Mormons Seek Scots Maids

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 21, 16 April 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

Mormons Seek Scots Maids

Returned Glasgow Girl’s Tale... One of Many Wives In Salt Lake City . . .

JJAVE the Mormons started another campaign in Scotland? The question is prompted by complaints which, have been made to the authorities regarding the activities in Glasgow of *w"o middle-aged men who for the past fortnight have been spreading the insidious propaganda of Utah in different districts.

These men have even gone the length of stopping girls iu the street and securing an introduction by the means of hauding them small closely Printed handbills. On these bills are Printed excerpts from the doctrines °* Brigham Young, and while the girls “lop to read them the men engage them ;n conversation. One of the places on which representatives of Mormonism have been recently concentrating is a servant’s registry in the city, and with few exceptions the girls who have called at

M A.GYIFiCEftT CITY HALL of Salt Lake City. Inset.: Brigham Young. Apostle of Mormonism. these premises have been intercepted, on by the smooth-tongued advocates of communal love. Threat of Police One of these girls to whom overtures were made stated that vt hen stopped the man handed her a small bill headed “The Glories of Love.” “I had no sooner seen this than I threw the paper on the pavement

and made to go off. The man caught hold of me by the arm and in cultured tones said, ‘May I have a moment’s conversation with you.' I replied that I did not want to have anything to do with him and then walked away. He showed great persistence and made to follow me, and it was only after I threatened to call the police that he ceased to pester me.” Another girl who was foolish enough to accede to the request for an interview stated that the man made a definite offer to pay her fare to America where, he declared, there were plenty of openings for young girls. About two years ago there was an organised attempt to get girls from Scotland to go to Utah, and so successful was it that many misguided young women were actually enticed over. At that time there were in Scotland 200 adherents of the faith, and about half of these were resident in Glasgow. Eight missionaries from Utah came over to Scotland to preach their creed, and it was their boast that when the population of Salt Lake City was 90,000 nearly 14.000 were of Scots descent. Here is the story of a young Scots girls who met a Mormon: Cruelties Suffered “When he was in Newcastle we grew to be very foud of one another, and within six months he proposed marriage to me. We were married the day before we set sail from Liverpool.

1 was very happy, but this happiness was shortlived. “Full realisation of my dreadful plight came when, one night, I overheard my husband and a minister on board the ship talking together. At first I could hardly believe it, but, on reflection, the key to the enigma ofthe whole mystery was unfolded to me. I was married to a Mormon! “During my sojourn in the land of the Mormons, I became acquainted with a young woman who, 1 discovered later, had travelled from England on the same boat as myself. She was one of the other ‘wives’ of the Mormon who had enticed me away from home. “Although she was a quick-tempered girl her spirit was soon broken by her master, and the cruelty she suffered makes me shudder even yet. “I was four years in Utah, in a little village composed of houses constructed like kraals, aud during that time I was subjected to every form of mental anguish. Because I made it plain that I detested the life which I found myself forced to lead matters

were made much worse for me. On one occasion I tried to escape from the village but was speedily recaptured. The village was surrounded with man traps and into one of these I fell, to be discovered in the morning with my clothes torn and my skin all cuts through my efforts to escape. “I was led back to the village where I underwent the most awful punish ment. I was tied to a post, and lashed until I fell into a state of insensibility ” This girl, who finally did escape, also stated that her “husband” used to disappear for long intervals and when he came back it was with another “wife.” He was, she declared, a typical missionary, tall, handsome and educated, and a man capable of in gratiating himself into the affections of almost any woman. In all their attempts to secure female converts to their religion the Mormons emphatically state that their church discountenances polygamy, but it is a known fact that polygamy is secretly encouraged.