries of the Endowment House 
 behind them she felt that a shadow had fallen across their 
 path which the clear shining sun could not dispel. 
 
 Philip had done his utmost to make his home worthy of 
 his fair bride, and, on the summer evening when they took 
 possession of it, it looked pleasant enough to content them
 
 1 64 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 both, had their hearts been quite at rest ; but Philip, no 
 less than his bride, felt the effects of the ordeal through 
 which they had passed, and the scenes they had been com 
 pelled to witness. 
 
 A honeymoon begun thus could not be filled with unal 
 loyed happiness ; but the love that had drawn them together 
 was strong and enduring, and Jessie s sunny temper and 
 Philip s sterling goodness were proof against influences 
 that might otherwise have turned the sweetness of married 
 life into gall and wormwood. 
 
 Jessie s uncle, to whom the gentle orphan was as a 
 daughter, gave her a marriage portion of three thousand 
 dollars, and with this slender capital Philip became a mer 
 chant on a small scale. Here, as elsewhere, he was pros 
 pered, and by the end of the year was able to enlarge his 
 business. 
 
 With the close of their first year of wedded happiness 
 came also another gift, far more precious than the money 
 that began to flow in a dark-eyed baby boy, with his 
 mother s smile lighting up his father s features. Now in 
 deed the shadow that dimmed their sunshine seemed to 
 melt away. 
 
 " Baby fingers, waxen touches" drove that nameless fear 
 from the mother s breast, and Philip, now not only her 
 husband but her baby s father, was her king, who could do 
 no wrong. 
 
 For six months she lived in a dream of delight, only rous 
 ing herself to say sometimes to Philip, as both were gazing 
 fondly upon the little head pillowed on her bosom, 
 
 " My love, I fear we are too happy. Something, tells me 
 that this cannot last." 
 
 It did not last. One night both were roused from sleep 
 to find their idol struggling and gasping for breath, and 
 when morning came nothing remained to them but a little
 
 A THOUSAND MILES AFOOT. 165 
 
 waxen figure, still and cold, which neither wakened nor 
 stirred when hot tears and passionate kisses were rained 
 upon it. 
 
 Atter their baby was buried out of their sight, love, 
 sanctified by sorrow, drew their bleeding hearts more 
 closely together. In speaking, long afterward, of those 
 days, the wife said, 
 
 " My husband was my all. I did not simply love him, 
 I worshiped him. He was more to me than God or my 
 own soul." 
 
 Are there not others whom sorrow has brought to cling, 
 in the same way, to the one dear object left in a world from 
 which all else that the heart delighted in has been taken ? 
 
 Another year passed, and then a sweet little blue-eyed 
 girl came to brighten their home ; but though welcomed 
 joyfully, and tenderly beloved by both parents, she could 
 not fill in the mother s heart the place of the first-born. 
 
 Another year glided away, and little Lily was just begin 
 ning to totter across the room on uncertain feet, and lisp 
 sweet baby words, when she too sickened, and in spite of 
 all that love could do to save her, faded from their sight, 
 and was laid beside her brother. 
 
 This time, when they returned from the burial of their 
 little one and sat down beside the empty cradle, Philip put 
 his arms around his wife and said tenderly, 
 
 " My love, in some way, though I know not how, we are 
 displeasing God. He does not afflict willingly. I remem 
 ber a text like that which my mother taught me long ago. 
 When he punishes us it is in love it is because he must. 
 Let us try and find out what sin we are cherishing that 
 calls for such bitter correction."
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN. 
 
 THE Shasta Butte diggings were rich nobody disputed 
 that but the ground that could be worked profitably was 
 limited in extent, and the " stampede" in the fall of 52, 
 which lasted until some weeks after the snow began to fall, 
 brought in rather more men than the camp had any use 
 for, and in the spring of 53 fully half of those who had 
 gathered there left, either to prospect on their own ac 
 count or to follow up some of the new strikes that were 
 reported on every side. 
 
 The La Tours, who had worked their claim during the 
 winter as steadily as the weather permitted, sold out in 
 May and left the gulch richer by ten thousand dollars than 
 when they entered it the previous October. They had no 
 particular destination. Wonderful stories were afloat con 
 cerning the new discoveries made in Nevada County, and 
 they had some thoughts of turning their steps in that di 
 rection ; but first they must look up the young men from 
 Utah, whom thus far they had not been able to find. 
 
 Lucky Jim repeated his assurance that they would make 
 their way back to Yreka Flat in the spring " dead broke ;" 
 and partly on this account, and partly because Yreka was 
 the nearest outfitting point, they rode over there the morn 
 ing after bidding adieu to Chespar District. 
 
 Yreka had met with a good many changes in eight 
 months. It was now an ambitious canvas town, with a 
 dozen lumber buildings besides, which constituted what
 
 THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN. 167 
 
 was proudly designated "the business block." Mer 
 chants in all sorts of wares reported " lively times," there 
 was the usual number of saloons, and everything about 
 the place indicated the process of transition from a camp to 
 a town. The brothers put up at the Astoria, a hotel with 
 log walls and canvas front, which was, as the rather 
 highly-colored placard beside the door announced, " The 
 only strictly first-class house in Yreka." 
 
 As if to prove Jim a prophet, almost the first words ad 
 dressed to them by the landlord, after the conventional in 
 quiry, " What will you take ?" were, 
 
 " Them Salt Lake chaps that you fellers wor a-huntin" 
 in the tall hez turned up. Got back last week with nary 
 red. Cleaned out in Frisco. Sech is life." 
 
 The "Salt Lake chaps," three in number, were found, 
 after a short search, sitting round the embers of the fire 
 which had served to cook their scanty supper, discussing 
 in a mood anything but hopeful the chances of obtaining 
 work in the crowded camp. They did not recognize their 
 visitors until they introduced themselves by name. The 
 lapse of years had changed the boys who left winter quar 
 ters in 1848 into bronzed and bearded men, and the others 
 whom Francis remembered as lads in their teens were now 
 stalwart specimens of the California miner. 
 
 Only one of the boys, Dick West by name, really hailed 
 from Salt Lake. The others were from the northern set 
 tlements. Dick, at first was very communicative, rattling 
 off an amount of news about their mutual acquaintances 
 which did credit to his imagination it not to his memory, 
 but when Francis La Tour inquired after his own family 
 the fluent young man grew silent and constrained. He 
 hardly ever saw any of them except Philip, he said. The 
 rest of the family kept themselves very close. Philip was 
 growing up a likely sort of boy, but the old boss, by which
 
 1 68 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 
 
 irreverent term West designated the Prophet, kept a tight 
 grip on him. 
 
 It was not until the next morning, when Francis found 
 an opportunity of speaking with West alone, that the kind- 
 hearted young fellow could be brought to tell what he 
 knew. His story was the one commonly reported in Salt 
 Lake with regard to Madame La Tour s disappearance ; 
 and as he with the others really believed that she wandered 
 to the river in a fit of temporary insanity and was acci 
 dentally drowned, he gave the account with an air of sin 
 cerity that convinced his hearer of its truth. 
 
 Of the sisters he had little to tell. He knew that Louise 
 taught the Prophet s children, and that the younger girls 
 were with their brother, and he believed that all were safe 
 and well. 
 
 " And I ll tell you what is the truth," he continued im 
 pressively ; " you want to keep away from there. You 
 could do no good to any of your family by being seen in 
 Utah. You are apostates, and in all the sermons they 
 preach nowadays they recommend sending apostates to 
 the bottomless pit by the shortest route. Philip is a sort of 
 favorite, and he and the girls will do well enough, but you 
 would be blood-atoned without having time to say your 
 prayers, if you were caught inside the Territory. I could 
 tell you things that would make your hair stand on end 
 things that I ve seen with my own eyes. It was some 
 thing that happened almost at our door that made me 
 think it was time to leave, and nothing on earth could per 
 suade me to go back." 
 
 West was sincere : there could be no doubt of that ; 
 and his repeated assurance that the brothers would bring 
 trouble upon their family instead of helping them, by mak 
 ing any attempt to get them away, finally caused them to 
 give up the idea of returning to Utah. Here they were
 
 THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN. 169 
 
 freemen, and an honorable career was open to them. In 
 the dominions of the Mormon Prophet they could only live 
 as slaves, if permitted to live at all. 
 
 The most painful thing involved in their decision 
 was what seemed to them the virtual abandonment of 
 their sisters, whose rescue they were urged to undertake 
 by every manly and fraternal impulse ; but West assured 
 them that there was not the faintest possibility of succeed 
 ing in such an attempt and he was right. For twenty 
 years no woman left the Territory without the Prophet s 
 permission, unless under military escort, and more than 
 one generous man who dared the consequences of attempt 
 ing to release these victims of priestly tyranny paid for the 
 desperate venture with his life. 
 
 ******* 
 
 1853 and 54 were prosperous years for the brothers ; so 
 much so that buckskin purses and oyster-cans no longer 
 sufficed as receptacles for their gold, and the books of the 
 San Francisco banking-house in which their surplus cap 
 ital was deposited showed the handsome balance of eighty 
 thousand dollars in their favor. They ought by this time 
 to have been moderately happy, if success could bring hap 
 piness, but both of them were domestic in their tastes, and 
 longed to end their wanderings and make a home some 
 where. 
 
 The material for such a home as they dreamed of was 
 not, however, to be found in California at this period. 
 
 There were a few families in San Francisco and the 
 other towns which were beginning to take on the name of 
 cities, but a large majority of the population were men 
 like themselves, who had no certain dwelling-place. 
 
 In the late autumn of 55 they repaired to San Francis 
 co, with their minds made up to take passage for the States. 
 On the morning after their arrival, Charles, who was look-
 
 17 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 ing over the paper as they sat at breakfast, turned sud 
 denly to his brother, saying, 
 
 " We are advertised for. I don t think anybody wants 
 to arrest us, do you ?" 
 
 Francis took the paper from his brother s hand and read 
 aloud : 
 
 " Information wanted of Francis and Charles La Tour, 
 who emigrated to Oregon in the spring of 1848, and who 
 removed subsequently to Nevada County, Cal. Any per 
 son knowing the whereabouts of the aforesaid parties will 
 be liberally rewarded upon communicating such informa 
 tion to Rand & Co., No. M St." 
 
 " Rand & Co. are not detectives, that s ohe comfort," he 
 observed. " I think I ll walk down there myself and claim 
 the reward." 
 
 The place indicated in the advertisement was the office 
 of a well-known law firm. Francis betook himself thither 
 in the course of an hour, feeling no special curiosity with 
 regard to the person inquiring for him. 
 
 " Some of the boys from Yreka want to hunt us up, I 
 suppose," he said to Charles on starting. 
 
 It was no uncommon thing for " the boys," especially 
 those who were " out of luck," to hunt up the Turtle 
 Doves, who could never see an old comrade in trouble 
 without offering to help him. This time the applicant 
 might be Jim, whom they had lost sight of for a year or 
 more. When last heard from he had got rid of the five 
 thousand dollars that he made at Shasta, and was reduced 
 to his normal condition of impecuniosity. 
 
 " I shall be glad to help Jim. Hope I can find out a 
 way to do it without offending him," he soliloquized as he 
 walked along, and with this idea in his mind he presented 
 himself at the office of Rand & Co., and stated his name 
 and business to the senior partner.
 
 THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN. I? I 
 
 " La Tour ? Ah, yes ;" said Mr. Rand. " Very happy, 
 I am sure, to find that our advertisement has reached you. 
 The person inquiring for you is your brother-in-law." 
 
 " Brother-in-law ! I was not aware that I had such a 
 relative," La Tour said. 
 
 " The gentleman was accompanied by his wife when he 
 called at our office," was the answer, " and the lady cer 
 tainly bears a decided resemblance to you." 
 
 Francis was startled. Could one of his sisters by any 
 possibility be in San Francisco ? If so, she must be the 
 wife of a Mormon missionary ; and more than this, her 
 own loyalty to the Prophet must be above suspicion, or she 
 would never be allowed to travel with him. It was not a 
 pleasant thought ; and much as he had longed to see the face 
 of one of his kindred, he set out to look up the address given 
 him by the lawyer, in a frame of mind by no means enviable. 
 
 The name on the slip of paper he held in his hand fur 
 nished no clew to the identity of his unknown brother-in- 
 law, for during the years that he spent among the Saints 
 he had not happened to hear of George Denys. 
 
 When he reached the house he was somewhat reassured 
 by the face and bearing of the man who offered him his 
 hand, saying, 
 
 " This is a far better answer to my advertisement than I 
 hoped tor." 
 
 Francis asked at once for his sister. 
 
 "She is not very well," was the reply, " and I would 
 like first to have her prepared for the interview. Our es 
 cape from Utah was attended with perils and hardships 
 from the effects of which she has not quite recovered." 
 
 " Your escape !" Francis looked bewildered. " Why, I 
 thought 
 
 " You thought nobody escaped from that place, I sup 
 pose."
 
 I7 2 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " No ; that is not just what I was going to say. I 
 thought you were. a missionary sent out by the Church." 
 
 There was a look in Denys eyes which the other could 
 not fathom, as he answered, 
 
 " My last mission in behalf of the Church cost me too 
 much, and I decided never to undertake another but I 
 am forgetting the explanation which I owe you. If you can 
 wait an hour to see your sister, I will try and tell you why 
 we are here, and what drove us from Utah." 
 
 It is needless to say that Denys had a deeply interested 
 auditor while he related, in the fewest words possible, the 
 story of the last two years. He did not allude in any way 
 to his wife s previous history. He knew that her elder 
 brothers had been kept in ignorance of the fact that she was 
 sealed to the Prophet Joseph, and for her sake he hoped 
 they might never learn anything of her relations to Kimball. 
 
 For himself he spoke honestly when he assured her be 
 fore their marriage that in his mind no shadow of blame 
 attached to her. In the eyes of the world she might be a 
 disgraced and ruined woman ; in his eyes she was, as he 
 had said, only the victim of a system which he had helped 
 to uphold ; and though when he proposed to make her his 
 wife he was actuated solely by pity, and a wish to rescue her 
 from her surroundings, he had already learned to love her. 
 
 And Louise ? It is true that, as she had told Denys, she 
 knew nothing of such love as happier women feel, but grati 
 tude to her preserver was changing into a tender affection. 
 Those days of suffering on the desert had done more to 
 draw them together than months of ordinary experience, 
 and for the first time since she left the shelter of her own 
 home she felt that she had some one to confide in and 
 lean upon. 
 
 Yet there were hours when the memory of the horrors of 
 her past life came upon her like a flood, and threatened to
 
 THE LA TOUR BOYS AGAIN. 173 
 
 overwhelm her. At such times she could not bear to look 
 upon a human face, not even upon that of the husband who 
 was growing so dear to her, and he wisely left her to her 
 self until her mind recovered its wonted tone. He knew 
 that she at once desired and dreaded to meet her brothers, 
 and it was this state of feeling quite as much as her health 
 which made him anxious to prepare her for such a meet 
 ing. 
 
 Francis waited for what seemed to him a very long time 
 in the room in which his brother-in-law left him. At 
 length there were footsteps in the hall, the rustle of dra 
 peries, and the door opened, admitting a tall, pale, dark- 
 eyed woman, whom Francis recognized as La Belle Louise, 
 chiefly by her likeness to the mother, whose face was 
 never absent from his memory. 
 
 The meeting between the long-separated brother and 
 sister was most affectionate, and on one side altogether 
 joyful, but Louise s happiness was alloyed by the bitter 
 thought, 
 
 " If my brother knew all, he would cast me off." 
 
 In thinking thus she did him a measure of injustice, and 
 yet it is certain that had the truth been told him she could 
 not have been the same to him that she was in the days 
 when the same roof sheltered them. 
 
 Before Francis left he learned that Catherine had also 
 succeeded in reaching California with her husband, and 
 that they were comfortably established on a ranch about 
 twenty-five miles from the city. Both the brothers rode 
 out to the ranch the next day, and found the place so much 
 to their liking that the project of returning to the States 
 was indefinitely postponed. 
 
 Catherine had no concealments and no bitter memories, 
 and perhaps on this account there was something in her 
 welcome which they missed in that of Louise. At any
 
 174 TIIE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 rate, the unpretentious house in which the married lovers 
 had enshrined their Lares and Penates came so near to re 
 alizing their brothers ideal of a home that they begged the 
 privilege of sharing it, and formed a partnership with Ken- 
 yon, which was highly advantageous to the latter, who was 
 richer in good sense and sound principles than in money. 
 
 During the winter that followed their settlement at the 
 ranch, the brothers talked freely with Kenyon and his wife 
 about their mother s disappearance. Catherine still ad 
 hered to her unsupported, and, to all except herself, un 
 reasonable belief that her mother still lived ; but Kenyon, 
 when he talked with the brothers alone, put a different 
 construction upon the single fact on which she based this 
 belief. 
 
 " I have no doubt whatever that Catherine is right in say 
 ing that her mother never left the house alone," he told 
 them ; " but at the same time I feel sure that she was 
 drowned, and from my knowledge of that accursed band of 
 murderers I am equally certain that she did not drown 
 herself. 
 
 This was only putting into words the suspicion that both 
 the brothers had begun to entertain ; but even if they had 
 positive proof that their mother died by violence, it would 
 be worse than useless to attempt to bring her murderers to 
 justice. The Mormon Prophet, secure in his mountain re 
 treat, was able to defy the law, and crimes committed by 
 his orders would never be inquired into, much less pun- 
 shed. Kenyon could tell them of more than one deed of 
 blood done in open day, and boasted of as a meritorious 
 act, and the air of the valley was rife with secret whispers 
 of other deeds that could not be so much as named among 
 civilized beings.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE. 
 
 IN all outward things Philip La Tour continued to pros 
 per. His business increased, he built a new and handsome 
 house, and filled it with the best furniture that the valley 
 afforded ; his fair wife was daintily clad, and many a poor 
 neighbor blessed both for the bounty that was freely be 
 stowed ; but in spite of all this neither wore a look of per 
 fect contentment. 
 
 It was now three years since the little daughter left 
 them, and no other child had been given them to brighten 
 their home. No one but a mother who has seen her baby 
 carried out of the door for the last time could understand 
 how Jessie longed to see a little sleeping head upon the 
 cradle pillow, or how she -woke in the night from a dream 
 of her lost darlings and wept because her arms were 
 empty, because there was no baby at her breast. 
 
 And alas ! Jessie now had sorrows which bereaved 
 mothers elsewhere know nothing of. Because she was 
 childless her husband was " counseled" to take another 
 wife, and often this counsel was given in her presence, and 
 she was sharply reproved for resisting the Spirit of the 
 Lord by withholding her consent. It is but justice to 
 Philip to say that he did what he could to shield her from 
 these coarse rebukes, and that he assured her, with an air 
 of sincerity which satisfied her, that nothing could induce 
 him to do what his brethren all around him were doing. 
 And yet Jessie knew that he accepted the doctrine of poly 
 gamythat he believed it was enjoined by a revelation from 
 heaven. Only the infatuation of a blind love could bring
 
 176 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 any feeling of security to the wife of a man who held such 
 a belief. 
 
 Jessie knew that her husband was sincere in his accept 
 ance of the Latter Day Gospel, and that in theory he did 
 not reject even the doctrine of Blood Atonement,* which 
 |Was preached openly and practiced year after year without 
 let or hindrance. It is true that he was not selected as an 
 actor in any of the bloody tragedies that occurred on every 
 hand. The Prophet chose his instruments wisely, and he 
 knew Philip well enough to be aware that he would be 
 quite useless in the role of assassin, and moreover that the 
 actual sight of the taking off of a Gentile or apostate would 
 be apt to destroy his faith, not only in the doctrine of blood 
 atonement, but in the divinity of the Mormon system as a 
 whole. 
 
 The band of cut-throats who stood ready at all times to 
 do the Prophet s bidding were men of quite a different 
 stamp men who were villains by nature, and who did not 
 need the impulse of fanaticism to bring them to the point 
 of shedding blood. 
 
 And yet these men were Philip La Tour s brethren. 
 He joined with them in prayer. He invited them to his 
 house, and they sat at the table with him and his refined 
 and gentle wife. They filled offices of trust and authority. 
 Some were members of the Territorial Legislature, others 
 were judges of the probate courts or mayors of cities, but 
 every one of them had blood on his hands ; every one of 
 them had been engaged in deeds of darkness for which 
 devils might blush. t 
 
 It happened one day that Philip brought home two of 
 these men to dinner. Jessie, who always shrank from meet 
 ing them, pleaded a headache, and did not appear at the 
 
 * See Appendix, Note K, page 346. t See Appendix, Note L, page 348.
 
 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE. 177 
 
 table ; hut her own room adjoined the dining-room, and as 
 the door was slightly ajar, every word of their conversation 
 was distinctly audible to her. 
 
 " I suppose you think, Brother La Tour," said one of the 
 men, " that we ought to have accepted of this Governor 
 they sent us from Washington, instead of driving him out 
 of the Territory." 
 
 " No," was the answer, " we were not obliged to accept 
 of him ; but still we had no right to mob him. There are 
 more dignified and reasonable ways of dealing with an un 
 welcome official." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! That is good. Just hear him, Brother 
 Grove. Dignified and reasonable ! Don t you wish he 
 could have seen the boys laying on their ox-whips ? I tell 
 you the Governor took some dignified steps before they got 
 through with him ; and I guess they reasoned with him in 
 a way that he could understand." 
 
 Brother Grove did not appear to share his companion s 
 mirth. 
 
 " I don t see anything to laugh about," he growled. 
 " That job was managed just as I knew it would be when it 
 was left to boys. The fellow got away, and now we must 
 expect to take the consequences of the stir he will make in 
 the States about his treatment here." 
 
 " And you are really afraid that President Young don t 
 know how to turn that very thing to our advantage ? 
 Brother Grove, I gave you credit for more sense. Who is 
 going to prove that the boys were counseled to do the work ? 
 It is the easiest thing in the world to fasten the responsi 
 bility on them, denounce them publicly for it, and have 
 them arrested. That will quiet all feeling in the States, 
 and put President Young before the people there in the 
 light of a man determined to punish such an outrage on a 
 Government official."
 
 I7 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " That s all very well," Brother Grove responded, " if the 
 boys don t tell their own story and put the responsibility 
 where it belongs." 
 
 " Never you fear, Brother Grove. The boys won t tell 
 anything,"* and the Danite, who was also a member of 
 the Territorial Legislature, drew his hand across his throat 
 with an expression of countenance fairly diabolical. 
 
 He sat facing the bedroom door, and Jessie not only 
 heard him but saw the look. She turned cold from head 
 to foot. What if she should be suspected of listening to 
 this murderous revelation ? Her husband rose and moved 
 toward the door. She closed her eyes and feigned sleep, 
 trembling in every limb. He came into the room, took a 
 paper from his desk, glanced toward the bed, and went 
 out, shutting the door after him. She listened again, with 
 senses preternaturally sharpened, and heard him say, 
 
 " Here are the names that I promised to give you." 
 
 Did that refer to the subject which had been talked over, 
 or was he only trying to turn the conversation into a less 
 dangerous channel ? 
 
 What she had heard already she understood only too 
 well. The instruments of the Prophet s vengeance were to 
 be "taken care of," partly to punish them for failing in 
 their mission, and partly to insure silence with regard to 
 the high-handed outrage which the Church had authorized. 
 
 Was Philip a murderer too ? No, she could not believe 
 ihztt. ; she would not wrong him by harboring the thought 
 for a moment. And yet, were they not all in some way 
 responsible for crimes which were the legitimate fruits of 
 the doctrines they professed to believe ? The fearful oaths 
 of the Endowment House yet rang in her ears oaths by 
 which she, with the others, was supposed to be bound. 
 
 * See Appendix, Note M, page 349.
 
 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE. 179 
 
 " And I am one of them one of this band of assassins," 
 she said to herself. " Oh, God, my father s God, if thou 
 yet livest, make some way of escape for me." 
 
 Was there any God ? Every crime committed here, 
 every deed of blood that tainted the air and stained the 
 earth was said to be divinely ordered, and the Bible that 
 she learned to read at her dead mother s knee was quoted 
 daily to justify treachery, rapine, and murder. She knew that 
 the assassins, who were even now sitting at her own table, 
 would kneel in prayer before going out to arrange the de 
 tails of the crime they were to commit. She knew that a 
 " prayer-circle" had preceded one wholesale slaughter of 
 men, women, and children, and that red-handed murderers 
 wiped their bloody knives, and said as they looked upon 
 their expiring victims, 
 
 " Oh, Lord, receive their spirits, for it is for thy sake we 
 do this."* 
 
 Strange indeed that such a faith should retain any hold 
 upon sane minds, and yet the Old Testament Scriptures, 
 often misquoted it is true, and always perverted, were 
 made the standard by which these acts were tried, and those 
 who sickened at the knowledge of the crimes committed in 
 the name of religion said, 
 
 " If we give up Mormonism we must also give up the 
 Bible." 
 
 Jessie knew that her husband shared this feeling, and 
 that he dared not appeal to his own conscience or to the 
 customs of the Christian world in deciding the question of 
 right or wrong. He had not yet begun to ask, 
 
 " Is there any God ?" and Jessie shuddered at her own 
 thoughts as she found them taking the form of this ques 
 tion. 
 
 * A fact established by the testimony of responsible witnesses in 
 open court.
 
 l8o THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " Yes," she said almost aloud, " there is a God, and he 
 does not justify murder. I know the Scriptures do not 
 mean what they would have us believe here. The Bible 
 never bore any such fruits elsewhere." 
 
 There was so much comfort in this thought that she de 
 termined to speak of it to her husband, carefully conceal 
 ing, however, her knowledge of the conversation at table. 
 
 In the course of an hour the unwelcome guests took 
 their departure, and Philip came in to see if she was 
 awake. 
 
 " Have you rested, love," he asked, in the tender tone he 
 always used toward her. 
 
 " Rested enough to feel a little better," she answered, 
 detecting his ill-concealed anxiety to know whether she had 
 really slept while his guests were in the house. 
 
 " I was afraid we might disturb you," he continued, 
 looking relieved, " and I am glad you are better, because I 
 must go away this afternoon, and I may not. be back for a 
 couple of days. 
 
 Her fears instantly put a construction upon this state 
 ment which almost broke down her self-control ; but calm 
 ing herself by a great effort she asked him where he was 
 going. 
 
 " Only to Ogden on a little business, "he answered ; but 
 though she had never doubted his word before, she did not 
 believe him now. 
 
 The wretches who had just left the house had brought 
 him some order which he dared not disobey she was sure 
 of that and he was going to execute it. And yet, even if 
 he was to be sent out to commit a crime like that named in 
 her hearing a little while ago, she must be silent. 
 
 Can happier women in Christian lands understand the 
 tortures which this wife endured while her husband was 
 absent on his unknown errand ? Can they conceive the
 
 PR A YER AND SACRIFICE, 181 
 
 feelings of other wives (and there are scores of such in 
 Utah) whose husbands were called from their beds at 
 midnight to aid in some deed of darkness, returning home 
 in time to change their blood-stained garments before the 
 day broke ?" 
 
 Many a woman is to-day dragging out the remnant of a 
 miserable life, carrying always the burden of a terrible 
 secret, the disclosure of which would cost the life of one 
 she loves. Many another woman has sunk into an untime 
 ly grave because not strong enough to bear the knowledge 
 of her husband s crimes. 
 
 And this is not all. The men who have imbrued their 
 hands in blood in obedience to counsel have found nothing 
 in their religion to quench the fires of remorse or banish 
 the torturing visions called up by memory ; and while some 
 
 have been driven to madness, others have ended their lives 
 
 
 
 by their own hands, and taken a fearful leap into the dark 
 in the vain hope of finding forgetfulness beyond death. 
 
 Philip La Tour, as we have said, was a man altogether 
 unlikely to be chosen by the Prophet as an executioner, and 
 he was not now ordered to undertake anything that in 
 volved bloodshed. Two men who had become dissatisfied 
 with Mormonism were preparing to leave the Territory 
 secretly with their families, and as they occupied farms at 
 some distance from the settlements, and upon the northern 
 route tc California, they thought they had a fair prospect 
 of succeeding where others had failed. 
 
 They could not sell their farms or take their stock or 
 household goods with them. All that they owned, with 
 the exception of a light load for each wagon, must be left 
 behind ; but this was a small price to pay for freedom. As 
 they had no near neighbors, they hoped to be able to 
 get two or three days start before their absence was dis 
 covered, and with good teams they could then distance
 
 1 82 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 their pursuers. It was a vain hope, as the sequel will 
 show. 
 
 Months before, some unguarded expressions had betrayed 
 the weakness of their faith in the Prophet, and from that 
 time they had been closely watched. Now the details of their 
 intended flight were almost as well known to the Danites as 
 to themselves, and the plan that was laid to intercept them 
 was one that did credit to the peculiar genius of the indi 
 vidual who had the matter in charge. 
 
 As soon as the exact time of their departure and their 
 intended route became known, it was arranged that a dozen 
 armed men should lie in wait for them about ten miles out. 
 
 The fugitives started soon after dark, intending to make 
 about twenty-five miles before daylight. It was now No 
 vember, and the length of the nights favored them. They 
 thought that the weather favored them also, for a storm 
 was raging which no one would be likely to brave except 
 on an errand as urgent as their own. They had bidden 
 good-by cheerfully to the homes they had reared, and 
 turned their faces westward with unabated courage, for 
 was not freedom just ahead ? Full of this thought, the 
 men urged their teams forward as rapidly as the darkness 
 would permit. They knew every foot of the way, and their 
 horses knew it also. 
 
 They were not in the least likely to meet other travelers ; 
 one of the drivers was just giving expression to this thought 
 when the sharp crack of a rifle was heard, and a bullet 
 whizzed past the horses heads, followed by the command 
 " Halt !" spoken in stentorian tones. 
 
 It was not an order to be disregarded when backed up 
 by a dozen guns, and the teams were stopped. 
 
 The only men in the wagons were the two who were 
 driving. The remainder of the party were women and 
 children. Their captors surrounded them and ordered
 
 PKAYER AND SACRIFICE. 183 
 
 
 
 them roughly to get down. The men obeyed in silence. 
 Then the women and children, who were sheltered by the 
 canvas covers of the wagons, were compelled to get out and 
 stand by the roadside in the storm. 
 
 " Very sorry to discommode you," said the Danite cap 
 tain, who was no other than the facetious member of the 
 Legislature who had dined the day before at La Tour s ; 
 " but we are obliged to borrow your teams ; hope it won t 
 fatigue you much to make the rest of the journey on foot. 
 Good night." And before the astounded fugitives could 
 comprehend the situation two of the horsemen who had 
 intercepted them jumped into the wagons and drove off at 
 a rapid rate in the direction in which they had come, fol 
 lowed by the others. The little party, left standing in a 
 pelting storm in the middle of a dark November night, had 
 no alternative but to retrace their steps. The children 
 were small each of the women had a babe only a few 
 months old--and they would perish before many hours un 
 less they could reach shelter. 
 
 There was no house nearer than their own, and had 
 there been, no door would open to apostates ; so with 
 heavy hearts they turned their faces homeward, and a little 
 after daylight reached the place they had left with such 
 different feelings the evening before. 
 
 They found no traces of their teams or wagons. These 
 were the legitimate prey of their captors, some of whom 
 found much amusement afterward in calling upon their vic 
 tims, clad in the coats which formed part of the spoils taken 
 with the wagons. 
 
 Was Philip La Tour a willing participator in this out 
 
 rage ? 
 
 This question might be answered in two ways. When 
 he was told that his help was required to keep a couple of 
 men, who had grown weak in the faith, from leaving the
 
 I4 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 
 
 Territory, he consented readily, for he was still fanatical 
 enough to believe that there was no salvation for one who 
 apostatized and forsook Zion. 
 
 At starting he knew nothing of the plans of the captain, 
 and when he found that the women and children were to 
 be left on the road, exposed to the storm, he remonstrated 
 earnestly, but with no effect except to call cut a sharp re 
 proof for daring to oppose a measure that had been " coun 
 seled." 
 
 He made still stronger opposition to the robbery that 
 was included in their arrangements, but was told that after 
 approving the undertaking as a whole it did not become 
 him to object to details. 
 
 When he reached home he found his wife ill from 
 anxiety. She had never had any concealments from him 
 before, and the effort she made to hide her suspicions and 
 her fears was too much for her strength. It was useless, 
 also ; for in spite of herself she betrayed so much of what 
 she felt that her husband easily guessed the whole, and 
 finding that her fears pictured something much darker than 
 the affair in which he had been engaged, bethought it best 
 
 to tell her the truth. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Mormonism blights and poisons whatever it touches, and 
 no one who receives it in its entirety can retain either 
 purity or integrity. 
 
 Philip La Tour had theoretically accepted Mormonism 
 as a whole, but practically he still rejected its leading 
 tenets. Polygamy, robbery, and murder were crimes so 
 foreign to his nature that not even the blindness of fanati 
 cism could hide their repellant features. It is true that he 
 listened without comment while the leaders of the people 
 explained that polygamy was God s plan for peopling the 
 earth with a race uncontaminated bv the vices of the Gen-
 
 PRAYER AND SACRIFICE. 185 
 
 tiles. He was also silent when, by way of justifying their 
 own deeds of violence, they quoted Old Testament exam 
 ples of the slaughter of the wicked by the armies of the 
 Lord, and the spoiling of the Gentiles by his chosen peo 
 ple ; but in his heart he was deeply thankful that he was 
 not called to engage in such a work, and he never visited 
 a polygamous family without contrasting the discord and 
 misery he witnessed with the happiness that he found in 
 his own home. 
 
 As for Jessie, the little faith she had in Mormonism re 
 ceived its death-blow on the day she went through 
 the Endowment House, but for her husband s sake 
 more than for her own she kept silent. As long as 
 her home was not invaded by polygamy, and her hus 
 band s hands were unstained by blood, she would endure 
 all things, and some day it might be his eyes would 
 be opened too. If she had been older and wiser she 
 might have looked forward less hopefully to the future ; but 
 she had been married when little more than a child to the 
 man whose image filled her girlish heart, and she was still 
 so young, so blindly devoted to -him, and so sure of his 
 love and loyalty, that the possibility of his becoming in all 
 things like those around him never occurred to her.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 
 
 THE winter of 62- 63 was by no means a quiet one in 
 the Mormon capital. The United States military post es 
 tablished the previous autumn on the heights above the city 
 was regarded as a standing menace from a hated foreign 
 power. The new Governor sent in the place of the one 
 driven out of the Territory was a man not to be trifled 
 with, and the Federal judges appointed at the same time 
 actually had the temerity to talk of enforcing the laws of 
 the United States in the dominions of the Prophet. It 
 seemed that the open war between the Saints and the Gov 
 ernment which had been inaugurated east of the Missis 
 sippi was about to be renewed, but now as in the past 
 Brigham Young proved himself more than a match for his 
 adversaries, and by a judicious combination of force and 
 cunning made himself master of the situation. Still, it 
 cannot be denied that the troops stationed in the Territory, 
 and the expressed intention of the Government to hold the 
 Saints amenable to the civil law, gave him much uneasi 
 ness and convinced him of the necessity of strengthening 
 his position by every means in his power. 
 
 There was also another source of trouble that promised 
 to increase year by year. The presence of the troops gave 
 the disaffected courage ; and as seceders from the Church 
 whose lives were manifestly in danger were allowed to take 
 refuge at Camp Douglas, the number of apostates multi 
 plied without any corresponding increase in the instances 
 of blood atonement.
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 187 
 
 It had always been the Prophet s policy to outlaw his fol 
 lowers, and thus prevent the possibility of their return to 
 civilized society. This policy he now pursued with more 
 intentness than ever before, and those who were unfitted 
 by nature for deeds of violence were compelled to take 
 plural wives, in the face of a recent act of Congress which 
 was designed especially to reach and punish, such offenses 
 in Utah. 
 
 Philip La Tour was among the number of those who fell 
 under the Prophet s displeasure on account of his refusal 
 to comply with what the Mormon leaders designated as 
 " the higher law." 
 
 He had no leanings toward polygamy. He loved his 
 wife devotedly, and his home was the dearest spot on earth 
 to him dearer now than ever ; for with the earliest flowers 
 of spring a tiny guest had come under their roof a dark- 
 eyed baby-boy, so like the lost first-born that it seemed 
 almost as though he had returned to them. 
 
 For months the Prophet counseled Philip, sometimes 
 affectionately, sometimes sternly, to take another wife, but 
 in vain. At last when, as he said himself, the utmost limit 
 of forbearance had been reached, he summoned his diso 
 bedient follower to a private conference. 
 
 It was evident to Philip as soon as he faced the leader of 
 the people that the Prophet was very angry too angry in 
 deed to waste any words and in the most concise terms 
 possible he was informed that he would be allowed just 
 one week to choose whether he would take another wife or 
 be cut off from the Church and delivered over to the buffet- 
 ings of Satan. 
 
