man marries a second
wife, he actually benefits the first one, and contributes to her
ease, and relieves her of a large burden of care. The duties of
the household are divided between the two women, and everything
moves on harmoniously and peacefully. The whole thing is a matter
of education. A girl reared under the monogamic system may look
with abhorrence on ours; our young women do not do so. They
expect, when they marry a man, that he will some day take another
wife, and they consider it quite natural that he should do so. In
wealthy Gentile communities the concubine system largely takes
the place of the polygamous system. Any man of intelligence,
observation, and travel, knows that such is the case. The fact is
ignored by general consent, and little is said about it, and
nothing is written about it. It is not regarded as a proper
subject of conversation or of publication. How much better to
give lonely women a home while they are uncontaminated, and honor
them with your name, and perpetually provide for them, and before
the world recognize your own offspring! The polygamous system is
the only natural one, and the time rapidly approaches when it
will be the most conspicuous and beneficent of American
institutions. It will be the grand characteristic feature of
American society. Our women are contented with it--more, they are
the most ardent defenders of it to be found in Utah. If the
question were put to a vote to-morrow, nine-tenths of the women
of Utah would vote to perpetuate polygamy.

The Mormons claim that polygamy is countenanced by the New Testament
as well as by the Old. They interpret Paul's teaching in regard to
bishops, while commanding them to marry one wife, as also not
prohibiting them from marrying more than one; their interpretation of
this passage slightly varying from that of Rev. Mr. Madan.

Rev. C. P. Lyford, of the Methodist Church, long a resident of Utah,
in a letter of February 19, 1881, to _The Northern Christian
Advocate_, a Methodist paper published in Syracuse, says:

We read of the stories of India and China, and the wonder of
their existence is lost in their antiquity. Mohammedanism, with
its 1,200 years of existence, amazes us that it should have
obtained such a footing. But here, in our day, surrounded with
all the advantages of the ninet