Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife Part 4

And she sez, lookin' admirin'ly at him, "I spoze I might call him papa."

Well, you can't put sense into a certain b.u.mp in anybody's head if it wuzn't made there in the first place--there are holler places in heads that you can't fill up, do your best. But oh! how her devoted love to him put me in mind of myself, and how his small-sized devotion to her--how it reminded me of him who wuz far away--and oh, why did I not hear from him! my heart sunk nearly into my shues as I foreboded about it. It seemed as if everything brung him up before me, the provisions we had on the dining car wuz good and plenty of 'em, and how they made me think of him, who wuz a good provider. The long, long days and nights of travel, the jar and motion of the cars made me think of him who often wuz restless and oneasy. And even the sand of the desert between Cheyenne and Denver, even that sand brought me fond remembrances of one who wuz sandy complected when in his prime. And oh! when did I not think of him? Christmas had gone by, but how could we celebrate it without a home to set up a Christmas tree, or set out a table with good Jonesville vittles. How I thought on him who made a holiday in my heart by his presence, and always helped me put the leaves in the extension table.

Tommy wanted to hang up his little stockin', and did, hangin' it out like a little red signal of distress over the side of his top shelf, and we filled it with everything good we could git hold on.

Dorothy put in a little silver watch she had bought on her travels, not bigger than a warnut, and Miss Meechim put in some of the toys she had bought for children of her acquaintance. I got a good little picture book for him in Chicago, and a set of Authors, and Aronette gin him two little linen handkerchiefs, hemst.i.tched by herself, and his name, "Tommy," worked in the corners. He wuz real tickled with 'em all. I told Miss Meechim that I had hoped to spend Christmas in Salt Lake City. Knowin' that it wuz a warm climate, I thought I could have a Christmas tree out doors; I thought I could take one of them big pine trees I had read on, and invite Brigham Young's wives, the hull on 'em, to my party, bein' out doors I thought there would be room for 'em all, poor creeters!

But Miss Meechim is very cautious, and she said that she wuz afraid that such a party given by folks in my high position might have a tendency to encourage polygamy.

And I said, "I would rather give a dollar bill than do that, and mebbe I had better give it up, for we shan't git there in time, anyway."

And so I did, and spent the Christmas holidays on the cars, and tried to keep my heart and mind in a Christmas mood, but don't spoze I did, so many fond recollections and sad forebodin's hanted me as the cars swep' us on, on through the valley of the Platte river on to Denver.

Miss Meechim, who is a power on dates, said that Denver wuz five thousand two hundred feet above the sea.

And Tommy wonnered, wonnered who measured it, and if they did it with a yard stick as his ma measured cloth, and then he wonnered if his ma missed her little boy, and then he laid up aginst me and kinder cried a little, evanescent grief soon soothed.

We stayed in Denver two days, sallyin' out to different points of interest about it, and here I see irrigation carried on, water carried into the channels around the crops and trees some as I've dug little holes round my house-plants to hold water; only of course Denver wuz carryin' it on, on a bigger scale. It is a handsome city with the water of the Platte river brung in and running along in little streams by the curbstones. We rode out to Idaho Springs on a narrer railroad but easy goin', through Clear Creek Canon. I liked the looks of the Springs first-rate (they made me think of Josiah).

All the way we see Chinamen workin' hard and patient, as is their wont, and their long frocks they had on made me think of him I mourned for, and their hair hangin' in long braids down their back. So would _his_ hair look if he had any, and let it grow.

We had to go a little out of our straight way to visit Salt Lake City but felt that it paid.

CHAPTER IV

Salt Lake lays in a rich valley at the foot of a range of snow-capped mountains that tower up 'round it, seemin' to the saints, I spoze, as if they wuz heavenly ramparts to protect 'em from evil; and lookin' to them that despise the saints' ways and customs, as if the very earth itself was liftin' up its high hands in horrow at their deeds. But to me, hanted as I wuz by a memory, the mountains looked some like old men with white hair; as his would be when he got older if he wuzn't bald. I knew that I ort not to think on it, but it would come onbid.

It is a beautiful city with electric lights, electric railways, broad streets lined with lofty trees, and little rivulets of pure cold snow-water runnin' along the side of 'em. The houses are clean and comfortable looking, with well-kep' lawns and gardens about 'em and flowering shrubs. The temple is a magnificent building; it towers up to heaven, as if it wuz jest as sure of bein' right as our Methodist Episcopal steeple at Jonesville. Though we know that the M. E.

steeple, though smaller in size, is pintin' the right way and will be found out so on that day that tries souls and steeples and everything else.