 Philip sat as if stunned. To be cut off from the Church ! 
 For him who had never known any other faith, this was 
 equivalent to a sentence of eternal death. And then he 
 was to be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan. He
 
 1 88 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 
 
 knew very well what that means. His property and his 
 life would thenceforth be at the mercy of the Danites and 
 their tender mercies were very cruel. 
 
 He was incapable of uttering a single word in reply to 
 the question thrust upon him, and the Prophet continued : 
 
 " I know what is keeping you back. It is the fear of 
 what your wife will say or do ; and I want you to tell her 
 from me, that the judgments of God have rested on her 
 these many years because of her rebellion against his will. 
 Every child that has been given her has been taken away 
 again, because she would not hearken to counsel ; and 
 mark my words" here the Prophet s face grew terrible 
 " the child that she holds in her arms to-day will lie in the 
 grave a month hence if she does not submit to the law that 
 has been given to this people." 
 
 " You will give me a week to decide ?" 
 
 Philip hardly knew his own voice as he pronounced the 
 words. 
 
 " Yes, just one week, and not a day over. You may go 
 now ; I have said all that I had to say," and with a look on 
 his face as hard and cruel as when, fifteen years before, he 
 gave Madame La Tour the choice of alternatives which 
 brought her to the valley, the Prophet pointed to the door. 
 
 Philip groped his way out blindly. The sun was shin 
 ing, but he saw nothing. When he reached the street he 
 stopped and tried to think. He could not go home could 
 not face Jessie, who sat even now with her baby in her 
 arms, singing a soft lullaby, while the blue-veined lids 
 drooped over the bright eyes. 
 
 The baby ! What a *stab went through his heart as he 
 recalled the Prophet s words. 
 
 Do you, whose lot has been cast elsewhere, scoff at him 
 because he believed what had been said to him ? Remem 
 ber that since his childhood he had heard nothing except
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 189 
 
 Mormonism that all his life, almost, the word of the 
 Prophet had been, to him and all around him, the voice of 
 the Almighty. Remember also how in every age creeds 
 which have been handed down from father to son have 
 dominated the intellect and the will, no matter how false 
 and monstrous they may have been in themselves. 
 
 Philip La Tour, in accepting the dictum of the Mormon 
 Prophet as absolute truth, did only what you and I have 
 done in receiving without question the beliefs which our 
 parents bequeathed us. He did not use his reason in the 
 matter, simply because he regarded everything connected 
 with religion as above the domain of reason. 
 
 He was called now to pass through an experience more 
 bitter than death ; but if the call was indeed from above he 
 might not disregard it. 
 
 Was it true that the judgments of God had rested upon 
 him and his wife because of their disobedience ? Over and 
 over he asked himself this question during the wretched 
 day that followed his interview with the Prophet. 
 
 Hour after hour passed. It was almost night, and Jessie 
 would be anxious and disturbed if he stayed away longer, so 
 at last with the courage of desperation he turned his face 
 homeward, resolved to speak out at once and come to a 
 decision before another sun rose. 
 
 " Poor Jessie ! Was it for this I won your heart ?" he 
 said to himself as he came in sight of his own house. 
 
 His wife was at the door, holding up the baby to wel 
 come him. Both faces were bright with smiles, and one 
 was as unconscious as the other of coming evil. 
 
 " How can I ever tell her?" he thought, and for a mo 
 ment a wild wish to seize wife and child and fly far from 
 the cruel fate that threatened them all possessed him, but 
 only for a moment. 
 
 " I cannot fly from God."
 
 19 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 This was his next thought, and the Deity of the Mormon 
 faith remorseless, cruel, unrelenting seemed to his ex 
 cited imagination to stand in the way with a drawn sword, 
 barring all escape and driving him forward to the destiny 
 he dreaded. 
 
 " Philip, what is the matter ? You are surely ill." 
 
 It was the sweet voice of his wife that fell on his ear, but 
 the words smote him like a blow. How could he bear her 
 tenderness, her wifely solicitude, when he was about to 
 strike her to the heart ? 
 
 With a mighty effort he controlled face and voice, and 
 answered her calmly. She must not suspect anything yet. 
 Let her have another happy hour the last she would ever 
 know on earth. 
 
 The minutes of reprieve which the wretched man had 
 allowed himself flew rapidly. Supper was placed on the 
 table, and he went through the form of eating and drinking. 
 Then baby was rocked to sleep and tucked in his downy 
 nest for the night. 
 
 His wife came and seated herself on his knee, asking 
 again if he was ill. For a minute he strained her to his 
 heart, covering her face with passionate kisses ; then put 
 ting her away from him and pointing to a chair, he said, in 
 a strange, hoarse voice, 
 
 " Sit down, Jessie. I have something to tell you." 
 
 She obeyed, with an amazed look on her sweet face, and 
 yet as plainly unconscious of the blow that awaited her as 
 a lamb of the uplifted knife. 
 
 Twice her husband essayed to speak, but his voice 
 failed him. At last, summoning all his strength, he be 
 gan : 
 
 " Jessie, President Young sent for me to-day to tell me 
 that he had already borne too long with my disobedience 
 to counsel, and that I must now take another wife or be
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 191 
 
 cut off from the Church, and he has given me one week 
 in which to decide." 
 
 Jessie s cheek blanched, and for a moment she could not 
 reply ; but composing herself directly she spoke bravely, 
 
 " If we are cut off from the Church they cannot harm 
 us. We can go to Camp Douglas, as others have done, 
 and we will be safe there ; though, of course," glancing 
 around the pleasant room, " we shall lose the house, and I 
 suppose the store too, but we shall befrte, and we shall 
 have each other* and our child." 
 
 As she finished speaking her eyes kindled, and the color 
 came back to her face. How sweet liberty would be after 
 all these years of bondage ! 
 
 Her husband perceived her thought. He saw, too, that 
 she had not even glanced at the alternative. How should 
 he go on ? What could he say to make her share his own 
 dread of bringing down the vengeance of Heaven upon 
 them all by continued disobedience to a divine law ? 
 
 " Jessie, you do not understand me," he said desperate 
 ly. "I am not afraid of them that can only kill the body, 
 but I fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body 
 in hell." 
 
 " Philip, you do not mean you cannot mean that 
 Speech failed, and the unhappy wife, upon whom a possi 
 bility which she had never before contemplated dawned at 
 last, could only clasp her hands in mute appeal. 
 
 "I mean that I fear we may be fighting against God. 
 President Young says our children have been taken be 
 cause we have been disobedient, and if we continue to re 
 bel our baby will be laid beside the others before another 
 month." 
 
 " And you believe that ?" 
 
 " God speaks to us by the voice of his Prophet. I must 
 believe. If I doubt one word I must give up all."
 
 192 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " Give up all then. Oh, Philip, this religion is false 
 as false as it is cruel. It yields nothing but discord, and 
 misery, and wickedness. Look at the families where they 
 say they have obeyed the law of God ! The wife, if she is 
 not changed into a fury, is dying of a broken heart ; the 
 other women pass their lives in the midst of strife and 
 jealousy that kills all the good in them. And then the 
 children ! I had far rather bury my baby to-morrow than 
 have him grow up like them." 
 
 " Jessie, wife, hear me. If God commands a thing, we 
 must not question his wisdom. We must look beyond the 
 present for results. He knows that it will cost me more 
 than life to obey him in this thing, and he would not re 
 quire such a sacrifice of me if no good could come of it." 
 
 " Philip !" She rose to her feet and stood before him. 
 " Answer me plainly, and at once. Do you believe that 
 God requires you to take another wife ?" 
 
 " Jessie, have a little pity on me. That is the question I 
 am trying to decide. I have been trying all day. I dared 
 not come home. I could not face you ; and I feel now as 
 though I were going mad." 
 
 The stern look faded from her face, and the fire in her 
 eyes softened. She was again the tender, loyal wife. 
 
 " Forgive me, love," she said, laying her hand on his 
 bowed head. " I did not mean to make the trial harder 
 for you." 
 
 It is needless to dwell upon the struggle, which did not 
 end with the night, but lasted throughout the week. The 
 result was what might have been foreseen. Fanaticism 
 triumphed over nature, reason, love over everything that 
 had hitherto saved their home from profanation, and when 
 the time arrived for making his decision known to the 
 Prophet, Philip said, 
 
 " I will obey."
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 193 
 
 Jessie did what hundreds of wives in Utah have done 
 submitted to the inevitable and after the first day said 
 nothing to influence her husband s decision. She had lived 
 too long in the midst of such scenes not to know what the 
 end would be, and she read her death-warrant in Philip s 
 face before a single word was spoken to reveal the choice 
 he had made. 
 
 And now comes the strangest phase of those tragedies 
 which have been enacted year after year, ever since Mor- 
 monism raised its unclean altars in Utah. 
 
 Jessie La Tour did not believe in the divinity of the sys 
 tem which called for the cruel sacrifice she was about to 
 make ; she felt as she had said, that Mormonism was false 
 to the core a foul superstructure of tyranny and crime, 
 resting upon a foundation of lust and blood ; and yd, for 
 her husband s sake, for the sake of the man she had wor 
 shiped with a blind devotion since the day he first won 
 her girlish heart, she consented to the last, the most bar 
 barous rite enjoined by his religion (not hers), and went 
 with him to the Endowment House to place in his hand the 
 hand of the bride chosen for him by the Prophet. 
 
 Through the days of martyrdom which she endured be 
 fore the fatal time arrived, she shed no tear, made no 
 moan. 
 
 Only her white face showed what she suffered, even when 
 the new bride s relatives came to the house to talk the mat 
 ter over with her husband, and the Prophet visited them 
 to give the counsel he thought they needed. 
 
 The same power of endurance which had kept her alive 
 during that fearful winter march, while strong men 
 dropped dead beside her, enabled her to bury her anguish 
 out of sight and sit calmly beside the grave of her dead 
 hopes. 
 
 But when the day of sacrifice came, and she walked be-
 
 194 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 side her husband to the Endowment House, she felt that 
 she must speak once, or die, and turning her pallid face 
 toward him, her wild eyes glowing like coals of fire, she 
 said, 
 
 " Philip, I am going to lie to you and lie to God : I am 
 going to perjure myself before Heaven ; for I must say that 
 I consent to this marriage, when I had rather die a thou 
 sand deaths than have it take place." 
 
 " Jessie, God knows I would lay down my life to spare 
 you this," was the only reply the wretched husband could 
 make, and pity for him kept her silent. 
 
 She knew something of the terrible battle which he had 
 fought out alone. She saw its marks in his face, which 
 had grown old and haggard ; in the silver threads which 
 had begun to mingle with his dark locks. 
 
 The bitterness which filled her soul was not against him, 
 but against the man who had commanded this sacrifice, 
 against the religion which had compelled it. 
 
 She had never crossed the threshold of the Endowment 
 House since the day when her own marriage took place ; 
 but when they entered the sealing-room, all that she wit 
 nessed there seven years before came back, fresh as the 
 events of yesterday. She saw again the wife with the 
 corpse-like face kneeling beside her husband, saw her 
 place the young bride s hand in his ; and her senses reeled 
 as the bride of to-day, a slender, dark-eyed girl of sixteen, 
 took her place at the same altar. 
 
 It was surely a hideous dream, from which she would 
 awake by and by. 
 
 Nothing was real, not even the face and voice of the ty 
 rant who had brought this curse upon them, and who now 
 stood before her asking, 
 
 " Are you willing to give this woman to your husband ?" 
 
 No sound came from her white lips in reply. She did
 
 THE TEST OF LOYALTY. 195 
 
 not even incline her head ; and when" the command was 
 given to place the bride s hand in that of her husband, she 
 made no sign that she heard it. There was a moment s 
 pause, and then the Prophet himself joined the hands of the 
 pair before him, frowning darkly as he did so, and the cer 
 emony proceeded. 
 
 There were a few witnesses present, and among them 
 Philip s sister Blanche. When the party left the En 
 dowment House Philip accompanied the bride to her 
 father s house. 
 
 Jessie turned from the door alone. She was conscious 
 of nothing but a dumb longing to fly to some covert where 
 she might hide her misery forever from mortal eyes. 
 
 The unnatural strength which had sustained her through 
 the day was fast failing, and be.fore she had gone a dozen 
 steps she staggered, and would have fallen but for Blanche, 
 who put a supporting arm around her, and pressed her 
 hand tenderly, in token of the pity that she dared not ex 
 press in words. 
 
 The fate which was her sister s to-day might overtake her 
 to-morrow. Blanche believed Mormonism to be true, be 
 cause she had never heard of any other religion, but her 
 woman s nature rebelled against polygamy, and her tender 
 heart bled for Jessie, whose silent anguish was more terri 
 ble to witness than the most violent demonstrations of suf 
 fering. She longed to say something to comfort her, and 
 yet she felt instinctively that for sorrow such- as hers there 
 was no balm and no healing. 
 
 When they reached the door of the house that now, alas ! 
 was no longer home, Jessie seemed to wake slowly as from 
 a nightmare. 
 
 " You are very good," she said, speaking for the first 
 time ; " but now I want to be alone." 
 
 " I know it," and the sympathizing eyes filled with tears ;
 
 ip 6 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " but I may come "to-morrow, may I not ? and to-night 
 to-night I will pray for you." 
 
 " Don t pray to the God they worship there," and Jessie 
 pointed with a trembling hand toward the building they 
 had left. 
 
 Blanche could not reply. She could only kiss the white 
 face, while her own cheeks were wet with tears, and turn 
 away. 
 
 Jessie, left alone, stood for a moment irresolute and be 
 wildered. Why had she come here ? This was Philip s 
 house, and Philip was the husband of that dark-eyed girl. 
 Would he bring his bride here to-morrow ? And if he did, 
 where should she go ? She looked away toward the dis 
 tant mountains. 
 
 " Oh that I had wings like a dove ! Then would I fly 
 away and be at rest." 
 
 Where had she heard such words ? She put her hand 
 to her forehead and tried to think. It was in her home, 
 the dear old English home, whose vine-covered porch she 
 could see even now. Her father used to read those words. 
 Did he know now how his child longed to fly far, far away 
 from this valley of death ? 
 
 A sound broke her trance. It was her child s cry, and 
 maternal love, stronger than death, drew her toward the 
 cradle in which she had left her sleeping baby. He was 
 awake now, and reaching out his tiny hands for her. She 
 lifted him in her arms, and pressed his little head against 
 her bosom. She had something left yet to live for, and 
 somewhere in the world there might be a place of refuge 
 for her and her baby ; or if not in the world, then out of it. 
 Maybe God the God her mother used to pray to would 
 pity them and take them both to himself.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 
 
 " BEFORE the glass, as usual. I do believe, Ruth, that 
 you are vainer than ever." 
 
 The person addressed pirouetted across the room, shook 
 her ringlets, smoothed out "her draperies, and settled her 
 self gracefully in a chair before replying. 
 
 " Don t be cross, Myra, there s a dear. I have to take 
 a little pains with my looks when people are dropping in 
 almost every hour in the day to see the bride. 
 
 " The bride ! Oh, yes ! I beg your pardon ; I had almost 
 forgotten that your honeymoon is not over. And now, see 
 ing that we are alone, tell me : is it a honeymoon alto 
 gether ?" 
 
 " It would be, only for one thing. Philip is just as sweet 
 as he can be, but then he is so awfully religious. You 
 know they pretend that it is a man s religious duty to treat 
 all his wives just alike, and Philip actually believes that ! 
 The first week after we were married he stayed here, of 
 course ; but the second week he told me it was his duty to 
 go home just think of it home and every blessed day of 
 that week he stayed with his first wife. Last week he 
 was here again, and now he is away. That s something 
 that I didn t bargain for, and I don t mean to stand it." 
 
 " I confess I don t quite see how you are going to help 
 yourself." 
 
 " Just wait a little, and you will see. How is it in other 
 families ? Don t the last wife get all the petting and all 
 the attention ? How is it in President Young s family ?
 
 198 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 When Emmeline was the favorite, you know he stayed with 
 her right along ; and now since he has taken Amelia, how 
 many times do suppose he has spoken to any of his other 
 wives ?" 
 
 " Not very often, perhaps ; but with you the question is, 
 not what other men do, but what course your own hus 
 band is going to take." 
 
 " Oh, I ll manage him, never you fear. By the way, 
 how ugly his first wife is growing. She has changed so 
 within a month that I declare when I met her on the street 
 yesterday I hardly knew her ; and I suppose now she will 
 go and tell Philip that I wouldn t speak to her the spite 
 ful thing !" 
 
 " You ought not to talk in that way, Ruth. The poor 
 woman sees trouble enough, I have no doubt." 
 
 "Well, I can t help it, and I m sure it isn t my fault. 
 If she didn t want Philip to marry me, why did she give 
 her consent ? People ought to know their own minds, and 
 not agree to a thing one day and make a fuss about it the 
 next. And if she is growing old and ugly, I am not to 
 blame for that, and Philip is not to blame either for want 
 ing a wife that doesn t look like a grandmother." 
 
 " Ruth, how old are you ?" 
 
 " I shall be sixteen next birthday." 
 
 " My poor child ! I pity you." 
 
 " Now, Myra, that is just like you always trying to 
 spoil my good times. I don t know, I m sure, why I 
 should be pitied, unless it is because Philip insists on tak 
 ing rooms right here at father s, instead of giving rne a 
 house of my own ; but I ll have different arrangements in 
 six months, as you ll see. If I don t manage to be the mis 
 tress of his new house by that time, my name is not Ruth." 
 
 " Indeed ! And what will you do with Jessie ?" 
 
 " Oh, she can have the old house. It s comfortable
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 199 
 
 enough, and she don t care anything about style. She 
 looks like a dowdy lately. Why, the dress she had on yes 
 terday was a perfect fright." 
 
 " Perhaps she has too much on her mind just now to 
 care about dress." 
 
 " If she joiows anything at all, she ought to know that 
 dress goes a great ways when you want to please a man. 
 Last week when Philip came over here, he looked as if 
 he d just been to a funeral I dare say Jessie had been 
 giving him some awful lectures but I had studied what 
 to do, and I was ready to meet him. I had the new silk 
 he gave me made up lovely, and I wore tea-rose ribbons 
 just my color, everybody says and Jane Taylor came 
 over and dressed my hair. She said I looked like a picture, 
 and I believe Philip thought so too, for he brightened up 
 wonderfully after I came down stairs." 
 
 " Well, Ruth, I am sure I want you to take all the comfort 
 you can ; though, if I were you, I am afraid I should look 
 forward sometimes to the day when I would be obliged to 
 step aside and give place to some one else ; and you know 
 you have just said it is the last wife who gets all the atten 
 tion." 
 
 " Now, Myra, you are really too bad. I don t think 
 there is another person in the world who would say such 
 things to me and in my honeymoon, too." 
 
 Here an embroidered handkerchief was produced, and 
 the bride buried her pretty face in its folds. 
 
 "Don t cry, Ruth. I did not mean to make you feel 
 bad." 
 
 The face came up again from its hiding-place. 
 
 " I won t cry and spoil my eyes, for I am goingf down 
 to the store, and I want Philip to think I look lovely. I 
 know he ll think it, though he won t say it the provok 
 ing man. How is my dress ? And do you suppose my
 
 200 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 hair would look better if I should loop these curls back 
 so ? Did you ever hear of Philip s oldest sister ? They 
 say she was so lovely that she couldn t walk the street 
 without people stopping to look at her. Well, Aunt Mar 
 garet, who used to know her, says I have her style of 
 beauty, and she says, too, it s my own faul^ if I don t 
 make Philip worship me. She says he s worth a great 
 deal of money now, and making more every year, and if I 
 manage right I can have such a house and furniture and 
 such dresses as I ve never dreamed of." 
 
 " If those things will make you happy, I hope you may 
 get them. For my part, if I ever marry, I want a hus 
 band who will not belong to any one but me, and then I 
 think I could be contented with a crust of bread." 
 
 " It s no wonder, Myra, that you are an old maid, with 
 such notions. How are you going to get a husband who 
 will not belong to any one else ? If you are the first wife, 
 you will never know what day your husband will bring 
 home a second. Aunt Margaret said to me, 
 
 " Whatever you do, don t think of being any man s first 
 wife, for you will live a life of dread before he takes his 
 second, and a life of misery afterward. Aunt Margaret 
 has got sense. She s a fourth wife. She is petted, and 
 has her own way in everything, and she knows her hus 
 band won t take another ; but her sister, who is a first 
 wife, is put off on a sage-brush ranch, and don t see her 
 husband once a year." 
 
 Do any of our readers object to the foregoing style of con 
 versation ? If so, we beg leave to remind them that it only 
 exhibits the practical, every-day application of a religious 
 principle which our Government has regarded as so sa 
 cred that for many years it has been an effectual shield 
 from the penalties of a law which is openly and persist 
 ently violated by a whole people.
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 2OI 
 
 Ruth, Philip La Tour s new bride, was a fair specimen 
 of the girls brought up in Utah no better and no worse 
 than the majority of those around her. She believed po 
 lygamy to be right because she had been so taught from 
 her cradle, and she regarded her own marriage as legal 
 and binding because no opinion to the contrary had ever 
 been uttered in her hearing. If any one had intimated 
 that she had wronged and outraged Philip s wife by as 
 suming the relation to him which she now held, she would 
 have lifted up her pretty hands in horror, and resented the 
 imputation with hot words and angry tears. 
 
 It is true that she was shallow, vain, and selfish ; but 
 then girls of that description may be found outside of 
 Utah, and Mormonism cannot be justly charged with de 
 veloping traits that are quite as common among the ad 
 herents of other systems. 
 
 She really thought it too bad that she, who was so much 
 younger than Jessie, and in her own estimation very 
 much prettier also, should have no more of her husband s 
 society than the first wife ; and it was an unheard-of thing 
 that a bride with so many attractions should live in a 
 couple of plainly furnished rooms, while the woman whom 
 she regarded only in the light of an obstacle to her com 
 plete triumph had a handsome house all to herself. 
 
 She was fully resolved not to submit to such an arrange 
 ment, and in the end she had her way, for though she did 
 not succeed in turning Jessie out of doors, she tormented 
 Philip until, glad to purchase peace at any price, he 
 bought a pretty cottage for her, and fitted it up with the 
 best that money could buy. 
 
 In other things, however, she found that her influence 
 over the man she called husband was very slight. He 
 still continued to spend every alternate week with his first 
 wife, and when Ruth ventured to speak disrespectfully of
 
 202 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 her he reproved her so sharply that even she was con 
 vinced it would not be safe to repeat the experiment. 
 
 After six months of married life, the opinions so confi 
 dently expressed in her honeymoon were greatly modified. 
 
 " Philip cares no more for me than he would for a kit 
 ten," she declared petulantly. "If I talk to him half an 
 hour without stopping to take breath, he never hears one 
 word. Sometimes he doesn t answer me at all, and some 
 times he asks, What did you say ? in a way that would 
 provoke an angel. I ve half a mind to ask President 
 Young for a divorce." 
 
 " Why don t you ?" inquired her friend Myra, to whom 
 these complaints were addressed. 
 
 " Well, you see, with all his faults, Philip isn t a bit 
 mean about money. I don t know any other man who 
 would be likely to buy me such a house as this ; and as for 
 dresses, you know yourself that half the girls in the city 
 are ready to die with envy when they see mine. Then be 
 sides but I forgot : I haven t showed you his last present." 
 
 Ruth tripped into the next room, and came out with an 
 inlaid box in her hands. 
 
 " He gave me this on my birthday," she said, opening 
 it and displaying a gold watch and chain and a pair of 
 bracelets of elegant workmanship. 
 
 " Did you ever see anything so perfectly lovely in your 
 life ? I showed them to Milly Allen yesterday, and she 
 looked ready to cry. She was married the same week I 
 was, and she is wearing her old things yet, and has to live 
 in the house with two of the other wives, and they order 
 her around as if she was a little girl ; but then, Milly 
 never did have any spirit. She couldn t speak for herself, 
 no matter how she was treated." 
 
 " Brother Allen treats her well enough .himself, does he 
 not ?"
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 203 
 
 " That depends on what you call good treatment. He 
 isn t cross to her, but he tells her he can t afford another 
 house, and it s no use talking about it. You see, the 
 trouble is, he was sealed to Milly and Sarah Spencer on 
 the same day, and Sarah happens to be the favorite. She s 
 got a place of her own, and new things, and he spends 
 half his time with her, which is about all that could be ex 
 pected of a man with six wives." 
 
 " I am sorry for Milly," Myra said. " She used to be a 
 good girl when I knew her, and she deserves a good hus 
 band." 
 
 " Well, I m sorry for her too, of course ; but she ought 
 to have had more sense. When a man marries two girls 
 on the same day, one of them is going to be neglected 
 anybody knows that. I told Milly how it would be, but 
 she didn t believe me." 
 
 " After all, Ruth, I think you ought to be pretty well 
 satisfied. You have a fine house, fine furniture, and fine 
 clothes things you have always wanted and your hus 
 band spends half his time with you. What more can you 
 ask?" 
 
 " I want him to spend more than half his time with me, 
 and to act as if he cared forme ;" and then, to her friend s 
 surprise, Ruth buried her face in her hands and began to 
 sob not angrily, but in a wretched, heart-broken way, 
 that brought Myra to her side at once, and caused her to 
 put her arms around her and ask tenderly, 
 
 " What is it, dear ?" 
 
 Ruth lifted her head and dashed away her tears. 
 
 " I m a fool, I know, to feel so, but I can t help it," she 
 said. 
 
 " Come into my bedroom, Myra. I haven t told a 
 single soul not even mother but I ll tell you." 
 
 Myra followed her wonderingly into the next room, and
 
 204 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Ruth closed the door and locked it. Then opening a 
 drawer she took out a pile of tiny garments and spread 
 them on the bed. 
 
 " Look there !" she said. " You know what that 
 means. I am only sixteen sixteen last week and I shall 
 be a mother in three months. Philip don t care for me, 
 and he won t care either for the poor little baby, that isn t 
 to blame for anything, if I am," and again Ruth sobbed 
 bitterly. 
 
 Myra tried to comfort her, but she had seen too much of 
 polygamy in her own father s house, where four wives 
 claimed a love that could only be given to one, to be able 
 to console her with the hope that she might yet win her 
 husband s heart. 
 
 " He loves that baby at home Jessie s baby," Ruth 
 said, as she dried her tears. " He had it down to the 
 store the other day, and he looked as if he worshiped it. I 
 heard him say, too, Papa s only comfort. Just think of 
 that ! I tell you, it is all Jessie s fault. If she was out of 
 the way I believe I could make him care for me, but as 
 long as she lives he will love her best ; and I hate her I 
 hate her." 
 
 " Hush, Ruth ! You frighten me. It is wicked to feel so." 
 
 " I don t care if it is. I think it is a shame for a man to 
 take a girl as young as I was and make her his wife, when 
 he knows she will be miserable. What did he marry me 
 for if he didn t care for me ?" 
 
 " I suppose he thought, as they all say they think, that 
 it was a religious duty to take another wife." 
 
 " Bah ! I know better. I ve seen too much at home to 
 believe that, and I never cared anything about religion. I 
 just wanted to have nice things and enjoy myself, and I ve 
 never hurt anybody, and never done anything to deserve 
 such trouble as I have now."
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 205 
 
 It was vain to attempt to convince Ruth that she was 
 not the most ill-used of wives. 
 
 A spoiled child, petted and indulged from infancy by a 
 mother who had been forced to surrender her husband to 
 others, and who had nothing left to live for except this 
 one daughter, she had grown up with the idea that her in 
 terests, her comfort, and her happiness should be consid 
 ered first, last, in the midst, and always. 
 
 To say that she loved Philip would be overstating the 
 fact ; but she liked him, wanted him to admire her and pet 
 her, wanted to be first in his regards ; and now, when filled 
 with a vague dread of the trial that she must pass through, 
 really longed for some token of sympathy and tenderness. 
 
 Philip, on his part, regarded her as a pretty, teasing 
 child, and as the passmg months made him better ac 
 quainted with her faults, he found the weeks that he was 
 forced to spend in her society more and more irksome. It 
 is due to him to say, however, that he did his best to con 
 ceal this feeling. He was always patient and gentle with 
 her, gratified her whims, bought everything for her that 
 her fancy coveted, and was considered by all her friends a 
 model husband. 
 
 Yet to Ruth, who in spite of her shallow nature had a 
 woman s insight, all this outward kindness was a very 
 thin mask, which failed to hide his real feelings. She 
 knew that he loved Jessie, and would never love her. 
 
 Jessie would always be first, and Jessie s child would be 
 dear to the father, who would look upon her child with as 
 little tenderness as he felt for the mother. 
 
 When these unwelcome truths were forced upon her, 
 she suffered as much as she was capable of suffering not 
 enough, however, to altogether destroy her pleasure in the 
 new dresses and trinkets with which Philip sought to buy 
 immunity from the hard task of simulating love. . . .
 
 206 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the home that only a few months ago was 
 so peaceful and happy, an evil spirit sat enthroned. The 
 wife, after a season of apathetic despair, woke to a full 
 sense not only of her misery, but of her wrongs ; and bitter 
 jealousy for the girl who stood between her and her hus 
 band, and hatred of the tyrant who had placed her there, 
 seemed to change her whole nature. 
 
 She would not feel so she might get over it all in time, 
 and bury the memory of the happy past so she told her 
 self if every alternate week did not bring Philip back to 
 the house ; if she did not see his face and hear his voice 
 day after day, knowing all the time that the tenderness 
 which he tried to show toward her would be lavished on 
 another woman next week ; that the kisses which her out 
 raged love refused would be give n to that dark-eyed girl, 
 whom she hated with a vindictiveness that frightened her 
 when she stopped to reason about her feelings. 
 
 " I don t wonder they say that a wife who rebels against 
 polygamy is possessed by devils. I feel as though I had a 
 legion of them in my heart." 
 
 This was Jessie s confession to Helen Woodford, who 
 was her friend as she had been the friend of Philip s mother 
 years ago. 
 
 Mrs. Woodford was now fifty, but a stranger would 
 have thought her much older. Her once queenly form 
 was bent and wasted, her face deeply graven with lines 
 of suffering, and her hair white as snow. 
 
 In reply to Jessie she said, with a strange far-away look 
 in her eyes, 
 
 " I felt just as you do once, long ago it seems ages 
 now but I got over it." 
 
 " And how ?" 
 
 " By outliving my love for my husband. As long as I 
 loved him I suffered suffered the torments of hell. You
 
 PLURAL BLESSEDNESS. 207 
 
 know the house in which he used to keep two of his women 
 I cannot so far forget what is due to myself as to call 
 them wives. At night, when he was staying there, I used 
 to walk the floor of the room until it seemed that I must 
 go mad unless I could escape from the place^-from every 
 thing. Then I would rush out into the street and go to 
 that house. I would walk round and round it, feeling as 
 though I could tear the walls down with my bare hands, 
 growing every minute more like one possessed with devils, 
 until my boy, missing me, would come in search of me 
 and lead me home."* 
 
 " I know how you felt." Jessie s eyes gleamed, and she 
 set her teeth, and breathed hard. " I am glad Philip did 
 not bring that girl into my house, because because I 
 should have killed her." 
 
 " Ten years from now you will look back and wonder 
 that you ever could have suffered as you do to-day from 
 such a cause. I wonder at myself wonder that I should 
 have prized as I did the love that was not strong enough 
 to shield me from wrong and outrage the love that with 
 ered in a moment before the word of the man they call the 
 Prophet of the Lord. 
 
 "To-day my husband is nothing to me. He comes 
 home sometimes I believe I have seen him twice during 
 the past year but his coming or going affects me no more 
 than it does the walls of the house." 
 
 " / shall never feel so never. I love Philip ; I shall 
 love him till I die. I can t help it ; I try to shun him I do 
 speak harshly to him and turn away from him and all the 
 while I am longing to throw myself into his arms and sob 
 out my anguish upon his breast, as I used to do in every 
 other trouble." 
 
 * See Appendix, Note N, page 350.
 
 208 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " Poor child." The older woman laid her hand tender 
 ly on the bowed head. "Is it so bad as that ? I loved 
 my husband too, for years after he inflicted an irreparable 
 wrong upon me, but from the hour that I discovered the 
 truth I was no longer his wife. I would not. permit so 
 much as the clasp of his hand the hand he had given to 
 others. But in one sense your wrongs were less than 
 mine. Your husband did not add deceit to his broken 
 marriage vows, while mine lied to me year after year 
 lived in adultery with the women his Prophet had given to 
 him, while I believed myself a loved and honored wife. I 
 could forgive anything sooner than that." 
 
 " I cannot blame Philip, even when I try to, for I know 
 how he suffered. I know what agony he endured before 
 his decision was made, and now I know that he is un 
 speakably wretched. That girl" Jessie s face darkened 
 as she pronounced the words "torments and humiliates 
 him with her silliness, her petty tyrannies, and her odious 
 temper, until he would be glad to fly anywhere to escape 
 from his life with her ; and yet, according to his ideas, 
 she is a wife, and he is bound to treat her as as he used 
 to treat me. Then when his week with her is ended he 
 comes home and finds me cold, or sullen, or furious, just 
 as the evil spirit within me moves me to be. If my father 
 could come back from the dead he would not know his 
 child. I do not know myself."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES. 
 
 WITH the fall emigration of 1863 one of Jessie La Tour s 
 old schoolmates came to the valley with her husband, from 
 England. 
 
 She was a fragile-looking woman, often ill, and always 
 homesick for her own country and the friends she had left. 
 Like many others, she was sadly disappointed when she 
 reached the " Zion" whose glories had been so eloquently 
 portrayed by the missionary who induced her and her hus 
 band to emigrate. The existence of polygamy in the valley 
 was also a source of constant terror to her, and she impor 
 tuned her husband to seek protection from the troops and 
 leave the Territory ; but he had expended most of the money 
 they brought with them in the purchase of a house and lot, 
 and he was not willing to sacrifice his property for the sake 
 of getting away. 
 
 Jessie went often to see this old friend, Mrs. Stanwix, and 
 did her best to put aside her own troubles for the time and 
 devote herself to the task of cheering and encouraging her. 
 
 In the spring her own affairs kept her at home more, and 
 she had not seen her friend for several weeks when a mes 
 sage came one evening to say that Mrs. Stanwix was very 
 ill and wished her to stay with her during the night. 
 
 She went at once, and on reaching the room in which 
 the invalid lay, she could not repress an exclamation of 
 astonishment and distress. The woman looked like one on 
 the brink of death. Her face, always pale, was ghastly,
 
 210 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 her eyes were deeply sunken, and her thin hands were cold 
 and clammy. 
 
 "Why did you not send for me before?" Jessie said. 
 " If I had known how ill you were, I would have come any 
 day or hour." 
 
 " My husband has been with me," was the answer, 
 " but to-night he was obliged to go away." 
 
 Then raising her voice with difficulty, she said to the boy 
 who had brought the message, 
 
 " You can go home now, Edward. This lady will stay 
 with me until morning." 
 
 The boy availed himself of the permission at once, and as 
 soon as the sound of his retreating footsteps died away, 
 Mrs. Stanwix said, in a hurried whisper, 
 
 "Go down stairs, lock the outside doors, fasten all the 
 windows, and don t leave a light anywhere." 
 
 Jessie obeyed, with a little doubt of her friend s sanity, 
 and returned to the room as quickly as possible. 
 
 " Take that chair," the sick woman said, pointing to the 
 one beside her pillow. 
 
 When her request was complied with, she clasped her 
 friend s hand in both her own. 
 
 " Thank God that I see you once more and alone. I 
 thought that was never to be," she said. 
 
 " I would have come at any time," Jessie replied, as 
 before. 
 
 " You do not understand me," she said. " They were 
 afraid to have me talk with anybody. My husband has 
 stayed with me night and day since I have been sick, and 
 this morning, when he had to go away, he left me in 
 Katrina s care. She hardly understands a dozen English 
 words, he knew I could not talk to her ; but to-night she 
 was taken sick herself, so I sent the boy after you, and told 
 her she might go home."
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES. 2 I I 
 
 " I must not let you talk too much either," Jessie said. 
 " You are excited now. You will make yourself worse." 
 
 " No, it relieves me to speak. Wait till you know what 
 has brought me down to this bed, and you will not wonder 
 that silence is killing me. Give me a .little of that cordial 
 yonder, and let me rest a few minutes. Then I will tell 
 you." 
 
 She drank the cordial and lay back among her pillows, 
 silent and exhausted. Jessie hoped she might sleep, but her 
 large dark eyes remained wide open, and with the same 
 wistful, terrified expression in them that at first made her 
 friend fear her reason was going. 
 
 After half an hour s silence she turned her face toward 
 Jessie and asked suddenly, 
 
 " Do you know that this place they call Zion is a den of 
 murderers ? 
 
