RESURRECTION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG. A New Excitement Among the Latter Day Saints.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 196, 26 March 1887, Page 3 (Supplement)

RESURRECTION OF BRIGHAM YOUNG. A New Excitement Among the Latter Day Saints.

Considerable excitement has been caused among tbo Mormons by a report that Brigham Young is alive again, and now living in Lincoln in that «We, and ready to appear before the faithful at the ap pointed time. In eupport of the pro* bability of this story, a gentleman from Utah declares : " Tho death of Brigham Young was most mysterious. The arrangements for the funeral were conducted with the greatest^ privacy, and not until the bojy was laid out was any one allowed to see it. The body in the coffin, shown only to a few, was an ingeniously prepared wax figure. A Frenchman was brought from France some time before the reported death of Young and set to work to make a life-like head and body of the Mormon prophet, as the figure was to represent him after death So remarkably well was the work done that the figure deceived many who saw it when it came time for Young to die, and the figure was prepared for burial. The subsequent myßterious funeral arrangements, together with tho strange death, can all be easily recalled. The Frenchman who t made the wax figure was slipped back to his native country and tha Mormons watched him well. Although this guard was kept up, the man told his secret and it was published, but the Mormons managed to keep it from wide circulation. All heard it in Utah, but the Mormons have managed to decry it. The reason for Young's disappearance from tho earth was for a resurrection. The Mormons thought the United States Go vernment would give them trouble, and ore this they had made every arrangement for an exodus to Mexico. The leaders collected monoy and bought a vast tract of land and paid for it in gold. They intended that old Brigham Young should rise from the gras'o and order the faithful to depart to Mexico, but when the land bought came to be prepared ifc was found that the Mexicans had cheated them and sold them a lot of mountains. So great was the chagrin of tho elders that the exodus was postponed and Brigham did not rise." Commenting upon thia story a San Francisco journal says : "There are some facts in connection with his ?epulture which were either predetermined for the purpose of lending credence to the present story or have since been adapted to that end. His own request was that he Bhould be buried in a vault, and the vault should be covered wit rocks and earth. His wishes were carried out by depositing his body in a strong vault of stone, so bu,ilt that the insertion of the last stone rendered it impossible to be opened from the outside. All this detail served a double purpose. It not only secured the sacredneBs of the last resting-place, but it made it practically impossible to examine the interior of the tomb to determine whether the body wae there or whether it had been removed." The following narrative in the San Francisco "Chronicle," however, leaves no doubt of the death of Brigham and the certainty that the story of hte reappearance in Nebraska is a fraud :— •'' Brigham Young died in Salt Lake City on August ,30th, 1877, of inflammation of the bowels, follow- j ing an attack of cholera morbue. He was attended during his last illness by Dr. Seymour B. Young, his nephew, and by Drs. Benedict and Fon. After his death, his body lay in sate in tV»e Tabernacle, where it was viewed by thousands' until Monday, tbo 2nd of September, when ib was buried in a stone vault so constructed that it was impossible to remove a single stone after the vault was closed. The whole vault was cemented over and then covered with earth. Duiing the funeral ceremonies addresses were made by all the principal Mormons and no one hinted at ox foreshadowed any resurrection of tho dead prophet until the general resurrection. Wells, Woodruff, Snow and Cannon eulogised their great leader and apostle, but no one of them claimed for him exemption from the common lot of mortals or even suggested that he would be visible to the eyes of his followers until the resurrection morn. The despatch to which we have referred seems to indicate a doubt as to whether the pseudo Brigham ia to be brought upon the stage as being resurrected from the dead or as never having died and having lived in concealment for nearly ten yearn It is evident that the whole scheme is a fraud and an imposture. Advantage has been taken of a strong likeness between some living man and Brigbam Young and the former has been induced to play the part) of the great apostle of Mormonism for the sole purpose of inspiring religioua zeal and awakening slumbering enthusiasm."