own
peculiar rails throughout the whole region of the Rocky Mountains, and
they will give promising dividends in strength and security to the
church institutions.

The Edmunds bill is a step towards the abolishment of polygamy. It has
disfranchised the law-breakers but has not had the effect of
discouraging plural marriages. Some Gentiles maintain that there are as
many solemnized now as before the passage of the bill, and the
Commission itself acknowledges that the practice still exists, though
they think there is a decrease.

However this may be, it is certainly true that strenuous efforts were
made immediately upon its adoption to force young people into polygamy;
and at the late conferences addresses were delivered enjoining upon the
people the fact that, the Kingdom of God could not progress unless they
obeyed the revelation given to Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, and God would
never forgive his people if they did not obey his commands. While these
sentiments were freely expressed in the Tabernacle, a statement is sent
to the eastern papers by a prominent member of the church that "the
Edmunds Bill has practically abolished polygamy."

To overthrow this theocratic government and to parry the subtle wiles of
the priesthood, more than ordinary attention and wisdom will be
required, and it will be a great triumph to our legislators if they can
succeed in bringing about a peaceable solution of the greatest problem
now before the American people.

* * * * *

ELIZABETH.[1]

A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS.

By Frances C. Sparhawk, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work."

CHAPTER XXIV.

A CASE OF CONSCIENCE.

The stars had not begun to pale in the morning twilight when Elizabeth
awakened. The dim outlines of houses and trees could be seen through the
window as she looked out against the sky. Within the room the furniture,
large and heavy, looked still larger in the darkness. She fixed her eyes
upon some point, and followed back the lines that flowed from it until
they were lost in the dimness, and this assured her that she was awake.
Her writing-table was in part sharply outlined against the window, and
part of it was lost in the shadow of the draperies. The bureau seemed
only a dark mass among the shadows in force in the corners of the room.

These and the tops of the heavy chairs, as she looked at one and another
of them, helped to calm her and give her a sense of reality. But they i