CHAPTER VIII.

THE MORMON PRESIDENT AT HOME.

MR. JOHN TAYLOR, President of the Mormon Church and State, lives in a fine house within a few minutes' walk of the Tabernacle. Brigham Young first selected this spot as a residence, living in earlier years in the Lion House immediately opposite. This house is so called because it has a plaster cast of a lion over the porch. It is a very inadequate lion in point of size; but it is big enough to give the house a name, just as the cast of a bee-hive on the next door serves to name it. Both these houses are occupied by the family of the late Prophet. A much larger and showier house over the way, in which President Taylor lives, is popularly known as the Amelia Palace, the current impression being that it was specially built for Brigham Young's favourite wife. This is, however, a story resolutely denied by high authorities, it

being plainly contrary to the spirit of Mormonism that one wife should be exalted above the rest. The Amelia theory is quietly ignored, and the house that has come to be recognized as the official residence of the President is, or should be, known as Garda House. It is a building of somewhat florid style, but is roomy and convenient. The drawing-room where the President courteously received me is a large double room facing the road. It had not about it the knicknacks and careful colouring of an English drawing-room, but it looked very comfortable with a large coal fire burning in an open grate. There were one or two oil paintings on the wall. Faust talking to Marguerite was the somewhat striking subject of one which held the principal place.

The President is about seventy years of age, but his tall, powerful figure shows little sign of advancing years. His hair, snow white, sets off a strong, kindly, and still ruddy face. Like all the officers of the Church, the President has earned his living by the sweat of his brow. Since he was elected to the Presidency he has, of course, given up his farm, a fixed salary being attached to his office. The tendency to pay officers of the Church appears to increase as the revenues

grow fatter. The Bishops, formerly voluntary workers, now, I understand, receive a small pecuniary acknowledgment of their labours. The revenues of the Church and State are drawn upon very simple principles. The system of tithes has answered all financial purposes in Utah. It is a kind of income tax at the unvarying rate of two shillings in the pound. Practically it comes to much more than that, since a tithe is taken not on the net income but on the gross produce. This seems a little heavy, and a remark dropped by one of the Apostles at the Conference hinted that tithes were not coming in so readily as they should. Mr. Taylor, however, assures me there is no difficulty in the matter. The tax is not compulsory. No process would issue if it were not forthcoming; but I suspect that, as in the case of the missionary who might turn a deaf ear to the call to foreign parts, things would be made uncommonly hot for the defaulter.

The President furnished me with some interesting statistics of the present strength of the Mormon settlement. It consists of 1 president, 11 apostles, 58 patriarchs, 3885 seventies, 3153 high priests, 11,794 elders, 1498 bishops, and 4409 deacons. As there are only 23,190 families, it will be seen that

there is about one and a fifth of this agglomeration of dignities to each family. The total number of members is 127,294. There are, I was not surprised to hear, not less than 37,754 children under eight years of age, of whom 2335 have been born within the last six months. During the same period there have been 339 marriages; 2350 new members have been admitted within six months, whilst 850 have passed away, showing a decided increase in the strength of the Church. Of these absentees 85 have been excommunicated, generally, as I hear from another and Gentile source, after they have voluntarily withdrawn from membership.

On the subject of marriages, the President spoke strongly and without reserve. He never used the word "polygamy" except with the rider," as the world calls it." Mr. Woodruff, in his address to the Conference, also declining to use the obnoxious word, described the practice as the patriarchal order of marriage. The President insisted that it was "the order of celestial marriage." He anxiously explained that, whilst the world made marriages for time, the Mormons married for eternity.

"You marry," he said, "for better or for worse, till death do you part. Our marriages, made on earth, continue in heaven, and man

and wife shall live together hereafter as they are joined now."

It did not seem to occur to him that this was not a prospect that would recommend itself in all households; but I did not open that view of the question.

It is the practice of polygamy which makes Mormonism especially obnoxious in the eyes of the world, and it is on this that the Government of the United States has joined issue with the settlers. An Act has been passed declaring that all who lived or have lived in marital relation with more than one person, shall forfeit electoral rights. The Act was so worded as to strike at both sexes, the intention being to disfranchise Mormons and get the whole machinery of office in the Territory in the hands of the small minority of the Gentiles. After this, Mormonism might be harried out of Utah as it was thirty-seven years ago hounded out of Illinois. For the better carrying out of the purpose, commissioners appointed under the Act were sent down to Utah, and prescribed an oath to be administered to all Mormons before they are allowed to vote, requiring them to swear that they were not polygamists. This had the effect of keeping away thousands from the poll; but that had no serious bearing upon the result, since