As my appealing to a magistrate would be of little avail in the
case of a family jar, and would certainly have entailed inconvenience
and delay, I did not carry my threat into execution, wondering, at the
same time, at my temerity in interfering in a quarrel between man and
wife, which I now practically learnt, for the first time in my life, was
to incur the unmitigated anger of both, and to learn how true it is that
"Those who in quarrels interpose,
Must oft expect a bloody nose."
I visited the portion of the town appropriated by the Mormons as a
residence. Here, in the midst of their dwellings, they had erected a
temple for worship, which, on their emigrating west, their arch-leader,
Smith, prophesied would, by the interposition of heaven, be destroyed by
fire. The prophecy was verified as to the fact, but heaven had, it
appeared, little to do with it; for it was ascertained to be the work of
an incendiary of their sect, who was detected and brought to condign
punishment.
I was afterwards informed by an American gentleman, to whom I had a
letter of introduction, and who had been a great sufferer by these
impostors, that some time before the great body of Mormons migrated to
the interior, they started a bank.
Pages:
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91