Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Hunting -- United States; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
"They wants to know whar we're going. Whar the church goes--thar we
goes. Yes, to hell, and pull the devil off his throne--that's what we'll
do. Do you believe it? I _know_ it.
"Thar's milk and honey in that land as we're goin' to, and the lost
tribes of Israel is thar, and will jine us. They say as we'll starve
on the road, bekase thar's no game and no water; but thar's manna up in
heaven, and it'll rain on us, and thar's prophets among us can make the
water s come.' Can't they, brother Dowdle?"
"_Well_, they can."
"And now, what have the Gentiles and the Philistines to say against us
Mormons? They says we're thieves, and steal hogs; yes, d------ 'em! they
say we has as many wives as we like. So we have. I've twenty--forty,
myself, and mean to have as many more as I can get. But it's to pass
unfortunate females into heaven that I has'em--yes, to prevent'em going
to roaring flames and damnation that I does it.
"Brother Dowdle," he continued, in a hoarse, low voice, "I've 'give
out,' and think we'd better begin the exercises grettful to the Lord."
Brother Dowdle rose, and, after saying that he didn't "feel like saying
much," begged to remind all hands that dancing was "solemn like, to be
done with proper devotion, and not with laughing and talking, of which
he hoped to hear little or none; that joy was to be in their hearts, and
not on their lips; that they danced for the glory of the Lord, and
not their own amusement, as did the _Gentiles_." After saying thus, he
called upon brother Ezra to "strike up": sundry couples stood forth, and
the ball commenced.
Ezra of the violin was a tall shambling Missourian, with a pair of
homespun pantaloons thrust into the legs of his heavy boots. Nodding his
head in time with the music, he occasionally gave instructions to
such of the dancers as were at fault, singing them to the tune he was
playing, in a dismal nasal tone,--
"Down the center--hands across,
You Jake Herring--thump it,
Now, you all go right ahead--
Every one of you hump it.
Every one of you--_hump it_."
The last words being the signal that all should clap the steam on, which
they did _con amore_, and with comical seriousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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