BROTHER JARRUM.
By the light of a single tallow candle which flared aloft on a shelf in
Peckaby's shop, consecrated in more prosperous days to wares, but bare
now, a large collected assemblage was regarding each other with looks of
eager interest. There could not have been less than thirty present, all
crammed together in that little space of a few feet square. The first
comers had taken their seats on the counters; the others stood as they
could. Two or three men, just returned from their day's labour, were
there; but the crowd was chiefly composed of the weaker sex.
The attention of these people was concentrated on a little man who faced
them, leaning against the wall at the back of the shop, and holding
forth in a loud, persuasive tone. If you object to the term "holding
forth," you must blame Mrs. Duff; it is borrowed from her. She informed
us, you may remember, that the stranger who met, and appeared to avoid,
Lionel Verner, was no other than a "missionary from Jerusalem," taken
with an anxiety for the souls of Deerham, and about to do what he could
to convert them--"Brother Jarrum."
Brother Jarrum had entered upon his work, conjointly with his entry upon
Peckaby's spare bedroom. He held nightly meetings in Peckaby's shop, and
the news of his fame was spreading. Women of all ages flocked in to hear
him--you know how impressionable they have the character of being. A
sprinkling of men followed out of curiosity, of idleness, or from
propensity to ridicule. Had Brother Jarrum proved to be a real
missionary from Jerusalem--though, so far as my knowledge goes, such
messengers from that city are not common--genuinely desirous of
converting them from wrath to grace, I fear his audience would, after
the first night or two, have fallen off considerably. _This_ missionary,
however, contrived both to keep his audience and to increase it; his
promises partaking more of the mundane nature than do such promises in
general. In point of fact, Brother Jarrum was an Elder from a place that
he was pleased to term "New Jerusalem"; in other words, from the Salt
Lake city.
It has been the fate of certain spots of England, more so than of most
other parts of the European world, to be favoured by periodical visits
from these gentry. Deerham was now suffering under the infliction, and
Brother Jarrum was doing all that lay in his power to convert half its
female population into Mormon proselytes. His peculiar doctrines it is
of no consequence to transcribe; but some of his promises were so rich
that it is a pity you should lose the treat of hearing them. They
commenced with--husbands to all. Old or young, married or single, each
was safe to be made the wife of one of these favoured prophets the
instant she set foot in the new city. This, of course, was a very grand
thing for the women--as you may know if you have any experience of
them--especially for those who were getting on the shady side of forty,
and had not changed their name. They, the women, gathered together and
pressed into Peckaby's shop, and stared at Brother Jarrum with eager
eyes, and listened with strained ears, only looking off him to cast
admiring glances one to another.
"Stars and snakes!" said Brother Jarrum, whose style of oratory was more
peculiar than elegant, "what flounders me is, that the whole lot of you
Britishers don't migrate of yourselves to the desired city--the promised
land--the Zion on the mountains. You stop here to pinch and toil and
care, and quarrel one of another, and starve your children through
having nothing to give 'em, when you might go out there to ease, to
love, to peace, to plenty. It's a charming city; what else should it be
called the City of the Saints for? The houses have shady veranders round
'em, with sweet shrubs a-creeping up, and white posts and pillows to
lean against. The bigger a household is, the more rooms it have got; not
a lady there, if there was a hundred of 'em in family, but what's got
her own parlour and bedroom to herself, which no stranger thinks of
going in at without knocking for leaf. All round and about these houses
is productive gardens, trees and flowers for ornament, and fruits and
green stuff to eat. There's trees that they call cotton wood, and firs,
and locusts, and balsams, and poplars, and pines, and acacias, some of
'em in blossom. A family may live for nothing upon the produce of their
own ground. Vegetables is to be had for the cutting; their own cows
gives the milk--such milk and butter as this poor place, Deerham, never
saw--but the rich flavour's imparted to 'em from the fine quality of the
grass; and fruit you might feed upon till you got a surfeit. Grapes and
peaches is all a-hanging in clusters to the hand, only waiting to be
plucked! Stars! my mouth's watering now at the thoughts of 'em! I--"
"Please, sir, what did you say the name of the place was again?"
interrupted a female voice.
