bitterly at this singular command; she had lost her power to longer please; another had supplanted her in the affections of the man whom she devotedly loved, and to whom she had borne four children: she felt as a woman in such a position only can feel, but Mormonism was stronger in her soul than her nature itself. She went and asked this girl, who directly refused. She informed her husband of the result, and this man bitterly reproached his madly-devoted wife for not succeeding in persuading her, attributing the failure to his wife's jealousy. Mrs. Howard did not murmur, but only wept; while he blubbered like a boy, told her how much he loved this young woman, how miserable he must ever be without her. I believe he induced this heart-wrung woman to visit and again make this offer, but was again refused. With these women Mormonism is inwound in their hearts, every hope is centered in it; out of it they fancy there is nothing but despair. They are taught to think that God has re-established a priesthood. on this earth; that this priesthood is almost immaculate and quite infallible, as a priesthood; and brought to this standpoint, they blindly believe and as blindly obey all they are commanded. Degraded into slavery by this Mormon step-back into barbarism, they are almost as submissive and as miserable as the Indian squaws around them.
The engine of Mormon power is not brute force; not attempted or threatened violence, but the lever of a skillfully-combined and ably-handled system of religious machinery, operating on duped and bewildered fanatics. They feel its force, are not able to explain or investigate and discern its reality, but supinely obey its impulses.
