I worked constantly for three weeks, with the assistance of two girls, to each of whom I paid six dollars a week besides board. This was a difficult thing for me to do at that time in Utah, for money was seldom seen there then; but I was rejoicing in the prospect of the comfortable new furniture which I should have when it was all done. Furniture at that time was very expensive; there was nothing better than white pine articles, stained or painted. The commonest kind of wooden rocking-chair cost fifteen dollars, and common painted wooden chairs were six dollars a piece, with everything else in proportion. This being our first winter, we had not been able to get much, and I thought I would devote the proceeds of the work I was doing for Brigham to fitting up the house a little; and, with what I earned from my other customers, I contrived to pay my help, so as to have all the rest clear.
All was completed, and great satisfaction expressed at the result of my labours. So I asked my husband to present my account and, if possible, get it settled; it amounted to about 275 dollars, although I had dealt very liberally with the Prophet, and had charged for the goods but little more than they cost me. When he returned, I hastened to meet him, for I had partly selected the furniture and I wanted to go and purchase it. But I was like poor Perrette, the milkmaid, who counted her chickens a little too soon; for Mr. Stenhouse told me that Brother Brigham had given orders that the amount should be credited to us for tithing! What a shock this was to me; for that sum, small as it may appear, was my whole fortune at the time, and it was gone at one sweep! “Can it be possible,” I said, “that he can be so mean as that? Where can his conscience be? or has he any; to deprive me of my hard earnings in this way? He shall not do it—I will make him pay me.”
My indignation was so great that I did not reflect how imprudent I was to talk thus of the Prophet of the Lord; but my husband said, “What can you do? You cannot help yourself. You can do nothing but submit. Let us try to forget it; or, if not, it will perhaps be a lesson to us.” But I did not forget it and never could, although I tried very hard; and when many months had passed, and I no longer suffered from the effects of my loss, I still remembered it, and I always shall remember the way in which Brigham paid for his wives’ bonnets.
ORSON HYDE,
Late President of the Twelve Apostles.
Born January, 1805.
GEORGE Q. CANNON,
Utah Delegate to Congress.
Born in Liverpool, England, 1827.