THE MORMONS AND THE TASMANIAN GIRLS.

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 36, 12 February 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MORMONS AND THE TASMANIAN GIRLS.

The " New Jerusalem " saints are wise in their generation They are in thewant of fresh wives^ Whether the. old ones have got too old and wrinkled, or variety is charming, we cannot tell, but the sainrs have cast their eyes about in quest of new " affinities," and cunning dogs that they are — they have fixed on Tasmania for the supply. Two elders and missionaries have gone forth on the interesting mission, and Mr. A. D. Severn and Mr. C- L. Barton, invested with due authority to throw, out the nets and catch the pretty fishes, are now lecturing in Hbbart Towu. Every one has heard about the pretty girls of Tasmania. In fact, with gooseberry jam aud currant jelly, they are the staple articles of production ; and it is quite c lstomary for Melbourne gentlemen to run across the straits, and from a perfect embarras de richesses, select lovely partners of their joy 3 and sorrows from that happy hunting ground. But Melbourne gentlemen should look out for their preserves, and these two Mormon missionaries are a present and a pressing danger. . It is all veiy well to say that Tasmanian girls will shrink from polygamy. But — all the young- fellows flying from the country for other and more progressive lands, so soon as the first soft down begins to adorn the upper lip — what are these unhappy but lovely young creatures to do '? Better surely half a loaf than no bread j and where is the girl that wouldn't rather have

the sixth part of a husband than none at all % We predict for these missionaries a golden harvest in Tasmania ;- and the sheaves of golden tresses and sunny faces they will bind and bear away, will be something to make the hearts of monogamists to swell with envy. And what a glorious work to be engaged in ! Surely the mission must be about the pleasantest ever undertaken by any missionaries before. Only fancy cozening pretty girls, and asking them all to be wives, wooing them wholesale without any fear of the law before one's eyes, in utter defiance of trouble for breach of promise, or bigamy, or anything of the kind. Other people going to Tasmania and popping the question to one, make half a dozen others miserable ; but these lucky dogs can make them all happy, and all in the way of religion. We shall • be interested in watching the result of this mission, and our fear is that the success of these elders down there, will have the effect of making hundreds of our fellows turn Mormon, if for nothing else, to be sent down as missionaries to Tasmania.