Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/507

 Rh alone are in natural social conditions, men and women being about equal in numbers; while of the Orthodox there are probably five females to four males. It is of course impossible to be numerically exact; but my observations in all the towns of the Territory, and in the mining-camps (Gentile), convince me that the following exhibit is very near the exact truth:

The census of 1870 showed a male excess of 2,056, but the great Gentile increase since that time will make it 3,000, if not more. The above table includes all ages.

Observe how unequal are the social conditions. In a purely Mormon town there is often an evident surplus of women of a marriageable age. In a mining town, such as Alta, Bingham, or Ophir, there is a distressing scarcity. In one such town of my acquaintance with 1,000 inhabitants there are barely children enough for a small school, and not women enough to form a sewing-circle! Throughout the Territory the mining towns (Gentile) are some distance up in the mountains, while all the agricultural settlements (Mormon) are necessarily in the valleys. Seeing that human nature is what it is, whether the grand passion be regarded from the moral or merely physical standpoint, one might conclude that the mountaineers would descend upon the valley towns and repeat in more modern style the epic of unwived Rome and the Sabines. This has been prevented by the lack of social intercourse between the two classes, and still more by the vast differences in their education, and habits of life and thought. As time softens their prejudices, marriages "across the religion," as our local phrase has it, are becoming more frequent.

I have laid down certain general principles from which we might, reasoning deductively, expect certain results; my observation fully confirms those results. I do not know of a man whose condition has been improved by polygamy, while I could name a score it has reduced to poverty. I cite a few cases within my knowledge, giving no names, but assuring the reader that they are well known to all old residents of Utah:

A has five wives, children by all, and a civil position which gives him $200 per month. In a monogamous community a permanent position of that kind would enable a man of business ability to accumulate wealth. To A with his five wives it is only what $40 per month would be to a monogamist. Despite the great advance in the value of his real estate, he is to-day on the verge of bankruptcy, and unable to properly care for his families.