The old Bee Hive (where the swarm of Mormons first hived and made gall or honey--or mebby both)--is also an interestin' sight to meditate on.

It is shaped a good deal like one of them round straw bee hives you see in old Sabbath School books. The bride and groom went to their own home to live, on whom we called, or Tommy and I did, and left 'em well situated and happy; and I told him, sez I: "If you 'tend strict to the eighth commandment, you'll git along first rate."

And he said that he felt he could rise to any height of goodness with Baby's help. And she scoffed at the idee of pa ever payin' any attention to any other woman but her, when he wors.h.i.+pped her so.

Well, so other men have felt and got led off, but I won't forebode.

But I left 'em happy in their own cozy home, which I wuz glad to think I could describe to Phileman and Ann if I ever see that blessed haven, Jonesville, agin.

We went out to visit the Mineral Springs. It only took us about ten minutes on the train, and it only took us about half an hour to go to Garfield Beach. It is the only sand beach on Salt Lake, and some say it is the finest beach in the world, and they say that the sunsets viewed from this spot are so heavenly bright in their glowin' colors that no pen or tongue can describe 'em. The blue-green waves wuz dancin' as we stood on the sh.o.r.e, and we wuz told that if we fell in, the water would hold us up, but didn't try it, bein' in sunthin' of a hurry.

At Miss Meechim's strong request we went on a pleasant trip to York City through the valley of the River of Jordan. How good that name sounded to me! How much like scripter! But, alas! it made me think of one who had so often sung with me on the way home from evenin'

meetin', as the full moon gilded the top of the democrat, and the surroundin' landscape:

"By Jordan's stormy banks we stand And cast a wistful eye On Canaan's fair and happy land, Where my possessions lie."

Oh, human love and longing, how strong thou art! I knowed that him meant the things of the sperit, but my human heart translated it, and I sithed and felt that the Jordan my soul wuz pa.s.sin' through wuz indeed a hard pathway, and I couldn't help castin' a wishful eye on Jonesville's fair and happy land, where my earthly possession, my Josiah, lay.

But to resoom. We had hearn that Polygamy wuz still practised there, and we had hearn that it wuzn't. But every doubt on that subject wuz laid to rest by an invitation we all had to go and visit a Mormon family livin' not fur off, and Miss Meechim and I went, she not wantin' Dorothy to hear a word on the subject. She said with reason, that after all her anxiety and labors to keep her from marryin' one man, what would be her feelin's to have her visit a man who had boldly wedded 'leven wives and might want a even dozen!

I could see it to once, so didn't urge the matter, but left Tommy with her and Aronette. As nigh as I could make out, the Mormons had felt that Miss Meechim and I wuz high in authority in Gentile climes, one on us had that air of n.o.bility and command that is always a.s.sociated with high authority, and they felt that one on us could do their cause much good if they could impress us favorable with the custom, so they put their best twenty-four feet forward and did their level best to show off their doctrine in flyin' colors. But they didn't do any good to "one on us," nor to Miss Meechim, either; she's sound in doctrine, though kinder weak and disagreeable in spots.

Well, we found that this family lived in splendid style, and the husband and all his pardners acted happy whether they wuz or not. And I d'no how or why it wuz, but when we all sot down in their large cool parlor, Miss Meechim and I in our luxurious easy chairs, and our host in one opposite with his wife occupyin' 'leven chairs at his sides, a feelin' of pity swep' over me--pity for that man.

Yes, as I looked at that one lonely man, small boneded at that, and then looked at them 'leven portly wimmen that called that man "our husband," I pitied him like a dog. I had never thought of pityin'

Mormon men before, but had poured out all my pity and sympathy onto the female Mormons. But havin' a mind like a oxes for strength, I begun to see matters in a new light, and I begun to spozen to myself, even whilst I sot there with my tongue keepin' up a light dialogue on the weather, the country, etc., with the man and his wife ('leven on 'em). I spozed what if they should all git mad at him at one time how wuz he goin' to bear their 'leven rages flas.h.i.+n' from twenty-two eyes, snortin' from 'leven upturned noses, fallin' from 'leven angry voices, and the angry jesters from twenty-two scornful hands. Spozein' they all got to weepin' on his shoulder at one time how could one shoulder blade stand it under the united weight of 'leven full-sized females, most two ton of 'em, amidst more'n forty-four nervous sobs, for they would naterally gin more'n two apiece. In sickness now, if they wanted to soothe his achin' brow, and of course they would all want to, and have the right to. But how could twenty-two hands rest on that one small fore-top? Sixty-six rubs at the least figger, for if they stroked his forehead at all they would want to stroke it three times apiece, poor creeter! would not delerium ensue instead of sooth? And spozein' they all took it into their heads to hang on his arm with both arms fondly whilst out walkin' by moonlight, how could twenty-two arms be accommodated by two small scrawny elbows?

