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i felt it in my bones when i woke this morning that something splendid was going to turn up |
i thought it might be sister kate or cousin mike would be happening along |
she pushed him toward the big chair by the fire and sat down on a stool at the opposite side of the hearth her knees drawn up to her chin laughing like a happy little girl |
when did you come bartley and how did it happen you haven't spoken a word |
i got in about ten minutes ago |
alexander leaned forward and warmed his hands before the blaze |
bartley bent lower over the fire |
she looked at his heavy shoulders and big determined head thrust forward like a catapult in leash |
i'll do anything you wish me to bartley she said tremulously |
i can't stand seeing you miserable |
he pulled up a window as if the air were heavy |
hilda watched him from her corner trembling and scarcely breathing dark shadows growing about her eyes it |
but it's worse now it's unbearable |
i get nothing but misery out of either |
the world is all there just as it used to be but i can't get at it any more |
it was myself i was defying hilda |
hilda's face quivered but she whispered yes i think it must have been |
but why didn't you tell me when you were here in the summer |
alexander groaned i meant to but somehow i couldn't |
she pressed his hand gently in gratitude |
weren't you happy then at all |
she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as if to draw in again the fragrance of those days |
he moved uneasily and his chair creaked |
yes yes she hurried pulling her hand gently away from him |
please tell me one thing bartley at least tell me that you believe i thought i was making you happy |
yes hilda i know that he said simply |
i understand bartley i was wrong |
but i didn't know you've only to tell me now |
what i mean is that i want you to promise never to see me again no matter how often i come no matter how hard i beg |
keep away if you wish when have i ever followed you |
alexander rose and shook himself angrily yes i know i'm cowardly |
he took her roughly in his arms do you know what i mean |
oh bartley what am i to do |
i will ask the least imaginable but i must have something |
i must know about you |
the sight of you bartley to see you living and happy and successful can i never make you understand what that means to me |
you see loving some one as i love you makes the whole world different |
and then you came back not caring very much but it made no difference |
bartley bent over and took her in his arms kissing her mouth and her wet tired eyes |
don't cry don't cry he whispered |
we've tortured each other enough for tonight |
the army found the people in poverty and left them in comparative wealth |
but a word further concerning the expedition in general |
it was through floyd's advice that buchanan ordered the military expedition to utah ostensibly to install certain federal officials and to repress an alleged infantile rebellion which in fact had never come into existence but in reality to further the interests of the secessionists |
moreover had the people been inclined to rebellion what greater opportunity could they have wished |
already a north and a south were talked of why not set up also a west |
they knew no north no south no east no west they stood positively by the constitution and would have nothing to do in the bloody strife between brothers unless indeed they were summoned by the authority to which they had already once loyally responded to furnish men and arms for their country's need |
what the latter day saints call celestial marriage is characteristic of the church and is in very general practise but of celestial marriage plurality of wives was an incident never an essential |
we believe in a literal resurrection and an actual hereafter in which future state shall be recognized every sanctified and authorized relationship existing here on earth of parent and child brother and sister husband and wife |
it has been my privilege to tread the soil of many lands to observe the customs and study the habits of more nations than one and i have yet to find the place and meet the people where and with whom the purity of man and woman is held more precious than among the maligned mormons in the mountain valleys of the west |
at the inception of plural marriage among the latter day saints there was no law national or state against its practise |
in eighteen sixty two a law was enacted with the purpose of suppressing plural marriage and as had been predicted in the national senate prior to its passage it lay for many years a dead letter |
federal judges and united states attorneys in utah who were not mormons nor lovers of mormonism refused to entertain complaints or prosecute cases under the law because of its manifest injustice and inadequacy |
this meant that for an alleged misdemeanor for which congress prescribed a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and a fine of three hundred dollars a man might be imprisoned for life aye for many terms of a man's natural life did the court's power to enforce its sentences extend so far and might be fined millions... |
before this travesty on the administration of law could be brought before the court of last resort and there meet with the reversal and rebuke it deserved men were imprisoned under sentences of many years duration |
the people contested these measures one by one in the courts presenting in case after case the different phases of the subject and urging the unconstitutionality of the measure |
then the church was disincorporated and its property both real and personal confiscated and escheated to the government of the united states and although the personal property was soon restored real estate of great value long lay in the hands of the court's receiver and the mormon church had to pay the national governm... |
and so the story of mormonism runs on its finale has not yet been written the current press presents continuously new stages of its progress new developments of its plan |
on the sixth of april eighteen thirty the church of jesus christ of latter day saints was formally organized and thus took on a legal existence |
its origin was small a germ an insignificant seed hardly to be thought of as likely to arouse opposition |
instead of but six regularly affiliated members and at most two score of adherents the organization numbers today many hundred thousand souls |
in place of a single hamlet in the smallest corner of which the members could have congregated there now are about seventy stakes of zion and about seven hundred organized wards each ward and stake with its full complement of officers and priesthood organizations |
the practise of gathering its proselytes into one place prevents the building up and strengthening of foreign branches and inasmuch as extensive and strong organizations are seldom met with abroad very erroneous ideas exist concerning the strength of the church |
