登陆注册
32318900000027

第27章 VI(2)

The streets are remarkably wide and the buildings low, ****** them appear yet wider than they really are. Trees are planted along the sidewalks--elms, poplars, maples, and a few catalpas and hawthorns;

yet they are mostly small and irregular, and nowhere form avenues half so leafy and imposing as one would be led to expect. Even in the business streets there is but little regularity in the buildings--now a row of plain adobe structures, half store, half dwelling, then a high mercantile block of red brick or sandstone, and again a row of adobe cottages nestled back among apple trees. There is one immense store with its sign upon the roof, in letters big enough to be read miles away, "Z.C.M.I." (Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution), while many a small, codfishy corner grocery bears the legend "Holiness to the Lord, Z.C.M.I." But little evidence will you find in this Zion, with its fifteen thousand souls, of great wealth, though many a Saint is seeking it as keenly as any Yankee Gentile. But on the other had, searching throughout all the city, you will not find any trace of squalor or extreme poverty.

Most of the women I have chanced to meet, especially those from the country, have a weary, repressed look, as if for the sake of their religion they were patiently carrying burdens heavier than they were well able to bear. But, strange as it must seem to Gentiles, the many wives of one man, instead of being repelled from one another by jealousy, appear to be drawn all the closer together, as if the real marriage existed between the wives only. Groups of half a dozen or so may frequently be seen on the streets in close conversation, looking as innocent and unspeculative as a lot of heifers, while the masculine Saints pass them by as if they belonged to a distinct species. In the Tabernacle last Sunday, one of the elders of the church, in discoursing upon the good things of life, the possessions of Latter-Day Saints, enumerated fruitful fields, horses, cows, wives, and implements, the wives being placed as above, between the cows and implements, without receiving any superior emphasis.

Polygamy, as far as I have observed, exerts a more degrading influence upon husbands that upon wives. The love of the latter finds expression in flowers and children, while the former seem to be rendered incapable of pure love of anything. The spirit of Mormonism is intensely exclusive and un-American. A more withdrawn, compact, sealed-up body of people could hardly be found on the face of the earth than is gathered here, notwithstanding railroads, telegraphs, and the penetrating lights that go sifting through society everywhere in this revolutionary, question-asking century. Most of the Mormons I have met seem to be in a state of perpetual apology, which can hardly be fully accounted for by Gentile attacks. At any rate it is unspeakable offensive to any free man.

"We Saints," they are continually saying, "are not as bad as we are called. We don't murder those who differ with us, but rather treat them with all charity. You may go through our town night or day and no harm shall befall you. Go into our houses and you will be well used. We are as glad as you are that Lee was punished," etc. While taking a saunter the other evening we were overtaken by a characteristic Mormon, "an umble man," who made us a very deferential salute and then walked on with us about half a mile. We discussed whatsoever of Mormon doctrines came to mind with American *******, which he defended as best he could, speaking in an excited but deprecating tone. When hard pressed he would say: "I don't understand these deep things, but the elders do. I'm only an umble tradesman."

In taking leave he thanked us for the pleasure of our querulous conversation, removed his hat, and bowed lowly in a sort of Uriah Heep manner, and then went to his humble home. How many humble wives it contained, we did not learn.

Fine specimens of manhood are by no means wanting, but the number of people one meets here who have some physical defect or who attract one's attention by some mental peculiarity that manifests itself through the eyes, is astonishingly great in so small a city. It would evidently be unfair to attribute these defects to Mormonism, though Mormonism has undoubtedly been the magnet that elected and drew these strange people together from all parts of the world.

But however "the peculiar doctrines" and "peculiar practices" of Mormonism have affected the bodies and the minds of the old Saints, the little Latter-Day boys and girls are as happy and natural as possible, running wild, with plenty of good hearty parental indulgence, playing, fighting, gathering flowers in delightful innocence; and when we consider that most of the parents have been drawn from the thickly settled portion of the Old World, where they have long suffered the repression of hunger and hard toil, the Mormon children, "Utah's best crop," seem remarkably bright and promising.

From children one passes naturally into the blooming wilderness, to the pure religion of sunshine and snow, where all the good and the evil of this strange people lifts and vanishes from the mind like mist from the mountains.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 春秋有朵云

    春秋有朵云

    一辆马车,一条小路,路边的是看官,车上的是春秋。
  • 鬼事拾遗

    鬼事拾遗

    很多人坚信,这个世界上,只有人类才是真正的主宰。否认神鬼,同时也是在否认自己!这个世界,并没有那么单纯,区别是,你了解到的,以及,你还没有了解到的...
  • 孤独的尽头是自由:李国文经典散文

    孤独的尽头是自由:李国文经典散文

    本书是著名作家李国文先生的散文集,收录了李国文四十余篇代表性作品,如《我心匪石》《一条悲哀的狗》《他为什么迷上巴黎》《人的半径有多大》等名篇,包含对生活的见解、对历史的追问、对社会的思考、对时事的反思等,李国文的散文有学问,具真性情,也有一种洞明世事的敏锐的观察力,尤难能可贵的是拥有一颗超然的自由的心,唯其如此,方能获得从容和自信。那些恣肆放言、散淡自在的文字,都是他的“尽意”之作,许多篇章,气势一直环绕于历史和现实之间。
  • 火车之通往地狱

    火车之通往地狱

    神说:人以恶应堕恶道,命欲终时,地狱众火俱至,必有火车来迎。一张神秘的车票,带着他坐上了一辆通往深渊的列车……原来每一个站点都是一场噩梦。嘘……第一站到了:寂静岭请乘客拿好物品下车,与三日后准时进站……
  • 无敌偷天系统

    无敌偷天系统

    【系统新书上线,王者荣耀之百变神王,多谢支持。】【推荐我的另一本书,太古至尊神,谢谢大家记得支持。】不一样的系统,不一样的玄幻。逆天系统降临异世,搞怪跳脱充满真性。一日偷天神迹起,异世纷乱,七界争雄。御使七魄身,问道三神天,执掌十方世界,天地唯我独尊。
  • 青青子矜悠悠我心

    青青子矜悠悠我心

    时光总是漫长,那些言语散落之中,逐渐被稀释。但,他将永远在。当有天,时光凝成一束,再散也将被凝聚。聚在心间。扎着马尾的大一新鲜人,仍然满身高中生的纯真。天南地北骤然被聚在了一个宿舍的六姐妹。每天倒腾一些乱七八糟的事儿,却乐在其中乐此不彼的赵今。
  • 雨伞侠

    雨伞侠

    移植纳米细胞,安元靠着一把折叠雨伞,又能走向何方?(前面九章差不多五万字废话太多,感兴趣的朋友可以从第十章开始看,问题不大。)
  • 青少年应该知道的摄影

    青少年应该知道的摄影

    本书带我们走入图像的世界——摄影。主要介绍了摄影的基本概念、工作原理、分类、摄影器材及其摄影技巧等知识,语言生动,科学实用,富有情趣。利用摄影这一现代生活的图像工具,科学艺术地记忆美好生活,提高了人们的生活质量。希望本书能让广大的青少年朋友了解和掌握更多的摄影知识。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!