It couldn't be done. And as I mused on't I spoke right out onbeknown to me, and sez I:

"The Lord never meant it to be so; it hain't reasonable; it's aginst common sense."

And the hull twelve sez, "What didn't the Lord mean? What wuz aginst common sense?"

And bein' ketched at it, I sez, "The Mormon doctrine;" sez I, "to say nothin' on moral and spiritual grounds, and state rights, it's against reason and good sense."

I felt mortified to think I had spoke out loud, but had to stand my ground after I had said it.

But they all said that the Mormon doctrine wuz the true belief, that it wuz writ in heaven, then it wuz engraved on plates, and dug up by Joe Smith, a Latter Day Saint.

Sez I, "If anybody trys to prove sunthin' they want to, they can most always dig up sunthin' to prove it. You say a man dug this plate up; what if some woman should go to diggin' and find a plate provin' that one woman ort to have 'leven husbands?"

"Oh, no!" sez the man in deep scorn, "no such plate could be found!"

The wimmen all looked as if they would kinder like to see such dishes, but they all sez faintly, "We don't spoze that it could be found."

"But," I sez, "you don't know how many plates there are in the ground, nor who'll dig 'em up."

"Oh, that idee is preposterous!" sez the man, as visions of dividin'

one woman's heart into eleven parts and reignin' over that little mossel riz up before him. "Men never would agree to that; there would be mutiny, internal bloodshed and sizm."

"Well," sez I, "mebby there is more or less internal heart bleedin'

goin' on in the wimmen's hearts that have to divide a man's love and care a dozen times." Sez I, "A hull man's hull affections are onstiddy and wobblin' and oncertain enough without dividin' it up so many times."

Them wimmen wuz touched. I see a answerin' gleam of understandin' come into about twenty-one eyes as I spoke; one on 'em stood firm and looked hauty and cast iron, but I mistrusted it wuz a gla.s.s eye, but don't know, it might have been principle.

And even on the man's small-sized countenance my words had seemed to make a impression. But yet he didn't want to give up in a minute; he spoke of how the Mormons had flourished since they come to Utah, how they had turned the desert into a garden, and he felt that the Lord must look on 'em favorable or they wouldn't be so prosperous.

"Yes," sez I, not wantin' to lie, "your country is beautiful, it is in a flouris.h.i.+ng state, and shows the good results of systematic labor, industry and ambition; you have made the desert bloom like the rosy, many of your ways and customs might be follered with profit by older communities, and more orthodox accordin' to my idees. But I don't know as your flouris.h.i.+n' in worldly affairs is any sign of G.o.d's favor,"

and I mentioned the scripter concernin' who it wuz that flourished like the green bayberry tree. So bein' driv out of that argument, he sez, forgittin' his own eleven proofs aginst his story bein' true:

"Polygamy is done away with anyway; the United States have abolished it in Utah."

And I sez: "Well, I should be glad to think that wuz so, for one husband and one wife is as much as the Lord in his mercy ort to ask one human creeter to tend to and put up with. Not but what marriage is a beautiful inst.i.tution and full of happiness if Love props it up and gilds it with its blessed ray. But one is enough," sez I firmly, "and enough is as good as a feast."

Miss Meechim sot silently by durin' this eloquent discussion--what she felt, she that abhorred the inst.i.tution of marriage anyway--what she felt to look on and see folks so much married as these wuz, will forever remain a secret, but her looks wuz queer, very, and her nose fairly sought the heavens, it wuz held so high. A few of the wives brought in some refreshments to refresh us, and a few more waited on us and the small husband of their eleven hearts, and almost immegiately we tore ourselves away, takin' in ourn as we left, the hand of the husband and the eleven right hands of the wife.

That evenin' I wuz told I wuz wanted in the parlor, and as I entered quite a good lookin' Mormon man got up and advanced and broke out to once askin' my help. He said he'd read in the paper that I wuz there to that tarven, and knowin' I stood so high with the public he had ventered to ask my help. He had political yearnin's and wanted to set in the Senate, but as I stood firm as iron again that idee his linement grew almost frenzied, and sez he: