ge
tongues, and stared and behaved like cows. Yet one woman, and not an
altogether ugly one, confided to me that she hated the idea of Salt Lake
City being turned into a show-place for the amusement of the Gentiles.

"If we 'have our own institutions, that ain't no reason why people
should come 'ere and stare at us, his it?"

The dropped "h" betrayed her.

"And when did you leave England?" I said.

"Summer of '84. I am Dorset," she said. "The Mormon agent was very
good to us, and we was very poor. Now we're better off--my father, an'
mother, an' me."

"Then you like the State?"

She misunderstood at first.

"Oh, I ain't livin' in the state of polygamy. Not me, yet. I ain't
married. I like where I am. I've got things o' my own--and some land."

"But I suppose you will--"

"Not me. I ain't like them Swedes an' Danes. I ain't got nothin' to say
for or against polygamy. It's the elders' business, an' between you an'
me, I don't think it's going on much longer. You'll 'ear them in the
'ouse to-morrer talkin' as if it was spreadin' all over America. The
Swedes, they think it his. I know it hisn't."

"But you've got your land all right?"

"Oh, yes; we've got our land, an' we never say aught against polygamy,
o' course--father, an' mother, an' me."

On a table-land overlooking all the city stands the United States
garrison of infantry and artillery. The State of Utah can do nearly
anything it pleases until that much-to-be-desired hour when the Gentile
vote shall quietly swamp out Mormonism; but the garrison is kept there
in case of accidents. The big, shark-mouthed, pig-eared, heavy-boned
farmers sometimes take to their creed with wildest fanaticism, and in
past years have made life excessively unpleasant for the Gentile when he
was few in the land. But to-day, so far from killing openly or secretly,
or burning Gentile farms, it is all the Mormon dare do to feebly try
to boycott the interloper. His journals preach defiance to the United
States Government, and in the Tabernacle on a Sunday the preachers
follow suit.

When I went there, the place was full of people who would have been much
better for a washing.

A man rose up and told them that they were the chosen of God, the elect
of Israel; that they were to obey their priests, and that there was a
good time coming. I fancy that they had heard all this before so
many times it produced no impression whatever, even as the sublimest
mysteries of another faith l