ham) graciously accepts fifty for
its own purposes.--Being founded upon a rock, it does not care, in its
collective capacity, to sit upon rockers, but has an immense series of
warehouses, omnivorous and eupeptic, which swallow all manner of tithes,
from grain and horseshoes to the less stable commodities of fresh fish
and melons, assimilating them by admirable processes into coin of the
realm. These warehouses are in the Church (Brigham's own private)
inclosure.--If success in my cabinet-making has moved me to give a
feast, and I thereat drink more healths than are consistent with my own,
the Church surely knows that fact the very next day; and as Utah
recognizes no impunitive "getting drunk in the bosom of one's family," I
am again sent for, on this occasion to pay a fine, probably exceeding
the expenses of my feast. A second offence is punished with imprisonment
as well as fine; for no imprisonment avoids fine,--this comes in every
case. The hand of the Church holds the souls of the saints by inevitable
purse-strings. But I cannot waste time by enumerating the multitudinous
lapses and offences which all bring revenue to the Herring-safe.

Over all these matters Brigham Young has supreme control. His power is
the most despotic known to mankind. Here, by the way, is the
constitutionally vulnerable point of Mormonism. If fear of establishing
a bad precedent hinder the United States at any time from breaking up
that nest of all disloyalty, because of its licentious
marriage-institutions, Utah is still open to grave punishment, and the
Administration inflicting it would have duty as well as vested right
upon its side, on the ground that it stands pledged to secure to each
of the nation's constituent sections a republican form of
government,--something which Utah has never enjoyed any more than
Timbuctoo. I once asked Brigham if Dr. Bernhisel would be likely to get
to Congress again. "No," he replied, with perfect certainty; "_we_ shall
send ---- as our Delegate." (I think he mentioned Colonel Kinney, but do
not remember absolutely.) Whoever it was, when the time came, Brigham
would send in his name to the "Deseret News,"--whose office, like
everything else valuable and powerful, is in his inclosure. It would be
printed as a matter of course; a counter-nomination is utterly unheard
of; and on election-day ---- would be Delegate as surely as the sun
rose. The mountain-stream that irrigates the city, flowing to all the
garden