The Down Call of Polygamy in Utah.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 137, 25 June 1872, Page 7

The Down Call of Polygamy in Utah.

Thomas Hawkins, the husband of three j Mormon wives, by all of whom lie had ehil- i (Iron, lias been convicted of adultery by a jury of anti-Mormons. It is understood, and has been for some weeks, tint his punish- ' nient will cover imprisonment for several years, and whatever line his property will j supply. Mrs Hawkins "number one,''formerly a devoted Mormon, but, since her quarrel with her husband live years since, ! an apostate from the faith—manifested great shrewdness in her examination before the j jury, and pleaded the c iuse of the prosecution with no little ingenuity. She testified to the general good conduct of her husband, the father of her seven living and five dead children, up to the period of her employment of a Mormon servant girl, for whom the man Hawkins speedily confessed an attachment, and to whom he was at length " sealed*' by a ceremonial of the church. Against this proceeding Mrs Hawkins felt inclined to protest, J but she confesses to have been finally talked i into it. The servant then became Mrs Haw- I kins No. 2, and the equal of Mrs Hawkins ' No. 1. I With eye unmoved n 1 unabashed, She dined from oil" the plate she lately was ted. This promotion was far from agreeable to the * first wife. She found herself occupying a! place no higher than that of her late servant j in the esteem and affections of her husband, i Society, too, gave the servant an equal place with the wife. At the table the husband sat j with the first wife on the right hand, and the second on his left. Sad hours were passed by the wife and mother, especially during the many nights (if watchful loneliness when the husband was missing from her side. Clearly she was deserted for the fresh young servant woman by whom this devoted "saint" must " raise up seed to Israel." Evidently Mrs Hawkins number one managed to make the life of the saintly Hawkins anything but pleasant from this time forth. To this fact she testified in open court. In the presence of learned judges and eminent I barristers, this good and much abused woman swore, not only in a technical sense, but in a sense ascribed to " our army in Flanders,"' that she lost her faith in the ''damned duetrine of plurality" from the moment when she found herself deserted by her husband for the superior charms of the youthful hewer of the domestic wood, and.the drawer of the family dish-water, Elisabeth Meats. Still she held on, concealing her grief from ad but her husband—whose life, it is believed, this amiable lady managed to make sufficiently miserable—until the terrible day when number three—one Sarah Davis—succumbed to the charms of the irresistible Hawkins. This damsel was quite attractive in appearance, and although far from diminutive in stature, she yet proved to be the last feather in the polygamous cap of this bird of prey, Haw j kins, as well as the last one required to break the back and heart of that not too patient camel, number one. For live years she lived on alone, supported by her much-wedding i husband, but no longer sustaining towards him the wifely relation. All this time she lived in the hope and expectation that the man would yet abandon the recent fractions of himself, and cleave once more unto that now forlorn fragment with whom he had dwelt not unhappily for more that fifteen years. When at last she had sufficiently realised the heart-sickness of a hope deferred, she sought at once the lawyers and the sweet revenge which courts and juries hold in store. Then followed the complaint, the indictment and conviction. Her husband's lawyers suggested a compromise, and pictured the desolation of the family when the property should all be wasted in defending the action. But they were met with the rejoinder, that she would prefer t ■ enrich the lawyers rather than allow her husband to support his "outside; women" on an equality with herself; thus proving herself not only a match for Hawkins and an army of plural wives, but for bench and bar alike. Her triumph.is complete.