"New Jerusalem," replied Brother Jarrum. "It's in the territory of Utah.
On the maps and on the roads, and for them that have not awoke to the
new light, it's called the Great Salt Lake City; but for us favoured
saints, it's New Jerusalem. It's Zion--it's Paradise--it's anything
beautiful you may like to call it. There's a ballroom in it."
This abrupt wind-up rather took some of the audience aback. "A
ballroom!"
"A ballroom," gravely repeated Brother Jarrum. "A public ballroom not
far from a hundred feet long; and we have got a theatre for the acting
of plays; and we go for rides in winter in sleighs. Ah! did you think it
was with us, out there, as it is with you in the old country?--one's
days to be made up of labour, labour, labour; no interlude to it but
starvation and the crying of children as can't get nursed or fed! We
like amusement; and we have it; dancing in particular. Our great prophet
himself dances; and all the apostles and bishops dance. They dance
themselves down."
The assemblage sat with open eyes. New wonders were revealed to them
every moment. Some of the younger legs grew restless at the mental
vision conjured up.
"It's part of our faith to dance," continued Brother Jarrum. "Why
shouldn't we? Didn't David dance? Didn't Jephthah dance? Didn't the
prodigal son dance? You'll all dance on to the last if you come to us.
Such a thing as old legs is hardly known among us. As the favoured
climate makes the women's faces beautiful, so it keeps the limbs from
growing old. The ballroom is hung with green branches and flags; you
might think it was a scene of trees lit with lamps; and you'd never tire
of listening to the music, or of looking at the supper-table. If you
could only see the suppers given, in a picture to-night, it 'ud spoil
your sleep, and you'd not rest till you had started to partake of 'em.
Ducks and turkeys, and oysters, and fowls, and fish, and meats, and
custards, and pies, and potatoes, and greens, and jellies, and coffee,
and tea, and cake, and drinks, and so many more things that you'd be
tired only of hearing me say the names. There's abundance for all."
Some commotion amid Brother Jarrum's hearers, and a sound as of licking
of lips. That supper account was a great temptation. Had Brother Jarrum
started then, straight off for the Salt Lake, the probability is that
three-parts of the room would have formed a tail after him.
"What's the drinks?" inquired Jim Clark, the supper items imparting to
his inside a curious feeling of emptiness.
"There's no lack of drinks in the City of the Saints," returned Brother
Jarrum. "Whisky's plentiful. Have you heard of mint julep? That _is_
delicious. Mint is one of the few productions not common out there, and
we are learning to make the julep with sage instead. You should see the
plains of sage! It grows wild."
"And there's ducks, you say?" observed Susan Peckaby. "It's convenient
to have sage in plenty where there's ducks," added she to the assembly
in general. "What a land it must be!"
"A land that's not to be ekalled! A land flowing with milk and honey!"
rapturously echoed Brother Jarrum. "Ducks is in plenty, and sage grows
as thick as nettles do here; you can't go out to the open country but
you put your foot upon it. Nature's generally in accordance with
herself. What should she give all them bushes of wild sage for, unless
she gave ducks to match?"
A problem that appeared indisputable to the minds of Brother Jarrum's
listeners. They sincerely wished themselves in New Jerusalem.
"Through the streets runs a stream of sparkling water, clear as
crystal," continued Brother Jarrum. "You have only got to stoop down
with a can on a hot summer's day, and take a drink of it. It runs on
both sides the streets for convenience; folks step out of their houses,
and draw it up with no trouble. You have not got to toil half a mile to
a spring of fresh water there! You'd never forget the silver lake at the
base of Antelope Island, once you set eyes on it."
Several haggard eyes were lifted at this. "Do silver grow there, like
the sage?"
"I spoke metaphorical," explained Brother Jarrum. "Would I deceive you?
No. It's the Great Salt Lake, that shines out like burnished silver, and
bursts on the sight of the new pilgrims when they arrive in bands at
the holy city--the emigrants from this land."
"Some do arrive then, sir?" timidly questioned Dinah Roy.
"Some!" indignantly responded Brother Jarrum. "They are arriving
continual. The very evening before I left, a numerous company arrived.
