eared within a few
days. Occasionally a family would attempt to escape from Utah, in order
to avoid compliance with laws and orders which they believed to be
criminal in character, as well as contrary to their preconceived notions
of domestic happiness and right. To make an attempt of this character
was to invite death. In the first place, it was almost impossible to
traverse the surrounding mountains and deserts, and even if these
natural obstacles were overcome, the hand of the avenger was constantly
uplifted against the fugitives, who were blotted off the face of the
earth, on the theory that dead men tell no tales.

On one occasion, a man left his home in Utah in the way described,
because he declined to bring home a second wife. Brigham Young, in the
course of his pastoral calls, entered the comfortable house occupied by
the family, and called upon the man to introduce to him his wives. He
was one of the few men who, while in every other respect a zealous
Mormon, had declined to break up his family relations by bringing a
young wife into his home. The mother of his children informed the
Prophet with much vehemence of this fact, and in words more noble than
discreet assured him that no effort of his could disturb the domestic
relations of the house, or make her husband untrue to vows he had taken
twenty years before.

The Prophet was too astounded to lose his temper, but turning to the
happy husband and father, he told him in stentorian tones that unless
within one month he complied with the orders of the church, it would
have been better for him had he never been born, or had he died while on
the terrible march across the Bad Lands and the alkali desert. That the
Prophet was in earnest was evidenced by the arrival the following day of
some of his minions, who brought with them more explicit directions, as
well as the names of certain young women to whom the man must be
"sealed" or "married" within the time mentioned by Young.

No idea of complying with this order ever occurred to the head of the
house. He knew that his wife would far rather die than be dishonored,
and he himself was perfectly willing to sacrifice his life rather than
his honor. But for the sake of his four children he determined to make
an attempt to escape, and accordingly, a few days later, the family,
having collected together all their available and easily transported
assets, hitched up their wagon and drove away in the dead of night.
Their