1899-02-03-New York Tribune-Opinions of Utah Women

New York Tribune, February 3, 1899, p. 5.

Opinions of Utah Women

WHAT A FORMER DEACONESS OF THIS CITY SAYS OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Mra M. Louise Thomas, of this city, has recently received from a friend living at Moab, Utah, a letter giving a number of interesting facts regarding the way people in Utah look upon the question of the Mormon Roberts being allowed to take his seat in Congress.

The letter was written by Miss Sarah J. Elliott, who was formerly a deaconess in Dr. Rainsford's parish, in this city. Miss Elliott left New-York to join her brother, who was in business in Utah; later he married a daughter of George Henry Lewes, the young woman being one of eight children. Two of the girls came to this country, and by a singular coincidence one of them married an Elliott.

This family of Elliotts were intimate friends of Amelia, who was Brigham Young's favorite wife. Miss Sarah Elliott, in her letter to Mrs. Thomas, says:

We are full of indignation over the sending of an avowed lawbreaker to make our laws. Dear Mrs. Thomas, do speak a word when you can for the children of Utah!

For five years Miss Elliott has worked among Mormon children. She holds a Sunday-school every Sunday, though she has only a dance hall to hold it in. She speaks of the great evil she has to contend with, in counteracting the influences of home training in their faith, and speaks of the "white slavery in our midst." The Mormon women are, Miss Elliott says, the most self-denying and self-sacrificing, full of noble aims and purposes; but they have been taught, and believe and teach their children, that polygamy is a "means of grace, and aids to the highest development of their character. It is the children who must suffer." Miss Elliott asserts, "and who do already suffer. The conditions to which they are born must be changed, and we must try what we can do to change them. Only an amendment to the Constitution can do it, and we may beg our lawmakers to make this."

Miss Elliott says that the Bishop of Utah begs her to go on in her work there, and promises aid in both school and church; and if she can but help to remove this dark blot on the country and the cloud over the people she will feel that no work or effort is too great.