It was just upon sunset. The clouds was all of rose colour, tipped with
purple and gold, and there lay the holy city at their feet, in the
lovely valley I told you of last night, with the lake of glittering
silver in the distance. It is a sight for 'em, I can tell you! The
regular-built houses, inclosed in their gardens and buildings, like farm
homesteads, and the inhabitants turning out with fiddles, to meet and
welcome the travellers. Some of the pilgrims fainted with joy; some
shouted; lots danced; and sobs and tears of delight burst from all. If
the journey had been a little fatiguing--what of that, with that
glorious scene at the end of it?"
"And you see this?" cried a man, Davies, in a somewhat doubtful tone.
"I see it with my two eyes," answered Brother Jarrum. "I often see it.
We had had news in the city that a train of new-comers was approaching,
mostly English, and we went out to meet 'em. Not one of us saints,
hardly, but was expecting some friend by it--a sister, or a father, or a
sweetheart, maybe; and away we hurried outside the city. Presently the
train came in sight."
"They have railroads there, then?" spoke a man, who was listening with
eager interest. It was decent, civil Grind.
"Not yet; we shall have 'em shortly," said Brother Jarrum. "The train
consisted of carts, carriages, vehicles of all sorts; and some rode
mules, and some were walking on their legs. They were all habited
nicely, and singing hymns. A short way afore they arrive at the holy
city, it's the custom for the emigrants to make a halt, and wash and
dress themselves, so as to enter proper. Such a meeting! the kissing and
the greeting drownding the noise of the music, and the old men and the
little children dancing. The prophet himself came out, and shook hands
with 'em all, his brass band blowing in front of him, and he standing up
in his carriage. Where else would you travel to, I'd like to know, and
find such a welcome at the end of your journey? Houses, and friends,
and plenty, all got ready aforehand; and gentlemen waiting to marry the
ladies that may wish to enter the holy state!"
"There _is_ a plenty?" questioned again that unbelieving man, Davies.
"There's such a plenty that the new arrivals are advised to eat, for a
week or two, only half their fill," returned Brother Jarrum--"of fruits
in partic'lar. Some, that have gone right in at the good things without
mercy, have been laid up through it, and had to fine themselves down
upon physic for a week after. No; it's best to be a little sparing at
the beginning."
"What did he say just now about all the Mormons being beautiful?"
questioned a pretty-looking girl of her neighbours. And Brother Jarrum
caught the words, although they were spoken in an undertone.
"And so they are," said he. "The climate's of a nature that softens the
faces, keeps folks in health, and stops 'em from growing old. If you see
two females in the street, one a saint's wife, the t'other a new
arrival, you can always tell which is which. The wife's got a slender
waist, like a lady, with a delicate colour in her face, and silky hair;
the new-comer's tanned, and fat, and freckled, and clumsy. If you don't
believe me, you can ask them as have been there. There's something in
the dress they wear, too, that sets 'em off. No female goes out without
a veil, which hangs down behind. They don't want to hide their pretty
faces, not they."
Mary Green, a damsel of twenty, she who had previously spoken, really
did possess a pretty face; and a rapturous vision came over her at this
juncture, of beholding it shaded and set off by a white lace veil, as
she had often seen Miss Decima Verner's.
"Now, I can't explain to you why it is that the women in the city should
be fair to the eye, or why the men don't seem to grow old," resumed
Brother Jarrum. "It is so, and that's enough. People, learned in such
things, might tell the cause; but I'm not learned in 'em. Some says it's
the effect of the New Jerusalem climate; some thinks it's the fruits of
the happy and plentiful life we lead: my opinion is, it's a mixture of
both. A man of sixty hardly looks forty, out there. It's a great
favour!"
One of the ill-doing Dawsons, who had pushed his way in at the shop door
in time to hear part of the lavished praise on New Jerusalem,
interrupted at this juncture.
"I say, master, if this is as you're a-telling us, how is it that folks
talk so again' the Mormons? I met a man in Heartburg once, who had been
out there, and he couldn't say bad enough of 'em."
