“I am too sorry for the crews, to enjoy the sunlit sails.”
“Yes, the safer their voyage, the surer their wreck in that gulf of superstition beyond the mountains.”
“Perhaps we waste sympathy. A man who has no more wit than to believe the trash they teach, has no business with anything but stupid drudgery. He will never suffer with discovering his faith to be a delusion.”
“You may say that of a grown man; but think of the children,—to grow up in desecrated homes, and never know the close and tender influence of family nurture.”
“The state owes them an interference and an education.”
“So it does; and the women protection from polygamy, whether they will or no.”
“Certainly. Polygamy makes woman a slave either by force, or influence stronger than force. The state exists only to secure the blessings of liberty to every soul within its borders, and so must free her.”
“Good logic, but not likely, quite yet, to guide legislation in our country.”
“This is Sizzum’s last train; if the women here are no more fascinating than their shabby sisters of its forerunners, we shall carry our hearts safe home.”
“I cannot laugh about that,” said Brent. “My old dread revives, whenever I see one of these caravans, that there may be in it some innocent girl too young to choose, carried off by a fanatic father or guardian. Think of the misery to a woman of any refinement!”