nevertheless the mustard seed among the smallest of all seeds has attained the proportions of a tree and the birds of the air are nesting in its branches the acorn is now an oak offering protection and the sweets of satisfaction to every earnest pilgrim journeying its way for truth |
their eyes were from the first turned in anticipation toward the evening sun not merely that the work of proselyting should be carried on in the west but that the headquarters of the church should be there established |
the book of mormon had taught the people the true origin and destiny of the american indians and toward this dark skinned remnant of a once mighty people the missionaries of mormonism early turned their eyes and with their eyes went their hearts and their hopes |
it is notable that the indian tribes have generally regarded the religion of the latter day saints with favor seeing in the book of mormon striking agreement with their own traditions |
the first well established seat of the church was in the pretty little town of kirtland ohio almost within sight of lake erie and here soon rose the first temple of modern times |
to the fervent latter day saint a temple is not simply a church building a house for religious assembly |
soon thousands of converts had rented or purchased homes in missouri independence jackson county being their center but from the first they were unpopular among the missourians |
the lieutenant governor lilburn w boggs afterward governor was a pronounced mormon hater and throughout the period of the troubles he manifested sympathy with the persecutors |
their sufferings have never yet been fitly chronicled by human scribe |
making their way across the river most of the refugees found shelter among the more hospitable people of clay county and afterward established themselves in caldwell county therein founding the city of far west |
a small settlement had been founded by mormon families on shoal creek and here on the thirtieth of october eighteen thirty eight a company of two hundred and forty fell upon the hapless settlers and butchered a score |
be it said to the honor of some of the officers entrusted with the terrible commission that when they learned its true significance they resigned their authority rather than have anything to do with what they designated a cold blooded butchery |
oh what a record to read what a picture to gaze upon how awful the fact |
american school boys read with emotions of horror of the albigenses driven beaten and killed with a papal legate directing the butchery and of the vaudois hunted and hounded like beasts as the effect of a royal decree and they yet shall read in the history of their own country of scenes as terrible as these in the exhi... |
who began the quarrel was it the mormons |
as a sample of the press comments against the brutality of the missourians i quote a paragraph from the quincy argus march sixteenth eighteen thirty nine |
it will be observed that an organized mob aided by many of the civil and military officers of missouri with governor boggs at their head have been the prominent actors in this business incited too it appears against the mormons by political hatred and by the additional motives of plunder and revenge |
hester prynne went one day to the mansion of governor bellingham with a pair of gloves which she had fringed and embroidered to his order and which were to be worn on some great occasion of state for though the chances of a popular election had caused this former ruler to descend a step or two from the highest rank he ... |
another and far more important reason than the delivery of a pair of embroidered gloves impelled hester at this time to seek an interview with a personage of so much power and activity in the affairs of the settlement |
at that epoch of pristine simplicity however matters of even slighter public interest and of far less intrinsic weight than the welfare of hester and her child were strangely mixed up with the deliberations of legislators and acts of state |
the period was hardly if at all earlier than that of our story when a dispute concerning the right of property in a pig not only caused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the colony but resulted in an important modification of the framework itself of the legislature |
we have spoken of pearl's rich and luxuriant beauty a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints a bright complexion eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow and hair already of a deep glossy brown and which in after years would be nearly akin to black |
it was the scarlet letter in another form the scarlet letter endowed with life |
the mother herself as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form had carefully wrought out the similitude lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the object of her affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture |
but in truth pearl was the one as well as the other and only in consequence of that identity had hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in her appearance |
come therefore and let us fling mud at them |
but pearl who was a dauntless child after frowning stamping her foot and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies and put them all to flight |
she screamed and shouted too with a terrific volume of sound which doubtless caused the hearts of the fugitives to quake within them |
it was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabalistic figures and diagrams suitable to the quaint taste of the age which had been drawn in the stucco when newly laid on and had now grown hard and durable for the admiration of after times |
they approached the door which was of an arched form and flanked on each side by a narrow tower or projection of the edifice in both of which were lattice windows the wooden shutters to close over them at need |
lifting the iron hammer that hung at the portal hester prynne gave a summons which was answered by one of the governor's bond servant a free born englishman but now a seven years slave |
yea his honourable worship is within but he hath a godly minister or two with him and likewise a leech |
ye may not see his worship now |
with many variations suggested by the nature of his building materials diversity of climate and a different mode of social life governor bellingham had planned his new habitation after the residences of gentlemen of fair estate in his native land |
on the table in token that the sentiment of old english hospitality had not been left behind stood a large pewter tankard at the bottom of which had hester or pearl peeped into it they might have seen the frothy remnant of a recent draught of ale |
little pearl who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armour as she had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house spent some time looking into the polished mirror of the breastplate |
mother cried she i see you here look look |
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