monarch of all he surveyed, and he proceeded to put into effect ideas which he had long treasured. The use of intoxicants was prohibited, and likewise of coffee, tea and tobacco. There was a code that strictly governed all morals and religious observance, and violations were punished with a rigor that forbade repetition. Tithes were required of every husbandman, and the firstling of every flock and the first fruits of the harvest went to the royal storehouse. Schools were established, and from the royal press were issued books and pamphlets in great number, all of them the product of Strang's prolific pen. The Northern Islander was published weekly and then daily. Nothing escaped the watchful eye of the King, whose capacity for work seemed equal to every demand. He was a busy pamphleteer, and he wrote long letters to the papers of the east defending his people against the accusations leveled at them. The Smithsonian Institute found in him a contributor; his paper upon the "Natural History of Beaver Island" was printed in its ninth annual report.
In his government of the island King Strang developed a marvelous capacity for detail. This found expression in an autocratic sway that dictated not only the ecclesiastical customs of his subjects, but everything connected with their daily life. Women were required to wear bloomers; men were required to be as decorous in their conduct as women; gaming was prohibited as strictly as was the use of intoxicants and narcotics. About this time, also, the doctrine of plural marriages was openly advocated; it had been tentatively broached several years before. Polygamy never made much headway, despite the example set by the King, who enlarged his family by taking five wives. It is asserted that not more than twenty plural marriages took place on the island.
While seemingly securely entrenched, the Mormon kingdom was at this time really crumbling. From time to time malcontents had been bred among the King's subjects, and
