Utah.
MORMONS AND "GENTILES" IN COMMUNION.
A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune describes an interview which took place last month in Great Salt Lake City, between ex-Speaker Col-fax and Brigham Young. Mr. Colfax's travel-ling companions and the Mormon dignataries were present. Of polygamy the wrieer says:
"On this subject we have had a long, frank and very free conversation with Brigham Young and several of his leading men, and at various times during the week with a very considerable number of the Bishops and Elders not present at our in-terview this afternoon. In all these conversations Mr. Colfax and his party have not hesitated to ex-press their condemnation of the system, and to say that it is under the ban of the entire civilized world. In several of these conversations we have told them frankly, that in our judgment the na-tion would never sanction it by receiving Utah as a State until the whole thing was wiped out. The law of Congress on this subject, as all other laws, we assured them, must be obeyed. After exhaust-ing all topics in regard to the history, resources, topography and extent of the territory, President Young himself introduced the topic of polygamy, and for an hour all the arguments for a plurality of wives were presented by Brigham and his friends, and all those at the command of Mr. Col-fax and his party, were manfully piled against the polygamous gentlemen. Sharp retorts were abundant on both sides, and it is very likely both parties at the close believed as firmly as ever in their own peculiar dogmas.
As to the facts we have been able to gather, our convictions in regard to the demoralizing ef-fects of polygamy, are, if possible, more decided than ever before. The men who practice it have been educated by one father and one mother, and, therefore, the full results of the system will not appear till long after the present generation of adults are dead, should it continue to be tolerated by the government and the people of the nation. The want of proper parental instruction that must exist where polygamy is practiced, and the utter degradation of women, incidental and inseparable from the system, will as surely, in the end, fall upon Anglo-Saxon polygamists as they do upon the Orientals or any other heathen nation. As at the south slavery was practiced by the wealthy and the influential, so this peculiar vice is in-dulged in mainly by the leading and wealthy men among the Mormons, some say one-fourth, some think more, and some less, while the majority, and some of the leaders as well, have but one wife each. While the men who have two or more wives pretend to be thoroughly convinced that they are doing right, we are assured that there is not an intelligent Mormon woman in the territory, who, when her real sentiments can be known, ap-proves of polygamy. Whatever opinions we may form of the men, all who know anything of the misery they suffer, must pity the Mormon women. To us they appear dejected and many of them heart-broken, and as time rolls on, the essential evils of the system must become the more ap-parent and revolting. To degrade woman from being the companion and the crown of her hus-band, to a life of mere serfdom, ministering to the lusts of men, and merely giving birth to other human animals, is the inevitable tendency and sure result of polygamy—an unclean, abominable thing, which must not and cannot be permanently tolerated in this civilized, Christian republic. The sooner this determination is understood by those who practice it, the better; for, like all festering sores, the longer it is endured, the more difficult of removal and the more dangerous it becomes. Our conversation with Brigham Young and his leading men leads us to believe that they begin to understand their position, and in parting all of us expressed the hope that as they claimed polygamy was permitted, and in some cases commanded by a new revelation, their high priest might have another, peremptorily forbidding the system. This would certainly be a peaceful and most happy way to remove the last foul blot upon the national character. Let the revelation be speedily made, and Brigham Young will complete one of the most eventful and the most wonderful personal histories made during the present generation.
BRINHAM YOUNG
is a man of about medium height, with an im-mense chest, giving assurance of tremendous vital energy. His head is large, forehead high, round and broad, his hair and whiskers incline to au-burn, and though he is sixty-four years of age, scarcely a gray hair can be seen and not a wrinkle detected upon his red and expressive face. His nose resembles the hawk's bill, and his lips, firmly closing, with his blue, and at times flash-ing eyes, betoken the great force and indomitable energy which he has always manifested. As some one said of Napoleon, 'he is one of the favored few, born to command.' He is also one of the shrewdest and most cunning of men, and sensible to the power money gives, and withall possessed of business talents of the highest order, he is now it is believed, one of the weathiest men in the nation. While he lives, the Mormon community—unless he and they determine to defy the laws of Congress on the subject of polygamy, will grow and prosper; but that firm hand and iron will must ere long, despite his regular and strictly tem-perate habits—he uses no tobacco nor liquor of any kind—tremble and bow before the resistless march of time; and when Brigham Young sleeps with his fathers then will come the searching test before which we predict the whole Morman fabric will crumble to the dust. It may, and doubtless will continue to be a religious sect, but as a compact and tremendously effective organization, its power will cease when Brigham Young's heart is forever still. In the settlement of his vast estate among his two score and more of wives and some sixty children, there is ample room for quarrels and law suits potent enough to break up the entire com-munity. But let the future solve all these prob-lems as an all-wise Providence shall direct.
BUSINESS, MANUFACTURES, ETC.
The business done by the merchants of Salt Lake City is truly immense. William Jennings, Esq., a leading Mormon merchant, told us that his freight bill alone this year will amount to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and that of Walker Brothers will not be less. The stocks of goods embrace a wide range, but in extent and value they would not fall much below many of our leading Chicago houses. Both leather and shoes, and flour are manufacturd largely in Utah. Cot-ton is raised quite successfully in the southern por-tion of the territory, and there are factories for manufacturing it. One or two woolen factories are in operation. Brigham Young has also a paper mill a few miles from the city. The Mor-mons have shown their wisdom by devoting them-selves to agriculture, manufactures and trade, for the demand for food and goods from Idaho, Montona, and other surrounding territories has made them rich and independent."