 The question was so unexpected and startling that for a 
 moment she was unable to speak. She might have an 
 swered truthfully in the affirmative, but not wishing to do 
 so, she only said, 
 
 " What makes you think that ?" 
 
 " I don t think it," was the reply ; " I know it, and this 
 very house has been the scene of a crime so dreadful that 
 I cannot put what I have learned of it into words." 
 
 She stopped again, panting and breathless, but recover 
 ing herself after a few minutes she went on : 
 
 " You know it was late in the fall when we bought this 
 place. It was sold to us by the bishop of the ward, who 
 held the property, but the house had been empty a good 
 while, and everything in-doors and out was going to decay. 
 
 " We put off making repairs until spring. Then with the 
 first fine weather we set about painting the house and put 
 ting the grounds in order. In one of the rooms down-stairs 
 there were dark stains on the floor. I could not wash them
 
 212 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 out, so I had them painted over, little thinking what they 
 were. 
 
 " The next week my husband went to work in the orchard. 
 Two rows of trees down the middle were dead or dying, 
 and he said he woukl take them all out and plant others. 
 
 " I liked to be out in the orchard with him while he 
 worked. One day I stood beside him, and I cannot tell it, 
 and yet I must he was digging a deep pit for a large tree 
 he meant to set out, when his spade struck some loose 
 rocks. He rolled them away, and oh, the horror of the 
 sight ! It will haunt me till I die. There were the re 
 mains of seven dead bodies which had been thrown in 
 together, dressed in the clothes they wore in life : so we 
 judged from the shreds that still clung to them. They 
 seemed to have been those of a man, a woman, and some 
 children. 
 
 " I did not stop to see more, but fled to the house. My 
 husband followed me in a few minutes. He said he did 
 not try to examine the bodies they were in such a state he 
 could not but they were lying on their faces, and he could 
 see that even the little children had their hands tied behind 
 them ; and of the children there were five. 
 
 " I must lose no time, he added. This must be re 
 ported at police headquarters before night. I shall fill up 
 the pit as well as I can and go at once. 
 
 " I begged him not to leave me, but he said it would not 
 do to wait. Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he 
 told me to go to bed and stay there. 
 
 " It may not be wise to let any one know that you were 
 with me, he said. I will report that you are sick and 
 unable to leave your room. 
 
 " I did as he bade me, and in truth I was sick : hardly- 
 able to stand. 
 
 " He did not come in again before going down town ;
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES. 213 
 
 but when he got back from the City Hall he was as white 
 as a sheet. 
 
 " I made my report, he said, and what do you think 
 the answer was ? Why, just this : " Never speak of what 
 you have seen, if you value your own life ; and whatever 
 you may hear about your premises to-night, do not look 
 out: and ask no questions." I tell you, Mary, he con 
 tinued, this accursed discovery will end in your murder 
 and mine unless we are dumb as death itself, and I warn 
 you never to speak of it even to me. From this hour we 
 will bury all memory of it. 
 
 " It was easy to say that, but impossible to do it, as he 
 knew well enough. That night, when I heard sounds in 
 the orchard, I crept from the bed and looked out of the 
 window. 
 
 " A wagon stood close beside that pit, and half a dozen 
 men were putting something into a box that stood on the 
 ground. In a few minutes my husband woke and called 
 me in a terrified whisper. I went back to bed, and he 
 said, 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, Mary, what makes you do so ? 
 You are risking both our lives. I tell you we shall be mur 
 dered if the first breath of suspicion gets abroad. 
 
 " I said nothing ; indeed in a few minutes I was incapa 
 ble of saying anything, for the excitement and terror 
 brought on one of those attacks of hemorrhage which I had 
 in the fall. I have not left my bed since, and he has 
 watched me night and day, as I told you, in mortal fear that 
 I will reveal something, while I have lain here feeling as 
 though I had abetted that horrible murder by helping to 
 cover it up." * 
 
 Jessie was silent. What could she say ? It would not 
 
 * See Appendix, Note O, page 350.
 
 214 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 lessen the horror of the deed, whose shadow seemed to fill 
 the house where they were, to say that it was done by 
 authority that it was only an example of the swift and sure 
 punishment which was visited upon covenant-breakers 
 for with no further knowledge of the facts than she could 
 glean from the recital to which she had listened, she was 
 certain that the victims of the tragedy enacted under this 
 root had fallen under the curse invoked in the Endowment 
 House upon those who fail to keep their oaths. 
 
 The father and mother had revealed the iniquitous 
 mysteries which they had sworn to keep secret, and their 
 children had perished with them, because the bloody code of 
 Mormon vengeance declares that the sin of the parents 
 shall be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth 
 generation. Or perhaps the children had been killed, like 
 those at Mountain Meadows, lest they should some day 
 bear testimony against the murderers of their parents. 
 
 " Why do you not speak ?" Mrs. Stanwix said at length. 
 " Do you too think that I should keep silent ?" 
 
 " It was right to speak to me," was the reply, " if you 
 felt that it would relieve you to do so ; but do not breathe a 
 word to any one else. Your husband spoke truly when he 
 said there was no safety except in silence, and to reveal 
 what you know could be of no possible benefit. Crimes 
 committed in obedience to counsel are never inquired 
 into and never punished." 
 
 " I am glad that it is possible to die glad that my own 
 death is so near. This valley, that I foolishly believed was 
 like heaven, would be hell instead if there were no way 
 out, and I see none except through the grave." 
 
 " You speak truly," Jessie was about to exclaim, but she 
 checked herself. 
 
 " For many years there was no other way out," she said 
 after a little silence, " but now it is sometimes possible to
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES. 215 
 
 escape with one s life. Why do you not go to the fort and 
 claim protection ?" 
 
 " For two reasons. All we have, almost, is in this place, 
 which we dared not make any attempt to sell ; and now it 
 would cost me my life to be moved. Not that I am trou 
 bled about that myself ; I have only a few weeks to live at 
 the longest : but my husband believes I will recover, and he 
 is trying his best, poor fellow, to save me." 
 
 " I am not taking the good care of you that he has a right 
 to expect," her friend said ; " and for the remainder of the 
 night I am your nurse only, and you must not talk to me." 
 
 The sick woman acquiesced in this arrangement ; indeed 
 she was now too much exhausted to speak, and after 
 another hour Jessie had the satisfaction of seeing her sink 
 into a quiet slumber. 
 
 Morning brought the husband, who looked anxious and 
 disturbed when he found his wife in other hands than those 
 of the servant with whom he had left her ; but the explana 
 tion Jessie gave, together with her quiet manner, and the 
 assurance that his wife had slept well during the night, 
 appeared to disarm his suspicions. When she took her 
 leave, she expressed her willingness to come again at any 
 time and Mr. Stanwix answered that he would send for 
 her should there be a change for the worse. 
 
 " I hope he is satisfied that I have heard nothing," she 
 said to herself as she walked away. 
 
 Two days later she was again summoned in haste to her 
 friend s bedside, but when she arrived life had fled. 
 Another attack of hemorrhage had silenced the only wit 
 ness who would have had the courage to reveal the crimes 
 committed under that roof. 
 
 " She has made good her escape," was Jessie s first 
 thought as she looked at the now peaceful face. " Is there 
 no way open for me ?"
 
 216 THE FAl^E OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Truly life had become a heavy burden to her heavier 
 now than ever ; for Ruth lay on her sick-bed, with a tiny, 
 wailing babe beside her, and Philip, from a sense of duty 
 which his wife in her jealous misery mistook for love trans 
 ferred from her to her rival, spent all his time with her. 
 
 It was now more than a month since he had been home, 
 except for an hour on Sunday. At first Jessie tried bravely 
 to school herself into a willingness to have him stay with 
 Ruth until her health was restored ; but as the weeks 
 passed and his whole interest seemed to center in her sick 
 room, to the neglect of his home, of her, and of the bonny 
 boy who could say " Papa" so sweetly, when, alas ! there 
 was no father there to listen to his call, a flood of bitter 
 feeling swept away her resolves. 
 
 " You have no father," she would say to the wondering 
 child, as he climbed into her lap and tried to wipe away 
 her tears. " We have lost him you and I." 
 
 Then the little fellow, understanding only the one word 
 " father, " would prattle over again the name he was so 
 proud of being able to speak, sure in his baby heart that 
 he was comforting mamma. 
 
 It was hard, very hard, to be thus neglected by the hus 
 band who had shared her every thought for so many 
 years ; hard that this girl should win from her the love 
 which was hers by right, if the unreserved surrender of 
 her own heart, if wifely loyalty and devotion and the self- 
 abnegation which had not refused even the last and most 
 cruel sacrifice which could be demanded of a woman, gave 
 her any rights. 
 
 Surely her husband must have transferred his love to 
 Ruth, when he could not tear himself from her side for a 
 single day ; and then the jealous pain at her heart grew so 
 strong that she did not wonder at Helen Woodford, 
 " walking round and round the house where her husband
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES,. 217 
 
 stayed, feeling as though she could tear the walls down 
 with her bare hands." 
 
 She did not know all that Philip could have told her of 
 Ruth s exacting nature, or of the tears and hysterics called 
 forth by the slightest intimation of a wish to go home for a 
 day and this too at a time when doctors and nurses as 
 sured him that the least agitation might cost her her life. 
 
 Jessie had done at first all that she considered her hus 
 band had any right to ask and more. She had gone to 
 see Ruth, had taken the tiny baby in her arms Philip s 
 child, but uot hers and had forced herself to speak 
 kindly to the pale young mother. In this she had taxed 
 her powers of endurance to the utmost, and when, on the 
 following Sunday, Philip said to her, 
 
 " If you and Ruth could be reconciled to each other, our 
 family might yet be a happy one," the restraint she had 
 put upon herself gave way wholly, and she answered him 
 with words more bitter than she had ever spoken to him : 
 
 " Reconciled to the woman with whom you are living 
 in adultery never !" 
 
 Her face was white as death when she spoke, and her 
 eyes flashed dangerous lightnings. She was in a mood in 
 which her husband had never yet seen her, and in spite of 
 himself he quailed before her look. 
 
 Living in adultery ! Never until now had Jessie put her 
 thoughts of him into plain words ; and notwithstanding the 
 sincerity of his belief in the system that enjoined polygamy, 
 a feeling of guilt oppressed him. 
 
 , Besides, though he would not acknowledge the fact even 
 to himself, an actual experience of the effects of plural 
 marriage had brought up the question, 
 
 " How can anything which God ordains bear such evil 
 fruit ?" 
 
 This question he tried to put aside as a temptation of
 
 218 THE FATE OF ATA DAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Satan ; but it recurred again and again with every instance 
 of domestic discord, every exhibition of jealousy and heart 
 burning which he was forced to witness. 
 
 Jessie was wrought up now to a pitch of excitement that 
 defied control, and the feelings which, for his sake, she 
 had so long repressed, found utterance in words that 
 burned themselves into his brain. 
 
 " Look at our home," she cried ; " the home that was 
 heaven once, and tell me what it is now. It is hell, and 
 you know it ; and day after day, while you are spending 
 your smiles and your substance on your mistress, I sit here 
 alone enduring torments worse than those of a lost soul ; 
 and this is what your religion has brought me to your 
 religion, but not, mine. I thank God that I can remember 
 a religion which made a man faithful to his marriage vows, 
 which did not set up adultery and murder as sacred duties. 
 It is this memory, and only this, which has kept me from 
 taking my baby in my arms and finding rest at the bottom 
 of the river." 
 
 "Jessie! Jessie!" Philip exclaimed, as soon as he could 
 stem the torrent of her indignant words, " if you felt in 
 this way, why did you not say so at the first ?" 
 
 " Why ? Because your mind was made up, and nothing 
 would turn you from your purpose. Did I not humble 
 myself to plead with you I will not say as I would have 
 pleaded for life, because it would have been easy to give 
 up my life if you had asked it ; but as a woman pleads for 
 the last, the most precious thing left her in earth or 
 heaven and what then ? Why, you put my prayers aside, 
 you trampled on my heart, and all because your Prophet 
 bade you do so. If I had thrown myself into the river 
 your wedding would have gone on all the same, for that 
 would have been what your religion enjoins. Only yester 
 day this woman right at our door, who has been driven
 
 THE DEAD TELL TALES. 2(9 
 
 nearly mad by the religion that has made her husband 
 bring a girl right in before her face to share his bed and 
 claim his love, went to Eliza Snow for counsel, and what 
 did she get ? Why this : 
 
 " Pray for resignation. 
 
 " I do pray, said the poor creature, but I cannot be 
 resigned ; and if that girl stays in the house I shall die. 
 
 Die then," was the answer. There are hundreds of 
 women up in the burying-ground who have gone there be 
 cause they could not be resigned to the order of God. 
 
 " And that is the kind of God you believe in, you, who 
 used to tell me you would shield me from suffering with 
 your own life ! 
 
 "Spare me, Jessie," he said appealingly, "for I too 
 have suffered. How much do you suppose my life is worth 
 to me the life I am living now ? And yet, neither life 
 nor that which is dearer than life may be withheld when 
 God calls for the sacrifice." 
 
 But even while he spoke, the question that he had striven 
 for months to silence the doubt whether the command 
 which he had obeyed at so great a cost was indeed divine 
 haunted him and checked his utterance. 
 
 What if, after all, this religion in which he believed 
 should prove to be false ! What if he had sacrificed home, 
 love, wife, all that a man holds dear, for naught ! 
 
 The conflict between reason and superstition the con 
 flict waged in all ages and under so many forms of belief 
 had begun. How would it end ?
 
 -* CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 
 
 THE LION AND THE FOX. 
 
 THE inevitable changes which time brings are not con- 
 lined to any particular locality or people, and as the rapid 
 increase ot population in the United States augmented the 
 tide of emigration to the yet unsettled portions of its terri 
 tory, the Great Basin shared in the influx of colonists who 
 were attracted by reports of the agricultural and mineral 
 wealth of the country beyond the Missouri. 
 
 Within the boundaries of the " Free and Independent 
 State of Deseret," as organized by Brigham Young and his 
 coadjutors in 1849, ^ e Gentiles, who were to have no part 
 nor lot in this inheritance of the Saints, had already settled 
 to the number of hundreds of thousands. 
 
 Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and California all 
 of them within the limits of the territory claimed by the 
 Prophet " in the name of the Lord" were occupied in spite 
 of his dominions, and the country was rapidly tilling up with 
 a population inimical to him and to the system he repre 
 sented. 
 
 These unwelcome intruders already hemmed Utah in on 
 every side, and the day seemed not far distant when they 
 would lay claim to the sacred soil of Zion itself ; but as yet 
 the Prophet held his own, and not only ruled his subjects 
 with a rod ot iron as heretofore, but kept out the Gentile, 
 who was not to have so much as a place to set his foot 
 within the borders of Zion. It is true, it sometimes hap 
 pened that an outsider was found foolhardy enough to 
 undertake to pre-empt land beyond the boundaries which he
 
 THE LION AND THE FOX. 22 1 
 
 was forbidden to cross, but in such cases the rash invader 
 was baptized in Jordan and left there ; and his land fell to 
 heirs not named in his will. 
 
 The only representatives of the world they hated, who 
 could not readily be driven from their midst, were the 
 troops at Camp Douglas. General Connor, notwithstand 
 ing many intimations that the Territory would be made too 
 hot for him, still professed himself satisfied with the cli 
 mate, and his batteries continued to frown upon the city, 
 the Tabernacle, and even the sacred inclosure within 
 which the Prophet held his court. 
 
 But this was not all. The chaplain at the post, Rev. 
 Norman McLeod, a man of dauntless courage, as the 
 sequel will show, actually procured and opened a place for 
 Christian worship within half a dozen blocks of the Taber 
 nacle. At first his congregation was drawn chiefly from 
 the garrison and the families who had taken refuge at the 
 tort, but gradually many who in their hearts had renounced 
 Mormonism began to find their way to the building that, 
 with a just conception of one of the first needs of a people 
 so long enslaved, was named Independence Hall.* As 
 might be supposed, many of those who went secretly to 
 this place of Christian worship were women, whose bruised 
 hearts longed for some message of hope and consolation : 
 something which would remind them that the God of whom 
 they had heard in their childhood a God of infinite ten 
 derness and compassion still lived. 
 
 Who shall blame them if, borne down by the miseries 
 of their daily life, and cut off from hope, they had felt as 
 though he was not had said, in the bitterness of their 
 souls, 
 
 " We sit unowned upon our burial sod, 
 And know not whence we come, nor whose we be." 
 
 *See Appendix, Note P, page 351.
 
 222 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 Among the first to go openly to the hall was Jessie La 
 Tour. Others had gone veiled and disguised to the even 
 ing service. She went in broad day, and without making 
 the least attempt at concealment. The first time that she 
 defied the authority ot the Church in this way the boldness 
 of the act seemed to paralyze those whose duty it was to 
 watch her, and nothing was said or done by them ; but on 
 the second Sabbath a note was thrown into her open win 
 dow after her return. She unfolded it, and read as fol 
 lows : 
 
 " Remember your oath. Remember also what is the 
 penalty of disobedience. You have offended twice. The 
 third time, that which you imprecated upon yourself when 
 you took your vows will surely befall you. Be warned in 
 season." 
 
 Jessie s lip curled contemptuously as she read, and she 
 made a motion as though to tear the paper in two, but 
 checked herself and handed it to Philip, who happened to 
 be at home in the afternoon. He read it, and turned very 
 pale. 
 
 " Jessie ! what have you been doing ?" he said, with a 
 degree of agitation which showed plainly that the missive 
 meant something to him, at least. 
 
 "What have I been doing?" she answered. "Why, I 
 thought you and everybody knew. I went last Sunday to 
 Independence Hall to attend a Christian service. I have 
 been there again to-day, and I mean to go next Sunday." 
 
 " You must not go again. You are risking too much." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? Does this paper, which 
 I should have thrown into the fire without reading, frighten 
 you ? I hope not ; for just as surely as I am alive, and 
 well enough to walk there, I shall go to the hall next Sun 
 day, and every Sunday." 
 
 " Jessie, listen to me for our child s sake, if not lor my
 
 THE LION AND THE FOX. 223 
 
 sake or your own. I tell you, it will not he safe for you to 
 disregard the warning you have received." 
 
 " Why ? Do you think I should be dealt with as Mrs. 
 Jay and Mrs. Morse were ?" 
 
 He rose from his seat and put his hand on her shoulder. 
 
 " I love you," he said, in a voice scarcely audible, 
 " love you better than my life, though you do not believe 
 it ; but I could not save you by giving my life for yours if 
 you should do as you say you will." 
 
 " You want me, then, by submission, to strengthen the 
 hands of the man who has people killed for attending Chris 
 tian worship ? That is what makes him the tyrant he is. 
 If even a few of the people had courage enough to defy 
 him, his power would be broken ; but just as long as every 
 body fears him, persons who offend him will continue to 
 disappear, like those two women who have never been 
 seen since they passed through the Eagle Gate." 
 
 " I beg you, Jessie, not to speak of them again." 
 
 " Why not ? Do you know what became of them ?" 
 
 Jessie would have continued her questions, but there was 
 a look on her husband s face that checked her an expres 
 sion not only of agony, but of horror and dread. 
 
 " He docs know," was the thought thatforced itself upon 
 her, and then her own face grew white ; for whispers of a 
 deed so dreadful that none dared name it aloud had been 
 afloat for weeks past. 
 
 Two women had been accused of revealing the secret 
 rites of the Endowment House. They had been summoned 
 to trial, and since then had never been seen ; but the belief 
 prevailed that the penalties prescribed by the bloody code 
 against which they had transgressed had been inflicted on 
 them in full.* Death, in itself, was not considered a suffi- 
 
 *See Appendix, Note Q, page 352.
 
 224 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 cient punishment for exposing the secrets of the Endow 
 ment House. 
 
 To mete out the full measure of vengeance which the 
 culprit had called down upon himself, death must be pre 
 ceded by tortures from which the imagination recoils, and 
 which no pen could describe. 
 
 Philip La Tour now held an office which made it his duty 
 to be present when offenders were tried and sentenced. If 
 he had been present when these women were tried, he surely 
 knew enough to make him dread a like fate for his own wife. 
 
 In spite of her fearless nature, Jessie trembled and grew 
 faint as these thoughts passed through her mind. There 
 were no crimes of which these wretches were incapable. 
 She dared not even conjecture what would be the fate of 
 one who was in their hands wholly and without remedy. 
 
 " I will not fall into their hands," she said aloud, reply 
 ing to her own thoughts. " I will take my boy and go to 
 the fort to-day. The guard that accompanies the chaplain 
 is in town. I will ask protection. There are a lew men, 
 even here, who will protect a woman." 
 
 " Jessie !" and something in his voice compelled her at 
 tention. 
 
 " There is another way. Only be patient and wait a lit 
 tle while. There are changes coming of which you do not 
 dream. Grant what I ask. Stay away from these meet 
 ings for the present, and act as though you submitted to 
 the authority of the Church, and better clays will dawn for 
 both of us." 
 
 What did he mean ? Was it possible that his eyes were 
 being opened to see the iniquities of the system that he 
 had believed was divine ? Jessie s heart beat quickly at 
 the thought, which something in his face as well as in his 
 words seemed to confirm. If this were true, she would do 
 what he asked do anything for him.
 
 THE LION AND THE FOX. 225 
 
 " It shall be as you wish," she said at length, hardly 
 daring to trust her voice lest it should betray all the joy 
 she felt at the possibilities that opened up before her. 
 
 It was now two years since the day (never to be forgotten 
 by him) when the expression of a wish that she and Ruth 
 might be reconciled to each other had called forth the in 
 dignant words which stung into life a feeling of remorse, a 
 sense of guilt, which could not co-exist with a firm belief 
 in the divinity of the system which enjoined polygamy. 
 
 Nor was this all. During these two years many facts 
 had come to his knowledge which had greatly shaken his 
 faith in the Prophet. He was beginning to see what an 
 impartial observer might have seen from the first that 
 J3righam Young and his coadjutors were using all the 
 machinery of the Church for their own aggrandizement, 
 and that ihe poor were oppressed and the whole people 
 systematically robbed to fill the coffers of those men. 
 
 Only one thing more was needed to complete his disen- 
 thrallment, and that was to be brought face to face with the 
 shocking barbarities involved in the rite of blood-atone 
 ment. This final blow to his faith in Mormonism came at 
 the very time when a few Christians were making an effort 
 to publish the long-forgotten gospel of peace and good-will 
 among the subjects of the Prophet. It is true he was not 
 an actual witness of the sickening horrors of the Black 
 Vault, but he knew the victims who were taken there, and 
 knew the fate to w 7 hich they were doomed. 
 
 Yet while his whole nature recoiled from such scenes of 
 blood and cruelty, and the inevitable effect of his knowl 
 edge of them was to overthrow his faith in a religion whose 
 altars were red with human sacrifices, he had not attained 
 to the courage necessary to throw off the yoke of the 
 Prophet and take his place openly among those who were 
 known as apostates.
 
 226 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 That better days were coming he fully believed. From 
 present indications it seemed impossible that the Gentiles 
 could be kept out of the Territory for another decade. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Nevada and Colorado, which had 
 attracted so many immigrants, might one day find a rival 
 here. Already valuable deposits of lead and silver ores 
 had been discovered by parties attached to General Con 
 nor s command, and the report of these discoveries was 
 certain to bring miners from the neighboring Territories in 
 such numbers that they would be able to defy the Prophet. 
 
 In such an event, the disaffected element within the 
 Church would certainly join the foe from without in an at 
 tack upon the despotism which made life, liberty, and 
 property dependent upon the will of one man. 
 
 There were many besides Philip La Tour who waited for 
 the coming of such a day of deliverance as his hopes 
 shadowed forth many who had been as sincere as he in 
 their acceptance of Mormonism, and who had made even 
 greater sacrifices for the sake of their faith. 
 
 Ever since the bloody days of the " Reformation, "- when 
 an unsupported accusation was sufficient to doom a man 
 or woman to death, or a fate worse than death, without 
 even the form of a trial, the number of those who only 
 waited for an opportunity to throw off the Prophet s yoke 
 had been steadily increasing. 
 
 Husbands whose wives had " disappeared," wives whose 
 husbands had been called out of the house in the dead of 
 night to meet the knife and bullet of the Destroying Angels, 
 and parents whose sons had been given over to the tender 
 
 * A reign of terror inaugurated in 1857 by the preaching of such fan 
 atics as Grant, Brigham s Counselor. The Reformation was at full tide 
 when the Mountain Meadow massacre took place, and that most atro 
 cious butchery was in accordance with the doctrines taught by the 
 Mormon press and pulpit at the period named.
 
 THE LION AND THE FOX. 227 
 
 mercies of the Danites, could hardly he expected to remain 
 firm in their loyalty to the Church whose teachings sanc 
 tioned these atrocities. Yet so absolute was the despot 
 ism under which the people lived, and so great was the 
 terror inspired by the summary punishment visited on 
 those who were even suspected of apostasy, that but for 
 the presence of the troops no whisper of dissent would 
 have been heard among the masses. 
 
 Not even to his wife did Philip La Tour venture to con 
 fess all his distrust of the Prophet, and his horror of the 
 crimes perpetrated by his order ; and though by this time 
 he had little doubt that plural marriage was likewise a 
 crime against both human and divine law, he continued to 
 acknowledge Ruth as his wife, and to spend half his time 
 with her not because he cared for her, but because he 
 dared not renounce polygamy openly. 
 
 After the scene described in a former part of this chap 
 ter, Jessie found her life more tolerable ; for though Philip 
 still spent every alternate week at " the other house," she 
 could not help seeing that he went there reluctantly and 
 returned to her gladly ; and, strange as it may appear to 
 those who have seen nothing of the domestic life of the 
 Saints, she began to take unusual pains with her dress, her 
 table, and her household arrangements, and to make the 
 time which her husband spent with her wear a holiday 
 garb. 
 
 Do women who have never been within sight or hearing 
 of such lives as hers wonder that she could forgive the past, 
 and solace herself with the hope of a future in which her 
 husband should be all her own ? 
 
 There are scores of women in Utah to-day who have ex 
 tended such forgiveness to husbands who cast them aside 
 in obedience to the requirements of a false faith, and 
 whose late repentance has involved not only the breaking
 
 228 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 ot other ties, but the loss, of property, position, and 
 friends. 
 
 When Philip at length found courage to talk freely with 
 his wife, and explain his difficulties, he found her more 
 patient and considerate than he had dared to hope she 
 would be ; and when he begged her to bear with him until 
 the way opened for him to renounce polygamy and Mor- 
 monism together, she answered that she could bear all 
 things with the prospect before her of a day in which he 
 would be a free man. 
 
 In many respects he was better situated than others who 
 wished to sever their connection with Mormonism, for he 
 had but one plural wife, while some of his brethren had 
 half a dozen whom they must give up, together with their 
 children. According to the teachings of the Mormon pul 
 pit, when a man was cut off from the Church, all of his 
 wives and children^were to be taken from him and given to 
 others. Even the first wife, with her children, could be 
 disposed of in this manner. There are many instances on 
 record where a man suspected of apostasy and compelled 
 lo flee for his life has returned to the Territory in after 
 years only to find the wife of his youth in the harem of 
 some member of the priesthood, who claimed his children 
 also. 
 
 Philip knew that by the exercise of a little caution he 
 could provide for the safety of his wife and son, and he was 
 quite willing to give up Ruth, who had no children ; for 
 the frail baby, the innocent cause of so much bitter feeling, 
 lived only a couple of months. 
 
 Then, too, his hands were unstained by crime, while 
 others who longed for freedom were held back by their 
 enforced participation in some of the dark deeds " coun 
 seled" by the authorities of the Church. 
 
 When Jessie thought over the matter by herself, it
 
 THE LION AXD THE FOX. 229 
 
 seemed to her as if there was really no hindrance except 
 their property, which must be sacrificed if they left the Ter 
 ritory, and which, on her part, she was quite willing to 
 sacrifice ; but then, if Philip did not see his way clearly 
 yet, she would wait, and wait patiently. 
 * In the mean time, true to her promise, she kept away from 
 Independence Hall, and attended the services at the Taber 
 nacle instead in short, conducted herself as Philip had 
 advised, so as to give the impression that she was com 
 pletely subdued. 
 
 Some of her neighbors, however, continued to go regu 
 larly to the meetings in spite of threats, and the Sabbath- 
 school proved so great an attraction to the Mormon chil 
 dren that no degree of punishment availed to keep them 
 from it. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that such a state of things could 
 be suffered to continue. Mobs, armed and organized in 
 such a manner as to leave no doubt that they were acting 
 under instructions, surrounded and filled the hall at the 
 hour of service. The meetings were broken up, the life of 
 McLeod threatened, and finally Dr. Robinson, one of his 
 strongest supporters, was murdered in cold blood. 
 
 McLeod was not a man likely to succumb to threats or 
 violence, and he determined to assert his rights as an 
 American citizen and continue to hold religious services in 
 the building that he and his friends had paid for ; but official 
 changes soon after called him from the Territory, and the 
 movement he had inaugurated, deprived of his courageous 
 leadership, seemed for the time at an end. 
 
 Other influences, however, were at work to change the 
 condition of affairs. Rumors of the mineral wealth of Utah 
 reached the surrounding Territories, and hundreds of hardy 
 miners, most unpromising material for subjects of a despot 
 ism, began to crowd in.
 
 230 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 At first the authorities of the Church ordered the Danites 
 to drive all prospectors out of the canons with shot-guns ; 
 but in a very little while the Prophet discovered that the 
 game was one which two could play at, and this order, 
 though not rescinded, became practically inoperative. . 
 
 Then another foe, more dreaded even than the miners, 
 was reported on the way. The iron horse was speeding 
 across the plains over which Mormon pilgrims dragged 
 their ha^cl-carts only a few years since. In a little while 
 Deseret, the kingdom that was never to be moved, must be 
 brought face to face with the world from which its founders 
 had fled, and the old strife between civilization and barbar 
 ism would be renewed. 
 
 But the Prophet proved himself equal to the emergency. 
 The Lion of the Lord, as he was wont to style himself, be 
 came a very fox in cunning and duplicity ; and though he 
 did not succeed in keeping out the invader, he saved his 
 kingdom from overthrow, and made all who came from 
 without realize that they dwelt in Zion only by sufferance. 
 
 The only perceptible change consequent upon the new 
 order of things was that blood-atonement, instead of being 
 preached and practiced openly as heretofore, took the form 
 of midnight murders committed under secret instructions. 
 Gentiles and apostates were no longer shot down in broad 
 daylight ; but men who knew themselves to be obnoxious 
 to the priesthood kept in-doors after dark, or, if compelled to 
 go out, armed themselves doubly, and took the middle of 
 the street. 
 
 In other respects, however, the despotic rule of the Proph 
 et was in nowise affected by the presence of the Gentile 
 element in his dominions. If he chose to appropriate the 
 property of his subjects the courts afforded them no re 
 dress, and polygamy, instead of experiencing any check, 
 spread and increased.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A MYSTERY SOLVED. 
 
 THE southern portion of Utah has been the scene of 
 many a bloody tragedy besides that of Mountain Meadows, 
 but as yet there had been no attempt on the part of the 
 Government to seek out and punish the perpetrators of any 
 of the crimes committed there ; and if in Salt Lake and 
 under the guns of the fort some feeble effort was made by 
 the Federal authorities to investigate the murders com 
 mitted at their very doors, the accused had only to betake 
 themselves south to assure their perfect safety. 
 
 The idea of arresting a Mormon in one of the southern 
 settlements without the aid of an armed force was so pre 
 posterous that the most courageous ot the Federal judges 
 would not send a United States marshal on such an errand ; 
 and even if the officers of the law should be sent after 
 notorious offenders with troops at their back, it would be 
 quite useless. 
 
 Brigham assured his people that he had prepared a re 
 treat in the mountains of the south in which the whole peo 
 ple might hide a spot of which no white man knew any 
 thing except those in his confidence. 
 
 This assurance was an exaggeration, like most of his 
 public boasts ; but it is certain that in the heart of the 
 mountains he described there has always been a safe refuge 
 for those of his followers who, after years of delay on the 
 part of the Government, have at length been indicted for 
 some of their manv crimes.
 
 232 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 In 1867 and 68 many persons whose names were un 
 pleasantly associated with open outrages committed in Salt 
 Lake and vicinity found it convenient to move south, and 
 among these were two men who were heavily indebted to 
 Philip La Tour, and who had forgotten to settle their ac 
 counts before leaving. 
 
 Not wishing to lose so large a sum, he determined upon 
 going down to the settlement in which they had located, 
 hoping to make some arrangements by which a part at 
 least of the debt might be secured. 
 
 It was a long distance more than two hundred miles 
 and as railroads were yet unknown in Utah, and stage 
 lines few, the whole journey had to be made by private 
 conveyance. Such institutions as hotels were also yet in 
 the future ; but in most of the settlements there was some 
 house often that of the bishop at which the chance 
 traveler could obtain lodgings. 
 
 On his return trip, and when still more than a hundred 
 miles south of Salt Lake, La Tour stopped for the night at 
 a small town, the center of a farming community, estab 
 lished there in the early days of the Territory. Mother 
 Simons, his hostess, was a garrulous old lady, one of the 
 original Nauvoo Mormons, and also one of the earliest con 
 verts to the doctrine of polygamy. 
 
 She had come to Nauvoo a widow, and beatowed herself 
 and the property she brought with her upon an elder whose 
 wife, like many other women in Nauvoo at the time, was 
 kept in profound ignorance of the transaction until the 
 Saints emigrated to L?tah. 
 
 The first consequence of the avowal of these secret poly 
 gamous relations was generally a division of the domestic 
 establishment ; and Mother Simons, who, besides being 
 several years older than the lawful wife, was almost 
 pathetically ugly, was given a home in this southern settle-
 
 A MYSTERY SOLVED. 233 
 
 ment, while the other members of the family remained in 
 Salt Lake. 
 
 No sense of ill-usage or neglect, however, seemed to dis 
 turb the good woman s placid content, or affect in the least 
 her loyalty to her master or to the Church. She was the 
 most devout of Saints, paid her tithing with scrupulous 
 regularity, and every spring and fall made the long journey 
 of a hundred miles to Salt Lake, for the purpose of seeing 
 the face of her Prophet and hearing his voice at the confer 
 ence. 
 
 La Tour found tolerable accommodations at Mother 
 Simon s place ; but as a chilly autumn rain set in on the 
 evening of his arrival, he was glad to exchange the uncom 
 fortable temperature of his own room for the warmth of 
 the old lady s kitchen fire. 
 
 Mother Simons delighted greatly in new subjects, into 
 whose ears she might pour the flood of gossip which her 
 neighbors grew tired of listening to, and she made the 
 most of the present opportunity. After La Tour had sub 
 mitted good-naturedly to a long catechism with regard to 
 his own affairs and " the news in Salt Lake," she pro 
 ceeded to enlighten him upon the history of all the families 
 in the settlement. 
 
 It must be owned, however, that her tattle was in the 
 main good-natured, and she had no evil report to bring up 
 until she came to the neighbor whose orchard adjoined her 
 own. 
 
 " They re that set up," she remarked, " that folks as 
 works for a livin ain t good enough for em to speak to, 
 hardly. They ve got a two-story house the only one in 
 the settlement though what they want with such a place, 
 with nary chick nor child around, nobody kin tell. Sister 
 Mirandy won t have the second wife in the house neither, 
 and she and Brother Wells and their Danish mrl was
 
 234 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 reckoned for years and years to be the only souls on the 
 place ; but a spell ago tain t more n six months, I should 
 say it leaked out that they ve bin a-keepin a poor crazy 
 creetur for nobody knows how long, in one o the upper 
 rooms. Pears as it it s a relation of some kind ; and folks 
 that knows how graspin Brother Wells has always bin 
 says they ve got her property, and that s what s set em up 
 so, and give Sister Mirandy her nne shawls and things." 
 
 Here the good woman stopped a moment to take breath ; 
 but as her listener showed no disposition to interrupt her 
 by a question, she \vent on directly : 
 
 " Some of them that takes up for Sister Mirandy says the 
 woman ain t no kind of relation, but only a poor creetur 
 without friends, and that they re paid for her keepin out of 
 the tithin , but that ain t noways likely ; for," dropping her 
 voice a little, " things has come out lately that goes to 
 show that Brother Wells ain t much better than a postate, 
 and as for Sister Mirandy, she s always been set agin 
 plurality, and twouldn t surprise me the least mite to hear 
 her say she d never had no faith in the gospel ; for them 
 that sets up to pick and choose for themselves what part 
 they ll believe and what part they won t, generally ends 
 with believin nothin . 
 
 " I don t want to think no harm of my neighbors, and 
 there ain t nobody that kin say I go around talkin about 
 folks behind their backs ; but I can t . elp mistrustin 
 there s somethin wrong in that family. No soiri in the 
 settlement has ever seen that poor creetur up-stairs ; an 
 them that used to know Brother Wells kin tell you the 
 same as I, that he didn t have a dollar to his name when he 
 was in Nauvoo. Now, what I want to know is, where s 
 his money come from, and what made him keep that poor 
 creetur out of sight for years and years ?" 
 
