The Mormon Conference in London.
SECOND MEETING—CURIOUS SCENES.
From the London Globe.
On Monday night the Mormon Conference was brought to a close by a social meeting at the Teetotal Hall, Broadway, Westminster. The proceedings, were certainly of such a character as were never wit-nessed in a " conference " before. The attendance was not very numerous, but it comprised all the lead-ing members of the Conference. At the outset the assemblage engaged in singing, in a loud strain, one of their favorite hymns, led on by Elder BERNARD, to the tune of " The Low-backed Car." The purport of this song was the long looked-for day when they would all get to Zion (Utah). It seemed to be rather a painful effort to Brother BERNARD, and it was decid-edly so to those of the audience who happened not to be Mormons.
Brother SILVER, one of the elders, next obliged the company with a " little harmony." It was something about—
" I never knew what joy was
Till I became a Mormon," &c.
Several songs and recitations were given.
One of the elders sang a song styled " Sectarian Nonsense," one verse of which ridiculed the absurdi-ty of a man when he is ill going to a doctor, as the Gentiles (i. e., all who are not Mormons) do, instead of going to an elder of the Church to be healed.
One of the Yankee elders, fresh from the Salt Lake Valley, said he " felt fust rate." He could fetch in firing, if they wanted it; and he calculated he was always " to" hand," when anybody was wanted to move the fixins, to hunt up the lost sheep, or to drive the oxen. When anything of this kind was to be done he was always to hand, to do the best he could ; but be wasn't much of a hand at discoursing. He drew a pitiable picture of the heathenism of this country, and gave a glowing description of the en-lightenment and happiness of the saints in Utah.
A Mr. HARRISON, who was one of the very few Eng-lishmen among these Mormon prophets, next ad-dressed the meeting. He said that Mormonism and its professors were not to be judged by existing stand-ards, for they were far above and beyond them. It had been said that Mormonism was unnecessary, because there was nothing new in it that was true, and nothing true in it that was new. This was not the case. It supplemented the reve-lations of the Bible and completed them. They had been accused of saying nothing yesterday of polygamy. The polygamy they advocated was not the lustful polygamy of the Orientals. The polygamy of the Mormons was a system which controlled the lusts and passions of mankind and reduced the mar-ital duties to some kind of system. Mormonism did not allow men and women to rush into matrimony as dictated by their passions, and without any guiding principle. Mormonism came to them with principles adapted to every condition of a man's life ; it entered into the privacy of the chamber, and controlled every action. It taught men to act as God would have them act. This was the difference between the Mormon-i. e polygamy and the Oriental System.
The congregation then indulged in some doggre verses, which they sang to the popular air of " Min-nie," of the words of which song their " psalm" was a wretched parody.
Elder GEORGE READ then recited a piece about" The Bishops' Banquet," describing the good living of the right reverend prelates—a recitation which was sin-gularly mal apropos and in very bad taste, seeing that it was immediately followed by the Mormonite re-freshments—apples and pears on damp and dirty waiters, with little cakes and biscuits, which were stale and unsavory. These were washed down by copious draughts or pump-water from large jugs.
Another Elder then indulged in a " little harmony,” about " Sleepy Parsons," the chorus to which was:
" Heigho ! you sleepy parsons!
Ha! ha! ha! ha! what a lark!
After all your college learning
You will find you're in the dark."
The very reverend elder gave this song with much vigor to the air of a well-known nigger melody, " Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me," and he added to the effect by vigorous slaps of his hands upon his stalwart thighs, after the most approved fashion of the Ethio-pian serenaders. The effort was very much relished by the audience, who loudly applauded.
Sister PEARCE and several other sisters subsequent-ly sang.
An Elder, with a strong Yankee brogue, advised the sisters to sell off all their ornaments, which took them so long every day to dust, and to put the money into the emigration fund, to enable them " to gather out of Babylon"—i, e., to leave this country for Utah.
The Apostle ORSON PRATT then gave the " Sisters" some advice on the subject of marriage. He said that marriage, if celebrated by the Mormon Church, which alone had full authority, extended not only till death but throughout eternity. He urged them not to mar-ry men not Mormons, or else when they awoke in the Day of Judgment they would find themselves with-out husbands, and be obliged to remain single through-out eternity. This he described to be a horrible eventuality, and propounded the doctrine that a prop-agation of spirits would go on in a future world, just as the propagation of our species goes on in this.
EZRA BENSON, another apostle from the Salt Lake Valley, addressed the audience in his shirt sleeves. His speech was full of Yankee humor—rather coarse, but it told well with the saints. He said he felt" fust rate." He referred to the subject of marriage, and to his own wives and children whom he had left in Utah, and said he believed that at all his wives would not apos-tatize, and that, therefore, he would not be likely to undergo the misery of remaining single in heaven. He described BRIGHAM YOUNG as the best and holiest man in the world, and said he did not wonder at the sisters falling in love with him. Every good man, he said, ought to have more than one wife. He said he would advise the editors who abused them to con-sult their works, and they would find everything " as right as taturs." He indulged in a variety of jokes of the same class.
The proceedings terminated shortly after 10 o'clock. (We omit to record some of the more improper say-ings and doings of the evening.)
