MORMONS TARRED

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 11

MORMONS TARRED

EDINBURGH STUDENTS’ ESCAPADE. Edinburgh students on a recent Sunday night raided a Mormon meeting and tarred and feathered two ciders and the secretary of the meeting. For close on thirty years Mormons in Edinburgh have held a weekly Sunday night meeting in the Free Gardeners’ Hall at Picardy place,, and this is the first occasion on which there has been any trouble of this kind. The raid) had evidently been carefully planned. Early during the previous week a room at tho Picardy Place Hall was booked on behalf of'what was termed “Tho Young Men’s Missionary Union." , As the members of the “ union ” assembled there was no indication as to their purpose. Quietly they gathered in twos and threes to the number of about eighty, and at 7 o’clock the meeting opened with the singing of a hymn. - Meantime the Mormon party had gathered, as usual, in their hall on the flat aboyo, and their meeting was commenced in the customary fashion. There was an attendance of ■about lifteen, men and women being.-in about equal proportion. Assured that the party above bad commenced their meeting, the students abandoned their meeting and made their way upstairs. So careful had been the preparations that even'at this point a ruse was adopted in order to avoid detection.- To cover the advance of one party of students upstairs, tho others remained iu the room and continued singing hymns. "THEIR. PLEASANT DUTY.” With “scouts” posted in the corridors and iu the streets, the “attacking” forces entered the hall and interrupted the Mormons’ meeting. When they entered three men were sitting at a desk, which was covered with a white cloth, while the other members of the congregation were seated around the room. To avoid any possibility of mistake, the students asked tho chair party if they were Latter Day Saints from Utah, and a reply in the affirmative was given. When this answer was given the leader of the students calmly announced: "It is our pleasant duty to tar and feather you.” ■ -Other members of the raiding party then stepped forward and deposited on the desk a miscellaneous collection of tins containing green paint, treacle, and honey. The students then proceeded to execute their “pleasant duty,” and smeared the two missionaries and the secretary of the meeting with the paint and ttcacle—a queer mixture. No resistance was offered by tho three men. Tho lin of treacle was emptied over tho head and down the back of one of the missionaries, while treacle was rubbed into his beard. By this time one girl had escaped from tho room and summoned the assistance of the police, and on their arrival four of the students were taken into custody. Tho Mormo 1 " authorities next night refused to prefer nn y charge against the students, and the four men who had been detained were then liberated. No further action was to bo taken unl.il the authorities at the Mormon headquarters at Liverpool had been consulted.