 Again Mother Simons paused, as though expecting to
 
 A MYSTERY SOLVED. 235 
 
 elicit from some source the information she had asked for, 
 but as it was not forthcoming she continued : 
 
 " But I ain t told the hull. The way it happened to 
 come out that they was keepin this poor creetur up-stairs, 
 she was took sick, and it pears like all they could do for 
 her didn t help her a mite, so they sent to Nephi settlement 
 for Sister Perkins. 
 
 " Now Sister Perkins is a master hand at doctorin with 
 yerbs I shouldn t be above ground myself to-day if it 
 hadn t bin for her and besides she s one of the kindest- 
 hearted creeturs that ever breathed. She felt that bad 
 about Sister Mirandy s aunt (for that s what they give out 
 she was to em) that she couldn t keep still about her 
 noways. Sister Perkins thought, and we all thought, that 
 if the rights of the thing was told, Brother Wellses house, 
 and all their fixin s that they set such store by, come out of 
 the aunt s money ; and Sister Perkins said she didn t pear 
 to her that crazy that she needed to be shut up all the time. 
 Kinder strange like, she was, and wouldn t speak ; but 
 that was all. But there was more to come. Seems as if 
 the poor creetur kep growin weaker and weaker after 
 that sick spell, and yesterday she dropped off. The neigh 
 bors that went to lay her out asked for her Temple robes, 
 and Sister Mirandy up and says, as sharp as could be, 
 
 " She won t wear nothin of the kind, for she wasn t in 
 the Church ; and I won t put on her dead what she wouldn t 
 have if she was alive. 
 
 " That was a curus speech, and if it had a bin any one 
 else they d bin called to account for it ; but the bishop, 
 he s always bin easy with Brother Wellses folks, and he s 
 that easy now that he s goin to preach the funeral to-mor 
 row mornin", though Sister Mirandy says as plain as can 
 be her aunt never was in the Church." 
 
 Philip listened to his landlady s monologue at first with
 
 236 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 profound indifference, hut finally with a degree of interest 
 for which he could not account, and when she finished 
 asked the hour of the funeral. 
 
 " Ten o clock in the mornin ," was the answer. " Maybe 
 you d like to go. The neighbors is all a-goin to get a 
 sight of the poor creetur that nobody s bin let to see while 
 she was alive." 
 
 When morning came, the rain which had set in the 
 night before was still falling, and the prospect of riding 
 through such a storm was not a pleasant one ; but this 
 alone would not have been sufficient to cause Philip to de 
 fer starting until the next day. 
 
 A curiosity as unusual as it w.as unaccountable possessed 
 him to look on the face of the woman whose sad story had 
 ended in death. Who was she ? And why had her exist 
 ence been kept secret for so many years ? 
 
 When the hour appointed for the funeral arrived, Philip 
 took the way to the house alone. The place looked like 
 the home of a well-to-do farmer a New England farmer, 
 an observer from the States would have added for there 
 was an air of thrift and neatness about the grounds and 
 buildings which, as a rule, was conspicuously absent from 
 the homes of the Utah settlers at that day. 
 
 The appearance of the front room in which the funeral 
 services were held kept up the impression of a home trans 
 planted directly from the hills of New Hampshire or the 
 valleys of Connecticut to the Great Basin, and the man 
 who sat at the foot of the coffin, faciflg the curious crowd 
 with grave composure, was unmistakably a son of the Pil 
 grims. 
 
 How came he in such a place and among such a people ? 
 
 But if his looks and bearing compelled this question, that 
 of the woman beside him contrasted still more strongly 
 with the surroundings.
 
 A MYSTEKY SOL TED. 237 
 
 A noble, spiritual face ; a head to which the silver locks 
 were as a crown of glory, and a presence at once gentle 
 and commanding, increased every moment the wonder of 
 the beholder at finding her in such a company. 
 
 La Tour, seated near the door, could scarcely take his 
 eyes from that face, which recalled dimly a life that now 
 was little more than a dream to him a life untainted by 
 the deadly poison of the upas-tree that had taken fast root 
 in these valleys. 
 
 Like a man but half awake he listened to the rambling 
 discourse of the bishop, which included a reminder that it 
 was the duty of the nearest of kin to be baptized for the 
 dead, who had left the world without receiving the gospel ; 
 listened to the doleful funeral hymn, and rose to his feet as 
 the whole company, marshaled by the bishop, filed past 
 the coffin. 
 
 He was the last in the line, and a feeling of reluctance 
 that amounted to dread held him back, until he was left 
 standing alone. Then the_ bishop, recognizing him as the 
 stranger who had stopped in the settlement over night, 
 beckoned him forward, and he moved slowly toward the 
 spot where the dead lay at rest. 
 
 The body was robed in a plain shroud, the thin hands 
 were folded on the breast, and on one of them was a ring 
 a ring he had seen before and almost in the same in 
 stant that it met his eyes they rested likewise on the dead 
 face. 
 
 Great Heaven ! 
 
 His heart gave one suffocating throb, and then stood 
 still. 
 
 It was the face of his mother ! No chance likeness, no 
 resemblance that might cheat the eye for a moment, but in 
 very deed the face that had bent over him in infancy, that 
 had made the sunlight of his boyhood.
 
 2jjS THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 For death had brought hack all the early loveliness of 
 Marguerite La Tour, and but for the snow-white hair she 
 looked as she might have looked if this dreamless sleep 
 had overtaken her upon her bridal day. 
 
 While he stood as if transfixed, incapable of speech or 
 motion, officious hands closed the coffin-lid, and before he 
 could rouse himself from his trance they had carried it from 
 the room. The assembled company followed, and he was 
 left alone. The strong man felt as helpless as a little 
 child. Stunned, blinded by the shock of that awful dis 
 covery, he groped his way to the door. The wind that 
 blew in sharp gusts, driving the rain into his face, roused 
 his benumbed faculties and partly restored him to him 
 self. 
 
 Mechanically he followed the path taken by those who 
 carried the dead ; but he was a long way behind, and when 
 he reached the place of burial the first shovelful of earth 
 had been thrown upon the coffin. As his fascinated eyes 
 watched the rapid filling up of the grave, all the terror and 
 anguish of that long night-watch twenty years ago came 
 back to him, and with it came also the memory of every 
 word spoken by the man who had made him as well as his 
 mother the victim of his unrelenting hate. 
 
 He saw it all now saw the deliberately-planned scheme 
 of vengeance which had cost him and his sisters a mother. 
 How much it had cost that mother herself he dared not 
 think. 
 
 The burial was over. The people whom curiosity had 
 drawn together separated, and hurried homeward through 
 the rain, which was still falling. No one remained beside 
 the grave except the man and woman from whose house 
 the dead had been carried out. Philip stood opposite 
 them. They too were about turning away, when he stopped 
 them.
 
 A MYSTERY SOLVED. 239 
 
 " Aly name is La Tour," he said, speaking across the 
 grave. " I saw and recognized the face of her whom you 
 have buried here." 
 
 " Husband," said the woman, clasping her companion s 
 arm, " have I not told you again and again that this hid 
 den wrong would surely be brought out into the light of 
 day ?" The man turned toward Philip, " My friend," he 
 said, " come with us to our home. What you-should hear 
 can be best spoken there." 
 
 Without another word he led the way down the path, 
 and Philip followed silently. When they reached the house 
 they entered, not by the way the dead had been carried 
 out, but by a side" door, which opened into a room that was 
 warm and cheerful in spite of the storm. 
 
 " Take off your wet wrappings," said the host, " and sit 
 down beside the fire, for the story we have to tell is a long 
 one." 
 
 Philip made a negative gesture. 
 
 " Do not refuse to sit down in our house." It was the 
 woman who spoke this time, and her face and her voice 
 were full of pathetic entreaty. " We are not your ene 
 mies. We were not her enemies. Only hear what we 
 have to tell you." 
 
 Thus urged, he seated himself by the fireside, but the 
 questions he wished to ask died upon his lips. The man 
 turned to his wife. 
 
 " The story is foryou to tell," he said ; " for from first to 
 last you have been blameless in this thing, and remorse 
 will not tie your tongue." 
 
 " Fifteen years ago," the woman began, fixing her soft, 
 dark eyes on the face of her guest, " we were asked to take 
 charge of a friendless woman who had lost her reason. I 
 need not tell you from whom the request came ; but when 
 I consented to receive the woman I believed her rase to be
 
 240 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 as I have stated. My husband knew the truth, but he 
 dared not refuse to do as he was commanded." 
 
 "Say also," the man interrupted, raising his head, 
 " that I was poor then, and the money that was offered me 
 tempted me." 
 
 " That is doubtless true," she went on in the same quiet 
 voice ; " but if nothing had been offered you, you must still 
 have obeyed." 
 
 Then addressing herself again to Philip, she continued 
 her narrative. 
 
 " We were not living here at that time. We were in Salt 
 Lake within a few blocks of your home and the house in 
 which the woman we were asked to take charge of had 
 been confined for five years, was on the opposite side of the 
 street." 
 
 Philip started from his chair. If this woman spoke the 
 truth, how blind he had been willfully blind, it seemed 
 now. 
 
 " You cannot credit this," she said, " and yet it is true, 
 and stranger things still have happened. Your mother" 
 her voice faltered a little as she pronounced the word 
 " was in the custody of James Sprague until he died, and 
 after his death she was removed to our house." 
 
 " How came she in his hands ? How could she have 
 been taken there in open day, against her will, and yet 
 without the knowledge of the people around her ?" 
 
 The woman looked at him steadily. " Surely you are 
 aware," she said, " that had all the people known of such 
 a thing, not one of them would have dared to speak if 
 counseled otherwise ; but in this case no force was em 
 ployed. Your mother was decoyed to the house by a mes 
 sage that you had been injured by a fall from a horse and 
 carried in there." 
 
 " And what then ?"
 
 A MYSTERY SOLVED. 241 
 
 " She was confined in a dark inner room : kept under 
 lock and key as a prisoner, and treated as a maniac." 
 
 Philip sprang to his feet, with a white face and flashing 
 eyes. The spirit of his race was roused at last. 
 
 " My curse rest forever and ever on the man who placed 
 her there," he cried ; " and God do so to me and more also 
 if he escape my vengeance." 
 
 " Be calm," the woman said, her own face and voice un 
 changed. " You do not know what you are saying. He 
 cares nothing for your curse, and only those who are 
 stronger than he can mete to him the measure he has 
 meted to others. Hear all that I have to tell." 
 
 " Your mother, perhaps, suffered less than you imagine. 
 She was not beaten or starved, as has been the case with 
 many a one imprisoned by the same authority, but she 
 was fastened by day to the bed on which she slept at night, 
 and during the five years in which she remained in that 
 house she was not permitted to exchange a word with a 
 human being not even with her keepers, who had strict 
 orders never to speak to her or answer her. 
 
 " You must understand that I knew nothing of all this 
 when she was placed in my care, and it was years before 
 the whole truth came to my knowledge ; but she had not 
 been with us a week before I was convinced that she was 
 not insane ; and as we had no special orders regarding her 
 treatment except that we were not to allow any one to sus 
 pect her existence, I did my best to make her as comfort 
 able as circumstances permitted, and talked with her when 
 I could do so with safety. 
 
 " A year after she came to us we moved to this place. 
 The land was bought and the house built with the money 
 that was paid my husband for taking charge of her, and 
 we were again strictly ordered to let no one know we had 
 such an inmate. If the fact of her existence should be dis-
 
 242 THE FATE OF MADAMK LA TOUR. 
 
 covered by chance, we were to say that she was an insane 
 relative. 
 
 " By this time I knew who she was, and soon after we 
 came here I learned the whole of her sad story ; but what 
 could I do ? What could any one do ? Were we not all 
 slaves, bound hand and foot ? Had I told what I knew, no 
 good would have come of it, but much harm to her as well 
 as to us. Had I even let you know the truth, you would 
 have been powerless to help her." 
 
 " That may have been so in the past," Philip inter 
 rupted, " but now there is a change. There are men in 
 the country who dare not only to differ with Brigham 
 Young, but to defy him." 
 
 " Have you dared to do so ?" 
 
 The question was asked kindly, but Philip s pale face 
 flushed. 
 
 " I have been a coward in the past," he said, " but I will 
 be one no longer. I am going home, to sever my connec 
 tion with this iniquitous system, and to denounce the man 
 who stands at the head of it." 
 
 " That is well. I pray that the way may open for others 
 to do so," and she glanced at her husband. " I have felt 
 that a day of deliverance was coming, though I knew not 
 when nor how." 
 
 " That day may be farther from us than from you," the 
 husband said, addressing Philip. " You have the troops to 
 protect you, and the Gentiles are coming in, I hear, in 
 great numbers ; but in this settlement there is not a man, 
 woman, or child who dares to disobey counsel in the 
 smallest thing, much less to say a word against Mormon- 
 ism. And yet there are those here whose wrongs are 
 greater than yours." 
 
 " Greater than mine ?" 
 
 " Yes. Deeds have been done within sight of this house
 
 A MYSTEKY SO LI ED. 243 
 
 for which devils might, blush, and done, too, in the name of 
 the Lord ; and the still living victims, who envy the dead, 
 dare not utter a word of complaint." 
 
 " As for you, the revenge that was planned against you 
 and yours fell short of its mark ; for though your mother 
 has been kept a prisoner, in all things else I have treated 
 her as I would if I had been her own son." 
 
 Here the woman rose and opened a door at the farther 
 side of the room. 
 
 " Come," she said to Philip, " and I will show you the 
 place in which your mother spent the last years of her life." 
 
 He followed her through a long hall, and up a flight of 
 stairs, but on the landing above she paused. 
 
 " I need not tell you," she said, " that I have already 
 put my life and the life of my husband in your hands, 
 and now that I am about to give you all that your mother 
 has left behind her, I am putting trust in your wisdom as 
 well as in your honor." 
 
 With these words she opened the door and admitted 
 Philip into a room which he entered with feelings that 
 were indescribable. 
 
 It was in no respect like the prison-cell he had at first 
 pictured to himself." The floor was carpeted, a comfort 
 able bed stood in one corner with an easy chair beside it, a 
 table in the center of the room was covered with books, 
 and a writing-desk filled the niche between the windows. 
 The woman went directly to this desk, unlocked it, and 
 took out a sealed packet. 
 
 " In this," she said, " you will find the history of your 
 mother s life since the day she left you. She begged, 
 almost with her last breath, that I would convey it to her 
 children, and I promised, without knowing of any way in 
 which the *promise could be fulfilled ; but see, a way has 
 opened already. The hand of God is in this thing."
 
 244 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Philip received the packet with irrepressible emotion. 
 
 " Did my mother know ? Did she hear anything of us 
 during these long years ?" he asked. 
 
 " Until she came to us she heard nothing," was the 
 answer. " If all of you had died she would not have 
 known ; but since she has been here I have told her all that 
 I could learn of you which was likely to give her any hap 
 piness, and that which I knew would pain her I have kept 
 from her." 
 
 Philip dropped his eyes. He knew well enough that 
 there was little in his own history which it would have 
 made his mother happier to hear. 
 
 " It is strange," he said at length, " that you should not 
 have known me, and that I do not recall either your face 
 or your name as that of one who must have been our neigh 
 bor." 
 
 " Fifteen years have changed all of us," she answered ; 
 " but I knew you again when you spoke to us at the grave. 
 That you did not recognize us is no wonder, for we had been 
 in Salt Lake but a little while when your mother came to 
 us, and afterward we avoided you, as we were instructed 
 to do." 
 
 " And yet you have done me the only kindness possible. 
 You have cared for my mother as if she had been your 
 own. I will never forget that." 
 
 The woman looked out of the window. " The rain is 
 over," she said, " and the people will soon be abroad. For 
 your own sake as well as for ours, you must not linger in 
 the settlement. When you are a free man, remember us. 
 If we have shown any kindness to you or yours, that will 
 be the best return you can make."
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 
 
 " Oct. 10. Once more, after so many years of darkness, 
 I behold the light of day. Once more I look out upon the 
 sky and the earth, whose face I never hoped to see again. 
 
 " Dear God, how fair is thy world ! And how sweet is 
 a human voice a kindly human voice after the long 
 silence. 
 
 " This day it is five years since I had the last sight of 
 the faces of my children. I should not know I could 
 not reckon time in that dark cell into which day never 
 penetrated : but this woman no, she is not a woman, but 
 an angel, to risk so much for me has given me the day 
 and the date ; and the date of that other day the day on 
 which I was torn from my children is burned into my 
 brain. 
 
 " Five years ! My little Blanche, my baby, is almost a 
 woman now. Oh for one moment s sight of her sweet 
 face ! Day after day I sit at this high window, and watch 
 the street, and pray God t,o send my children this way, 
 but they never come. 
 
 " Once indeed it seemed to me that Philip passed by on 
 the other side -taller, more manly, than when I saw him 
 last that must be but the form was like my Philip, and he 
 carried his head as my brave boy did. His face was turn 
 ed away, and yet it was he. A mother s eyes see clearly." 
 
 " Oct. 21. My eyes are blinded with grateful tears, for 
 this day I have seen my little girls from my window. My 
 little girls ! They are women now, and Catherine s face
 
 246 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 is like the one I used to see in my mirror years oh so 
 many years ago. 
 
 " I owe it all to the good angel who watches over me in 
 my imprisonment, for though she dare not speak to my 
 children, or make herself known to them in any way, she 
 has worked through others so that my daughters should 
 pass by the house. 
 
 " How many hours I watched, and how I feared her 
 plan would fail ! I dread lest she should risk too much for 
 me ; and though I long God only knows how I long for a 
 sight of my lost darlings I must not tell her all that is in 
 my heart, for that would move her to try again to bring 
 them near me ; and there is danger, always danger, that 
 she, my only friend, may be involved in my fate." 
 
 " Nov. 12. I have news of Louise my beautiful, my 
 darling, my wounded dove. She is here, so near me, 
 and .yet she cannot know that her mother lives ! Her 
 mother, who has given more than life for her ! 
 
 " My good angel tells me too that Louise is not unhappy. 
 There is peace in her face and in her voice. 
 
 " She has learned, then, the secret that was taught me in 
 those years of darkness. She is not alone and helpless in 
 the hands of wicked men. Dear God, I thank thee !" 
 
 "March I. For months I have written nothing. A 
 slow fever, brought on, I fearj by those longings and anx 
 ieties which I should not have indulged, has made me 
 helpless made me doubly a burden to my only friend. And 
 yet she will not allow me to say that. She has tended me 
 like a child, she has watched over me like a sister, and 
 she says only this : 
 
 " All that I can do is a poor atonement for your 
 wrongs. 
 
 " I can guess what she means, and yet it is not for her 
 to make atonement."
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 247 
 
 " March 4. I have learned to-day something that I 
 never knew before learned what took place that day 
 after I was lured to my prison. 
 
 " My children believe me dead. They have been taught 
 that my reason was gone, and that I drowned myself in the 
 river ! My helpless darlings ! They could not think that 
 anything but death would be able to keep their mother 
 from them. 
 
 " I can see the terror in their faces when they came 
 back to the empty house. I can realize what they felt 
 when that cruel tale was told them. But they were very 
 young, and God is good. He would not let that sorrow 
 shadow their lives. My friend thinks the little home 
 which Philip keeps for his sisters would be a happy one, 
 if the man who took their mother from them did not take 
 their bread also. 
 
 " This is hard and hard to forgive but One who suf 
 fered the utmost malice of cruel foes forgave them with 
 His dying breath." 
 
 " March 10. More news ! My Catherine has been a wife 
 for two months and more, and my good angel, unable to 
 leave the house because I must be cared for, had not 
 heard of it. 
 
 " A wife s lot here is full of bitterness of more than 
 mortal pain. God shield my darling !" 
 
 " April 4. 1 am to go far away from my darlings. 
 And yet, what does it matter, since, near or far, I am sep 
 arated from them while I live ? 
 
 "Still, here, at this window, I could watch, and hope 
 that they might pass by, and that was something. The 
 day could not be quite a blank when I could say in the 
 morning, 
 
 " It may be that one of my children will come this 
 way.
 
 248 THE FA7^E OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " And then I have really seen my little girls, and Philip 
 twice. Once I saw his face plainly. 
 
 " But Louise my Louise, my beautiful one I have not 
 had the faintest glimpse of her; and how can I give over 
 my watch for her, and go away without the sight of her 
 face ?" 
 
 " May 21. The journey is over, and had it not been that 
 each hour took me farther from my children, they would 
 have been happy days. I breathed the fresh free air, the 
 sun shone on me, and whenever we were in lonely places, 
 far from the sight of those who would have been spies on 
 us, I might feel the dear earth, the soil of God s beautiful 
 world, under my feet. 
 
 " How sweet is liberty ! It seemed sometimes as 
 though I must break away from those who cared for me so 
 kindly, and run toward the mountains, for beyond them 
 must be freedom. 
 
 " Run ! I smile at myself now, for I could not walk for 
 an hour, and a year ago I could not walk at all. My 
 limbs were cramped. They had almost grown to the 
 shape of the seat to which I was chained. 
 
 " No, liberty is not for me. Yet my soul is not in 
 prison, and during those years of darkness, when chains 
 were on my body, my spirit was free." 
 
 " Aug. 20. My friend, my guardian angel, who has 
 comforted me through all my sorrows, now needs that I 
 should comfort her. Her home is invaded, her husband 
 is taken from her, and another woman usurps the name 
 and place of wife in the house. What are my sufferings 
 now compared with hers ? 
 
 " She comes to my room, to my prison, which I may 
 never leave alive, as to a sanctuary. It is her only place 
 of refuge, the only spot where she is safe Irom curious, 
 unsympathizing eyes, or from the sight of her husband and
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 249 
 
 that other woman, who claims the rights of a wife. She 
 does not complain she is one of those who would die 
 and make no- moan but her dumb despair is more elo 
 quent than the most impassioned lamentations. 
 
 " And yet she thinks that her husband loved her truly 
 loves her even now and that he has taken that other 
 woman only because he was counseled to do so, and be 
 cause he dared not disobey. Would a husband believe 
 still in the love of his wife, after she had brought another 
 man into the house to usurp his rights and to claim her 
 as his own ? 
 
 " The patient endurance of these wives, and the love 
 that outlives the husband s baseness and treachery, touches 
 me, and yet it angers me. It was never meant that any- 
 good woman, much less an angel like this wronged wife, 
 should waste her love on a man who tramples it under 
 foot." 
 
 " Nov. 4. A better day has dawned for my friend, if 
 indeed there can be a better or a worse to a wrong like 
 hers. The other woman has been sent away to a settle 
 ment twenty miles distant, and the husband goes there 
 but seldom. He is forced to stay at home on my account 
 so I am told. The man who placed me here thinks a 
 woman cannot be trusted to guard me, and so my friend is 
 not left alor.e. 
 
 " I cannot understand her. She seems almost happy 
 when week after week passes without the expression of a 
 wish on the part of her husband to go to the other settle 
 ment, and yet she knows that he will go by and by 
 knows he calls that woman wife, and that she may be the 
 mother of his children. What a life ! What a fate ! And 
 yet, it may be the fate of my own daughters." 
 
 " Dec. 30, 55. I have heard that my Louise is mar 
 ried, and married to a good man who loves her ; and bet-
 
 250 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 ter still, that both she and Catherine have left the Terri 
 tory with their husbands, who have been sent on missions, 
 the one west, the other south. 
 
 " Is not God watching over my children, and doing far 
 more for them than I could if I were free ? Neither of my 
 daughters will ever return voluntarily of that I am sure." 
 
 " Feb. I, 56. The winter passes slowly. I find it hard 
 to repress my longings for liberty. Often I look to the 
 distant mountains, and a wild wish to fly to them takes 
 possession of me. I know that escape is impossible ; and 
 yet, now that I can look out on those who pass to and fro 
 beneath my window, on the earth, that my foot must 
 never press, on the stars the same s tars that looked down 
 on my childhood the thought of freedom is with me con 
 tinually. I dream of it at night, and a feverish restlessness 
 possesses me by day. 
 
 " This is not as it should be. I was calmer in that 
 dark cell, where I saw nothing, heard nothing. 
 
 " Death will open my prison doors by and by. Until 
 then let me wait in peace." 
 
 " April 10, 56. Ought I not to be thankful and con 
 tent ? Word comes to me through this dear friend, who 
 puts aside her own sorrows that she may serve me, and 
 does her utmost to get news of my children, that both my 
 daughters are safe in California, and with their brothers. 
 I have now only Philip and little Blanche to be anxious 
 about ; and surely, since Heaven has so watched over the 
 others, I may dismiss anxiety even for them." 
 
 " Aug. 12. I have been very ill again. I thought the 
 hour of my deliverance was surely at hand. Those who 
 have gone before seemed waiting for me, and in the still 
 ness of the night a face like my mother s bent down and 
 smiled upon me. 
 
 " Liberty, and rest, ancl peace seemed already mine, and
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 251 
 
 when the gates that were opening closed again, and I 
 found myself left outside left here I could not help a 
 feeling of bitter disappointment. 
 
 " Patience, my soul ! The years that seem so long will 
 [he but a speck, an atom, when thou lookest back on them 
 from the Paradise of God." 
 
 " Oct. 5. Again I have been the witness of pangs 
 which make my own afflictions seem light. The woman 
 who has been taken into this family is a mother. The 
 wife whose place she has usurped is childless, and the hus 
 band, when he learned that he was a father, sent for the 
 mother and the babe. They have been brought here, and 
 are in the house to-day. 
 
 " The father, proud of the little one, and forgetting 
 everything else in his joy, has shown plainly that the 
 mother of his child is dearer to him than the wife of his 
 youth, who has sacrificed all things for his sake ; and she, 
 unhappy, helpless victim, after making superhuman efforts 
 to mask her sufferings and treat the woman and child as 
 though they had a right to be here, has at last succumbed 
 to her anguish. Yesterday she sank upon the floor of my 
 room in a swoon that was like death. Fortunately, I was 
 able to restore her without help, and in an hour she recov 
 ered so far as to be able to creep down the steps, holding 
 on to the railings ; but at the foot of the stairway I heard 
 her fall again. 
 
 " To-day I have been waited on by a servant, who had 
 not previously been permitted to know of my existence, and 
 who, it seems, has orders not to speak to me ; so I can 
 learn nothing of my friend s state from her, but I fear she 
 is very ill. If able to leave her bed she would surely 
 come to me, for now, as before, my room is her only sanc 
 tuary." 
 
 " Nov. 20. To-day I have seen my friend again for the
 
 252 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 first time in many weeks. She is only the shadow of her 
 former self, and her hair has grown as white as mine, 
 which was blanched in those years of darkness. 
 
 " The woman and child have been taken away, and she 
 feels this to be a relief, but she no longer cheats herself 
 with the belief that her husband s heart is still hers. She 
 has talked with me more freely than ever before, and I 
 realize something of the daily martyrdom endured by her 
 and women like her of whom, alas ! there are hundreds 
 on every side." 
 
 July 9, 57. I have heard to-day that both Philip and 
 Blanche are married. There is nothing in Philip s mar 
 riage to sadden me, for he is like his father, and the 
 woman who has given her happiness into his keeping will 
 never have cause to regret it. Her love will be his guid 
 ing star, and his home will be the most sacred spot on 
 earth to him. His wife will never know a fate like that of 
 my poor friend, who is striving to bury her love for her hus 
 band in the same grave in which she has buried happiness 
 and hope. 
 
 " But my little Blanche my baby, who has grown to 
 womanhood without a mother s care what will her fate 
 be ? Has she fallen into the hands of one who will sacrifice 
 her to the demands of this monstrous system, as coolly as 
 pagans elsewhere sacrifice a lamb ? Alas ! there are none 
 near her to protect her, and whatever her sorrows may 
 be, .her tears cannot be shed on her mother s bosom. 
 
 " Aug. 12, 57. I have not written anything of late, 
 because the uneventful days pass with nothing to mark 
 their coming and going except the rising and setting of 
 the sun. 
 
 " In spite of myself, in spite of all the lessons of patience 
 which I have learned, an unutterable weariness possesses 
 me when there is nothing absolutely nothing to break
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 253 
 
 the monotony of my imprisonment ; and then when some 
 thing comes to my knowledge which rouses me from the 
 stupor that is creeping over me, the old restlessness and 
 longing, the feeling that makes a caged bird beat its wings 
 against the bars of its prison, comes back to me. 
 
 " Yesterday I sat at my window, seeing for hours only 
 the long stretch of dusty highway upon which not a living 
 thing appeared, when at length, late in the afternoon, an 
 irregular mass came in sight in the dim distance, and as I 
 continued to watch it resolved itself into a long train of 
 wagons, with horsemen, footmen, and cattle some in ad 
 vance, some in the rear. The train passed directly under 
 my window. The animals moved slowly, as though worn 
 out with a long journey ; the teams seemed to drag the 
 wagons with difficulty, and the people looked travel- 
 stained and weary ; but there was something in the ap 
 pearance of the company which told that they were not 
 seeking a home here ; and as they passed on I noticed that 
 persons in the settlement who were by the roadside hasten 
 ed in-doors as the train drew near. 
 
 " In the evening, when I asked my friend the meaning 
 of what I had seen, she answered, 
 
 " They are emigrants on the way to California. 
 
 " But she seemed disinclined to talk about them, and 
 no questions that I asked brought me any more definite 
 information. 
 
 " On the way to California ! If I had known of their 
 coming I might what might I not have done ? It seemed 
 to me at first that I should have let myself down from my 
 window in the night, and found some hiding-place on their 
 route, where I could lie concealed till they passed, and 
 then throw myself on their protection. 
 
 " But if this had been as impracticable as all my other 
 plans of flight, I could at least have dropped a letter as
 
 254 THE FAT] . Or MADAME LA TOL R. 
 
 they passed, that would have told of my fate, and begged 
 them to carry the word to my sons my sons, who would 
 move Heaven and earth to release their mother from 
 prison. 
 
 " The chance that I have lost is perhaps one that will 
 never be within my reach again, and a feeling of disap 
 pointment that amounts to wretchedness shows me plainly 
 how much my soul needs to be disciplined to patience 
 how little I know of true resignation." 
 
 " Dec. 10, 57. An awful crime a deed whose black 
 ness might quench the light of day has come to my knowl 
 edge. I am suffocating with horror. Would that I had 
 remained ignorant of it. A bloody vision follows me, 
 haunts me, night and day, since the fearful tale came to 
 my ears. 
 
 " After those strangers passed this way, and while I was 
 still grieving over my lost opportunity, I began to perceive 
 from my window the appearance of unusual idleness on 
 the part of the men of the settlement, who are farmers, and 
 should at this season have been attending to their crops. 
 They were congregated in groups by the roadside, and* 
 those who were so near that I could observe their faces, I 
 saw looked gloomy and sullen. Finally, one night, I heard 
 the heavy tramp of many feet, going in and out of this 
 house until midnight. 
 
 " I slept none that night. A vague uneasiness, a terror 
 for which I could not account, kept me wakeful, and be 
 fore day I rose from my bed, and sitting down beside my 
 window watched the stars until they began to fade. 
 
 " When the day broke, my eyes were fixed on the high 
 way, and presently a band of mounted men issued from a 
 little lane near the house. Many of the faces I had seen 
 before, as they passed day after day, and among them I 
 recognized my jailer, whose wife, contrary to her usual
 
 THE SEALED PACKET. 255 
 
 custom, had kept away from my room the day before, 
 sending the servant with my meals. 
 
 " All of the men were armed with guns, and as I watched 
 them they rode away southward, two abreast. 
 
 " That day, and for many days afterward, I could not 
 help seeing that my friend was in some great trouble, 
 which she refused to confide to me. Thus nearly two 
 weeks passed, and one morning, as I was looking south 
 ward, I saw the same body of men whose departure I had 
 watched, riding into the settlement. 
 
 " As they came near I perceived that Wells was in ad 
 vance, and that he carried something on his horse in front 
 of him. As he reached the house I saw, to my surprise, 
 that it was a child a little girl, perhaps four years old. 
 He dismounted at a side door, at the foot of the stairs 
 leading to my room. 
 
 " I heard his wife open the door heard her exclamation, 
 not only of surprise, but of dismay and terror heard the 
 man say, 
 
 " Hush, for God s sake ! 
 
 " And then both seemed to pass into an inner room. 
 
 " After that I saw no more of my friend for many days, 
 and when she entered my room again she was changed 
 more, it seemed to me, than even during those weeks of 
 sickness the year before. 
 
 " I knew something was wrong. An air of mystery 
 brooded over the house. I heard the child sometimes 
 once it climbed up the stairs leading to my door, and more 
 than once I distinguished a plaintive cry of, 
 
 " Mamma ! mamma ! Take me to my mamma ! 
 
 " It was a wail that pierced my heart. How often must 
 my own children have uttered that cry ! 
 
 " When I spoke to my friend about the child, she turned 
 a white, terrified face toward me, saying,
 
 256 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 How did you know ? Have you seen have you 
 heard anything ? 
 
 " Why protract the recital ? In the end I learned the 
 whole dreadful truth. The company of emigrants had 
 been followed by bodies of armed men from the settle 
 ments, surrounded, and butchered in cold blood. Neither 
 age nor sex had been spared. Only a few of the youngest 
 children were rescued at the last by men who could not 
 quite forget their own children. The little girl in the 
 house was one of these. 
 
 " I cannot bear to dwell here. There is only one thing 
 which I feel compelled to leave on record, and it is this : 
 
 " The man whom this people look up to as their Prophet 
 ordered the butchery, and the men who did the deed were 
 only his instruments. Many of them went most unwilling 
 ly. Some of them took no part in the massacre, and re 
 turned home with their faith in this man and his teachings 
 destroyed forever. My friend s husband is one of those 
 last named. He declares to his wife that he cannot re 
 main here, and that he will watch night and day for an op 
 portunity to escape. 
 
 " Should this be so, I too may yet be able to flee from 
 this blood-stained spot. 
 
 " Oct. 10, 58. This day completes the tenth year of my 
 captivity. At times I think that the hope and even the wish 
 to escape has died out altogether, and that I shall wait in 
 peace for the Angel of Death ; and then some word, some 
 rumor breaks in upon my quiet, and for weeks I am in a 
 state of unrest. 
 
 " Of late I have had news of my elder sons. They have 
 been greatly prospered, and they dwell among a brave 
 and generous people, who would aid them in any effort to 
 deliver their mother from prison, if they knew but they 
 do not even dream that I am still among the living. Like
 
 THE SEALED PACKET, 257 
 
 my children here, they have mourned me as dead these 
 many years. 
 
 " Perhaps, after all, it is better that they should not 
 know the truth. They might try to help me and fail, for it 
 seems that in these valleys the power of the man who de 
 creed my imprisonment is absolute. No one even dares 
 call him to account for the butchery of those helpless 
 women and innocent children who were so cruelly put to 
 death last year. 
 
 " And for me, does it matter how or where I spend the 
 little remnant of my life ? No. Time is so short, eternity 
 so long, that even if I were doomed to live out my three 
 score years and ten within these walls, it would be but like 
 tarrying for a night at an inn that did not please me. 
 
 " April 12, 62. My sight, which began to fail four 
 years ago, and which I thought I should have lost entirely, 
 is in a measure restored, and yet the light is painful, and I 
 can no longer solace myself with books or beguile the te 
 dious days by watching the world Outside from my window. 
 
 " At first I felt this to be a great affliction, but now I ac 
 knowledge in it the same Hand that has led me hitherto. 
 
 " Cut off once more from the sight of this world, I turn 
 to the world of spirits the world where my beloved, who 
 have escaped from the straits and burdens, the turmoil 
 and unrest of this present life, abide in blissful peace. 
 
 " My eyes, closed to thy creatures, are opened to behold 
 thee, oh, Uncreated Good ! 
 
 " I behold the love that rules and permeates the uni 
 verse. I have repose and liberty, because that which has 
 no metes nor bounds is at once my home and my resting- 
 place." 
 
 " March, 65. For the last time, perhaps, I attempt to 
 trace here my thoughts and my wishes. Strength and 
 sight alike are almost gone ; but while a little of life re-
 
 258 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 mains, I desire to make a final request of my children, 
 should this which I have written ever fall into their hands. 
 
 " I pray them all, and especially my sons, to harbor no 
 thought of vengeance against the author of my wrongs. 
 With all my heart, with all my soul, I forgive him, and I 
 ask my children to forgive. 
 
 " No real harm has come to me. That which was evil 
 intended has worked for good. I have peace, I have joy 
 within these walls, and my prison has become a sanctuary 
 wherein I dwell safely until the doors of my Father s 
 house are opened to receive me. 
 