"Snakes! but that's a natural question of yours, and I'm glad to answer
it," replied Brother Jarrum, with a taking air of candour. "Those evil
reports come from our enemies. There's another tribe living in the Great
Salt Lake City besides ours; and that's the Gentiles. Gentiles is our
name for 'em. It's this set that spreads about uncredible reports, and
we'd like to sew their mouths up--"
Brother Jarrum probably intended to say "unaccredited." He continued,
somewhat vehemently--
"To sew their mouths up with a needle and thread, and let 'em be sewed
up for ever. They are jealous of us; that's what it is. Some of their
wives, too, have left 'em to espouse our saints, at which they naggar
greatly. The outrageousest things that enemies' tongues can be laid to,
they say. Don't you ever believe 'em; it flounders me to think as
anybody can. Whoever wants to see my credentials, they are at their beck
and call. Call to-morrow morning--in my room upstairs--call any other
morning, and my certificates is open to be looked at, with spectacles or
without 'em, signed in full, at the Great Salt Lake City, territory of
Utah, by our prophet, Mr. Brigham Young, and two of his councillors,
testifying that I am Elder Silas Jarrum, and that my mission over here
is to preach the light to them as are at present asleep in darkness, and
bring 'em to the community of the Latter Day Saints. _I'm_ no impostor,
I'm not; and I tell you that the false reports come from them
unbelieving Gentiles. Instead of minding their own affairs, they pass
their days nagging at the saints."
"Why don't they turn saints theirselves?" cried a voice sensibly.
"Because Satan stops 'em. You have heard of him, you know. He's busy
everywhere, as you've been taught by your parsons. I put my head inside
of your church door, last Sunday night, while the sermon was going on,
and I heard your parson tell you as Satan was the foundation of all the
ill that was in you. He was right there; though I'm no friend to parsons
in general. Satan is the head and tail of bad things, and he fills up
the Gentiles with proud notions, and blinds their eyes against us. No
wonder! If every soul in the world turned Latter Day Saint, and come
over to us at New Jerusalem, where 'ud Satan's work be? We are striving
to get you out of the clutches of Satan, my friends, and you must strive
for yourselves also. Where's the use of us elders coming among you to
preach and convert, unless you meet us half-way? Where's the good of
keeping up that 'Perpetual Emigration Fund Company,' if you don't reap
its benefit and make a start to emigrate? These things is being done for
you, not for us. The Latter Day Saints have got nothing mean nor selfish
about 'em. They are the richest people in the world--in generosity and
good works."
"Is servants allowed to dress in veils, out there?" demanded Mary Green,
during a pause of Brother Jarrum's, afforded to the audience that they
might sufficiently revolve the disinterested generosity of the Latter
Day Saint community.
"Veils! Veils, and feathers, too, if they are so minded," was Brother
Jarrum's answer; and it fell like a soothing sound on Mary Green's vain
ear. "It's not many servants, though, that you'd find in New Jerusalem."
"Ain't servants let go out to New Jerusalem?" quickly returned Mary
Green. She was a servant herself, just now out of place, given to spend
all her wages upon finery, and coming to grief perpetually with her
mistresses upon the score.
"Many of 'em goes out," was the satisfactory reply of Brother Jarrum.
"But servants here are not servants there. Who'd be a servant if she
could be a missis? Wouldn't a handsome young female prefer to be her
master's wife than to be his servant?"
Mary Green giggled; the question had been pointedly put to her.
"If a female servant _chooses_ to remain a servant, in course she can,"
Brother Jarrum resumed, "and precious long wages she'd get; eighty pound
a year--good."
A movement of intense surprise amid the audience. Brother Jarrum went
on--
"I can't say I have knowed many as have stopped servants, even at that
high rate of pay. My memory won't charge me with one. They have married
and settled, and so have secured for themselves paradise."
This might be taken as a delicate hint that the married state,
generally, deserved that happy title. Some of the experiences of those
present, however, rather tended to accord it a less satisfactory one,
and there arose some murmuring. Brother Jarrum explained--
"Women is not married with us for time, but for eternity--as I tried to
beat into you last night. Once the wife of a saint, their entrance into
paradise is safe and certain. We have not got a old maid among us--not a
single old maid!"
The sensation that this information caused, I'll leave you to judge;
considering that Deerham was famous for old maids, and that several were
present.
"No old maids, and no widders," continued Brother Jarrum, wiping his
forehead, which was becoming moist with the heat of argument. "We have
respect to our women, we have, and like to make 'em comfortable."
