GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA ON MORMONISM.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 949, 4 June 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA ON MORMONISM.

At a fashionable reception given bB Mr. Broughton, the famous Americaß artist, at his handsome Kensingtoß house, George Augustus Sala delivereß a five and twenty minute lecture undeß the above title. The point was wheß Sala was telling us all about t’nß mother-in-law of Utah, and the waß in which the most married of men al Salt Lake City regulate their house! “ When one Elder wants to visit anß one of his wives in particular,” hB said, “ he gives her notice that hB wishes to come to tea. Thereupol she provides muffins and crumpets foB him and makes it pleasant. The signal of his coming is given by the insertion of a peg in an orifice in the outer doo! Occasionally some other wife remove! this and inserts it in a door where hl is not expected, and then there is I row —no crumpets, no muffins, nl conjugal endearments —which is one ol the practical jokes of Utah.” Mil Sala said that the Utah women are o! a par in appearance and manners wit! the lowest class of English domestil servants, and that they are recruite! largely from the north of England an! the midland counties, while many als! go to Salt Lake City from Norway an! Sweden. No respectable, educate! girl is attracted by the Mormon sysl tern, and no American women, an! very few American men, go to Utah! He found there good, honest, sobel English laborers, whose industry it il chiefly that makes the Mormon ruler! rich. “ Mormonism,” he said, “is ! good thing for the elders, but a ba! thing for the youngers.” He met ! London cabdriver there, and this cab! man enlightened him as to the pros! pects of Mormonism. “ You are « good, moral man, I suppose ?” Sa! said to him. “ I was afore I com! here,” he replied, “ but I can’t sa! much about it now, leastwise not froii! a Mormon point of view.” “No I how is that ?” asked Sala. “ Why! you see they lays it on, the gals lay! it on, and it’s that as will settle Mor! monism.” “ Lays what on ?” “ Why! the woilet powder, they lays it on thicl! then they goes to a dance, and thei! they comes to me and I drives then! outside the precincts of the Mormoi! territory, where they meets a youn<! engineer or trader, and Mormonisn! knows them no more —they’ve elope! —bolted, as w r e should say at Camber! well.” “ Oh, they lay it on, they! dance, and then they elope “ That’! just it,” said the cabman, “and I’v! assisted not less than a score of ’em i! that way.” Mr. Sala said that in Utal! there are no mothers-in-law, because! when a man marries he makes hi! brother marry his mother-in-law, and! thus converts her into a sister, an! nobody ever hates his wife’s sisters! This is an excellent arrangement, and! especially in America, where mothers-! in-law, it seems to me, are more dis-! liked than they are even in England! It is an American song, I believe | which begins— Oh give me an axe, or give me a saw, And I’ll cut off the leg of my mother-in-lavr I