The Doctor and his wife began thinking the matter over. It would never do to incur the displeasure of Brother Brigham. He was their father in this world, and their God in the celestial kingdom. Then the Doctor was advancing in years, and should he lose his situation in the Endowment House and Tabernacle, where would be the support for himself and family in his declining years? He had served his adopted father so long and faithfully, should he break with him now? It would never do; so, after many sleepless nights and much anguish of spirit, he made up his mind to make the sacrifice. As to Mrs. Sprague, she cared not for herself, but her poor sick child! She had lived for years almost entirely in the beautiful garden, and how could she leave it now? With frail and faltering step she had wandered amid the flowers and fruit, culling this bright geranium and that lovely rose, plucking this beautiful strawberry, and that luscious bunch of grapes, and by this sweet communion with Nature, the child seemed to receive afresh the life-giving principle. She was now to be torn from her little paradise, by whom, and for what? No wonder if the heart of the mother grew somewhat stony at the reflection.
When the poor girl heard that she must leave these "delightful shades," she wept until oblivion wrapt her senses, and in a fit of convulsions, she forgot, for the time being, at least, her cruel fate.
The sisters came to condole with Sister Sprague; said it was too bad. "Sister Sprague, it is too bad, but you had better do it than to have Brother Brigham's curse resting upon you."
Emeline, who is really a kind-hearted creature, came and wept with Sister S., saying she did not want her home, "but Brigham," said she, "has set his mind upon it, and we don't any of us dare to speak to him about it."
Young remained inexorable,—the change was made; and to-day the whilome favored wife and now cast-off mistress of Brigham Young, occupies the beautiful residence of Dr. Sprague, the fruit of his many years of toil and economy.
Bill Hickman is one of the most notorious of the Danite leaders. He is now about fifty years of age. He is a man of medium size, heavy set, of florid complexion, troubled of late years with weak eyes, causing him to wear goggles. He is of Southern birth, and a strong secessionist, but professes much friendship for the United States Government, and the federal officers. He is wily and cunning, with much of the suaviter in modo, and is something of a lawyer. He glories in a household of seven "women" and about twenty children, but does not maintain them in the highest style.
Porter Rockwell, another noted character, is somewhat of the same style of Hickman. Shorter of stature, with the Utah floridity of complexion, and very voluble in conversation. Anything that is all right with Rockwell, is "on the square." It is "wheat"; and nearly every act and expression of a stranger, is of that character.
Robert T. Burton, Sheriff of Salt Lake County, and Collector of Internal Revenue, who bids fair to rival or outdo all the others in his lawless deeds, is a tall, wiry man, one it would be hard to hit with a bullet. He is cool and imperturbable; in fact, never thrown off his balance, never wanting in case of an emergency. No fitter person to carry out the plans of Young could be found within or without the Territory, and upon him Brigham relies implicitly. With or without a "writ," he is always ready.
It is not my purpose to enter into a history of the many crimes to be traced with more or less certainty to the doors of these and other Mormon leaders. Some of them will be found collated in the appendix to the speech of Judge Cradlebaugh, already mentioned. Others are touched upon in the pages of this volume.
One or two affidavits, from a large number in the writer's