BRIGHAM'S LAND.
Sensational Scandal in the City of the Saints—It is Amelia XVI this Time—The Prophet Approaching Early Dis-solution.
[From the San Francisco Chronicle.]
SALT LAKE, June 22, 1876,—At last there is a saintly scandal is Zion. Before Gentile in-novations and the introduction of the Brook-lyn system, such matters were confined to the Church—that is, if a saint coveted a brother member's wife, daughter, sister, maid-serv-ant or mother-in law, it was not a sin—pro-vided he married the coveted object. And as it was a Church duty, as well as a pleasure, to marry a multitude of wives, this system of immorality is thus legitimatized by the Church. It will be recollected by the read-ers of the Chronicle that in one of my recent epistles from Zion to the Gentiles I men-tioned the fact that Amelia, Brigham's six-teenth and favorite concubine, refused to ac-company him on his recent trip to St. George, Southern Utah, whither he had gone to boss the job of dedicating the new temple to Beel-zebub, and also superintend the emigration of the Mormons from that portion of Utah over into his proposed colony in New Mexico.
LIKE ALL OTHER WOMEN,
when they refuse to do anything reasonable, Amelia had a motive for not going. And that motive was a gay and deceiving apostate Mor-mon. It is a "debatable question whether Amelia was led or went astray. At any rate, she has strayed from the fold, and it is the common talk of Zion—among the Gentile ele-ment. One virtue the Mormons have— they never circulate slander. Every man has enough of his own to occupy his attention. It has been known for the past few years that Amelia was a black sheep among the Prophet's ewes, but the Saints always denounced it as "a Gentile lie." When the Prophet was at home everything was regular, and Amelia was always present to soothe the old man's sor-rows and give him a piece, or rather all, of her mind, when she flew into a rage—which was very often, it is said. But when the Prophet "was absent in other portions of his kingdom, administering to his flock and look-ing after his numerous land-grabs,
THE BUXOM AMELIA,
unlike the fair and spotless Roman wife Lu-cretia, did not devote her lonely hours to weaving cloth for the soldiers, but rather to spinning love-yarns to her apostate lover and dallying in his passionate embraces. Amelia is passing fair, but she is not fat, nor quite forty. She is a woman of sensuous tempera-ment, and, in her more youthful days, was really beautiful, and probably sufficiently voluptuous to tempt St. Anthony. Even now she is of a graceful and commanding figure, and, from general appearance, would make a first-class "living statue." She is discred-ited with possessing a high-pressure temper, and is the only concubine, or rather person in his Church, who has defied Brigham's au-thority. Others have done so, but they left the Church and the Territory, and some un-ceremoniously left the world. The Prophet is expected to return in a few days, that is, if he has not many indictments against him. He is at present sojourning at Kanab, waiting to hear, through his spies,
THE ACTION OF THE GRAND JURY
in reference to the City Government defalca-tions and several land swindles, in which pie, it is thought, the Prophet had at least a finger. Should he hear of Amelia's Tiltoning there will be a first-class row in the Lion House. The idea of the favorite concubine of the President of the Church and the Sultan of the Land of Polygamy falling from grace is too much for even a prophet to bear. And the worst of it all is that "the other fellow" is an apostate Mormon. Should Brigham learn of her partaking of this forbidden bitter fruit, and she not be able to explain it away and make him feel ashamed of his unjust insinua-tions, there will be a division in his harem. He will at once divorce her, cut her off from the Church and deliver her over to the buffet-ings of Satan. This is the usual punishment of wives who fall by the wayside. Informer years they were "blood atoned." But since the "innovation" of Gentiles and Gentile laws,
THIS MURDEROUS SYSTEM
has been abandoned. The explosion of this scandal at this time is quite unfortunate for Amelia. Her palace, a beautiful marble-front granite structure, just across the street from the Lion House, is approaching completion, and it is no doubt intended by the Prophet to celebrate its occupancy with the gift to her of a title deed to the palace and lot. But this ugly rumor of her crookedness may spoil it all. It so happened in the case of Ann Eliza, his nineteenth wife. While the Prophet was ab-sent in Southern Utah grabbing choice tracts of land, Ann Eliza left his virtuous bed and took up board at the Walker House. On the Prophet's return, like Rachel, he refused to be comforted for several days. He had already prepared the deed to the little cottage, worth about $6,000, which Ann Eliza occupied, sit-uated about a square from, and within a good view of, the main harem. In his wrath the Prophet tore up the deed, which he intended signing on his return, and cursed the fates that sent him such a woman.
BRIGHAM'S EARLY DEATH
is prophesied. His trip to St. George, 500 miles over rugged roads and sandy deserts, has greatly impaired his already failing health. He was seriously sick at one time, and it was telegraphed here to several of his families that his life was despaired of. They accordingly made preparations to go in mourning, and quite an impetus was given to the dry goods trade. Brigham is of a strong muscular frame, an enduring constitution, and comes from a family noted for their lon-gevity. He was seventy-five on the first day of the present month.
THE POLYGAMOUS TEST CASE.
A decision may soon be expected from the Territorial Supreme Court in the Reynolds case. About a year ago, Reynolds, a clerk in Brigham Young's office, was convicted be-fore the District Court of bigamy—the facts of which were printed at length in the Chronicle at the time. Though the law pro-hibiting polygamy passed Congress in 1862, this is the first conviction under the statute, owing to the unwillingness of Mormon jurors to indict or convict a brother Church member for a crime of which they themselves are guilty. But the Prophet wishes to test the constitutionality of this proscriptive Gentile law, which interfered with the practice of a man's religion, and eight Mormon jurors, several of whom had three and four wives, joined the four Gentile jurors, and brought in a verdict convicting Reynolds of bigamy. He was sentenced to two years in the Terri-torial Penitentiary; but
BY SOME MYSTERIOUS DISPENSATION
of a presumably crooked Judge was granted a stay of sentence, an appeal to the Supreme Court, and admitted to $3,000 bail. Though execution of sentence was suspended, Rey-nolds now claims his term of imprisonment is running, and that he is technically serving it out, being sentenced on a certain date to serve till a certain date. Should the Supreme Court decide the law to be constitutional, which it surely will, the prisoner will then test the legality of a new sentence, as under the impending sentence his time will nearly have expired. But he, or rather Brigham, intends to take an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. This, of course, is to gain time and defeat justice. In the meantime the Mormons claim that they have a right to violate a law until the Courts decide upon its constitutionality—which is a conveni-ent method of reasoning—in which there is more policy than method. They continue in the evil tenor of their matrimonial ways, and are loading up with enough wives to last the present decade, under the mistaken im-pression that if the law should be decided constitutional they could not be punished for what they had done previous to the decision. Such is a specimen of the false teachings of the polygamous Prophet.
SAINTLY NOTES.
Jack Wiggins, a gambler, who was to have been shot to-morrow for the murder of "Dutch John," another sport, has been granted a stay of execution, pending an ap-peal to the United States Supreme Court. The Mormons temper justice with courtesy in allowing the condemned to elect whether he will be shot, hanged or beheaded. Since the organization of the Territory only one man has been shot, legally—though there are a great many who should have been. Work has been resumed on the Temple. The corner-stone was laid in 1851. The walls are about fifteen feet high. At this rate it is hoped to complete the Temple by the time Gabriel blows his trumpet.