 " Nov., 68. For many months I have dwelt in utter 
 darkness ; but I know in my soul that the dawn of a per 
 fect day is very near. The Angel of Death waits close at 
 hand. I shall welcome him with joy and yet, something 
 within me pleads for my children begs that they might be 
 permitted to look once more on their mother s face. 
 
 " How clearly I can see them all, here in the dark my 
 little Blanche in her cradle, Catherine and Philip sitting 
 on the nursery floor beside her, and Louise and her brothers 
 at the round table between the windows. How the light 
 that streams in above the table shines on their faces, on 
 my boys curls, on the baby s little hands ! 
 
 " Dear God, wilt thou not suffer me to take this picture 
 with me into thy heaven ? 
 
 " It grows colder. My hands can scarce hold the pen 
 with which I trace these words in the darkness. 
 
 " Farewell Life. Welcome Death. 
 
 " My children, my little ones, good-by. Dear God, k?ep 
 them may " 
 
 The manuscript closed abruptly. The good woman of 
 the house had sealed it up religiously, as she found it on the 
 little table.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE REVOLT. 
 
 IT was midnight. The rain beat against the closed 
 shutters, and the wind that swept round the house and 
 shook the leafless branches of the trees outside wailed like 
 a lost spirit. 
 
 Within, the fire had burned low and the lamplight fell on 
 two pale faces, bent together over a yellow and blotted 
 manuscript, traced in a hand almost illegible. 
 
 Philip La Tour and his wife were reading the last words 
 of the dead reading with difficulty, for tears had stained 
 the paper, and the trembling hand had more than once 
 refused to obey* the guiding will, leaving words and sen 
 tences unfinished. 
 
 Amazement and horror, fierce indignation against the 
 author of such wrongs, and boundless tenderness for the 
 patient victim, struggled together in their hearts as they 
 followed the record of those years of captivity ; until 
 at last the mother s farewell words to the children of her 
 love quite overcame her son, and bowing his head over the 
 paper which her dying hands had touched, the strong man 
 wept like a little child. 
 
 His wife mingled her tears with his, and with those 
 tears all bitterness and heart-burning melted away, and 
 the two whom man had put asunder felt once more that 
 God had joined them together. 
 
 " My mother asks me to forgive her oppressor," Philip 
 said after a long silence. " I may forego the desire for 
 vengeance I must, since she asks it but if the law is
 
 260 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 ever able to reach him, I ought to aid in bringing him to 
 justice." 
 
 " You will, if that time ever comes," the wife replied ; 
 " but there is little probability that his crimes will be pun- 
 ished in this world. During the last month, while you 
 have been away, he has compelled many of those who have 
 been attending the services at the hall to make a public 
 confession of their " sin" and take their children from 
 the school ;* but that is not the worst. Many of the Gen 
 tiles are going away, and the people think there will not 
 be twenty of them left here in the spring. It seems as 
 though Brigham Young will rule while he lives, and con 
 tinue to be the tyrant that he has been, unless, as I said 
 a good while ago, some of us right here gain courage to 
 defy him." 
 
 "Jessie!" Her husband spoke quickly, and with the 
 glow of a newly-formed resolution on his face. " To 
 morrow is Sunday. Will you go with me in the morning 
 to the hall ?" 
 
 " You need not ask that. I will be only too glad to go 
 and what then ? 
 
 " We will be called to account in less than two days, 
 and that will give me an opportunity of defining my posi 
 tion." 
 
 " They will cut you off from the Church." 
 
 " Yes, without doubt ; but I shall not wait for that to 
 Jessie, I cannot put in words what I mean, but I will not 
 delay the only reparation I can make you. From this 
 hour no one shall ever come between us. Before another 
 week ends everybody shall know that I call no other 
 woman wife. 
 
 The hour so long waited for had come at last ! the hour 
 
 *See Appendix, Note R, page 353.
 
 THE REVOLT. 261 
 
 for the .rending of his bonds, the beginning of a new life, 
 and the hour in which to make tardy atonement for the 
 wrongs of years. 
 
 Does the reader wonder at the wife who could accept 
 this atonement without betraying by look or word any 
 " memory of the bitter past ? Does it seem a thing incredi 
 ble that in the first moments of reunion all the jealousy 
 and heart-burning, the anguish and despair of those miser 
 able years, should be buried out of sight ? 
 
 It may be equally hard to understand how a man could 
 speak without emotion of sending away a woman whom he 
 had called wife for five years, and who had borne him a 
 child ; but in the present case Philip knew that Ruth cared 
 for nothing except his money, and that the gift of the house 
 she lived in and of the means to support her and to buy all 
 the pretty trifles she coveted, would easily reconcile her to 
 the separation. Had she loved him, his task would have 
 been a much harder one, and in his heart he was thankful 
 that the woman chosen for him had proved incapable of 
 
 love. 
 
 ******* 
 
 Morning dawned, serene and cloudless the morning of 
 the day on which Philip La Tour was to assert his newly- 
 acquired freedom. When ten o clock came, and the streets 
 were filled with people on their way to the Mormon ser 
 vices in the various wards, he set out for the hall with his 
 wife on his arm, and leading his little boy by the hand. 
 Neighbors and acquaintances passed him as he turned in 
 at the gate, and the policemen appointed to watch those 
 who entered the forbidden portals were so close to him that 
 he could have touched them with his hand, but for the first 
 time in twenty years he was acting without reference to the 
 will of another, and he scarcely noticed their presence. 
 
 Inside the small, plain building about fifty persons were
 
 262 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 seated, awaiting the hour of service. Nearly one third of 
 this number were recusant Mormons, chiefly women. 
 
 All eyes were upon Philip La Tour as he walked slowly 
 up the aisle to a seat in full view of the congregation. Had 
 he come alone it is probable that his former friends would 
 have misunderstood his motives, but a man who brought 
 his family with him to such a place could not be a spy 
 this was what the faces of those who knew him expressed 
 as he took his seat among them. 
 
 As he passed out at the close of the services, the police 
 men placed themselves directly in his way, so that he was 
 compelled to speak to them and ask them to make room 
 for his wife. 
 
 They moved a couple of steps, and one of them made 
 a sign which he understood perfectly well, but which, in 
 his present frame of mind, did not disturb him in the 
 least. 
 
 Before noon the next day he was waited on by a commit 
 tee of his brethren and informed that it had been thought 
 best to give him an opportunity to explain his extraordi 
 nary conduct. This was an unusual act of grace, as he 
 knew, but the way in which he improved it was not calcu 
 lated to lead to its repetition. 
 
 In the strongest language at his command, he denounced 
 the system which enslaved all who embraced it, and which 
 taught treachery, rapine, murder, and every species of 
 crime as sacred duties. 
 
 His wife, who was present, defined her own position 
 with equal clearness, and the members of the committee 
 withdrew in silence, but with a look on their faces that 
 boded no good to the rebels. 
 
 In a few days they were both summoned to trial. They 
 paid no attention to the summons, and the clay after the 
 one set for their trial they received formal notice that they
 
 THE REVOLT. 263 
 
 were cut off from the Church of Latter Day Saints and 
 delivered over to the bufferings of Satan. 
 
 " Free at last !" These were Jessie s first words when 
 her husband finished reading the notice aloud. "Such 
 liberty is worth any price. We ought not to think it too 
 dearly bought, even if it costs life." 
 
 " It will not cost life," was the reply. " The day that I 
 told you, more than three years ago, would surely come, is 
 here. You know we are not the first who have been cut 
 off, and our friends are still alive. Our enemies have the 
 will to destroy us, and, for that matter, the power also ; 
 but Brigham Young knows that any more violence, in the 
 present condition of affairs, would be certain to react upon 
 himself ; so we are quite safe at least by daylight." 
 
 " That is what I was just going to speak about," inter 
 rupted the wife, who, full of courage where she alone was 
 concerned, yet trembled for her husband. " I don t think 
 you will be attacked by day, but you must not go out after 
 dark. Only the night before you came home, Henry 
 
 R was fired at by some person in the shadow of the 
 
 trees beside his own gate." 
 
 Philip could not smile at his wife s fears. He knew, 
 better than she, the vinclictiveness of the despot against 
 whom they had rebelled knew also that if he could be 
 " taken care of" in such a way that the act could not be 
 traced directly to the Church authorities, his life would not 
 be worth a moment s purchase ; but he was no coward 
 (though when he looked back on the past he called himself 
 one), and he faced the dangers of his position with the 
 utmost calmness. 
 
 In the mean time his separation from Ruth had become 
 an accomplished fact, and he once more had a home. 
 
 In the domestic life of Utah that sacred word is a 
 mockery, and none felt this more keenly than the man
 
 264 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 who had conscientiously sacrificed his own happiness and 
 that of the dearly-loved wife of his youth on the altar of a 
 false faith. It is true that his case was exceptional, and 
 that the majority of his brethren who had embraced polyg 
 amy had done so from choice ; yet even among this class 
 there were many who repented of the step they had taken, 
 and who would gladly have given all the promises of future 
 exaltation which their religion held out to them for a little 
 present peace. 
 
 Women are the greatest sufferers from polygamy, but 
 men who transgress the laws of God and nature do not es 
 cape the penalties of those laws. 
 
 Philip La Tour, pure-minded and honorable in spite of 
 Mormonism, and loving his wife with the first and strong 
 est love of early manhood, had suffered intensely when he 
 was made to believe that God required him to give another 
 woman the same place he had given her ; but he suffered 
 still more, if possible, in the years that followed, and the 
 first hour of real happiness he had known since his second 
 marriage was when he sat down beside Jessie to tell her 
 that he was free from all ties save that which bound him 
 to her. 
 
 Danger and death might lie in his path, the friends of a 
 lifetime might become his bitter foes, his riches might take 
 wings, but none of these things moved him while he had 
 the approval of his own conscience and the restored trust 
 of the woman he loved. 
 
 Nor was he altogether without friends and sympathiz 
 ers outside of his own family. A number of prominent 
 citizens had already been cut off from the Church some 
 because they refused to pay the exorbitant sums demand 
 ed of them as tithing, others because they had engaged in 
 mining, a pursuit which all good Saints were imperatively 
 ordered to have nothing to do with, and still others be-
 
 THE REVOLT. 265 
 
 cause they had quf^tioned the right of the Prophet " to dic 
 tate to them in all things both temporal and spiritual" a 
 right which he proclaimed publicly in the very words quoted, 
 as vested in him by a decree of the Almighty. 
 
 These men who had been lately excommunicated formed 
 a community by themselves. They were not so thoroughly 
 freed from the prejudices of years as to be able to affiliate 
 at once with the Gentiles, whom they had regarded for a 
 lifetime as their natural enemies. Many of them also still 
 clung to polygamy probably, as has been said, because it 
 clung to them, and they could not easily let it go. 
 
 With La Tour, however, the case was different. As a 
 Mormon, he had conscientiously obeyed all the require 
 ments of the Church because he believed them to be also 
 the commands of God, but the uprooting of his faith in 
 that system included a renunciation of all that grew out 
 of it. 
 
 Polygamy and hatred of the Gentiles belonged to Mor- 
 monism, and were renounced with it ; there was nothing, 
 therefore, to prevent either him or his wife from joining 
 themselves to the little band of Christians who taught the 
 doctrines of peace and good-will to men. In their com 
 munion, realizing at last that 
 
 " He is a freeman whom the truth makes free," 
 
 Philip found it possible at last to reconcile the claims of 
 conscience with the dictates ot reason.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 THE summer of 1871 . In a pleasant home in the Golden 
 State, the abode of wealth and refined taste, a family 
 group awaits the return of the master of the house. The 
 lady, young and fair, is a stranger to us, but the two 
 bright-eyed little ones who rush out upon the veranda 
 with a clamorous welcome for " Papa" remind us of 
 some one that we have seen before, and the gentleman they 
 have captured and are dragging in-doors has a face that is 
 familiar to us in spite of the changes which time has 
 wrought. 
 
 It is Francis La Tour, at present the happy owner of a 
 home which, we venture to say, fully realizes the dreams 
 that cheered him in the days when he wielded pick and 
 shovel in Chespar Gulch. He has been absent for a day 
 only, though one would judge from the excitement caused 
 by his arrival that he had just returned from a voyage 
 around the world. 
 
 The boy and girl, one on either side, present their cap 
 tive to mamma with delighted cries. La Tour salutes his 
 wife in a very lover-like fashion for a man who has been 
 ten years married, and as soon as he can succeed in brib 
 ing his small captors to leave him at liberty for a few mo 
 ments, draws his wife s arm within his and leads her into 
 the next room, out of hearing of the sharp ears of the two 
 youngsters. 
 
 "What does Kenyon say?" the wile asked as soon as 
 the door was closed.
 
 EPILOGUE. 267 
 
 " Just what you thought : that there is no more real lib 
 erty in Utah than there was ten years ago, and that there 
 is not the shadow of a chance that any Mormon will be 
 punished for such a small matter as killing a few people in 
 obedience to counsel. He says that while he was in Salt 
 Lake he never ventured on the street after dark and you 
 know Kenyon is not a coward." 
 
 " And Philip is he still determined to stay ?" 
 
 " Yes. He says that his work is in Utah, and he will 
 live and die there." 
 
 " He does not expect that the Government will enforce 
 the laws, and make Utah as safe a residence as Califor 
 nia ?" 
 
 " No, none of them seem to expect that ; but the Gentiles 
 are coming in in great numbers this year, and if the mines 
 of the Territory turn out as well as they promise to, the 
 immigration is likely to be larger each succeeding year. 
 He hopes, and so do others, that in ten years the Gentiles 
 may be in the majority, and in that case they will soon 
 have a new set of laws, and new men to administer 
 them." 
 
 The wife shook her head sadly. " I am afraid it will 
 not turn out as they hope," she said. " We used to hope 
 for the same thing fifteen years ago, but there is no change 
 for the better yet. My father s bones lie unburied in the 
 canon where they shot him, and I dare not think of my 
 sister s fate ; but to whom can I go to demand the punish 
 ment of the men who murdered my father and carried off 
 my sister ? I tell you, Brigham Young will rule while he 
 lives, and die at last in his bed, and be eulogized even out 
 side of the Mormon Church as one of the greatest men of 
 the age. This is my prophecy, and time will prove it true." 
 
 " Nevertheless, I honor Philip for his determination to 
 stay and fight out the battle with fraud and oppression,
 
 268 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 and I shall always be a coward in my own eyes if I do not 
 go to his help." 
 
 " Francis ! You don t mean that you would take us to 
 Utah ? You know it was not the fault of those who fol 
 lowed us that mother and I escaped with our lives." 
 
 " I know. But, my dear little wife, you have some one 
 to protect you now, and you would be in no more danger 
 than Jessie, who rebelled openly against the authority of 
 the Prophet years ago. There is a change for the better 
 by the incoming of the Gentiles, and even if the past is not 
 punished the present is less dangerous." 
 
 One October day, three months after the above conversa 
 tion, the cars landed Francis La Tour and his family at Salt 
 Lake. It was during the Fall Conference, and the city was 
 filled with Saints from the outlying settlements. The streets 
 were crowded also with miners, who had come in from the 
 surrounding camps to purchase their winter supplies, and 
 the sleepy Mormon capital which Elsie La Tour remem 
 bered seemed transformed into a busy, bustling Western 
 town. Their brother Philip s home was on a quiet street 
 at some distance from the main thoroughfares, and to 
 reach it they had to pass in sight of the Tabernacle. The 
 afternoon services were over, and at least ten thousand 
 people who had congregated in and around the building 
 were slowly dispersing. 
 
 " Look at those faces !" Francis whispered to his wife. 
 " There were brigands and cut-throats enough among the 
 Mormons when I left them, over twenty years ago, but 
 they must have received large accessions from those classes 
 since." 
 
 In truth, it would have been a difficult matter to find any 
 where among the same number of people a greater pro 
 portion of men whose laces expressed an ignorant and 
 brutal ferocity ; but there was a special cause just now for
 
 EPILOGUE. 269 
 
 the scowls and black looks which had caught La Tour s 
 attention. The United States Court, then in session, had 
 undertaken the task of investigating a few of the most no 
 torious crimes committed by the orders of the Church au 
 thorities, and a grand jury, composed of men not bound by 
 an oath to obey the Prophet in all things, had been impan 
 eled by the United States marshal to hear such evidence 
 as could be procured. As a result of these proceedings, in 
 dictments for murder had already been found against 
 many men in high places, and among these was the mayor 
 of Salt Lake, who occupied the position of Second Counsel 
 or to the Prophet. 
 
 " The Gentiles think they can succeed in their undertak 
 ing," Philip said to his brother the day after his arrival, 
 " but we who have once been in the Church know better. 
 The power of the Prophet was never more absolute than it 
 is to-day, though he is wise enough to change his methods. 
 He knows that to resist the law openly would be the very 
 worst thing for him just now, but his cunning makes him 
 more than a match for the Federal authorities, and all 
 that the courts are doing will only strengthen the Mor 
 mons in the end." 
 
 " I cannot understand that," Francis said. 
 
 " Wait a few months and youw/7/ understand," was the 
 answer. " This people have money and influence enough 
 to get everything which has been done here reversed, and 
 in that way establish their plea that they are persecuted for 
 conscience sake." 
 
 The next week brought still more exciting news. The 
 Prophet himself had been indicted for complicity in a num 
 ber of murders, and there were rumors on the street that 
 he had been arrested and taken to Camp Douglas. 
 
 " At last !" exclaimed Francis, " that wretch is to be 
 brought face to face with Justice."
 
 270 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 " Don t be too sure of that," Philip said. " He has not 
 been taken to Camp Douglas. He is under nominal arrest 
 in his own house, and you will see soon enough what that 
 means." 
 
 Francis did see ; for the Prophet continued to take daily 
 airings in his private carriage to visit his friends, and to 
 attend the weekly balls with which the Saints enliven the 
 dullness of the winter season. He was always accompa 
 nied, it is true, by the deputy marshal who was supposed 
 to have him in charge, but that officer treated him with 
 such marked deference that strangers doubtless supposed 
 him to be the Prophet s valet. 
 
 The winter passed slowly away. One hundred and 
 twenty-nine Mormons, most of them men who held impor 
 tant Territorial offices, were under indictment for capital 
 crimes ; but none of them languished in prison, for the 
 sufficient reason that all the prisons in the Territory were 
 under Mormon control. A few were under nominal arrest ; 
 that is to say, they occupied quarters in some of these 
 Mormon prisons, in which they received hosts of sympa 
 thizing friends, and had parties given in their honor ; but 
 by far the greater number were out on bail, pending an ap 
 peal which had been taken to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. 
 
 During the winter Francis La Tour occupied himself in 
 collecting evidence against the Prophet, and though his 
 brother assured him that his efforts were useless, he would 
 not be discouraged. The memory of his mother s wrongs 
 was always present with him, and since he had met her 
 enemy face to face he telt more determined than ever not 
 to rest until the penalty of his crimes was meted out to 
 him. 
 
 Spring came, and with it the anxiously expected decision 
 of the Supreme Court. Philip s prophecy proved correct
 
 EPILOGUE. 271 
 
 in every particular. The grand jury which had found the 
 indictments against the Prophet and his subordinates was 
 declared illegal because impaneled by the United States 
 marshal, and in less than a month the columns of the East 
 ern press teemed with strictures upon the conduct of the 
 Federal officers in Utah who had been engaged in " per 
 secuting" the Saints. 
 
 Meantime the Gentiles and those recusant Mormons who 
 had aided them in their efforts to bring notorious criminals 
 to justice felt the full force of the Prophet s wrath. It is 
 true that men were no longer shot down on the streets in 
 broad day ; but if the Danites were instructed to put any one 
 out of the way by poison, or in any other quiet manner, 
 they could do so without hindrance, as, no matter how 
 suddenly or strangely a man might die, no inquiry was 
 made as to the cause of his death. Moreover, now that 
 the United States courts were powerless, all questions re 
 lating to the security of life or property were referred to 
 the local courts, presided over by Mormon high priests, 
 and the arbitrary decrees of the Prophet were clothed with 
 legal forms and fulfilled to the letter by his sworn adher 
 ents, who held all the public offices in the Territory. 
 
 While matters were in this state, and at a time when 
 Francis La Tour was beginning to question seriously the 
 wisdom of the step he had taken in bringing his family to 
 Utah, Elsie discovered, by pure accident, the whereabouts 
 of her sister, who was dragging out a miserable life as the 
 neglected and abused plural wife of a man high in the 
 priesthood. This sister, of whom mention has been made 
 in the beginning of the present chapter, had been forcibly 
 detained when Elsie and her mother made their escape 
 from the Territory, and her fate was that of many another 
 unprotected girl who fell into the hands of the Mormon 
 leaders.
 
 272 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TO UK. 
 
 " Poor Julia ! ! Elsie said sorrowfully to her husband, 
 " I could wish that I had found her grave instead. She 
 dares not talk with me about what she endures, but her 
 face tells enough, even if I had not seen the miserable hut 
 in which she lives." 
 
 Elsie saw little of her unhappy sister, who was not al 
 lowed to visit her Gentile relatives. She lived in the out 
 skirts of the city, more than two miles from the handsome 
 house which Francis La Tour had bought. 
 
 Elsie went there a few times, but as her visits seemed to 
 distress the poor creature, they were gradually discon 
 tinued. 
 
 " Julia seems more unwilling than ever that I should see 
 her," she said to her husband one evening, after she had 
 driven out to the wretched cabin that her sister called 
 home. 
 
 " I suppose that is because the contrast between your lot 
 and hers makes her more unhappy," was the anwer. 
 
 " No, I do not think that is the reason. She looked 
 frightened when I came in this afternoon. I dare say that 
 brute had forbidden her to receive me, and I am almost 
 certain now that he beats her when she disobeys him. 
 There was a livid mark across her face to-day. She said 
 she had fallen and hurt herself, but to me it looke % d exactly 
 as though she had been struck in the face with a whip." 
 
 " If I were sure of that," Francis said, " I should not 
 deny myself the pleasure of breaking my cane over the fel 
 low s head when I meet him on the street." 
 
 " Oh, Francis !" His wife looked alarmed. " In this 
 place it will not do to interfere, no matter how badly 3. man 
 may treat his family. There is a better way, if Julia would 
 only consent to it. She has no children, as you know 
 nothing to keep her here and I am almost certain I could 
 get her safely out of the Territory ; but she will not go."
 
 EPILOGUE. 273 
 
 A few days after this conversation Elsie heard, through 
 a neighbor, that her sister was sick. No word had been 
 sent to her, and she knew that in all probability her pres 
 ence was not desired, but she started at once to go to her. 
 When she reached the cabin a couple of women were 
 standing in the doorway, and to her hurried inquiries one 
 of them answered briefly, 
 
 " She is dead." 
 
 Dead ! Elsie clutched the broken palings to keep herself 
 from falling. In that moment the years vanished away, 
 and she saw, instead of the miserable wreck of womanhood 
 that met her eyes when she last visited the cabin, the baby 
 sister with sunny curls, and eyes like April violets, whose 
 tiny hands she held while she took her first tottering steps. 
 And now the tired feet had ended their pilgrimage of sorrow 
 at the brink of the grave, when no one who loved her was 
 near to stay the faltering steps. How she must have longed 
 for human love in the hour of mortal weakness ! How she 
 must have looked, through the mists of death for the sister 
 who did not come ! 
 
 " Why was I not sent for ?" she asked of the two women, 
 whose stolid faces never changed. " I am her sister." 
 
 " Her husband was with her," was the only answer. 
 
 " He is not here now ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Then let me come in ;" for both women still stood in 
 the doorway, barring entrance. 
 
 "I m sorry ma am," one of them answered; "but 
 Brother Benson left strict orders not to let you in if you 
 should come." 
 
 Elsie was alone. Her husband had not known of her 
 coming, and with no help near she was forced to submit to 
 this harsh edict and turn away without looking upon the 
 face of the dead.
 
 274 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 Weeks afterward, Philip La Tour told his brother the 
 story of the poor creature s tragic fate as he had learned it 
 from others. " I would not have Elsie know the truth for 
 the world," he said ; " but there is not the least doubt that 
 her sister died by poison. She was accused of breaking 
 her covenants, and now, as in the past, an unsupported 
 accusation is all that is needed in the case of one whose 
 death is desired. The poor girl was weary of life, and con 
 sented, I am told, to take the poison. 
 
 " It is strange that the story should have freen allowed to 
 get out," Francis observed. 
 
 " Such reports circulate in whispers, and at last reach 
 ears for which they were not intended," Philip answered ; 
 " but a few years ago it would not have been thought 
 necessary to keep a case of blood-atonement secret." 
 
 " I might have asked last year if something could not be 
 done about it," Francis said ; " but I have learned a great 
 deal since then." 
 
 " You will learn more before another year," replied 
 Philip. " You can see already that while our local laws are 
 made and administered by the priesthood, Brigham Young 
 is the actual ruler of the Territory, and that the presence 
 of the Gentiles and of the Federal officers has no effect ex 
 cept to cause the Danites to do secretly what they used to 
 
 do openly." 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 Two more years passed, bringing no material changes to 
 the La Tours. Francis, who had invested a large sum in 
 the mines, found it necessary to stay in the Territory and 
 give personal attention to the development of his property. 
 Philip was as determined as ever to see the end of the con 
 flict between theocratic despotism and republican ideas, 
 and as Congress had lately passed a law which made it pos 
 sible for the Federal judges to resume their duties, he be-
 
 EPILOGUE. 275 
 
 gan to hope, not that past crimes would be punished, but 
 that present abuses might be checked in a measure. The 
 Prophet had determined to break up Philip s business, but 
 for once he failed in his undertaking. The money brought 
 into the Territory by the Gentiles, as well as much that 
 was taken out of the mines, helped to enrich the Saints 
 (who sold freely to the outsiders, though they bought noth 
 ing of them), but at the same time it saved from ruin those 
 ex-Mormon merchants who had been " delivered over to 
 the buffetings of Satan." The miners were Philip s best 
 customers, and he was a far richer man in 1875 than he 
 was ten years earlier, when the Prophet declared that he 
 should be blessed in basket and store. 
 
 His wife, too, had grown young again in the five years 
 that had elapsed since the shadow was lifted from their 
 hearthstone, and the bonny boy who was his mother s only 
 comfort in the days to which she could not look back with 
 out a shudder, now led about a little blue-eyed sister, while 
 a rosy baby claimed the cradle in the nursery. 
 
 Thus far the Prophet s curse had borne no fruit in their 
 lives ; and though at first Jessie always watched anxiously 
 for her husband s return when business detained him after 
 dark, her fears gradually died away, as year after year 
 passed without any token that the Danites were shadow 
 ing him. Still it was not usual for Philip to be absent un 
 til nine o clock without telling his wife where he might be 
 found, and when, one evening in the summer of 76, ten 
 o clock came without bringing the sound of the well-known 
 footstep for which the wife was listening, the old dread be 
 gan to oppress her, and though she told herself over and 
 over again that she was foolish and nervous, when the 
 clock struck eleven she could bear her anxieties no longer. 
 An errand-boy employed in the store slept at the house, 
 and waking him she sent him for Francis. It was nearly
 
 276 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 twelve when his brother came, and still Philip had not re 
 turned. 
 
 "I will go out at once and search for him," Francis 
 said. 
 
 "Where could you search?" the wife asked, as the 
 hopelessness of such an attempt presented itself to her 
 mind. " It harm has come to him, the police have acted 
 the same part that they did in the Robinson, murder. You 
 could get no help from them; but I will not believe yet that 
 anything has happened. I spent a terrible night once 
 years ago, when he did not come home until daylight. He 
 was called away to the house of a sick friend, and the boy 
 that he sent to tell me never delivered the message. Most 
 probably something of the same sort has occurred now." 
 
 Yet while she tried to speak hopefully her face was so 
 white that Francis rose once more to go out into the 
 street, saying, " I will find him, wherever he is." But 
 before he finished speaking they heard the gate open, and 
 in a moment more Philip entered. 
 
 " I have caused a great deal of anxiety, I fear," he 
 said, as soon as the door closed behind him ; " but I could 
 not help it, and it is just as well that Francis is here, for 
 he is as much interested as I in what I have to tell. 
 
 " It was late when I left the office, but I thought I 
 would stop in a few minutes to see Blanche. I have fan 
 cied for weeks that she looked badly, but as, thus far, she 
 has always obeyed counsel, and refused to confide in any 
 of us, I could not find out whether she was ill or ii) trou 
 ble. To-night I knocked two or three times, and not get 
 ting any answer I took the liberty to open the door and 
 go directly to the sitting-room, where I thought I should 
 be sure to find her. The hall lamp was burning, but 
 there was no light in any other part of the house. I 
 struck a light myself, and there on the floor of her sitting-
 
 EPILOGUE. 277 
 
 room the poor child lay insensible. At first I thought 
 her dead. Poor little Blanche ! It might have been bet 
 ter tor her if she had been." 
 
 " Why, Philip ! What can you mean ?" his wife asked 
 with a shocked face. 
 
 " Wait and you will hear. There was no one in the 
 house with her, as I found after calling repeatedly for her 
 husband and the servant. I tried first to restore her by 
 dashing water in her face, but tailing in this I hunted up 
 some more powerful remedies, and in a little while suc 
 ceeded in bringing her back to consciousness. Her first 
 attempt to talk to me, however, ended in a fit of hysterical 
 sobbing, and it was an hour more before she was com 
 posed enough to answer my questions. Jessie knows how 
 positive Blanche has always been in her belief that her 
 husband would never take another wife, and I own I 
 shared this belief for a long time ; but two years ago, 
 when the Prophet determined to force the whole people 
 into polygamy, in order to outlaw those who had not com 
 mitted other crimes, I began to tremble for my little sis 
 ter s happiness, and of late I could not help seeing that a 
 great change had come over her and her husband. It 
 seems Blanche has known that a strong pressure was 
 brought to bear upon her husband months ago, to wring a 
 promise from him to take another wife. The Prophet 
 had managed to tie up all Richard s money in his co 
 operative schemes, and of course he would never see a 
 dollar of that again if he disobeyed counsel ; but there was 
 another cause one that Blanche never learned anything 
 about until to-night which operated more powerfully 
 than the fear of losing his money to bring him to the 
 Prophet s terms. 
 
 " Richard knew all the facts about Van Wirt, Clive, 
 and some others who died after being so roughly handled
 
 278 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 by the police at the City Hall, and though he would have 
 prevented those murders if he had been a free agent, he 
 feels now that he is involved in the crimes of the city au 
 thorities, and no doubt the law would take the same view 
 of his case. Blanche did not mean to tell me all this, but 
 her wretchedness had broken down her caution as well as 
 her pride, and before she knew it she was telling me her 
 troubles as freely as she used to when she was a little 
 girl, and Brother Philip took the place of father and 
 mother both." 
 
 " I can guess the remainder of the story," Francis said. 
 
 Jessie was silent. Her head rested on her hand, and her 
 face showed that the old wounds which the years had 
 seemed to heal were reopened. 
 
 " You may not be able to guess all," Philip said in an 
 swer to his brother s remark. " It was easy enough to 
 foresee, months ago, that Richard would eventually be 
 forced into polygamy ; but it appears the Prophet made 
 up his mind that Blanche deserved a special punishment 
 for her obstinate refusal to consent to the marriage, and 
 so it has been decreed that Richard shall take as his wife 
 a servant girl that Blanche discharged last winter a 
 bold, forward piece, who spent half her time curling her 
 hair and dressing up to attract Richard s notice that is 
 what poor Blanche told me to-night, forgetting that she 
 gave a very different reason at the time for dismissing the 
 girl." 
 
 " And has Blanche so little spirit that she will submit to 
 such an arrangement ?" Francis asked. 
 
 " How can she help herself ?" Jessie said, speaking for 
 the first time. " You forget the law under which we are 
 living the law which says, If a woman refuse to give 
 other wives to her husband, he shall take them without 
 her consent, and she shall be destroyed for her disobedi-
 
 EPILOGUE. 279 
 
 ence. Blanche has refused her consent, but the mar 
 riage will take place all the same, and her punishment 
 will come afterward." 
 
 " I will go to the Federal authorities in the morning," 
 Francis said, rising hastily. " I will lodge information 
 against Richard, and have this thing stopped." 
 
 " How will you stop it ?" It was Philip who asked the 
 question this time. " When the courts are powerless to 
 punish a plural marriage after it has taken place, how can 
 you expect them to prevent such marriages ? We know 
 of more than one wife who has gone to the United States 
 Court in this city to beg that her husband s second mar 
 riage might be prevented, but the answer has always 
 been, We can do nothing for you. Neither you nor I nor 
 the Federal authorities can prevent Richard from marry 
 ing that girl to-morrow ; but I have thought it possible that 
 we may save Blanche from the punishment that, as Jessie 
 says, is to come afterward. The Prophet has decreed that, 
 to make this punishment complete, the new wife is to be 
 brought directly home and made the mistress of the house. 
 If Blanche will only institute a suit for divorce as soon as 
 the girl is brought there, I think the judge will be just 
 enough to decide that she shall keep the house in which 
 she lives." 
 
 " Maybe he will not grant the divorce. You say no one 
 is punished for polygamy." 
 
 " True, because in the first place it is impossible to get 
 proof, in court, of a polygamous marriage, which takes 
 place in the Endowment House, and is witnessed only by 
 those who are bound by an oath to divulge nothing ; and 
 in the second place it is probable that when the criminal 
 is tried there will be men on the jury who are bound by a 
 similar oath to convict nobody ; but if Blanche asks for a 
 divorce it will be easy enough to prove that she is entitled
 
 280 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 to that, and the Federal judge, and not a Mormon jury, will 
 decide the case." 
 
 " All I have to say, then, is, that if Blanche does not 
 avail herself of the only remedy the law offers her, she 
 does not deserve our pity." 
 
 These were the elder brother s last words as he took his 
 leave of the others for the night. Two days afterward 
 Philip learned that the second marriage had taken place, 
 but the bride had not been brought home. Blanche, 
 who in this emergency developed a spirit which had been 
 latent during the happier years of her life, had barricaded 
 every door and window, and announced her determination 
 to hold possession of the place at all hazards. 
 
 " If a few more of the women in this Territory would 
 take such a course, polygamy would be broken up in less 
 than three years," Francis said. 
 
 " Wait a little and see how the thing ends," his brother 
 advised. " You may not be so sure, six months from 
 now, that her course is the best one." 
 
 For two weeks Blanche was the sole occupant of the 
 house she had fortified. At the end of that time she fell 
 sick, and the doors were opened to admit Jessie, who 
 nursed her tenderly, and would gladly have offered such 
 sympathy as Blanche manifested in her own hour of mor 
 tal pain, in that dark past which she could never forget. 
 But the nature once so sweet and tender was embittered 
 and hardened by misery and despair, and Blanche turned 
 a deaf ear to her sister s pitying words. She did not pray for 
 death, as Jessie had done, but she seemed to wish to live only 
 that she might see such punishment as they deserved visited 
 upon her husband and the girl who had supplanted her. 
 
 "The law cannot reach them yet," she said to Jessie, 
 " but I shall live to see the day when it will. I shall live 
 to see them both in prison, branded as felons."
 
 EPILOGUE. 281 
 
 " You do not wish to see your husband there ?" Jessie 
 ventured to say. 
 
 " I have no husband." The face of the wronged wife 
 grew livid, and her hands worked convulsively. " I can 
 not go on loving as as some women do. My love had 
 received its death-blow the night that Philip found 
 me." 
 
 Blanche was soon to learn that the law which was pow 
 erless to punish a man for breaking his marriage vows 
 was strong enough when used as an instrument of ven 
 geance against a woman who refused to give other wives 
 to her husband. In three weeks from the day of Richard 
 Barney s second marriage, the house which his wife had 
 called her home for nearly twenty years was sold, and 
 Blanche received formal notice from the purchaser to va 
 cate the premises.* 
 
 " I will never leave the house alive," she declared to 
 Philip. 
 
 " You cannot hold possession after the place is sold," 
 Philip answered. " The man who has bought it and paid 
 for it has a right to his property." 
 
 " I did not expect you to turn against me," Blanche said 
 bitterly. 
 
 " My poor girl ! You know your brothers would still be 
 your friends if all the world should turn against you. I 
 am only telling you the facts. The court on which you 
 rely for help will send officers to eject you from the prem 
 ises if you do not give up possession." 
 
 * Under the laws of Utah a wife has no right of dower ; consequent 
 ly, when she displeases her husband he can sell the house in which 
 she lives, or deed it to a plural spouse, and turn her into the street. 
 The occurrence related above came under the writer s personal obser 
 vation in 1876.
 
 282 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 But Blanche would not be convinced, and in spite of her 
 brother s efforts to persuade her to leave, remained in the 
 house until the purchaser procured a writ of ejectment, and 
 she was removed by force. 
 
