Introducing the American SpiritSteiner, Edward Alfred
General
Introducing the American Spirit
Steiner, Edward Alfred
National characteristics, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
"You could not be married to him any other way unless you are sealed
according to our rites; we alone marry for eternity."
"Oh!" said the facetious Herr Director, "you believe in eternal
punishment." When I translated that to the Frau Directorin she slapped
him playfully.
He asked our guide how many wives he could marry if he became a Latter
Day Saint and she said there would be no limit to the wives he could
have sealed to him; but according to the latest ruling of the church and
in conformity with the laws of the United States, only one to live with
here upon the earth; so he decided to "bear the ills he had," and not
"fly to others that he knew not of."
The saint could not have expected her teaching to take root in soil so
shallow, but she determined to sow a few more seeds, and showed us the
interior of the Tabernacle with its "largest organ in the world and its
perfect acoustics." The Frau Directorin tried her charming voice and
sang, much to the delight of the saint, who confessed to three consuming
passions. She loved to sing better than to eat, next in order came
dancing, which seems to be a specialty among Mormons, and evidently does
not interfere with their piety, and third, that of saving feminine souls
from destruction, on account of their unmarried state. To satisfy this
last passion she has had ten thousand of her female ancestors married to
well-known Mormons. To accomplish this, she had her genealogical tree
traced back to prehistoric times, and had spent her fortune upon that
pious extravagance. She told us that she was a plural wife, and living
with her husband merely in the celestial relationship: but she believed
polygamy to be in harmony with the will of God, and that the women as a
whole favor it.
As we returned to our hotel, the Frau Directorin amused herself by
asking each child she met: "How much brothers and sisters you are?" I
was profoundly thankful she did not stop the men to ask them about the
number of their wives.
Having promised her that I would introduce her to a real, live Mormon
who as yet had only one wife, she could hardly wait until dinner, to
which I had invited my Mormon acquaintance. He proved to be a very
normal sort of man whose face betrayed his European peasant ancestry,
his father and mother having emigrated from Switzerland, lured across by
the promise of land, and an all but perfect Zion. They had passed
through every hardship of the early persecutions, and the march across
the plains and mountains. He himself had grown up in the martyrs' faith,
which remained unshaken until he was sent to college.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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