cords with the man of business, whose _metier_ he
has added to apostleship with the growing temporal prosperity of Zion.
Indeed, he is the greatest business-man on the continent,--the cashier
of a firm of eighty thousand silent partners, and the only auditor of
that cashier, besides. If I to-day signified my conversion to Mormonism,
to-morrow I should be baptized by Brigham's hands. The next day I should
be invited to appear at the Church-Office (Brigham's) and exhibit to the
Church (Brigham) a faithful inventory of my entire estate. I am a
cabinet-maker, let us say, and have brought to Salt Lake the entire
earnings of my New-York shop,--twenty thousand dollars. The Church
(Brigham sole and simple) examines and approves my inventory. It
(Brigham alone) has the absolute decision of the question whether any
more cabinet-makers are needed in Utah. If the Church (Brigham) says,
"No," it (Brigham again) has the right to tell me where labor is wanted,
and set me going in my new occupation. If the Church (Brigham) says,
"Yes," it further goes on to inform me, without appeal, exactly what
proportion of the twenty thousand dollars on my inventory can be
properly turned into the channels of the new cabinet-shop. I am making
no extraordinary or disproportionate supposition when I say that the
Church (Brigham) permits me to retain just one-half of my property. The
remaining ten thousand dollars goes into the Church-Fund, (Brigham's
Herring-safe,) and from that portion of my life's savings I never hear
again, in the form either of capital, interest, bequeathable estate, or
dower to my widow. Except for the purposes of the Church, (Brigham's
unquestionable will,) my ten thousand dollars is as though it had not
been. I am a sincere believer, however, and go home light-hearted, with
a certified check written by the Recording Angel on my conscience for
that amount, passed to my credit in the bank where thieves break not
through nor steal,--it being no more accessible to them than to the
depositor, which is a comfort to the latter. The first year I net from
my chairs and tables two thousand dollars. The Church (Brigham) sends me
another invitation to visit it, make a solemn averment of the sum, and
pay over to that ecclesiastical edifice, the Herring-safe, two hundred
dollars. Or suppose I have not sold any of my wares as yet, but have
only imported, to be sold by-and-by, five hundred Boston rockers. On
learning this fact, the Church (Brig