Untitled

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 456, 6 January 1882, Page 19

That the Mormons had a genuine fear of President Garfield's avowed hostility to polygamy is proved by their actions and utterances at the time of his death. A private letter from Salt Lake City recently received reports that upon the night of September 19, when the entire Gentile community was plunged into the deepest grief, Mormons openly expressed their joy upon the street. The writer says that in the ward in which be lives every house inhabited by Gentiles ■was heavily draped, while not a single dwelling of Mormons displayed a badge of mourning. He adds : " Yet, while there is not the smallest doubt that the Mormons rejoice over the death of Garfield, and while in private they express their real sentiments freely, Cannon, who is the controlling spirit among them now, is far too wily to permit any public demonstrations of joy. There were memorial services in the Tabernacle as well as in the Gentile churches. Two female Mormon missionaries, one of them a plural wife of ex- Mayor Wells, the other a Mormon doctress, are now travelling in the States. Since .the death of President Garfield they have written home to the Mormon papers here, " We are compelled to believe that President Arthur will not be any more kindly disposed toward the Saints than Garfield was; so now nothing remains for, us, bpt.to trust in God for help." In the Tabernacle services held directly after the shooting, the speakers, while pretending to deplore the fact, called attention to Garfield's Mormon policy, as denned in his inaugural and added that all who thus attempted to persecute the Saints were sooner or later de c troyed.