and candor of his
good fellowship. When they were about to part, the President is reported
to have said, "Why don't you run for Congress from your state? You're
just the kind of man I'd like to have in the House to support my
policies." And here (as the Mormons are told) is the dialogue that
ensued:

Rich: "I have no ambition that way, Mr. President. For many reasons
it's out of the question although I'm grateful for the flattering
suggestion."

The President: "Then let me appoint you to some good office. You're the
kind of man I'd like to have in my official family."

Rich (impressively and in a low tone): "Mr. President, I'd count it the
greatest honor of my life to have a commission from you to any office.
I'd hand that commission down to my children as the most precious
heritage. But--I love you too much, Mr. President, to put you in any
such hole. I'm a polygamist. It would injure you before the whole
country."

The President (leaning forward eagerly): "No! Are you a polygamist? Tell
me all about it."

Rich. "The Lord has bestowed that blessing on me. I wish you could go
into my home and see how my wives are living together like sisters--how
tender they are to each other--how they bear each other's burdens and
share each other's sorrows--and how fond all my children are of Mother
and Auntie."

The President: "Well--but how can women agree to share a husband?"

Rich: "They do it in obedience to a revelation from the Lord--a
revelation that proclaimed the doctrine of the eternity and the
plurality of the marriage covenant. We believe that men and women,
sealed in this life under proper authority, are united in the conjugal
relation throughout eternity. We believe that the husband is tied to his
wives, and they to him; that their children and all the generations
of their children will belong to him hereafter. We believe in eternal
progression; that as man is, God was; and as God is, man shall be. We
believe that by obedience to this revealed covenant, we will be exalted
in the celestial realm of our Father, with power in ourselves to create
and people worlds. It is a never ending and constantly increasing
intelligence and labor. If I keep my covenants to my wives and they to
me, in this world, all the powers and rights of our marriage relation
will be continued and amplified to us in the life to come; and we, in
our turn, will be rulers over worlds and universes of worlds."

Then--according to the unctuous