Chicago daily tribune

              ANN ELIZA AGAIN. 
As the preliminaries of the divorce suit of Ann Eliza Young from the Prophet begin to develop themselves, it is apparent that Ann Eliza is a very fickle woman, and that the sympathy which she has created in her effort to escape from po-lygamy has been wasted upon a very unworthy object. It now appears from the statements of one of her own counsel, Judge Hagan, made to the correspondent of the New York Sun, and which we give upon his authority, that the di-vorce suit was originally one of the phases in a contest between Mormonism and Methodism. The Rev. Mr. Stratton, formerly of Portland, Ore., is a Methodist minister in Salt Lake City. Ann Eliza thinks a great deal of Stratton, and, taking advantage of this fact, Mr. Stratton determined to convert her and pluck her like a brand from the burning. He commenced operations by urg-ing her to bring this suit, and, after long de-murring, he prevailed upon a law firm in that city to undertake the case. Ann Eliza finally consented to leave her fractional section of Mr. Young, and the lawyers began in earnest. It was necessary that the suit should be brought in the name of her next friend, as the law does not recognize the right of the wife to sue her hus-band in chancery. The lawyers, therefore, sug-gested that the Rev. Mr. Stratton should put his name on the bill, but, after getting Ann Eliza into the scrape, he hadn't pluck enough to help her out. Accordingly, the name of Gen. Maxwell, who is in the Land Office, was inserted. As soon as this was done, however, the lawyers lost track of Ann Eliza, nor did Stratton drop in, as was his wont, to confer with them. Her counsel then began to look about them, and they found that Ann Eliza, instead of coming to them, was visiting the Rev. Mr. Stratton, and not only Ann Eliza, but Ann Eliza's father and mother, and H. B. Clawson, who is married to two or three of Brigham's daughters, and is, therefore, two or three sons-in-law of Ann Eliza. The lawyers began to scent a compromise, but Ann Eliza denied there was anything of the kind going on. The lawyers, however, could not un-derstand this sudden intimacy of Ann Eliza, her father and mother, Clawson, and other Mormons, if Stratton was really trying to con-vert her over to Methodism. So the lawyers put their heads together and determined to find out what was in the wind. One day they met her and informed her that they thought they would withdraw from the case, inasmuch as the retain-ing fee was a very shadowy one, and it was a great vexation at best. This exactly suited Ann Eliza, and away she went to see Stratton in the best of spirits. The lawyers then knew that she had compromised with Brigham, and that night informed her and Stratton that they had not withdrawn from the suit and didn't intend to. Ann Eliza's spirits fell forty degrees at once, but Stratton consoled her as best he could, and went to see the lawyers. Meanwhile, the latter received authentic information that she had compromised with the Prophet through Stratton for $5,000 down and $10,000 in ninety days. Maxwell was very blunt with Mr.Stratton, and said: "She can settle the case, so far as she is concerned, for two bits, if she wants to, but she can't settle it for me, I'll be d—d if she can. I am a party to the suit, and the law makes her counsel par- ties to it, and I don't propose to go back on them." 
There the matter stands. Ann Eliza has com-promised the suit, and don't want to get divorced, and the lawyers haven't compromised, and are going to divorce her any way, if they can. Ann Eliza has made a beautiful muddle of it. and deserves to lose the $15.000 for which she has bargained to stay in polygamy, as she probably will. If the Court should grant a decree of divorce, then the Prophet will get mad, and won't pay her, of course. If it should refuse to grant a decree, then there is no necessity for the Prophet to pay it, for she will still be Ann Eliza Young, No. 17. The romance of the case of Ann Eliza begins to dissipate in view of the $15,000 compromise. The public will dismiss at once the sympathy which it has heretofore expended upon her, and will be inclined to regard Ann Eliza as a hard ticket. The most inscrutable thing in the whole case, however, is, why the Prophet should be willing to pay $15,000 to keep Ann Eliza when he has got a house full of wives, especially after discovering Ann Eliza's little game in bringing the suit. One would naturally suppose he would jump at the chance of getting rid of her, and would never miss her, considering the amount of wife he has got on h and, and his own venerable condition.