MORMONISM.
Another Influx of New-made Saints from Europe.
How Converts are Obtained in the Old Countries.
[From the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 20.]
The influx of Mormon converts to this coun- try from the continent of Europe has been, during the last season, greater than hereto-fore. The emissaries of Mr. Brigham Young must be very active in the mother coun-tries in the way of proselyting. Since the seventeenth of last month two thousand nine hundred and fifty foreign converts to the religion of the Latter-Day Saints have passed through Chicago on their way to the head-quarters of the faith in Utah Territory. As a general rule, these people cannot be classed as first-class emigrants, although there are frequently found among them persons of extra intelligence, skillful artisans, and those who have occupied no mean positions in their native lands. But the majority are poor and illiterate day-laborers from large manufactur-ing towns like Manchester and Birmingham, or farm drudges from the interior of England, Scotland and Wales. Such is the case with regard to those coming from Great Britain, while those supplied from Scandinavia and Germany are almost to a person taken from the agricultural districts of those countries.
It is somewhat interesting to note the way in which these people are collected in the Old World. Stipendiary agents of Prophet Brig-ham, duly accredited from Salt Lake City, are working with zeal and vigor in almost every town and hamlet of the United Kingdom, whilst missionaries on the continent, from Italy to Norway, are using equal effort to dis-seminate the faith as it is in Joseph Smith. These propagators of the new light confine their attention almost exclusively to the lower and unlettered orders, and fire the imagination of the unsophisticated, not only by dilating upon the beauty, harmony and excellence of the tenets of Mormonism, but by spreading before them, in glowing language, the glories of the Western world, particularly of the con-secrated Utah Territory, which is described as a land flowing in milk and honey, and as a place of abode "altogether lovely."
In Europe, no doubt, Mormonism is in a flourishing state. It must not be supposed that all those converted to a belief in its doc-trines leave their homes for this country. To hold such a view would be an error. Churches are established and communities formed wherever it is possible or convenient, and reg-ular services performed and participated in ac-cording to the ritual of the Saints, as com-manded in the books of Thummin and Urim. The majority of persons who arrive in the United States are no strangers to the mysteries of the religion which they profess. Many of them for years have been admitted into the penetralia of the sanctuary, and the most successful preachers and missionaries are those who have been baptized, nurtured and established in their creed, thousands of miles from the scenes of Smith's labors. There are great numbers of devout Mormons scat-tered throughout Europe, who look upon Utah and feel the same reverential respect, as the Christians for Palestine, or the Mahome-tans for the holy places of Arabia. Salt Lake City is a holy spot to their rapt imaginations, and the very Mecca of their earthly pilgrim-ages. Many have lived and died there, strong in the faith. But yet they all have a longing to tread on the blessed soil made sacred by the footprints of Smith, and a holy desire to feast their carnal eyes upon the goodly and conse-craed person of his successor, Brigham Young.
The hierarchy who hold solemn conclave upon the borders of the great Salt Lake are wise in their generation, and exhibit a more than jesuitical subtlety in the propagation of their faith. No pains, or labor, or expense are spared to carry into effect the designs there planned. No obstacles, such as deserts and troublous seas and scoffing enemies and worldly considerations deter them. They laugh at all difficulties and overcome every impediment. They are aggressive and go straight into the courts of the enemy, and by a strange magnetical power draw votaries to their shrine from every quarter of the habita-ble globe. Enthusiastic disciples of Mormon-ism are now, with the zeal and enthusiasm of the crusading monks, preaching and dissemi-nating their doctrines and belief among nearly every nation under the sun. They have mis-sionaries in Australia, India, China, Northern Asia, and among all the nations of Europe. Thousands are taught to love the name of Smith, and bow in reverence at the mention of apostolic Brigham.
The great centers in the Old World to which emigrants for America congregate are Lon-don and Liverpool. At both these ports there are shipping agents, whose only business is to look after the transportation of the saints. They are oftentimes dispatched by steamer, but more frequently by the less expensive way of sailing vessels. As a general thing they sail in parties of from live to six hundred in number.
The seven hundred and seventy Mormon emigrants who arrived in this city last even-ing had through tickets from Liverpool to the end of the Union Pacific Railway. The tick-ets cost about seventy dollars in American currency, and were for the most part pur-chased by the emigrants at their own ex-pense.
Upon their arrival in New York, the saints are taken charge of by Elders Clawson and Stein—the former a son-in-law of Brigham Young—who see that their forwarding is as prompt as per contract. When the emigrants can afford it—and they are generally able to do so—they purchase all edibles for their con-sumption during the trip; but if not, food is provided for them by the agents, who have the disbursing of a fund created for that purpose.
The last party, which arrived in Chicago yes-terday evening, left Liverpool for New York on the 20th of June last, in the steamer Emer-ald Isle, and owing to unfavorable weather had a very long passage out, being fifty-eight days between port and port. During the passage there were thirty-seven deaths, principally of children, among whom the measles at one time raged quite violently. The company reached this city last evening, by the Michi-gan Central railroad, under the command of Captain James Smith. They were taken to the South Branch Transfer Station, where seventeen cars had been provided for their ac-commodation, under the direction of the agent T. C. Hatch, Esq. Everything being in readi-ness, at half past eight they continued on their journey to Omaha, at which point they will be handed over to the care of the Union Pacific Railway Company. At the end of the Pacific line they will be transferred to wagons provid-ed for their transportation to Salt Lake City by the authority of Brigham Young.
They are said to be much superior in ap-perance and intelligence to the usual class of emigrants, and will, no doubt, form a valuable addition to the domain of the great Prophet.
