their
experiment in religion and social life, and remembered all the
persecutions they had suffered and all they had accomplished in that
desolate, far-off region, where they had, indeed, made "the wilderness
blossom like the rose," I appreciated, as never before, the danger of
intermeddling with the religious ideas of any people. Their faith finds
abundant authority in the Bible, in the example of God's chosen people.
When learned ecclesiastics teach the people that they can safely take
that book as the guide of their lives, they must expect them to follow
the letter and the specific teachings that lie on the surface. The
ordinary mind does not generalize nor see that the same principles of
conduct will not do for all periods and latitudes. When women understand
that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles,
prayerbooks, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from
the brain of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions
that come to them with the divine authority of "Thus saith the Lord."

That thoroughly democratic gathering in the Tabernacle impressed me more
than any other Fourth of July celebration I ever attended. As most of
the Mormon families keep no servants, mothers must take their children
wherever they go--to churches, theatres, concerts, and military
reviews--everywhere and anywhere. Hence the low, pensive wail of the
individual baby, combining in large numbers, becomes a deep monotone,
like the waves of the sea, a sort of violoncello accompaniment to all
their holiday performances. It was rather trying to me at first to have
my glowing periods punctuated with a rhythmic wail from all sides of the
hall; but as soon as I saw that it did not distract my hearers, I simply
raised my voice, and, with a little added vehemence, fairly rivaled the
babies. Commenting on this trial, to one of the theatrical performers,
he replied: "It is bad enough for you, but alas! imagine me in a tender
death scene, when the most profound stillness is indispensable, having
my last gasp, my farewell message to loved ones, accentuated with the
joyful crowings or impatient complainings of fifty babies." I noticed in
the Tabernacle that the miseries of the infantile host were in a measure
mitigated by constant draughts of cold water, borne around in buckets by
four old men.

The question of the most profound interest to us at that time, in the
Mormon experiment, was the exercise of the s