 In other days the Prophet would have called upon the 
 Danites to enforce the law which declares that a woman 
 who refuses to give other wives to her husband shall be 
 destroyed, but now he found it wiser to make the officers 
 of the United States Government the instruments of his 
 will. The writ which turned the disobedient wife into 
 the street was issued by a Federal judge, and served by a 
 United States marshal. When, a few weeks later, Blanche 
 applied for a divorce, the same judge granted it, and de 
 creed her the munificent sum of six dollars per month as 
 alimony, and in less than a year the husband was released 
 altogether from the payment of alimony to the wife who 
 had dared to rebel against polygamy. No blame, how 
 ever, could be made to attach to the judge in this matter, 
 for the husband, anticipating the suit for divorce, had put 
 all his property out of his hands, and when the case came 
 to trial any number of Mormon witnesses were found 
 ready to testify that he received no salary for his services 
 in the Co-operative Mercantile Institution, but was work 
 ing out a debt. 
 
 In his heart the Prophet doubtless felt that he had little 
 more need of the Danites, and it was a noticeable fact 
 that about this time the older and more trusted ones 
 those who knew most of the dark deeds of former years 
 began to drop off. They were men advanced in years, 
 whose death might naturally have been expected, and as 
 they adhered to the teachings of the Church and called no 
 physician in time of sickness, but depended instead on the 
 ministrations of the elders who possessed the gift of heal-
 
 EPILOGUE. 283 
 
 ing, no one competent to decide whether or not death was 
 due to natural causes was present in their last hours. It 
 seemed as though the ruler of the people had made a com 
 pact with Death to keep his secrets for him. 
 
 But that ghostly ally, whom he had sought to propitiate 
 by the sacrifice of his trusted adherents, at last laid his 
 hand on the Prophet himself. 
 
 " The tyrant is dead ! Thank God !" In these words 
 Francis La Tour announced the event to his wife. 
 
 " He died peacefully in his bed, as I prophesied years 
 ago ; is it not so ?" she asked. 
 
 " He died in his bed, that is true, but it could not have 
 been a peaceful death." 
 
 " And he will be eulogized, as I said. Men whose 
 words have weight with the nation will praise him as the 
 founder of a commonwealth, as one who has turned the 
 wilderness into a garden, and peopled this Territory with 
 hardy and industrious immigrants. I can see in my mind 
 the very sentences that will be inscribed in his praise, 
 while the syste-m that he built up is proving a heavier 
 curse than ever to the people." 
 
 Elsie La Tour did not lay claim to the gift of prophecy, 
 but her words proved true. And to-day, though the 
 Prophet is dead, Mormonism lives, and is strengthening 
 itself and enlarging its boundaries year by year. Its rule 
 is absolute in Utah, and it holds the balance of power in 
 the adjoining Territories. The potency of the system is 
 felt In the halls of Congress, and while its high priests 
 are boasting loudly that the nation dares not interfere 
 with a religion that teaches treason and murder, thou 
 sands of European immigrants are being brought to Utah 
 to take the oath of unquestioning obedience to the author 
 ity of the Church, and of perpetual enmity to the Govern 
 ment and people of the United States.
 
 284 THE FATE OF MADAME LA TOUR. 
 
 For nearly half a century the Mormon leaders have 
 been industriously engaged in sowing the seeds of disloy 
 alty to the Government and hatred to the nation. What 
 will the harvest be ? Let our statesmen answer the ques 
 tion.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 UTAH : 1870-1881. 
 
 THE year 1870 may properly be characterized as the be 
 ginning of regeneration in Utah, for it witnessed the 
 completion of the Pacific Railroad and the commencement 
 of mining. 
 
 It is true that prospecting had been carried on to a limit 
 ed extent for seven years previous to that date, and in Little 
 Cottonwood and Bingham caftons Gentile capitalists had 
 expended thousands of dollars in the partial development 
 of mining claims that promised well ; but the ignorance of 
 many who had the business in hand with regard to the 
 proper treatment of silver-lead ores, the scarcity of charcoal 
 and coke for smelting purposes, and, above all, the want 
 of means of transportation (for previous to 1868 there was 
 no railroad within a thousand miles of Utah), combined to 
 render the mines unprofitable. 
 
 The year 1870, however, witnessed many changes. The 
 completion of the transcontinental railway brought the 
 isolated " valleys of the mountains" into direct communi 
 cation with the civilized world. With freight across the 
 plains reduced from twenty-five cents to three cents per 
 pound, the miners were no longer dependent upon the 
 Saints for supplies, and the bullion which the smelters 
 turned out could be shipped to the States at a handsome 
 profit. 
 
 Immediately following these changes came the discovery 
 of the Emma Mine and the publication to the world of the 
 enormous mineral wealth of the Territory.
 
 286 APPENDIX. 
 
 During the summer and autumn of 1870 the " stampede" 
 to the new mining country was continuous, and in the 
 spring of 1871 the Gentile residents of Utah numbered at 
 least five thousand souls. The majority of these were, of 
 course, miners ; but in Salt Lake City there were a goodly 
 number of Gentile merchants and professional men who 
 had brought their families with them, and Corinne, a rail 
 road town laid out in 1869, had a population of twelve 
 hundred, all of whom were Gentiles. 
 
 With so large a representation from the outside world 
 in the Territory, and with railroad communication open be 
 tween Utah and the States, the Prophet saw the wisdom of 
 abandoning the shot-gun policy, adopted in former years, 
 to keep miners out of the kingdom ; but he was by no 
 means at the end of his resources. 
 
 Every possible obstacle was thrown in the way of the 
 miners, and as the political and legislative, and to a great 
 extent the judicial machinery of the Territory was alto 
 gether in Mormon hands, the " possible obstacles" were 
 many. 
 
 In the winter of 1871-72 a coup d etat was planned to 
 rid the Territory of its unwelcome guests. The Utah 
 Legislature (composed wholly of Mormon high priests) 
 passed an act imposing a tax of twenty per cent on the 
 gross proceeds of the mines. This act, had it become a 
 law, would have compelled every mine in the Territory to 
 shut down, except possibly the Emma, which was produc 
 ing ore to the amount of five thousand dollars per day. 
 
 The Gentile Governor, being invested with the power of 
 an absolute veto, nipped this precious scheme in the bud ; 
 but at every subsequent session of this inspired Legislature 
 bills have been framed and presented having the same ob 
 ject in view namely, the complete destruction of the min 
 ing interests of the Territory.
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 287 
 
 In the May number of The North American Review, Mr. 
 George O. Cannon, late Delegate from Utah to the House of 
 Representatives, alludes to the current rumor of the above 
 fact, and denies it. 
 
 Mr. Cannon is hereby referred to Governor Emery s veto 
 of the bill to suppress the smelters in the Territory {Jour 
 nals of the Legislature for 1876, page 261) and likewise to 
 his veto of the bill levying a tax on the mines and a double 
 tax on their products. (Journal lor 1878, page 321.) 
 
 In that portion of Mr. Cannon s artick which relates 
 to the mineral development of the Territory, I find the 
 following assertion : 
 
 " Every person was at liberty to do as he pleased about 
 prospecting for or opening mines." 
 
 On the i6th day of October, 1869, an article appeared in 
 the Utah Magazine, published in Salt Lake, advocating 
 the opening of the mines that were known to exist in the 
 Territory. This article was written by E. L. T. Harrison, 
 editor of the magazine, and indorsed by Wm. S. Godbe, 
 the publisher. Both Godbe and Harrison were immedi 
 ately summoned to appear before the School of the Proph 
 ets, and there in the presence of two thousand of the elders 
 of the Church, Harrison was asked to rise and explain how 
 it was that he dared to write the article in question. His 
 answer not being satisfactory to the ruling powers, he was 
 formally summoned to trial before the High Council. 
 
 Wm. S. Godbe was next called upon to define his posi 
 tion, the test question asked him being : " Do you believe 
 that President Young has the right to dictate to you in all 
 things, both temporal and spiritual ?" 
 
 A negative answer to this question let loose a storm of 
 wrath on Godbe s head, and he too received notice to 
 appear before the Council. 
 
 On the following Wednesday the trial took place. The
 
 288 APPENDIX, 
 
 two men, both of them possessed of more than ordinary 
 intelligence and culture, and both well known then and 
 now in business circles, were held to answer for the hein 
 ous crime of advocating the development of the mineral 
 resources of the Territory, and were cut off from the 
 Church and delivered over to the buffetings of Satan. 
 George O. Cannon acted as prosecutor for the Church on 
 the occasion of the trial. And yet George O. Cannon says 
 that every person was at liberty to do as he pleased about 
 prospecting forr opening mines ! 
 
 And if Mormons could not venture to express the opin 
 ion that the Territory would be benefited by the develop 
 ment of the mines, much less could Gentiles venture to ex 
 plore the mineral districts of Utah with safety to them 
 selves. General P. E. Connor, the commanding officer at 
 Fort Douglass in 1862-3-4, made the first mining locations 
 in the Territory, and he was obliged to detail soldiers to 
 protect the men engaged in working the mines. 
 
 As late as February, 1876, when the mining population 
 of the Territory numbered more than five thousand, and the 
 annual production of the mines amounted in value to six 
 million dollars, the Legislature passed an act declaring that 
 the smelters (who had built on unoccupied lands at some 
 distance from any settlement), should be suppressed as 
 public nuisances. 
 
 Governor Emery promptly vetoed this bill ; but the fact 
 that it failed to become a law did not discourage its 
 framers, who are still bent upon driving out the miners, 
 and confident that they will some day succeed. 
 
 Meanwhile, in spite of all the obstacles thrown in its 
 way, mining has become a paying industry. There are 
 more than fifty organized mining districts in the Territory, 
 with not far from one thousand producing mines, and an 
 unlimited and constantly increasing number of " pros-
 
 UTAH : 1870-1881. 289 
 
 pects," many of which promise well and are likely to be 
 come paying mines in the near future. 
 
 In 1876 Utah stood third on the list of bullion-producing 
 States and Territories. To-day her rank should be still 
 higher, for there has been a great increase in the number 
 of paying mines since that date, and it is confidently ex 
 pected that the bullion produced the present year will 
 amount in value to. ten million dollars. 
 
 Speaking from personal knowledge, obtained during 
 nine years residence in the midst of her mines, I have no 
 hesitation whatever in saying that the mineral wealth of 
 Utah is incalculable, and practically inexhaustible. 
 
 Take a single example. 
 
 Within the limits of a square mile, on the divide be 
 tween two caftons known respectively as Big and Little 
 Cottonwood, a few mines, only partially developed, have 
 produced silver-lead ores to the amount of twenty million 
 dollars in the last eight years, and from present indica 
 tions the same mines are likely to be largely productive 
 for many years to come. 
 
 In the vicinity of these mines, but on the opposite side of 
 the range, is the Ontario, producing gold and silver-bear 
 ing ores. This mine has for four years past paid regular 
 monthly dividends, aggregating three million dollars over 
 and above all expenses. 
 
 On the west side of Salt Lake valley is the Oquirrh 
 range, in which the first mineral discoveries were made in 
 1863, by parties attached to General Connor s command. 
 The mines in this range contained immense bodies of low- 
 grade smelting ores that is, lead ores carrying a very- 
 small percentage of silver. These mines were indus 
 triously worked, and yielded large profits to their owners 
 until the fail in lead. 
 
 When that metal was quoted in New York at prices that
 
 29 APPENDIX. 
 
 would not pay for shipment, the plucky owners of the 
 lead mines, instead of sitting down in despair, began to 
 look around for something else, and the result was that the 
 Oquirrh range was found to be ribbed with gold. Both 
 quartz and placer mining have already become important 
 industries in the Oquirrh cafions, and the gold bricks that 
 are shipped monthly to Salt Lake are pleasant reminders 
 of old times to the " Forty-niners" in that city. 
 
 The southern portion of our Territory was the last to 
 admit the miner the last, indeed, to yield in any way to 
 the pressure of civilization. Remote from railroads, 
 hemmed in by mountains, its valleys inhabited by a popu 
 lation ignorant and fanatical to the last degree, with a 
 large sprinkling of notorious criminals who had fled from 
 the north at the first intimation that the Government pro 
 posed to investigate the dark deeds of the past twenty 
 years, southern Utah possessed few attractions for the 
 Gentile immigrant. 
 
 Five years ago, however, the irrepressible prospector, to 
 whom difficulty and danger are attractions in and of them 
 selves, began to penetrate the cafions and climb the 
 mountains of the South, and at the present date the largest 
 bodies of silver-lead ore yet discovered in the Territory, or 
 perhaps in the world, are being opened up in that section. 
 
 Late explorations have also convinced experienced 
 miners that these immense ore bodies are in a mineral belt 
 which extends from Colorado through Utah and southern 
 Nevada to the coast, and at the present writing numerous 
 prospecting parties are outfitting here for an exploring ex 
 pedition, which they believe will result in opening up new 
 and rich mining districts along the line which separates 
 Utah from Colorado. 
 
 But gold, silver, and lead are by no means the only 
 mineral products of Utah. Copper ores are abundant ;
 
 UTAH : 1870-1881. 291 
 
 iron exists in immense quantities ; bismuth and cinnabar 
 are found in certain districts ; coal abounds in different 
 parts of the Territory ; there is salt enough to supply this 
 world, and sulphur sufficient to meet all demands in a 
 certain quarter in the next. 
 
 Fire-clay is plentiful ; also potter s clay ; there is excel 
 lent building-stone, including granite and marble of a su 
 perior quality. Black lead, alum, borax, and gypsum are 
 disseminated throughout the Territory, and in the south 
 ern districts are immense beds of paraffine. 
 
 Should the reader be disposed to ask why the mineral 
 wealth of Utah fails to attract attention, or why capitalists 
 are slow to make investments in the Territory, the answer 
 is easily found : 
 
 The mines are under the ban of the priesthood, and as 
 Church and State are here one and inseparable, those who 
 are aware of the existing condition of affairs decline to 
 place themselves under the rule of the Mormon hierarchy. 
 In a word, the un-American aspect of the Territory, viewed 
 both from a social and a political standpoint, deters 
 American citizens from either making it their home or 
 investing their money in its mines. 
 
 It is from this cause, and this alone, that Territories which 
 were settled ten years later than Utah have vastly out 
 stripped her, and become prosperous States, while her 
 resources remain undeveloped. Is it, then, a thing to be 
 wondered at, that the non-Mormon residents of Utah have 
 determined upon organized and unswerving opposition to 
 priestly rule, or that they petition Congress year after year 
 for such legislation as will secure to them the common 
 rights of American citizens ? 
 
 I have alluded elsewhere to the doings of the Utah Leg 
 islature. 
 
 As before stated, this Legislature is composed of thirty-
 
 292 APPENDIX. 
 
 nine Mormon high priests, thirty-six of whom are living 
 in polygamy. These law-makers hold their offices year 
 after year, seldom dying and never resigning. I say their 
 offices, for nearly every one of them fills two or three 
 official positions besides that of member of the Legisla 
 ture. 
 
 They are supposed to be elected by the people, but the 
 election is a farce which might easily be dispensed with. 
 Good Mormons, who thought they were stating a fact 
 which spoke well for their people, have said to me, 
 
 " The election is only a form ; we are all of one mind." 
 
 The marked ballots which are placed in the hands of 
 the voters by the priesthood are understood by them as a 
 notice that Brother So-and-so has been appointed to a cer 
 tain office by the President of the Church, and that ends 
 the matter. 
 
 The Head of the Church selects a man to fill a certain 
 position, and the people have nothing to say ; indeed, the 
 majority of them have grown so accustomed to the yoke 
 that they do not wish to have anything to say. 
 
 When Hooper, a monogamist, was superseded as Dele 
 gate to Congress by Cannon, the husband of four wives, 
 Brigham Young said, 
 
 " I have chosen Brother Cannon to represent us in Con 
 gress, because I mean to cram polygamy down the throats 
 of the American people." 
 
 Mr. Cannon stamps this statement, which has been often 
 made, as a fabrication. A gentleman who was present 
 when the Prophet made use of this expression said to me 
 only a few hours ago, that it was one of the things which 
 Cannon should not have attempted to deny, inasmuch as it 
 was a part of a boastful and intemperate address which 
 Brigham Young delivered in the Tabernacle in the hearing 
 of many hundreds. As I was a resident ot Salt Lake at
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 293 
 
 the time, and heard of it, probably the same day that it 
 was used, from several parties, I am forced to conclude 
 that Mr. Cannon s memory has again proved treacherous. 
 
 Delegate Cannon was selected by the Prophet ; the bur 
 lesque called an " election" was not in the least necessary, 
 except for outside effect. 
 
 In like manner the members of the Legislature have 
 been chosen to fill their present positions, and they are the 
 servants, not of the people they are supposed to represent, 
 but of the Head of the Church, who can remove them at 
 pleasure should they prove disobedient. They meet once 
 in two yea/s, the Government pays them their per diem 
 and mileage, and they spend forty days legislating indus 
 triously in the interests of the Church. 
 
 If it were not for the absolute veto power possessed by 
 the Governor, they would have legislated the Gentiles out 
 of the Territory long ago. As it is, they are hindered 
 somewhat in their laudable efforts to purify Zion, but oc 
 casionally they accomplish something that pays them for 
 years of toil and disappointment. 
 
 For example, in 1872 they passed an act depriving the 
 first wife of her dower, and of any and all claims upon the 
 property or earnings of her husband. This act, in some 
 way not yet understood by the Gentile residents, obtained 
 the Governor s approval and became a law ; consequently 
 any man may sell his home, put his wife and children on 
 the street, and leave them to shift for themselves. In 
 Mormon families this power which the husband is known 
 to possess is held as a sword over the head of a wife who 
 is disposed to protest against the introduction of a plural 
 into the household. 
 
 During the same session of the Legislature a number of 
 bills equally outrageous were vetoed by the Governor ; but 
 the legislators, nothing daunted, returned to the charge
 
 294 APPENDIX. 
 
 the next session, and when the Governor vetoed their pet 
 measures they passed them over his head by what they 
 called a joint resolution. 
 
 It is true the organic act of the Territory impaired the 
 efficacy of these joint resolutions, but when circumstances 
 made it possible for them to carry out their own behests 
 they pursued the even tenor of their way, unhindered by 
 organic acts or anything else. 
 
 For instance, one of the acts passed by joint resolution 
 was an appropriation bill which turned the entire contents 
 of the treasury over to the Mormon leaders ; and as the 
 auditor and treasurer were both good Saints, who dared 
 not disobey counsel, the provisions of this bill, which the 
 Governor had disapproved in a most emphatic message, 
 were carried out to the letter, and the brethren emptied the 
 treasury in an astonishingly short space of time. 
 
 In 1876 a bill was passed designed to shield all the per 
 petrators of crimes committed in obedience to counsel dur 
 ing Utah s darkest days. By the provisions of this act all 
 murders committed more than ten years ago were declared 
 outlawed, and prosecution was forever barred. 
 
 The Governor vetoed the bill, in a message couched in 
 very decisive language, but the brethren betrayed no con 
 sciousness of defeat.- With witnesses and jurors entirely 
 under their control, they felt safe for the present, and they 
 had faith in the future. 
 
 Previous to 1869 the probate courts, presided over by 
 some of the most ignorant and fanatical members of the 
 priesthood, claimed both common law and chancery juris 
 diction, and the district courts, presided over by judges 
 appointed by the Federal Government, might as well have 
 been located in the moon. 
 
 Many of the United States judges were driven from the 
 Territory, others were shamefully insulted and maltreated,
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 295 
 
 and under the most favorable circumstances the court had 
 no power to enforce its decrees. 
 
 In 1869, however, two judges were appointed who soon 
 convinced the people that they had come to stay, and that 
 all the power conferred on the district courts by the or 
 ganic act of the Territory would be claimed and exercised. 
 These judges C. M. Hawley, of Illinois, and O. F. Strick 
 land, of Michigan were lawyers of solid attainments, 
 and possessed likewise of judicial firmness, and of a proper 
 sense of their obligations to the Government they repre 
 sented. From the day on which they ascended the bench 
 the district courts began to afford redress to the victims 
 of Mormon tyranny, and a panic seized upon the blood 
 stained wretches who were known as the Destroying 
 Angels of the Church. 
 
 In August, 1870, Chief Justice J. B. McKean arrived in 
 Utah. To-day, after death has embalmed his virtues and 
 silenced his calumniators ; to-day, when his memory is en 
 shrined in the hearts of thousands as that of a spotless Chris 
 tian, an incorruptible judge, the friend of the oppressed, 
 the unswerving foe of wrong, it is possible to review im 
 partially the years of his administration -years from which 
 the smoke of battle has barely cleared away. 
 
 The year previous to Judge McKean s appointment, As 
 sociate Justices Hawley and Strickland, with a full knowl 
 edge of the manner in which the execution of the law had 
 been defeated by grand and petit juries composed of Mor 
 mons who recognized no law except the will of the 
 Prophet, had issued orders to the United States marshal to 
 impanel juries in their respective districts. In conformity 
 with the order of court, United States marshal M. S. Pat 
 rick proceeded to summon grand and petit juries com 
 posed of Gentiles and recusant Mormons of known integ 
 rity. The Saints, through their legal advisers, objected to
 
 296 APPENDIX. 
 
 these juries as not having been impaneled according to the 
 laws of Utah. Chief Justice McKean rendered an able 
 decision, sustaining the course taken by his associates, and 
 at the terms of court held in the different judicial districts 
 during 1870 and 1871 the juries impaneled by the United 
 States marshal were composed altogether of Gentiles and 
 seceders from the Mormon Church. 
 
 During these years one hundred and twenty-nine per 
 sons were indicted for the commission of murders, un 
 speakable mutilations, and other atrocious crimes. 
 
 Brigham Young was indicted for complicity in a num 
 ber of murders. He was not, however, imprisoned, but 
 was allowed to remain in his own house under surveil 
 lance. 
 
 Four indictments for murder were found against D. H. 
 Wells, mayor of Salt Lake, but he was allowed to remain 
 at large upon giving bonds to the amount of fifty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 In the mean time an appeal from the decision of the Su 
 preme Court of the Territory had been taken to the Su 
 preme Court of the United States, and in the spring of 
 1872 a decision was rendered reversing the decision which 
 had been rendered by Judges McKean and Hawley, and 
 concurred in by Judge Strickland. 
 
 The Mormons were triumphant. Their Prophet assured 
 them that Heaven had interposed in their behalf, and de 
 feated their enemies. The district courts were again 
 powerless, and the probate courts claimed and exercised 
 the jurisdiction which they had assumed for twenty years 
 past. 
 
 Judicial affairs in the Territory remained in this state 
 until June, 1874, when the passage of the Poland Bill by 
 Congress defined the status of the probate courts, re 
 affirmed the chancery and common law jurisdiction of the
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 297 
 
 district courts, and gave a jury law, clumsy and inefficient, 
 it is true, but still a little better than none. 
 
 This jury law, which is still in force at the present writ 
 ing, provides that the probate judge (always a Mormon 
 priest), shall select one hundred names, and the clerk of 
 the district court one hundred names, and that these two 
 hundred names shall be written upon separate slips of pa 
 per and thrown into a box. From this box the United 
 States marshal draws, in open court, a sufficient number 
 of names to constitute a panel. The names drawn are 
 Mormon or Gentile, as it may happen, but when the jurors 
 are challenged for cause, chance no longer rules. The 
 Gentile jurors are men who read, and also men who have 
 some regard for the sanctity of a judicial oath ; hence it 
 happens that most of them, upon examination, will admit 
 that they have read or heard of the case in hand. The 
 Mormon jurors, on the contrary, regard no oath as bind 
 ing which conflicts with their Endowment oath. Of course, 
 if a brother Saint is to be tried, it is their duty to get on 
 the jury and save him, and it is edifying to observe the uni 
 formity with which they swear that they have never heard 
 or read of a case which has filled the newspapers and been 
 publicly commented upon by all classes for months and 
 years. It is due to the causes indicated that the juries 
 impaneled to try notorious Mormon criminals are almost 
 always Mormons, who are bound to acquit the accused, 
 even in the face of the most positive evidence. This, too, 
 has a bearing upon Representative Cannon s article. 
 
 In spite of the difficulties which they foresaw as conse 
 quences of the partial and imperfect provisions of the Po 
 land Bill, the United States judges once more entered 
 upon their appropriate duties, and although (owing to the 
 features of the jury law mentioned above) it was seldom 
 possible to convict a Mormon of any crime, the fact that
 
 298 APPENDIX. 
 
 those who had so long defied the law were now held 
 amenable to it acted as a wholesome restraint, and the 
 property and lives of Gentiles and apostates became com 
 paratively safe. 
 
 In March, 1875, Brigham Young, for refusing to comply 
 with an order of the Third District Court, was adjudged 
 guilty of contempt, and Chief Justice McKean sentenced 
 him to twenty-tour hours imprisonment therefor. In obe 
 dience to the mandate of the court, the United States mar 
 shal conveyed the Prophet to the penitentiary, four miles 
 south of Salt Lake City, the only prison in the Territory 
 not in Mormon hands. 
 
 This penitentiary, which is United States property, is 
 every way worthy the pencil of Nast. While Brigham 
 Young filled the office of Governor of Utah, Congress ap 
 propriated thirty thousand dollars to build a United States 
 penitentiary in the Territory. The money went where a 
 great deal of money went in those days namely, into the 
 Prophet s coffers and a few score of poor Saints were 
 allowed, as a special favor, to work out their arrears of 
 tithing by making adobes from the mud of the penitentiary 
 quarter-section, and building with them a prison, which 
 the Government was expected to regard as an equivalent 
 for the thirty thousand dollars. 
 
 The result of their labors was an adobe wall which an 
 enterprising woodchuck could dig through in two hours. 
 This wall incloses an acre of ground, in the center of 
 which was a species of dug-out divided into half a dozen 
 compartments. 
 
 When the United States marshal took possession of the 
 premises in 1871 he found nothing inside the walls except 
 a hole in the ground, Rockwood, the Mormon warden, 
 having carried off the roof of the dug-out and the bricks 
 which sustained it.
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 299 
 
 The marshal had no funds for building penitentiaries, 
 but Congress, when the facts were laid before that body, 
 appropriated a small sum to erect a block-house, a build 
 ing better fitted for a sheep-corral than for the purpose it 
 was intended to serve. 
 
 Outside the walls and immediately adjoining them 
 stands the warden s house, a rickety three-story building 
 which Rockwood, the Mormon incumbent, used for years 
 as a harem for his numerous wives. 
 
 To this place the Mormon Prophet was brought on a 
 certain afternoon in March, 1875, in the custody of the 
 United States marshal. 
 
 The Gentiles had at last laid an impious hand upon the 
 Lord s anointed ! The whole city was in an uproar. A 
 procession of about twenty carriages followed the one in 
 which the Prophet rode, but on reaching the penitentiary- 
 gates the occupants of these carriages were informed that 
 they could not be admitted. 
 
 A little later in the afternoon two wagon-loads of arms 
 and ammunition were brought out to Brigham s factory, 
 about half a mile from the penitentiary, and when darkness 
 began to settle down upon the valley, seven hundred arm 
 ed men, some on horseback, some on foot, surrounded 
 the prison walls and the warden s house, bent upon rescu 
 ing the Prophet at any cost. 
 
 The warden had fourteen prisoners inside the walls, 
 and only two guards to aid him. He had besides, in an 
 upper room, his wife and his little children, one of them a 
 baby only a few weeks old. 
 
 The threatening demonstrations outside increased, but 
 fortunately neither the prisoner nor his would-be rescuers 
 had any idea of the weakness of the garrison. 
 
 The Prophet, in consideration of his age and infirmities, 
 had been allowed by the marshal to spend the night in the
 
 300 APPENDIX. 
 
 warden s office. Early in the evening one of his own 
 servants, who had a pass from the marshal, was admitted 
 with the prisoner s mail. By this time the armed mob 
 were within a few feet of the doors and windows. The 
 warden, as he returned from viewing the situation, was 
 asked by the Prophet what he thought of the demonstra 
 tion outside. 
 
 " I think," was the reply, " that a good many of those 
 fellows stand a fair chance of getting killed. Every man I 
 have is at his post, well armed, and with orders to fire 
 upon the first one who advances a step nearer." 
 
 The Prophet s notorious cowardice manifested itself in 
 an instant. He was in the hands of his enemies, and held 
 too as a hostage for the good behavior of his followers so 
 his fears caused him to think and with a white face and a 
 shaking voice he exclaimed, 
 
 " Don t let us have any bloodshed ! I will order them 
 to disperse." 
 
 And turning to his retainer, he added, 
 
 " Go out and tell the men I wish them to fall back and 
 remain quiet." 
 
 The order was given and obeyed. The mob withdrew, 
 and though a mounted patrol, composed of the Prophet s 
 most trusted adherents, continued to pass and repass until 
 sunrise, there were no further hostile demonstrations. 
 
 At the expiration of his twenty-four hours sentence, the 
 Prophet was escorted home by a portion of the armed 
 crowd who had remained in the vicinity of the prison. 
 
 Days passed. The sun rose and set as usual. No con 
 vulsion of nature indicated that the Gentile court had call 
 ed down the vengeance of Heaven by its daring act ; but 
 just as the loyal portion of the community began to hope 
 that the example of official firmness which the people had 
 witnessed would cause them to respect the majesty of the
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 3 01 
 
 law, word came from Washington that the President, in 
 fluenced by considerations which Utah Gentiles do not 
 understand to this day, had deposed the incorruptible 
 judge, whose only fault was the faithful and fearless per 
 formance of duty. 
 
 The Saints were again triumphant, and the moral effect 
 of the President s unwise action is still felt among us, 
 though years have passed away, and Judge McKean has 
 gone to a world where all wrongs are righted. 
 
 The history of the United States courts in Utah from 
 that day to this is a history of futile efforts, of seeming suc 
 cess and real defeat, whenever they have attempted to in- 
 vestigate and punish the crimes of the Mormon priest 
 hood. 
 
 In three instances only has conviction been secured 
 when the crimes sought to be punished have been com 
 mitted in obedience to counsel ! In 1876 John D. Lee 
 was sentenced to death for his share in the Mountain 
 Meadows massacre, and in March of the following year 
 his sentence was executed ; but Lee s conviction and exe 
 cution would have been impossible if Brigham Young 
 had not determined to sacrifice this man to save himself. 
 And Representative Cannon s article in the North Ameri 
 can accordingly allows the responsibility of " this dreadful 
 massacre" to rest upon Lee s shoulders. 
 
 I am at a loss to determine the reasons which have led 
 Mr. Cannon to allude to a matter that, for his own sake 
 and the sake of his people, should have been kept in the 
 background. 
 
 In 1874 several persons implicated in the Mountain 
 Meadows butchery were indicted for murder, and among 
 them Bishop (also Colonel) Dame of Parowan, a town in 
 Southern Utah. I saw Dame while in the hands of the 
 officers of the law. I had then recently furnished an article
 
 302 APPENDIX. 
 
 to one of the Washington papers, giving an account of the 
 massacre, and Dame, aware of this tact, asked : 
 
 " Did you say anything about me ?" 
 
 " No," was the answer. 
 
 Dame. " Do you think me guilty ?" 
 
 The Writer. " I shall wait to hear the evidence before 
 forming an opinion as to your guilt." 
 
 Dame. " Before God, madam, I am innocent. I did 
 not give the order for the massacre, and I am not respon 
 sible for the orders that were passed over my head." 
 
 Dame, it will be remembered, \yas the superior officer 
 of John D. Lee, who was made a scapegoat by the Mor 
 mon leaders, and sacrificed to save the real instigators of 
 the massacre. The orders which were, as Dame said, 
 "passed over his head," must have emanated from his 
 superior officers. Lee is in his grave, but his dying con 
 fession, which has been abundantly corroborated by the 
 testimony of old residents of the Territory, is extant, and 
 contains accusations that will not down, even at the bid 
 ding of ex-Delegate Cannon. 
 
 The following are some of Lee s dying statements : 
 
 " The Mountain Meadow Massacre was the result of the 
 direct teachings of Brigham Young, and it was done by 
 the order of those high in authority in the Mormon com 
 munity. After the massacre I was sent to Brigham Young 
 to make a report of it. I went and told him all. I said, 
 Sustain me, or release me from my endowment oath to 
 avenge the blood of the prophets. 
 
 " Brigham sent me away, telling me he would commune 
 with God and let me know the result. The next morning 
 I went back to him and he said : Brother Lee, the people 
 did just right only they were a little too hasty. I have 
 evidence from God that the act was right. I sustain you 
 and the brethren in all that you did. All I fear is tteach-
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 303 
 
 cry on the part of the brethren. Go home, tell the brethren 
 I sustain them ; and keep all as secret as the grave. Write 
 me a letter throwing the blame on the Indians, and I will 
 report it to the government as an Indian massacre. * 
 
 " Young was fully satisfied with me then and for years 
 afterwards. He gave me three wives after that, and 
 appointed me Probate Judge of Washington County. 
 Nothing but cowardice has made him desert me now." 
 
 " It was the first plan to have none but Indians take part 
 in the massacre, but as William C. Stewart, Joel White, 
 and Benjamin Arthur were coming to the Meadows on 
 Wednesday night they met young Aden and another man 
 from the emigrants camp going to Cedar City for help. 
 They told of the Indian attack and asked aid from the set 
 tlers. The only reply was a shot from Stewart which 
 killed Aden. The other man, who was wounded by White 
 and Arthur, escaped and carried word to the emigrants 
 that the whites had come to help the Indians. After that 
 the authorities said there was no safety except in killing 
 all who could talk." 
 
 Lee gives the names of many men holding official posi 
 tions in the Nauvoo Legion and in the Church, who were 
 leaders in the bloody work. Five of these men, Bishops 
 and Presidents of Stakes of Zion, fled to the mountains as 
 soon as it was known that the massacre would be investi 
 gated, and remained in hiding until after Lee s execution. 
 Should any person be disposed to ask why Lee was the only 
 one of the fifty-eight white men engaged in the massacre 
 who was ever brought to trial, I refer him for an answer 
 to the prosecuting attorney at the time of the Lee trial. 
 
 Three of the men whose names are conspicuous among 
 the Mountain Meadow murderers Haight, Higbee, and 
 
 * Brigham Young was at that time Governor of Utah and Indian 
 Agent.
 
 304 APPENDIX. 
 
 Stewart are still hiding from justice, remaining much of 
 the time in the mountains, but occasionally visiting those 
 Mormon settlements in which there are no Gentile resi 
 dents to give information against them. I am informed by 
 the judge who tried and sentenced Lee that these men 
 might have been taken at any time during the past five years 
 if means had been provided for their capture, but as the 
 general government does not, and the Territorial authori 
 ties will not furnish money to defray the expenses of 
 arresting them, it is not probable that they will ever be 
 held to answer for the atrocious crime committed by them 
 in obedience to the " council" of their spiritual teachers. 
 
 In the same year George Reynolds was convicted of po 
 lygamy and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary, 
 but the execution of his sentence was delayed more than 
 two years by an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States ; and meanwhile he continued to live openly with his 
 plural wife, and was elected to one or more municipal of 
 fices by his admiring fellow-saints. 
 
 In the spring of 1879 one John Miles was convicted of 
 the same offense, but the convict is still at large, and happy 
 in the belief that his appeal to the Supreme Court will 
 result favorably. This completes the list of convictions. 
 
 Mr. Cannon s statements with regard to the testimony of 
 parties traveling through Utah, to the " remarkable secu 
 rity of life and property there," should be qualified some 
 what. A good many travelers who attempted to cross the 
 Territory previous to 1870 are not now in a condition to 
 give testimony, as, for example, the Aiken party, robbed 
 and murdered by the Danites ; the party murdered in Kim- 
 ball s barn ; and many others. 
 
 On page 460 of The North American Review, Mr. Can 
 non says: "The whole foundation of the charge about 
 blood-atonement is that the people believe in the Biblical
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 305 
 
 doctrine that men who commit murder, adultery, and other 
 gross crimes, should be executed." 
 
 The following affidavit may serve to show just how the 
 doctrine of " blood-atonement" is understood by Mr. 
 Cannon himself. 
 
 " UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) 
 
 TERRITORY OF UTAH, V ss. : 
 COUNTY OF SALT LAKE, ) 
 
 " Adolph Razins, a citizen of the United States, resident 
 in said Territory and County, deposes and says that on or 
 about the first day of March A.D. 1855, at the City of Salt 
 Lake, one George Q. Cannon told affiant that according 
 to the doctrine of blood-atonement as believed, under 
 stood, and practised in and by the Church of Latter Day 
 Saints, or Mormons, it was, and always is the duty of each 
 and every member of said Churchj:o shed the blood of his 
 neighbor for salvation s sake. That is to say, the said 
 George Q. Cannon did at the time aforesaid attempt to im 
 press upon the mind of this affiant that when any co-religion 
 ist was thought to be in a state of sinfulness, or disobedi 
 ence to said Church, its doctrines and priesthood, it was 
 then and in that case the justifiable privilege and duty of 
 any other co-religionist to kill such offender. And having 
 argued and explained to affiant the said doctrine of blood- 
 atonement, the said George Q. Cannon did then and there 
 inform affiant that Almon W. Babbitt, Secretary of Utah 
 Territory, had transgressed the laws of said Church, and 
 had disobeyed the commands of its President in divers 
 ways ; and that for such transgression and disobedience, 
 the blood of the said Almon W. Babbitt should and must be 
 shed, to redeem and save his soul from sin. That thereupon 
 the said George Q. Cannon told affiant that said Almon W. 
 Babbitt was then, in March, 1855, intending to go from
 
 306 APPENDIX. 
 
 Salt Lake City to Washington, D. C., advising and urging 
 affiant to accompany said Babbitt on the journey as afore 
 said, and on the journey to shed the blood of the said 
 Almon W. Babbitt, according and in obedience to the 
 teachings of said Church. The affiant then and there 
 earnestly and conscientiously refused to commit or have 
 any part in the commission of the murder so advised and 
 counseled by the said George Q. Cannon. Affiant further 
 says that he did accompany the said Almon \V. Babbitt to 
 Washington, D. C., but did not return to Utah with him. 
 That afterwards, in the summer of 1856, the said Almon 
 W. Babbitt was assassinated on his return from Washing 
 ton, and this affiant believes said assassination was an act 
 clone in accordance with the laws or doctrines of said Church 
 and by agents of said Church, instigated thereto by the ad 
 vice and counsel of George Q. Cannon as aforesaid, and 
 other persons in the authority of said Church. Affiant 
 says that in March, 1855, as aforesaid, he was a member 
 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mor 
 mons, as hereinbefore stated, and that said George (2- 
 Cannon was a member of said Church holding office in its 
 priesthood at the same time. That the said George Q. 
 Cannon is the same person who is now Delegate in the 
 House of Representatives from the Territory of Utah, in 
 the Congress of the United States. And further deponent 
 saith not. 
 
 "A. RAZINS. 
 
 " Subscribed and sworn to, ) 
 
 before me, this gth day > 
 
 of March, A.D. 1874, ) 
 
 " ALFRED S. GOULD, 
 "Clerk, Supreme Court of Utah Territory." 
 
 U. S. of America. 
 Supreme Court. 
 Terr, of Utah.
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 307 
 
 It is not my purpose to answer in detail the article con 
 taining Mr* Cannon s statements. In Utah, it needs no 
 answer, for no person who has resided here for any length 
 of time can be deceived by it. Outside of the Territory, 
 however, the history of the "peculiar people" of these 
 valleys is not so well known as to preclude the possibility 
 of anybody s receiving a wrong impression. It may be 
 well, on this account, to notice one more of Mr. Cannon s 
 positive assertions and see what foundation it has. 
 
 Mr. Cannon says (page 458), " For many years after the 
 settlement of Utah, not a liquor saloon existed in the Terri 
 tory." The ex-Delegate s memory is certainly at fault, or 
 possibly the places in which liquor was sold were not called 
 "saloons" in the days to which he refers. 
 
 What are the facts ? In 1850, just three years after the 
 Prophet took possession of Salt Lake Valley " in the name 
 of the Lord," the business of distilling whiskey from the 
 grain raised in the valley was commenced. The next 
 year, 1851, a person named Moon, a good saint, and rank 
 ing high in the priesthood, established a distillery in the 
 First Ward in this city, and another saint, Badley by 
 name, started the same business in the Eleventh Ward. 
 Currency was scarce at the time, and the usual method of 
 laying in a supply of whiskey was to take a certain number 
 of bushels of grain to the distillery and barter the same for 
 spirits. Moon and Badley continued in business until 
 about 1855, and were growing rich. The Prophet, who 
 had a keen eye to business, even in those days, was not 
 slow to perceive that the money these men were making 
 might as well be made by the Church. Accordingly, both 
 Moon and Badley were sent on missions, and their distil 
 leries were seized and appropriated by the city authorities. 
 Then as now, Church and State in Utah were one and in 
 separable, and the Mayor and City Council were creatures
 
 308 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 of the Prophet. The Church, as represented by the city 
 authorities, enjoyed a monopoly of the liquor business for 
 more than ten years, and coined money out of it. When 
 Gentile liquor dealers first came to Salt Lake, the city- 
 fathers, not relishing the idea of competition in a business 
 which they had found so profitable, sought to drive them 
 away, first by demanding exorbitant licenses, and after 
 ward by sending the police to raid the saloons. Engle- 
 brecht, a dealer whose conflict with the city authorities 
 became somewhat notorious through a suit which was 
 carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, had up 
 wards of twenty thousand dollars worth of liquor emptied 
 into the streets at one time by Mormon policemen. 
 
 After the days of monopoly were over the Church still 
 continued in the liquor business. The present writer well 
 remembers some windows on Main Street in this city, 
 which used to be ornamented with the inscription " Holi 
 ness To The Lord" surmounted by something intended as 
 a symbol of the All-seeing eye. In these windows, and 
 directly below the inscription named, stood an array of 
 bottles labeled severally : " Old Tom Gin," " Honey Dew 
 Whiskey," " Put Up Expressly For Zion s Co-operative 
 Mercantile Institution." 
 
 We turn now from the consideration of Mormon pecu 
 liarities to a retrospect of the social and moral progress of 
 the people of Utah within the last decade, under the zeal 
 ous labors of the "Gentiles." Christian teachers and 
 laborers of every name and of no name, filled with pity for 
 the masses, whose condition even to-day is unspeakably 
 wretched, have worked faithfully and earnestly to raise the 
 fallen, to rescue the victims of priestly tyranny, to succor 
 the distressed, and above all to save the children, the inno 
 cent sufferers for the sins of others. It would be asserting
 
 UTAH : 1870-1881. 309 
 
 too much to say that they have accomplished all they hoped 
 to, but they have done a great work. 
 
 The Mormon leaders proclaim to the world that the 
 Gentiles in the Territory are " carpet-baggers," " adven 
 turers," and "broken-down political hacks," whose only 
 object is to drive out the Saints and seize their homes. 
 
 This senseless cry is sometimes taken up by the Eastern 
 press, and I have seen similar charges in the columns of 
 the leading papers of the United States within the past 
 four years. 
 
 Let the facts speak for themselves. These Gentiles, 
 who constitute a little more than one tenth of the popula 
 tion, own mines which produce six millions annually, and 
 mills and smelters aggregating in value many hundred 
 thousands of dollars. Only one of the nine banking- 
 houses in the Territory is in Mormon hands ; all the others 
 are owned by Gentiles. Many of the most elegant private 
 residences in Salt Lake belong to Gentiles, from whom 
 more than one fourth of the revenue of the city is derived. 
 The Gentiles have built and endowed three hospitals, the 
 only ones in the Territory. They own many substantial 
 church and school buildings, and conduct the only schools 
 in which free tuition can be obtained. 
 
 There are hundreds of Gentile merchants in Utah who 
 have invested large sums in their business, and the Gen 
 tile lawyers and physicians of Salt Lake are gentlemen 
 who would rank high in their respective professions in any 
 city in the world. 
 
 I subjoin here a brief sketch of the different non-Mor 
 mon religious bodies in Utah, and of the work accom 
 plished by them within the past ten years. I have taken 
 the utmost pains to procure a careful and trustworthy ac 
 count of the rise and progress of this work, and I com 
 mend the following pages to all who have been accustomed
 
 310 APPENDIX. 
 
 to regard the Gentile population of Utah as composed 
 chiefly of adventurers. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 This is the youngest, and yet, in one sense, the oldest 
 church in the city. In its present form it was organized 
 in May, 1874, and yet it claims connection with a work 
 that was started nine years before this, and an organiza 
 tion that antedates all the churches of Utah. 
 
 In January, 1865, the Rev. Norman McLeod came to 
 this city by the invitation of several prominent Gentiles 
 and the Young Men s Literary Association. He labored 
 under the auspices of the American Home Missionary So 
 ciety, and at first met with great success. A society was 
 organized, with such men for trustees as Major C. H. 
 Hempstead, Chief Justice John Titus, General P. E. Con 
 nor, and others. 
 
 He organized his society and Sunday-school in the build 
 ing known as Daft s Hall, on Main Street, provided for 
 him by the Young Men s Literary Association. 
 
 A lot was secured and a chapel built known as Indepen 
 dence Hall. This was the first rallying-point of the Gen 
 tiles in Utah. 
 
 In the spring of 1866 Mr. McLeod went East to se 
 cure funds for the erection of a larger chapel. During 
 his absence his Sunday-school superintendent, Dr. J. K. 
 Robinson, was assassinated as described in this book, and 
 Mr. McLeod was warned not to return. So the work was 
 suspended for several years. Independence Hall was used 
 in the mean time, first by the Episcopalians and then by . 
 the Methodists. 
 
 In May, 1872, Mr. McLeod returned, and began the 
 work anew, but the old hostility manifesting itself, he re-
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 311 
 
 maineri but a year, and the work was again suspended for 
 six months. 
 
 On Christmas, 1873, the Rev. Walter M. Barrows arrived 
 from the East, having been sent here by the American 
 Home Missionary Society. He preached the first sermon 
 in Independence Hall January i8th, 1874. Beginning 
 with only four or five families, he was yet able, on the 
 23d of May of the same year, to organize a church of 
 twenty-four members. 
 
 This is now one of the strongest societies in the city. 
 The church owns a large and valuable lot on Third South 
 Street, and on .the rear of this lot is a comfortable chapel 
 in which they worship at present. If the society contin 
 ues to grow as rapidly as it has during the past few 
 months, a new church building will be a necessity. 
 
 SALT LAKE ACADEMY. 
 
 Mr. Barrows early became impressed with the fact that 
 mission work in Utah resembled that in foreign lands, and 
 that the same reasons which influence the missionaries 
 in Japan and India to start day-schools in connection 
 with their church work would apply with equal force to 
 Utah. So in the winter of 1878 he went East for the 
 purpose of securing assistance to inaugurate educational 
 work. 
 
 As the result of that visit, the Salt Lake Academy was 
 established, being incorporated under the laws of Utah 
 with a self-perpetuating board of trustees. 
 
 This unsectarian academy, the only institution of the 
 kind in the Territory that is free from all ecclesiastical 
 control, opened its doors September gth, 1878. Professor 
 E. Benner, of Lowell, Mass., was secured for principal, 
 and he has already exhibited rare qualifications for the
 
 312 APPENDIX. 
 
 position. He is assisted by an able corps of teachers, and 
 the institution is in a very flourishing condition. 
 
 THE NEW WEST EDUCATION COMMISSION. 
 
 One purpose in founding the Salt Lake Academy was to 
 raise up teachers for the rest of the Territory, but this re 
 quires time. How can the present need be met ? An or 
 ganization has been formed in Chicago for this purpose. 
 It is called the New West Educational Committee. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Noble is president ; E. W. Blatchford, Esq., 
 is secretary ; Col. C. G. Hammond, treasurer. 
 
 The object of the commission, as defined in the consti 
 tution, is, 
 
 " The promotion of Christian civilization in Utah and 
 adjacent States and Territories, by the education of chil 
 dren and youth under Christian teachers, and also by the 
 use of such kindred agencies as may at any time be deemed 
 desirable." 
 
 Under the auspices of the commission flourishing 
 schools have already been established at Park City and 
 West Jordan, and others are about to be opened at Hooper- 
 ville, Kaysville, and adjacent towns. 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 The history of the Catholic Church in Utah commences 
 with the year 1866, when Rev. E. Kelly was appointed 
 pastor by Right Rev. Bishop O Connel, of Marysville, 
 Cal. 
 
 In the beginning of 1871 the Most Rev. J. S. Alemany, 
 Archbishop of San Francisco, Cal., appointed Rev. Father 
 P. Walsh pastor of the Territory. Rev. Father Walsh, 
 immediately after his appointment, opened a subscription
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 313 
 
 list to raise funds to build a church on the lot purchased by 
 Rev. E. Kelly in 1866. The present handsome and com 
 modious brick structure that stands on Second East Street 
 affords ample testimony of his labors, and of the generos 
 ity of the people of Salt Lake and of the whole Territory. 
 
 Rev. Father Walsh remained in charge till 1873, when 
 he was succeeded by Very Rev. Father L. Scanlan, who is 
 the present incumbent. 
 
 Father Scanlan has, through persistent zeal and hard 
 labor, succeeded in the past seven years in erecting two 
 churches and three school buildings, and establishing two 
 hospitals, of each of which we append a brief history. 
 
 These are St. Joseph s Church, in Ogden ; St. John s 
 Church, School, and Hospital, in Silver Reef ; St. Mary s 
 Academy, in Salt Lake City ; the Academy of the Sacred 
 Heart, in Ogden ; St. Mary s School, in Silver Reef, and 
 the Hospital of the Holy Cross, in Salt Lake. The schools 
 and hospitals are chiefly under the direction of Sisters of 
 various orders ; and the efforts of the early Catholic priests 
 in the country were so highly appreciated that Gentiles of 
 all religious denominations and of no denomination united 
 in giving them pecuniary aid toward erecting the buildings 
 for their churches, schools, and hospitals. Of the latter 
 an additional word will be of interest. 
 
 The Hospital of the Holy Cross, Salt Lake, was opened 
 September 26th, 1876, and is conducted by the Sisters of 
 the Holy Cross. Three physicians visit there regularly. 
 During the four years of its existence nineteen hundred 
 patients have been cared for. Considering the many suc 
 cessful surgical operations performed in this hospital, it is 
 an incalculable benefit to the community at large. 
 
 After the erection of the Catholic Church in Silver Reef, 
 the citizens and miners held a mass meeting, and decided 
 upon furnishing Father Scanlan with pecuniary means, by
 
 314 APPENDIX. 
 
 voluntary contributions, for the erection of a hospital, if he 
 would take charge of the same. To this proposition he 
 assented, and commenced to build in April, 1879. The 
 building was nearly completed in June, but was used as an 
 asylum for those who were left houseless by the great 
 fire. 
 
 The Sisters of the Holy Cross, five in number, took 
 charge of it August 1st, 1879. 
 
 There are thirty-nine Sisters in the Territory, five 
 priests, and over a thousand communicants. Archbishop 
 Alemany, of California, has episcopal charge of the Terri 
 tory, and he has appointed Father Scanlan as his repre 
 sentative, and endowed him with the power and title of a 
 vicar-general. 
 
 THE HEBREW CONGREGATION IN UTAH. 
 
 Samuel Kahn, Esq., of Salt Lake City, president of the 
 congregation, which numbers one hundred and fifty souls. 
 The Hebrew citizens of Utah are generally respected for 
 their integrity. They are friends of law and order, and 
 are always ready to assist, both with money and personal 
 effort, in every good work. They have two benevolent 
 societies, which during the past year have disbursed over 
 twenty-three hundred dollars to the poor. They are 
 among the most liberal supporters of our schools, and are 
 about erecting a school building of their own, in which both 
 English and Hebrew will be taught. 
 
 Utah is the only spot known on earth where the Hebrew 
 is termed a " Gentile." Our Hebrew fellow-citizens were 
 among the earliest non-Mormon settlers, and in the dark 
 days previous to 1870 were among the foremost of the 
 trusty few on whom the representatives of the Government 
 could rely for aid.
 
 UTAH: 1870-1881. 3*5 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN WORK. 
 
 The first point occupied by the Presbyterian Church in 
 Utah was Corinne, a Gentile town on the Central Pacific 
 Railroad. 
 
 A church was organized here in 1870. It is supplied at 
 present by Rev. S. L. Gillespie, of Brigham City. 
 
 The first missionary effort in Salt Lake on the part of 
 the Presbyterian Church was made by Rev. J. Welch, who 
 commenced his labors in October, 1871. A church of 
 twelve members was organized the following November. 
 
 In 1873 a lot was purchased, containing a house suitable 
 for a parsonage, and in 1874 the church building was com 
 pleted. The entire cost of house and lot was about $30,- 
 ooo, which, with the school building erected in 1877 on 
 the same lot, makes a valuable property. 
 
 In the spring of 1875 tne Salt Lake Collegiate Institute 
 was organized, with Professor J. M. Coyner, of Indiana, 
 as principal. This school now occupies a neat and well- 
 arranged building, with accommodations tor 160 pupils. 
 It has three departments primary, intermediate, and 
 academic presided over by competent teachers. In ex 
 cellence and efficiency this school is not surpassed by any 
 school of a similar character in the States. 
 
 More than half of the pupils receive their tuition free, 
 either in whole or in part. The importance of this state 
 ment will be understood when it is remembered that the 
 Mormon population of Utah have no free schools. 
 
 Outside of Salt Lake, Presbyterian missionaries are occu 
 pying every point where they can gain a foothold. They 
 have ten congregations in the Territory, nine church build 
 ings and chapels, and thirteen schools in successful opera 
 tion, with an attendance of eight hundred and seventy-five 
 pupils.
 
 3 l6 APPENDIX. 
 
 They have eight ministers and eighteen teachers em 
 ployed, and they expect to increase this number during the 
 present year, and to open eight more schools within the 
 present year. 
 
 Their stations at present stretch along a line extending 
 from the Idaho boundary to the southern border of Sevier 
 County a distance of three hundred miles and their ar 
 rangements are completed for establishing mission schools 
 all the way to St. George, the southern capital of the Ter 
 ritory. 
 
 It is only necessary to add, in conclusion, the words of 
 one of the chief promoters of this work : 
 
 " We have come to Utah to stay." 
 
 METHODISM IN UTAH. 
 
 The missionary work of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 in Utah was begun by Rev. G. M. Pierce, who, under ap 
 pointment of Bishop Ames, commenced religious services 
 in Salt Lake in 1870, and opened a school in the same 
 year, known as the Rocky Mountain Seminary. 
 
 At the present time the Salt Lake Methodists have a 
 church building worth about $55,000. This building also 
 contains the school-rooms and class-rooms of the Rocky- 
 Mountain Seminary, which for several years had an at 
 tendance of nearly two hundred pupils under the care of 
 an efficient corps of teachers. In 1879 this school was tem 
 porarily closed, but it has since been reopened. 
 
 The total number of Methodist day-schools in Utah is 
 five. These schools have an attendance of five hundred 
 and eighteen pupils, and employ ten teachers. There are 
 six church buildings owned by the Utah Methodists out 
 side of Salt Lake. The aggregate value of these buildings 
 is $25,000. They own also three parsonages valued at
 
 UTAH; 1870-1881. 317 
 
 $3500. There are seven Methodist preachers in the Terri 
 tory, and two hundred and ten church members. There 
 are twelve Methodist Sunday-schools in Utah, with an ag 
 gregate attendance of nine hundred and thirty-four schol 
 ars, and eighty-two officers and teachers. The Methodists 
 also sustain a monthly paper, the Rocky Mountain Chris 
 tian Advocate. 
 
 The Methodists, being among the pioneers of religious 
 and educational work in Utah, met with much opposition, 
 and had many difficulties to overcome. They have ex 
 pended much money and more labor in their efforts to ben 
 efit the people of the Territory, but they begin already to 
 reap the fruit of their toil, and they believe that much of 
 the good seed sown, like " bread that grows in the winter 
 night," will spring up in after years, making spots that 
 now seem as barren as the rocky peaks that wall in our 
 valleys, 
 
 " Fair as the garden of the Lord." 
 
 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN UTAH. 
 
 In April, 1867, Rev. Bishop Tuttle, being in charge of a 
 diocese which included Utah, sent two clergymen, Rev. T. 
 W. Haskins and Rev. G. W. Foote, to Salt Lake to estab 
 lish a mission there. They arrived the following May, and 
 opened services at once. Independence Hall was secured 
 for their use, and within two years and a half they bap 
 tized one hundred persons and admitted ninety communi 
 cants, many of whom were of Mormon antecedents. 
 
 St. Mark s Grammar School, the first Gentile school in 
 Utah, was opened in July, 1867, with only sixteen pupils, 
 but the number soon increased to one hundred and forty. 
 In 1871 they erected a substantial church edifice, at a cost 
 of about $45,000. Churches were also built at Logan and
 
 318 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ogden, and schools established at these places, and also at 
 Plain City. 
 
 In Salt Lake a school building was erected capable of 
 accommodating over four hundred scholars. 
 
 Right Rev. D. Tuttle, bishop of the diocese, resides in 
 Salt Lake. There are, besides, five clergymen employed 
 in the Territory. 
 
 The statistics of the Church in Utah for the present year 
 are as follows : 
 
 Communicants in the Territory 300 
 
 Salt Lake Sunday-school. 
 
 Scholars 415 
 
 Teachers 29 
 
 Ogden Sunday-school. 
 
 Scholars 140 
 
 Teachers 7 
 
 Logan Sunday-school. 
 
 Scholars 65 
 
 Teachers 5 
 
 Plain City Sunday-school. 
 
 Scholars 35 
 
 Teachers 4 
 
 St. Mark s Grammar School. 
 
 Scholars 460 
 
 Teachers 23 
 
 Ogden Day-school. 
 
 Scholars 125 
 
 Teachers 2 
 
 Logan Day-school. 
 
 Scholars 65 
 
 Teacher . i
 
 UTAH : 1870-1881. 319 
 
 Plain City Day-school. 
 
 Scholars 52 
 
 Teacher i 
 
 In all the above schools pupils unable to pay the required 
 rates receive free tuition. St. Mark s Grammar School 
 was the first school in Utah to offer the benefits of educa 
 tion without money and without price. 
 
 ST. MARK S HOSPITAL, SALT LAKE. 
 
 This hospital, established in 1872 under the auspices of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church, was the first hospital ever 
 opened in Utah. During the eight years of its existence it 
 has been the means of an incalculable amount of good. 
 An efficient corps of nurses is employed, and physicians 
 and surgeons of superior qualifications attend the 
 patients. 
 
 By mutual agreement, all miners in the Territory who 
 wish to avail themselves of the benefits of St. Mark s Hos 
 pital in case of sickness or accident subscribe and pay into 
 the hands of the treasurer one dollar per month. This 
 monthly payment entitles them to board, care, medical at 
 tendance, and surgical treatment when needed. 
 
 When we take into consideration the fact that Utah Mor- 
 monism has always been hostile to education, and that the 
 Territory makes no provision ivhatever for free schools, 
 the work now being done by the twenty-eight schools estab 
 lished and conducted by Gentiles becomes specially im 
 portant. And when we remember that Utah knows noth 
 ing of public charities, and that those who govern the Ter 
 ritory are interested in nothing that relates to the public 
 good, we are prepared to appreciate the hospitals which 
 owe their existence to Gentiles.
 
 320 APPENDIX. 
 
 Previous to the entrance of these " adventurers" into 
 the Territory, the poor were left to suffer unrelieved or 
 pine in unvisited and untended sickness, unless helped by 
 neighbors, who often had little enough to give ; but now, 
 in addition to every other form of good works, the various 
 non-Mormon religious bodies in Utah sustain benevolent 
 societies whose wofk is to feed the hungry, clothe the 
 naked, and visit and help the sick. 
 
 It is to these agencies mainly that Utah must owe her 
 regeneration. The Gentile residents have " besieged with 
 unavailing prayers" the law-makers of the nation, lo ! 
 these many years. They have exhausted every form of ap 
 peal to the Government and people of the great country 
 whose citizens they are, but help does not come from with 
 out. 
 
 The Mormon problem is still unsolved ; the Mormon 
 priesthood still rules. 
 
 A former historian of the Territory, writing in 1871, 
 said : 
 
 " The opportune death of Brigham Young would simplify 
 matters somewhat." 
 
 In 1877 Brigham Young died in his bed, thereby cheating 
 the gallows, as many of his associates in crime have done ; 
 but his successors yet rule the people with a rod of iron. 
 Every year witnesses a large Mormon immigration, chiefly 
 from Europe, and each immigration is an accession to the 
 mass of ignorance and fanaticism which is so dangerous a 
 power in the hands of unscrupulous men, such as the pres 
 ent Mormon leaders.
 
 UTAH TO-DAY. 
 
 THE gravest problem presented to the American states 
 man of to-day is that which is found in the attitude of 
 Mormon Theocracy towards our government. There are 
 perhaps two hundred thousand Mormons in Utah and the 
 adjoining States and Territories that is to say, two hun 
 dred thousand of the inhabitants of our common country 
 who are bound by oaths which make them at once the 
 slaves of their spiritual leaders, and the sworn enemies of 
 the nation within whose borders they dwell. 
 
 Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah, is the centre from 
 which emanates the power that controls the one hundred 
 and thirty thousand Mormons in this Territory, and the 
 seventy thousand Mormons in Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, 
 Colorado, and Nevada. When the President of the Church 
 speaks, he is obeyed as implicity by his subjects outside of 
 Utah as by those who dwell in sight of the Temple. The 
 present head of the Mormon Church is John Taylor, an 
 Englishman, who on the death of Brigham Young was 
 elevated to that position by the foreign-born Saints, who 
 greatly outnumber the Americans.* Taylor has a profound 
 contempt for republican institutions, but, like his prede 
 cessor, he knows how to make them subservient to the in 
 terests of the Church. Thus the ballot, which was little 
 valued before the advent of the Gentiles in the Prophet s 
 
 * This remark applies to adult Mormons. The children of foreigners 
 born in Utah give the native-born population a preponderance in the 
 census tables.
 
 322 APPENDIX. 
 
 dominions, is now prized as the bulwark of priestly power 
 in Utah, and as a means by which the adjoining Territo 
 ries are to be brought under Mormon rule. 
 
 In Utah the law confers the right of suffrage on men 
 above twenty-one years of age who are either native born 
 or naturalized, and who are also tax-payers. Women en 
 joy the right of suffrage without these qualifications. 
 Alien women who have been less than a month in the 
 Territory may and do vote, if married (polygamously or 
 otherwise) to a citizen ; and while the law requires that a 
 single woman shall be over twenty-one years of age in 
 order to be a legal voter, practically this qualification is 
 not insisted upon when she votes for the Church candi 
 date. As the population of Utah is constituted at present, 
 the Mormons, who vote as one man under the direction of 
 the authorities of the Church, can return a majority of ten 
 to one over the Gentiles. In nearly three-fourths of the 
 precincts in the Territory, not a single Gentile vote was 
 returned at the last election, and as the Saints do the 
 counting, and count as well as vote in obedience to 
 "counsel," the heaviest Gentile immigration that can 
 reasonably be expected will not affect the election returns 
 much for ten years to come. 
 
 As a matter of course, with the ballot controlled and 
 directed by the President of the Church, the same individ 
 uals exercise both spiritual and temporal power. All 
 Territorial offices are filled by men who hold official posi 
 tions in the Church. But this fact does not begin to ex 
 press the measure of temporal power wielded by the spirit 
 ual masters of the people. In order that the domination 
 of the Church may be complete the whole Territory is 
 divided into municipalities. Nearly every Mormon settle 
 ment is a " city," and the authorities of these cities (some 
 of which, with a population of a few hundred, have a char-
 
 UTAH TO-DA Y. 323 
 
 ter covering thirty-six square miles), are invested with 
 powers only a little less absolute than those of the Auto 
 crat of Russia. It is needless to add that every city offi 
 cial, from the Mayor down, is likewise a member of the 
 Mormon priesthood. 
 
 Outside of Utah the President of the Mormon Church 
 holds the balance of power in those Territories in which 
 neither political party has a heavy majority. In Idaho the 
 Mormons are already strong enough to control the Legis 
 lature. In proof of this assertion it is onFy necessary to 
 call attention to the recent action of that body in tabling 
 the portion of the Governor s message which relates to 
 polygamy. Mormon emigration to Arizona is continued 
 year by year, and in a little while President Taylor will be 
 able to dictate the course of that Territory in relation to 
 Mormon institutions. In Colorado and Nevada the suc 
 cess of the system is not marked- as yet, but the trusted 
 adherents of the Church are quietly colonizing in both these 
 States, that they may be on hand when either political 
 party shall make a bid for the Mormon vote. 
 
 It is a well known fact that the laws of the United States 
 are not, and never have been, enforced in Utah. This 
 fact is not a reflection upon the officers of the government, 
 who are doing their best in the difficult position in which 
 they are placed. The remedy for the anomalous state of 
 affairs in Utah is not in their hands. 
 
 Let it be remembered that when a criminal is arraigned 
 before the court for an offence which is the direct outcome 
 of the Mormon creed, nine-tenths of the people of the Ter 
 ritory are pledged to defeat the ends of justice. When the 
 Governor performs his sworn duty, he can only count on 
 the support of one-tenth of the population. For eight 
 years past Utah has been represented in Congress by a 
 polygamist who is shown by the records of the court to be
 
 324 APPENDIX. 
 
 an unnaturalized foreigner. The present Governor of the 
 Territory refused this man a certificate of election to the 
 Forty-seventh Congress, holding that the votes cast for him 
 were thrown away because he was not a citizen of the 
 United States, and that, as he was a polygamist, his dis 
 abilities could not be removed before the time should 
 arrive for taking his seat. 
 
 This act, performed by the Governor as a duty which his 
 oath of office made incumbent upon him, has arrayed the 
 entire Mormon Church against him. 
 
 Since 1858, when Brigham Young was superseded as 
 Governor of the Territory by a Gentile, no Federal officer 
 has ever been warmly welcomed by the saints, and the 
 various governors, in particular, have been the .objects of 
 a bitter animosity on the part of the Mormon leaders. In 
 former times these unwelcome officials were driven out 
 of the Territory by the Danites,* but for ten years past 
 they have suffered no annoyance beyond newspaper abuse 
 and covert threats of personal violence. It is hoped there 
 fore by the friends of Governor Murray that his straight 
 forward performance of official duty will not be followed 
 by serious consequences. 
 
 The monstrous doctrine of Blood Atonement (the offering 
 of human sacrifices) is as much an integral part of the 
 Mormon system to-day as it ever was, though masked and 
 modified in its practical application through fear of the 
 United States laws ; and Polygamy, the curse and blight 
 of the homes of Utah, instead of being on the decline, as 
 some of our astute statesmen suppose, is entrenching itself 
 more firmly in Utah itself and spreading into adjoining 
 States and Territories. More polygamous marriages were 
 contracted during 1880 than during any year since the 
 
 * The sworn band of " Destroying Angels," who perform the ex 
 treme commands of the Church authorities.
 
 UTAH TO-DA Y. 325 
 
 settlement of the Territory. If the vigorous treatment of 
 the Mormon problem, which President Garfield has out 
 lined in his message, could become an accomplished fact, 
 there might soon be a change for the better in Utah, but, 
 judging the future by the past, we have little hope that 
 Congress will do anything until compelled by the pres 
 sure of public sentiment. 
 
 Visitors from abroad often ask, " What would be the 
 effect of enforcing the laws of the United States in Utah ?" 
 
 If polygamists were disfranchised, and the Territorial 
 Legislature superseded by a Legislative Council composed 
 of law-abiding citizens, there would be loud threats of 
 armed resistance, but in the opinion of the Gentile resi 
 dents these threats would not be carried out. Mayor Lit 
 tle, of Salt Lake, said to a reporter in the East only a few 
 weeks ago : " We number two hundred thousand, and if 
 the authorities at Washington are wise, they will not inter 
 fere with us." The present writer has heard John Taylor 
 say, when addressing an audience of six thousand people : 
 " Let the government dare to lay so much as a finger upon 
 us, and we will soon show the people of the United States 
 what we can do." 
 
 But persons who indulge in this sort of bravado are not 
 usually made of such stuff as would fit them for leaders in 
 an armed conflict, and their threats alarm none but the 
 most timid. It is true that Taylor has neither the caution 
 nor the foresight of his predecessor, and if left to himself 
 he might rouse his ignorant followers to a pitch of fanati 
 cal fury which he could neither direct nor control ; but he 
 has advisers who are far too wise to risk the steadily in 
 creasing political power of the Mormon Church by per 
 mitting an outbreak of any sort. These men will not 
 counsel war until the Mormons believe themselves strong 
 enough to dictate terms of peace.
 
 326 APPENDIX. 
 
 Let us hope that enlightened statesmanship will solve 
 the Mormon problem before that day arrives. 
 
 It is the belief of those best qualified to judge of the situ 
 ation in Utah that if polygamists were disfranchised and 
 made ineligible to office, the Mormons would shortly re 
 ceive a " revelation" directing them either to give up polyg 
 amy or to seek "fresh fields and pastures new," outside 
 the boundaries of the United States. In any event, the 
 disfranchisement of polygamists would break down the 
 political power of the Mormon priesthood, and pave the 
 way for the Congress of the United States to " secure a 
 republican form of government" in a United States Ter 
 ritory in which the will of one man has been the supreme 
 law for more than a quarter of a century. 
 
 It needs only the assurance that the laws of the United 
 States will be enforced in Utah and the common rights of 
 American citizens guaranteed to all residents, to bring to 
 the Territory that class of immigrants who must be de 
 pended upon for the development of the mineral wealth of 
 Utah. This wealth is beyond computation, but while the 
 temporal power of the Mormon priesthood is supreme, 
 capital will not seek investments in it. Once let it be 
 known that the Territory is a ward of Congress in fact as 
 well as in name, and that the President of the Mormon 
 Church no longer holds the reins of temporal power, and 
 Utah, with her unequaled natural advantages, will invite 
 immigration and capital from all parts of the Union, and 
 in another decade will be ready to take her place among 
 the most enlightened and prosperous of the Pacific States.
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 
 
 NOTE A (PAGE 1 8). 
 
 THE following extract is made, by permission, from 
 the Salt Lake Tribune of October 2ist, 1879. The writer, 
 J. R. McBride, Esq., a member of the Salt Lake bar, is 
 well known to our citizens as one of the oldest pioneers of 
 the coast, and his statements can be relied upon as correct 
 in every particular : 
 
 "In the face of undeniable facts to the contrary, the 
 priesthood of the Saints prate of having made a garden in 
 the wilderness, built a commonwealth in the Great Ameri 
 can Desert, and made it blossom as the rose ; of having 
 subdued the wilds of the savage to the use of man, built 
 towns and cities, tabernacles and school-houses, railroads 
 and telegraphs, and so on ad nauseam. 
 
 "Whenever these untruthful boasts are exposed, the 
 priesthood fall back on the statement of some Eastern 
 editor who has been duped by them into crediting the 
 Mormons with Utah s progress, and again quote the old 
 lie started by themselves to confute the well-known facts. 
 
 "There are many Mormons who actually believe that 
 this country was first discovered by the Mormon people. 
 Brigham once, on the witness-stand, in a noted cause 
 pending in the courts, denied that the owners of lots in 
 Salt Lake derived title from the United States, and boldly 
 asserted that he claimed the Emporium Corner by right 
 of discovery. 
 
 " To the facts. The valley of Great Salt Lake was as
 
 328 APPENDIX. 
 
 well known to travelers in the Far West years before the 
 Mormon chief squatted here to pass the winter of 1847, be 
 fore resuming the journey to California as the valley of 
 the Sacramento, or that of the Willamette. It was no 
 desert, but a beautiful, grass-covered meadow, waiting 
 to be appropriated. Its isolation was its protection, not 
 its sage-brush soil or its untamed savages. The labor 
 of subduing it then was nothing comparatively. 
 
 " The writer was here before the Mormon settlement 
 was made, and knows that the pretense of reclaiming 
 alkali soil and subduing the Indians is utterly ground 
 less. From Soda Springs to the head-waters of Salt Lake 
 Valley to the south, there were not a hundred resident 
 Indians. The Utes lived to the south and the Bannocks 
 to the north, and the settlers had nothing to do but to enter 
 into and possess the land, and work it to secure a fruitful 
 result. One might as well talk of subduing or reclaiming 
 the prairie soil of Illinois or Iowa as of subduing or 
 reclaiming the lands of Utah. 
 
 " There were stretches of miles upon miles of meadow 
 lands, with grass mid-sides to a horse, .where even irriga 
 tion was not required, when the Saints came into the val 
 ley. All that was needed was ordinary industry. 
 
 " I assert that the lands were, in the early settlement of 
 Utah, more easily brought to bear fruitful returns than the 
 ordinary wild lands of any of the Western States. All this 
 talk and sentiment about the hardships of pioneering in 
 Utah are pure fustian. 
 
 " Those who crossed the plains when the writer did, an 
 terior to the occupation of Utah, know that the real diffi 
 culties and dangers of that long journey were after we had 
 passed Utah ; the deserts of Nevada, the Snake Plains, 
 the alkali water, the alert and dangerous Indians were all 
 to the west. . . . They made the roads forsooth !
 
 NO TES OF REFERENCE. 329 
 
 Not less than 15,000 people and 3000 wagons had passed 
 through Utah to the West before a Mormon ever set foot 
 in Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 " The road from Fort Bridger to this valley in 1847 was 
 as plain as the road from Salt Lake City to Sandy is to 
 day. This I know, for I had traveled it prior to that time. 
 General John Bidwell, now of Chico, California, and 
 Captain Bartlett, of Jackson County, Missouri, went to 
 California with an ox-train in 1841. Lansford W. Hastings 
 and A. L. Lov ejoy, both yet living, led a large party of 
 wagon emigrants through to the Pacific Coast in 1842. In 
 1843 the regular annual overland emigration to Oregon 
 and California began, and between that date and the time 
 of the Mormon arrival in the valley in 1847, thousands had 
 passed through Utah to the West ; while the Saints are 
 now boasting that these valleys of the mountains were 
 discovered by the Lord to the Prophet Brigham, who then 
 by inspiration opened a road to Utah, though that road 
 had been regularly traveled for years . . . 
 
 " The Saints neither discovered the country, nor built the 
 roads, nor subdued the Indians : there was no such work 
 to be done. The fact was, they entered into a beautiful, un 
 inhabited, inviting, and fertile valley. They were poor 
 and isolated, and endured the ordinary hardships of their 
 poverty and isolation. In that respect their condition and 
 surroundings were far better than those of the early pio 
 neers of the Mississippi Valley. And when we consider 
 the advantages they have enjoyed, and their want of enter 
 prise and energy, until the stream of progress from Gentile 
 sources has forced them into a sort of unenviable notoriety 
 unenviable because of their opposition to the develop 
 ment of the Territory the reactionary tendency and un- 
 American character of their institutions becomes mani 
 fest."
 
 33 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE B (PAGE 38). 
 
 I have heard men of intelligence, who in the early days 
 of this Territory were leading Mormons, but who have 
 since renounced that faith, attempt to explain Brigham 
 Young s power over the people in the same way that the 
 old Nauvoo Mormons accounted for Joseph Smith s influ 
 ence viz., by attributing extraordinary magnetic or mes 
 meric gifts to him. 
 
 My own observation inclines me to a different belief. 
 Brigham Young was a man utterly without heart or con 
 science, and being possessed of an iron will and gifted 
 with an extraordinary degree of perseverance, it is not 
 strange that he was able to make such use as he did of the 
 engine of superstition which he found ready to his hand, or 
 that he succeeded in bringing the ignorant and unthinking 
 among his followers to regard him as God s vicegerent. 
 
 It is a significant fact that the masses who have remained 
 faithful to the Mormon Prophet are, for the most part, 
 ignorant almost beyond belief, while the ranks of the apos 
 tates from Mormonism are being continually recruited 
 from the more intelligent and better educated classes. In 
 deed, it is safe to say that at the present time the only in 
 telligent and educated men who are to be found within the 
 pale of the Mormon Church are those who are kept there 
 by pecuniary considerations, or who are bound to their 
 leaders by fellowship in crime. 
 
 NOTE c (PAGE 39). 
 
 I have in my possession the names of a number of married 
 women, some of whom were " sealed" to the Prophet Jo 
 seph in Nauvoo, and were, at his death, " sealed for time" 
 to Brigham Young, while others were taken from their hus-
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 331 
 
 bands by Brigham after Joseph s death. A regard for the 
 feelings of innocent relatives, who are still living, alone in 
 duces me to withhold these names. 
 
 I will give but one instance out of many that have come 
 to my knowledge, which may serve in some degree to ex 
 plain the bitter feelings with which the Mormons in Illinois 
 were regarded by their Gentile neighbors. 
 
 A married woman, whom I will call Mrs. L , young, 
 
 beautiful, and of hitherto unblemished reputation, fell a 
 victim to the arts of the Prophet Joseph, and was induced 
 to be sealed to him as his plural wife. Her husband being 
 a Gentile, it was important to keep the matter from his 
 
 knowledge, and within a few months after Mrs. L s 
 
 intimacy with , the Prophet began, the husband died, as it 
 happened many men died in Nauvoo whose presence was 
 not desired by the Saints. When the Mormons fled from 
 
 Nauvoo, Mrs. L found a home in Iowa. She had one 
 
 child a daughter, the offspring of her " spiritual" mar 
 riage. She had a large amount of property, which her de 
 ceased husband had left her, and being besides, still young 
 and fair, her hand was sought by one who was not of her 
 faith, and who knew nothing of the dark page in her his 
 tory. 
 
 After a few months she married Mr. C , and was in 
 duced by him to promise to give over following the fortunes 
 of the Saints. They lived happily together for a few years, 
 
 and two children were born to them. Then Mrs. C "s 
 
 brother (who was a Mormon elder with seven wives) 
 paid them a visit, and tried to induce them to emigrate to 
 Utah. Failing in this, he talked with his sister alone, and 
 endeavored to exact a promise from her to leave her hus 
 band and gather with the Saints at Zion. 
 
 In this attempt he was also unsuccessful, and exasperated 
 by what he called her obstinacy, he told her she would
 
 33 2 APPENDIX. 
 
 soon be glad to claim his protection and a home among 
 his people. After uttering this prophecy, he went directly 
 to her husband, and told him the whole shameful story of 
 her past life, asserting that the little daughter of whom she 
 was so fond was the child of the Prophet. 
 
 The result was exactly what he had intended. Mr. 
 C confronted his wife with the charge made by her 
 brother. She did not deny it, and a speedy divorce fol 
 lowed. The discarded wife fled to Utah, glad to hide her 
 misery and shame among a people who called crime 
 " virtue." She is living here to-day, a heart-broken, deso 
 late woman, devoid even of the comfort of being able to 
 believe in the teachings that caused her downfall. 
 
 NOTE D (PAGE 62). 
 
 The family which figures here under the name of La 
 Tour I have known intimately for nine years, and from the 
 members of it who never believed in Mormonism I have 
 obtained the facts of their history. I have, of course, made 
 changes in their story, and have blended with it some in 
 cidents (of fact) from other lives. 
 
 To-day the grave covers Louise and her sorrows from 
 mortal eyes ; but I knew her years ago, after she had made 
 her escape from Mormon despotism, and I promised my 
 self then that it should be my work to denounce those at 
 whose hands she had suffered such cruel wrongs. 
 
 In this book I have told only a small part of her story ; 
 and in deference to those who complain that the tragic 
 character of my former history of life in Utah is unrelieved 
 by a single gleam of light, I have tried to dwell most upon 
 the brighter days that followed her deliverance from the 
 hands of her enemies.
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 333 
 
 NOTE E (PAGE 64). 
 
 A brief description of the ceremonies of the Endowment 
 House may not be out of place here. Though these cere 
 monies have been changed from time to time in many par 
 ticulars, the oaths which the candidate is required to take 
 remain substantially the same. 
 
 The Endowment House in Salt Lake is a two-story adobe 
 building, presenting the appearance of an ordinary dwell 
 ing-house. It is situated in one corner of what is known 
 as the Temple Block, a large square surrounded by a wall 
 twelve feet high. This inclosure contains the Tabernacle, 
 a large wooden structure nearly the shape of a tortoise- 
 shell, which rests upon a very substantial rock foundation. 
 East of the Tabernacle, and also within the walls, stands 
 the Temple, a magnificent granite building -which, after 
 halting just above the ground for twenty years, is now 
 rapidly approaching completion. 
 
 Certain days of each week in the year are set apart by 
 the priesthood for whal they term "giving Endowments." 
 On the morning of the appointed day, the candidates, 
 perhaps twenty in number, repair to the building already- 
 described. After giving their names, ages, etc., to the 
 officiating clerk, the men and women are ushered into 
 separate dressing-rooms. 
 
 Here they are required to disrobe, and wash from head 
 to foot. Then the officiating priest or priestess anoints 
 every part of the candidate s body with oil, after which each 
 one puts on the garment of salvation an article of ap 
 parel made exactly like a child s night-drawers, cut in one 
 piece from the shoulder to the ankle. 
 
 This garment, once put on, can never be left off. When 
 the wearer changes it, one arm or leg must be changed at 
 a time.
 
 334 APPENDIX. 
 
 Over this garment the women put on a white skirt, and 
 the men an ordinary shirt. Thus attired, all the candidates 
 are marched into Room No. 2, where they are seated, the 
 men on one side, the women on the other. They are now 
 told by the officiating priest that if they are not strong 
 enough to go forward, they may stop where they are, and 
 return home without their Endowments, but that if they 
 repeat anything relating to the ceremonies through "which 
 they have already passed, their throats "will be cut from 
 ear to ear ! 
 
 They are next ushered into Room No. 3, supposed to rep 
 resent the Garden of Eden. In former days the scenes 
 enacted in this " garden" are said to have been disgrace 
 ful beyond description, but at the present time the candi 
 dates are merely treated to a crude theatrical representa 
 tion of the. temptation and fall, after which each one is 
 clothed with a robe consisting of a straight piece of linen 
 four yards long, gathered upon one shoulder and belted at 
 the waist. Over this robe they tie a fig-leaf apron. They 
 also put on the Temple head-gear, that worn by the men 
 being similar to a baker s cap. The women put on a cap 
 composed of a square of Swiss muslin, one corner of which 
 is so arranged as to form a veil. 
 
 All good Mormons are buried in their Endowment 
 robes, and the veil worn by the women covers their faces 
 when they are consigned to the grave. In the morning of 
 the resurrection this veil is to be lifted by the husband ; 
 otherwise no woman can see the face of the Almighty in 
 the next world. 
 
 After being thus clothed, the candidates are driven out 
 of Eden into Room No. 4, called the World, where they 
 encounter many temptations, the chief of which is the false 
 gospel preached by Methodists, Baptists, etc. Finally St. 
 James and St. John appear and proclaim the true gospel of
 
 OF REFERENCE. 335 
 
 Mormonism, which they all embrace gladly ; after this 
 they receive the first grip belonging to the secret signs of 
 the Church, and are ushered into Room No. 5. 
 
 Here the candidate raises his right hand in such a man 
 ner as to form a square with his arm, and swears on the 
 square to avenge the death of Joseph Smith on this nation, 
 and to teach this vengeance to his children and children s 
 children unto the fifth generation. He then imprecates 
 upon himself the following curse : 
 
 " If ever I reveal the secrets of this House, may my 
 tongue be torn out by the roots, and my heart and bowels 
 cut out while I am yet alive ; and if I escape in this 
 world, may all these penalties overtake me in the morn 
 ing of the Resurrection. 
 
 The candidates now pass into Room No. 6, where all 
 kneel in a circle and join hands. Kneeling thus, they take 
 another fearful oath of eternal enmity to the Government 
 and people of the United States. They also swear to obey 
 the rulers of the Church in all things without question. 
 After receiving a little more counsel concerning the duty of 
 taking vengeance into their own hands, they are thought 
 perfect enough to pass beyond the veil. This " veil " con 
 sists of a white curtain stretched across the room. The 
 candidate is directed to stand with the breast, limbs, and 
 abdomen touching this veil, while a person behind it who 
 represents Deity passes his right hand through an opening 
 in the curtain and cuts the mystic signs in the sacred gar 
 ment. 
 
 As soon as the candidates receive these signs they pass 
 behind the veil into Room No. 7, which is the last room to 
 be entered, except by those contemplating marriage. 
 
 Candidates for marriage are ushered into Room No. 8, 
 which is the sealing-room. Here husbands and wives who 
 have been married outside of Utah are instructed that their
 
 33 6 APPENDIX. 
 
 Gentile marriage is null and void, and they are offered the 
 privilege of being sealed to each other for time and eternity. 
 This offer they may accept or decline. 
 
 If they decline, they are free from each other, and the 
 wife may be sealed to some other man. 
 
 If they accept, they kneel at an altar, and an ordinary 
 marriage ceremony is gone through with, concluding with 
 a formula of blessing which seals them to each other for 
 eternity. 
 
 Candidates for plural marriage kneel at a similar altar, 
 and the first wife, if obedient, kneels beside them and 
 places the hand of the new bride in that of her husband. 
 Should the first wife prove rebellious, her presence at the 
 ceremony is dispensed with. The same service that unites 
 a man to his first wife is used to " solemnize" a plural 
 marriage, but at its conclusion this blessing is pronounced 
 on the pair : 
 
 " Forasmuch as you have entered into the holy covenant 
 of celestial marriage, all manner of sins shall be forgiven 
 you, and you shall inherit eternal life." 
 
 ******* 
 
 The above information with regard to the rites of the En 
 dowment House I have obtained from a number of persons 
 at different times and places, and in all important particu 
 lars the witnesses agree perfectly. I have purposely omit 
 ted the grips, signs, pass-words, etc., together with the 
 " counsel" ol the officiating priest. 
 
 The ceremonies are very tedious, lasting fully eight 
 hours, and a complete description of them would fill a 
 volume. 
 
 NOTE F (PAGE 101). 
 
 In proof of the assertions made in this chapter, I subjoin 
 a ropy of a petition which I drew up, by request, in the win-
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 337 
 
 ter of 1872, when great fear was felt by the Gentiles and by 
 those who had left the Mormon Church that Brigham 
 Young would succeed in his schemes for getting Utah ad 
 mitted into the Union (in which event the petitioners 
 would have been deprived of the protection of Congress 
 and left wholly in the power of the Mormon priesthood). 
 
 This petition was signed by nearly five hundred women, 
 most of whom had been residents of the Territory for many 
 years. It is proper to add, also, that in 1872 there were 
 very few Gentile women in the Territory, and women who 
 had once been Mormons signed the petition at great per 
 sonal risk. Many women to whom the memorial was pre 
 sented said, 
 
 " Every word in it is true, and we want to sign it, but 
 we dare not." 
 
 " To the Senate and Representatives of the United States 
 in Congress assembled : 
 
 " We your petitioners, residents of the Territory of Utah, 
 the mothers, sisters, and wives of her loyal citizens, appeal 
 to you, in the name of justice and humanity, not to with 
 draw your protection from us. Our sole dependence is up 
 on you. Only the strong arm of the Federal Government 
 can secure to us, and to our husbands, brothers, and sons, 
 the enjoyment of the rights guaranteed us by the Constitu 
 tion of our country. 
 
 " For more than twenty years, Utah, though a Territory 
 of the United States, and as such nominally under the 
 jurisdiction of Congress, has been in reality governed al 
 together by the Mormon priesthood. Let history tell the 
 nature of their rule ! 
 
 " No more bloody despotism has disgraced the earth in 
 modern times. Brigham Young, in the self-appointed char 
 acter of God s vicegerent, has held the lives, liberty, and
 
 33 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 property of the people in his hands. Disobedience to him 
 has been accounted a crime not to be atoned for except by 
 blood. 
 
 " Nothing that the people possessed could be called their 
 own except by his will. Not only were they required to 
 pay into the Church treasury one tenth of all their property, 
 but they were liable at any time to be ordered to give up 
 their homes to the Prophet ; and this order none dared 
 disobey. Many of your petitioners have been robbed thus 
 in years past. Women who, by the labor of their own 
 hands, have earned the shelter of a roof for themselves and 
 their little ones, have been deprived of that shelter by Brig- 
 ham Young s commands. The bread has been taken from 
 the little children s mouths to swell the revenues of the 
 Church and enable its rulers to add house to house and 
 field to field. 
 
 " But these robberies are a little thing compared with 
 other enormities perpetrated by the despotic rulers of this 
 people in the name of religion. During all the years that 
 their will has been law in Utah, no man s life, no woman s 
 honor has been safe, if either stood in their way. Never, 
 in this world, will the history of their dark and bloody deeds 
 be fully written, for the victim and witness of many a 
 tragedy are hidden together in the grave. 
 
 " For twenty years none dared lift their voices in com 
 plaint or condemnation ; and now, when liberty of speech, 
 so long denied, is vouchsafed, it is fitting that woman s 
 voice should be heard, for woman has been most cruelly- 
 wronged. 
 
 " Will not the representatives of this great nation listen 
 to our appeal ? 
 
 " We adjure you, in the name of the mothers who bore 
 you, of the wives you love, of the sisters whose honor is 
 dear to you, not to turn a deaf ear to the cry of those who
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 339 
 
 ask protection from the tyranny of a system that, through 
 out its whole existence, has sought only to crush and de 
 grade womanhood. Thousands of women in the Territory 
 of Utah are to-day in a condition of abject slavery. Many 
 of them would proclaim their wrongs to the world if they 
 dared. We appeal to you not to take any step that will 
 cut off all hope of their deliverance. 
 
 " We know it has been urged that polygamy, the curse 
 and blight of the homes of Utah, is hastening to its death, and 
 that even if the people do not agree to relinquish it, it will 
 shortly tall before an attack of natural forces consequent 
 upon being brought in contact with the Christian civiliza 
 tion of the nineteenth century ; but do the facts which are 
 constantly transpiring support this assertion ? 
 
 " During the past three months polygamous marriages 
 have rather increased than diminished. Since the first of 
 November scores of young girls have been led up to the 
 Endowment House, and sealed to men who had already 
 from two to five families. 
 
 " Is it reasonable to suppose that a people who defy the 
 law thus openly, while under the direct supervision of 
 Congress, will order their internal affairs more in harmony 
 with the Constitution when invested with the prerogatives 
 of a State Government ? 
 
 " But the continuance of polygamy is not the only ground 
 upon which your petitioners deprecate the admission of 
 Utah into the Union. There are other crimes and other 
 tyrannies that will most assuredly be perpetuated in such 
 an event. 
 
 " The Constitution of our country guarantees to every 
 one of its law-abiding citizens the rights of life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. The principles which govern the 
 majority in Utah make these rights dependent upon the 
 will of a single man, who has already been guilty of incredi-
 
 34 APPENDIX. 
 
 ble abuse of power. The history of his reign (for it is noth 
 ing else) is written in characters of blood. Some of your 
 petitioners have known what it is to incur his displeasure 
 and tremble for their lives ; others have had their prop 
 erty torn from them, and their dearest interests ruthlessly 
 trampled upon by him. Will Congress consign them again 
 to the tender mercies of this man and his coadjutors ? 
 
 " A number of your petitioners have become residents of 
 Utah within two years past. Relying upon the protection 
 of the Federal Government, we, with our families, have 
 sought homes here ; but though we, our husbands, and our 
 sons, have been peaceably engaged about our private du 
 ties, and have in no way interfered with the rights of the 
 earlier settlers, we have been regarded as unwelcome in 
 truders, and have been forced to live as though in an 
 enemy s country. 
 
 " We have been told repeatedly, through the columns of 
 the Deseret News (the official organ of the Mormon 
 Church), that in the event of Utah s becoming a State, if 
 we do not choose to be ruled by the majority, we can 
 leave the railroad is open. 
 
 " We are duly sensible of the graciousness of this permis 
 sion, but there are some obstacles in the way of our avail 
 ing ourselves of it. Many of us have our all invested here, 
 and would be forced to leave empty-handed. Still, that 
 would be preferable to remaining here under the rule of 
 those who have shown themselves incapable of either jus 
 tice or mercy, and determined to ignore every principle 
 which lies at the foundation of our republican institutions. 
 Our prayer to you, the representatives of a free people, is 
 that you will not take such action as will force upon us 
 either alternative." 
 
 (Signed) Mrs. WM. S. GODBE, 
 
 and four hundred and seventy-three other signers.
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 341 
 
 Read and referred to the Committee on Territories, and 
 ordered to be printed, with the names of the petitioners and 
 the accompanying letter : 
 
 " SALT LAKE, U." T., March 12, 1872. 
 " To Hon. S. Coif ax, Vice-President of (he United States, 
 
 and ex-officio President of the Senate : 
 " SIR : We have this day forwarded to your care, per 
 Wells, Fargo and Co. s Express, a petition to Congress, 
 strongly deprecating the admission of Utah into the Union 
 at the present time. This petition is signed by more than 
 four hundred of the loyal women of the Territory. A 
 large majority of the signers have been residents of Utah 
 and members of the Mormon Church for many years, and 
 numbers of them have a personal and very bitter expe 
 rience of the practical workings of polygamy. They have 
 every reason to believe that their wrongs would be inten 
 sified by the admission of Utah into the Union, and the 
 consequent accession of power to the Mormon priesthood. 
 In the name of these women, who have been so cruelly 
 wronged, we earnestly request you to lay this petition at 
 once before the honorable bodies to whom it is addressed. 
 
 " MRS. A. G. PADDOCK, 
 
 " MRS. B. A. M. FROISETH, 
 
 " MRS. O. P. MILES, 
 
 " MRS. H. W. LAWRENCE, f Committee. 
 
 " MRS. J. B. KIMBALL, 
 
 "MRS. WM. S. GODBE, 
 
 NOTE G (PAGE 103). 
 
 The facility with which divorces have always been ob 
 tained in Utah is a suggestive commentary upon the pe 
 culiar marriage system of the Saints. Again and again
 
 343 APPENDIX. 
 
 parties have been sealed to each other " for time and eter 
 nity," and in less than six months divorced by the same 
 power that sealed them. 
 
 It has been well said by one of the elders of the Reor 
 ganized Church (a sect which, although it accepts the Book 
 of Mormon repudiates polygamy) that multitudes of 
 women in Utah have been divorced and remarried so 
 many times that they scarcely know themselves by name. 
 It is a common thing to find women living in polygamy 
 who have been divorced three or four times from as many 
 different husbands. 
 
 An Englishwoman who, a few years ago, abandoned her 
 husband and children for the purpose of gathering with the 
 Saints to Zion, has been divorced and remarried five times 
 since she came to Utah. The present writer has lived 
 within half a block of a woman who, after being divorced 
 from five husbands, is now living in polygamy with the 
 sixth ; and one of our district judges reports the case of an 
 elderly Saintess, living near the place in which he holds 
 court, who has been divorced fourteen times. 
 
 NOTE H (PAGE 107). 
 
 The incident related happened in the family of a per 
 sonal friend of the writer, and it is an example, by no 
 means unusual, of the manner in which the tithing has 
 always been collected, and the priesthood enriched at the 
 expense of the people. Whatever " the Lord" calls for 
 must be given up at once, and while Brigham Young lived, 
 he was, as Heber Kimball was accustomed to say in his 
 sermons, " the only Lord that this people had anything to 
 do with." 
 
 But the collecting of tithes to the extent of taking the 
 poor man s last cow was by no means the only plan re-
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 343 
 
 lied upon by the leaders of the people for filling their 
 coffers. A friend of the writer, belonging to a respectable 
 and wealthy family in the Eastern States, relates the fol 
 lowing : 
 
 " In 184- my father was induced by a Mormon mission 
 ary to emigrate to Nauvoo. He went in advance of the 
 family, taking a large sum of money with him. Soon after 
 his arrival he wrote for us, stating that he had bought a 
 house and lot, and that we would find a good home await 
 ing us. We started at once, but when we were within a 
 few miles of Nauvoo we were met by the Missionary re 
 ferred to, who told us that father had died suddenly. 
 
 " On reaching the city we were unable to learn anything 
 of the time or manner of his death. We never found out 
 where he was buried, or, indeed, whether he was buried 
 at all ; and from that day to this we have never been able to 
 get any information about the house and lot that he bought, 
 or about any of the property that he left." 
 
 NOTE I (PAGE 120). 
 
 The present boundaries of the Territory of Utah differ 
 much from those of the " kingdom" which Brigham 
 Young set up in the Great Basin, after taking possession 
 of the same " in the name of the Lord." 
 
 When the Mormon pioneers entered Salt Lake Valley, in 
 the summer of 1847, the country belonged to Mexico, but 
 in March, 1848, five months before the arrival of the emi 
 grant company for which they had prepared the way, it 
 was ceded to the United States by the treaty of Guadaloupe 
 Hidalgo. 
 
 Such a small matter as this treaty was, however, of no 
 consequence to the Saints, to whom the lands of the Gen 
 tiles had been given for an inheritance, and a year after-
 
 344 APPENDIX. 
 
 ward (March i8th, 1849) t ne y met m convention and or 
 ganized 
 
 " A free and independent government by the name of 
 the State of Deseret." 
 
 I quote from their own words, as found in a copy of the 
 original document now before me. The boundaries of the 
 State of Deseret, as set forth in this document, embrace 
 the whole of the present State of California, together with 
 half a dozen other States and Territories. 
 
 Soon after the organization of this " free and indepen 
 dent State," Brigham Young sent a delegate to Washing 
 ton avowedly to open negotiations looking to the admis 
 sion of Deseret into the Union ; but the tone he assumed 
 was very like that of a foreign power demanding recogni 
 tion. 
 
 The following year (September gth, 1850) Congress, 
 cruelly ignoring the great State of Deseret, organized the 
 present Territory of Utah within much narrower limits, 
 reserving to itself the right to cut up said Territory when 
 it should be deemed expedient, and annex portions of it to 
 other States and Territories. This high-handed proceed 
 ing on the part of Congress was, however, toned down a 
 little by the appointment of Brigham Young as Governor 
 an office which he announced that he should hold until the 
 Almighty ordered him to resign it ; as, in fact, he did. 
 
 Up to the day of the death of its "founder," the State 
 of Deseret existed de facto, with Brigham Young as Gov 
 ernor, and the aforesaid State still exists in spite of the 
 Territorial organization^ 
 
 Once in two years the Utah Legislature (composed of 
 thirty-nine Mormon high priests, thirty-six of whom are at 
 present living in polygamy) convenes, and the Federal 
 Government pays the members their per diem and mileage. 
 During the life-time of Brigham Young, he, in the charac-
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 345 
 
 ter of Governor of Deseret, convened them as a. State Leg 
 islature on the day succeeding the adjournment of the Ter 
 ritorial Legislature, and the business of the State was then 
 and there transacted. 
 
 Since Brigham Young s death, John Taylor, who suc 
 ceeds him as President of Church, inherits likewise the 
 office of Governor of Deseret for Church and State are 
 here one and inseparable. Comment is unnecessary. 
 
 NOTE j (PAGE 160). 
 
 Those who have any curiosity to become acquainted 
 with the details of the hand-cart emigration to Utah in 
 1856 are referred to the tragic account given by Mr. John 
 Chislett, in Stenhouse s " Rocky Mountain Saints." 
 
 Mr. Chislett was one of the captains of hundreds se 
 lected to take charge of the emigration across the plains, 
 and it was due in a great measure to his heroic exertions 
 that so many of the people lived to reach Utah. 
 
 Mr. Chislett, in common with hundreds who left England 
 with him, was at that time a sincere believer in the New 
 Gospel ; but his experiences on the way to Zion and after 
 his arrival in the Valleys of the Mountains, convinced him 
 that Mormonism had, to say the least, no claim to a di 
 vine origin, and he severed his connection with the Church 
 at a time when such a course involved much personal risk. 
 
 NOTE K (PAGE 176). 
 
 The sermons of Brigham Young and his two counsel 
 ors, Grant and Kimball, as reported and published in the 
 Deseret News, the official organ of the Mormon Church, 
 furnish abundant information as to the doctrine of blood- 
 atonement, and it is from these sources that I have col 
 lated the following :
 
 34 6 APPENDIX. 
 
 Blood-atonement, as preached by the Mormon leaders 
 and practiced by the people, means the offering of human 
 sacrifices for the remission of sins. Brigham Young says : 
 
 " There are certain sins which the blood of Christ can 
 not wash away ; but when a man s own blood is shed, and 
 the smoke thereof ascends as sweet incense to Heaven, 
 then are his sins remitted." 
 
 He likewise taught the people, in his published ser 
 mons, that to love their neighbor as themselves meant that 
 they should be willing to shed their neighbor s blood, in 
 order that in the next world he might be exalted among 
 the gods. 
 
 J. Grant, Brigham Young s counselor, taught that in 
 order to make the sacrifice of blood in a manner pleasing 
 to Heaven, altars of unhewn stone should be erected, 
 and the victim laid thereon, and his throat cut with a 
 knife, and added, 
 
 " I wish we were in a situation to obey the laws of God 
 in this thing without hindrance." 
 
 Closely allied to the doctrine of blood-atonement is the 
 " principle," so called, that the Church has a right superior 
 to the right of the civil government, to inflict the penalty of 
 death upon offenders ; and this idea obtained so firm a hold 
 in Utah that persons either in or out of the Church who 
 were accused of anything which the Mormon code pro 
 nounced a crime, had no chance whatever to vindicate 
 themselves in a court of law, but were either shot down by 
 Danites who lay in wait for them, or arrested, and killed 
 while in the hands of officers. 
 
 I will give a single well-known instance, the sequel of 
 which I witnessed myself. 
 
 A young man named Skeen was suspected of a disposi 
 tion to apostatize. Thereupon he was accused of cattle- 
 stealing, and upon this accusation was arrested and held in
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 347 
 
 custody by the sheriff, who was also a Mormon high 
 priest. 
 
 The place of his confinement was a school-house, in 
 which he was guarded by Ricks, the sheriff, and a man 
 named Chambers. Atter Skeen lay down to sleep, Ricks 
 said to Chambers, 
 
 " Whatever you may see to-night, your business is to 
 keep still." 
 
 Not long afterward, when the sleeper s breathing 
 showed his slumber to be sound, Ricks placed his gun to 
 the young man s breast and fired. The victim sprang up, 
 ran to the door, fell, and in a few minutes expired. It was 
 afterward given out that he was killed in attempting to es 
 cape, but the testimony of Chambers, who was an eye-wit 
 ness of the whole affair, was corroborated by that of several 
 other men who ran to the school-house when the shot was 
 tired, and who testified that the gun which inflicted the 
 fatal wound had been held so close to Skeen s breast as to 
 set his clothing on fire. 
 
 Yet in the face of this positive testimony a Mormon jury 
 pronounced Ricks "not guilty," and his fellow-saints es 
 corted him home with a band of music, flags flying, etc. 
 a procession which I saw and of which everybody under 
 stood the meaning. 
 
 It is proper to add that the witnesses at Ricks trial were 
 men who, after the murder, left the Mormon Church. No 
 Mormon could by any means be induced to testify against 
 a brother Saint. 
 
 NOTE L (PAGE 176). 
 
 Out of a multitude of cases that might be adduced in 
 support of this statement, I will quote two of the most no 
 torious :
 
 34 8 APPENDIX. 
 
 Bill Hickman, the Danite, who according to his own 
 confession committed nineteen murders, was a Mormon in 
 good standing throughout his career of crime, and was a 
 member of the Utah Legislature at a time when he was 
 killing men in obedience to " counsel" every few months. 
 
 John D. Lee, one of the principal actors in the butchery 
 of Mountain Meadows, was rewarded for his share in the 
 massacre by a seat in the Legislature, though at the time 
 he held several other offices of trust and profit ; for a plu 
 rality of offices is allowed in Utah as well as a plurality of 
 wives. 
 
 NOTE M (PAGE 178). 
 
 The occurrence here alluded to is a matter of history. 
 In 1862 J. W. Dawson, of Indiana, was appointed Gov 
 ernor of Utah. He was unwelcome, as Federal officers 
 were apt to be. 
 
 Brigham Young caused some charge to be made against 
 him, and he was ordered to leave the Territory. 
 
 A number of young men who were charged with the 
 business of seeing that this order was carried out, gave the 
 Governor a severe beating, but either because they mis 
 understood their instructions, or because of an unwilling 
 ness to shed blood, they allowed him to escape with his 
 life. Brigham believed with Napoleon that a blunder is 
 worse than a crime. He caused the arrest of the young 
 men, and the officers having them in charge, who could 
 not afford to misunderstand their instructions, coolly shot 
 them down. 
 
 The bodies of two of the young men brothers were left 
 at their father s door with the laconic order : 
 
 " Bury them." 
 
 Brigham Young took pains to be present at their funeral. 
 He commanded the mother not to shed a tear for her un-
 
 NOTES OF REFERENCE. 349 
 
 worthy sons, and told the women present not to offer her 
 any sympathy ; and so absolute was the power he exer 
 cised that those whose hearts were full of pity for the be 
 reaved mother turned away from her without a word. 
 
 NOTE N (PAGE 2O7). 
 
 I have given here the exact words of a woman whom I 
 number among my personal friends : a woman of fine 
 mind and noble presence, worthy, every way, of a better 
 fate. It was her misfortune, when very young, to become 
 the wife of a man who was afterward a Mormon apostle. 
 When she had a family of little children, this man was 
 sealed to two girls on the same day. He afterward took 
 eight more women as his plural wives. 
 
 He is living to-day, and is one of the strongest advocates 
 of polygamy. 
 
 NOTE o (PAGE 213). 
 
 A number of years ago, when the Government was 
 making some effort to ferret out evidence concerning a few 
 of the more atrocious crimes committed in Utah by the 
 Mormon priesthood, a detective placed in my hands the 
 following statement : 
 
 " In the year 186-, a person who had recently come to 
 Utah bought a house and lot in the igth Ward, Salt Lake 
 City. Soon after making the purchase, and while engaged 
 in uprooting some of the trees in the orchard and setting 
 out others, he broke into a pit containing the remains of 
 seven human beings a man, a woman, and five children. 
 The bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition, but 
 the rawhide thongs with which the arms of each one were 
 bound were still in place. 
 
 " The man who made this discovery was a Mormon, but
 
 35 APPENDIX. 
 
 he was new to the Territory and ignorant of the doctrine 
 of blood-atonement, and he supposed it to he his duty to 
 put the officers of justice on the track of the crime whose 
 evidences he had unearthed. He therefore repaired at 
 once to police headquarters, and told his story. 
 
 " He was there informed that his only duty with regard to 
 the discovery he had made was to say nothing about it, 
 and ask no questions. 
 
 " That night a detachment of the police force took up 
 the bodies and reburied them outside of the old city wall. 
 
 " When I was made acquainted with the foregoing facts, 
 I sought out the spot indicated as the second place of 
 burial, and dug up the remains, which by this time were 
 skeletons. The skulls of the children as well as of the 
 grown persons were crushed in, as if from a blow with a 
 bludgeon or crowbar. I also found in the pit the rawhide 
 thongs which had been used to bind the victims. 
 
 " I made a detailed report of the matter to the Federal 
 authorities in the Territory, but they were not clothed with 
 power sufficient to trace or punish the perpetrator of the 
 crime, and so far as my knowledge extends no effort has 
 ever been made in that direction." 
 
 (Signed,) S. G." 
 
 NOTE P (PAGE 221). 
 
 Independence Hall was a small adobe building capable 
 of seating about two hundred persons. It has since been 
 remodeled, enlarged, and neatly furnished, and is now 
 known as the Congregational Chapel. It is situated on 
 Third South Street, half a block west of Main Street. 
 
 While General Connor commanded at Camp Douglas, 
 Rev. N. McLeod, post chaplain, conceived what seemed 
 then the chimerical idea of establishing a Christian mis-
 
 A OTS OF REFERENCE. 351 
 
 sion in the very heart of the Mormon capital, and being a 
 man of great courage and firmness of purpose, he finally 
 succeeded. The building afterward known as Indepen 
 dence Hall was erected by the aid of the officers at Camp 
 Douglas and a few others who felt an interest in the 
 undertaking, and, in spite of the threats of the Mormon 
 hierarchy, regular services were opened, followed by a 
 Sunday-school. In the first place, almost the only attend 
 ants were the soldiers, the few Gentiles in the city, the 
 officers and their wives, and the families who had taken 
 refuge at the post ; but soon disaffected Mormons began 
 to drop in, and the Sabbath-school proved so great an at 
 traction that Mormon children went again and again, 
 though punished for going as often as the fact was discov 
 ered. 
 
 This state of affairs could not continue long. Recalci 
 trant Mormons who had been to the hall were notified that 
 if they went again their lives would be forfeited, mobs 
 broke up the meetings, and finally the superintendent of 
 the Sabbath-school, Dr. J. K. Robinson, was brutally mur 
 dered within a few yards of his own door and of the hall, 
 into which his bleeding body was carried. 
 
 NOTE Q (PAGE 223). 
 
 The penalties attached to the Endowment oaths are re 
 volting beyond belief, and it would be impossible to pub 
 lish the details of the punishments which the Mormon code 
 prescribes for offences of every degree. The simplest and 
 mildest penalty invoked upon covenant-breakers is that 
 their throats shall be cut from ear to ear, and in many in 
 stances this penalty has been (mercifully ?) commuted and 
 the offender shot instead. 
 
 In at least one well-known instance (that of Julia H ,
 
 352 APPENDIX. 
 
 an unfortunate plural wife, whose husband at present fills 
 an important office in this city), the victim was allowed 
 the alternative of death by poison ; but in the case of the 
 two women to whom I have alluded in this chapter, trust 
 worthy testimony makes it only too clear that they were 
 sacrificed with attendant barbarities which could not be 
 paralleled outside of the darkest abodes of paganism. 
 
 NOTE R (PAGE 260). 
 
 In 1867, less than a year after the murder of Dr. Robinson 
 and the breaking- up of McLeod s school and congregation, 
 Christian missionaries were found courageous enough to 
 make a second attempt in the same direction. In that 
 year religious services were commenced and a school 
 opened under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, and in spite of opposition and threats the mission 
 aries maintained their ground and continued to exercise a 
 powerful influence for good among the many whose faith 
 in Mormonism had been uprooted by a discovery of the 
 crimes of the leaders and the inherent evils of the system. 
 
 THE END. 

 
 Date Due 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
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