"But if their husbands die off?" suggested a puzzled listener.
"The husband's successor marries his widders," explained Brother Jarrum.
"Look at our late head and prophet, Mr. Joe Smith--him that appeared in
a vision to our present prophet, and pointed out the spot for the new
temple. He died a martyr, Mr. Joe Smith did--a prey to wicked murderers.
Were his widders left to grieve and die out after him? No. Mr. Brigham
Young, he succeeded to his honours, and he married the widders."
This was received somewhat dubiously; the assemblage not clear whether
to approve it or to cavil at it.
"Not so much to be his wives, you know, as to be a kind of ruling
matrons in his household," went on Brother Jarrum. "To have their own
places apart, their own rooms in the house, and to be as happy as the
day's long. They don't--"
"How they must quarrel, a lot of wives together!" interrupted a
discontented voice.
Brother Jarrum set himself energetically to disprove this supposition.
He succeeded. Belief is easy to willing minds.
"Which is best?" asked he.--"To be one of the wives of a rich saint,
where all the wives is happy, and honoured, and well dressed; or to toil
and starve, and go next door to naked, as a poor man's solitary wife
does here? I know which I should choose if the two chances was offered
me. A woman can't put her foot inside the heavenly kingdom, I tell you,
unless she has got a husband to lay hold of her hand and draw her in.
The wives of a saint are safe; paradise is in store for 'em; and that's
why the Gentiles' wives--them folks that's for ever riling at us--leave
their husbands to marry the saints."
"Does the saints' wives ever leave 'em to marry them others--the
Gentiles?" asked that troublesome Davies.
"Such cases have been heered of," responded Brother Jarrum, shaking his
head with a grave solemnity of manner. "They have braved the punishment
and done it. But the act has been rare."
"What is the punishment?" inquired somebody's wife.
"When a female belonging to the Latter Day Saints--whether she's married
or single--falls off from grace and goes over to them Gentiles, and
marries one of 'em, she's condemned to be buffeted by Satan for a
thousand years."
A pause of consternation.
"Who condemns her?" a voice, more venturesome than the rest, was heard
to ask.
"There's mysteries in our faith which can't be disclosed even to you,"
was the reply of Brother Jarrum. "Them apostate women are condemned to
it; and that's enough. It's not everybody as can see the truth.
Ninety-nine may see it, and the hundredth mayn't."
"Very true, very true," was murmured around.
"I think I see the waggins and the other vehicles arriving now!"
rapturously exclaimed Brother Jarrum, turning his eyes right up into his
head, the better to take in the mental vision. "The travellers, tired
with their journey, washed and shaved, and dressed, and the women's hair
anointed, all flagrant with oil and frantic with joy--shouting, singing,
and dancing to the tune of the advancing fiddles! I think I see the
great prophet himself, with his brass-band in front and his body-guard
around him, meeting the travellers and shaking their hands individ'ally!
I think I see the joy of the women, and the nice young girls, when they
are led to the hyminial halter in our temple by the saints that have
fixed on 'em, to be inducted into the safety of paradise! Happy those
that the prophet chooses for himself! While them other poor mistaken
backsliders shall be undergoing their thousand years of buffetings,
they'll reign triumphant, the saved saints of the Mil--"
How long Brother Jarrum's harangue might have rung on the wide ears of
his delighted listeners, it is not easy to say. But an interruption
occurred, to the proceeding's. It was caused by the entrance of
Peckaby; and the meeting was terminated somewhat abruptly. While Susan
Peckaby sat at the feet of the saint, a willing disciple of his
doctrine, her lord and master, however disheartening it may be to record
it, could not, by any means, be induced to open his heart and receive
the grace. He remained obdurate. Passively obdurate during the day; but
rather demonstratively obdurate towards night. Peckaby, a quiet, civil
man enough when sober, was just the contrary when _ivre_; and since he
had joined the blacksmith's shop, his evening visits to a noted
public-house--the Plough and Harrow--had become frequent. On his return
home from these visits, his mind had once or twice been spoken out
pretty freely as to the Latter Day Saint doctrine: once he had gone the
length of clearing the shop of guests, and marshalling the saint himself
to the retirement of his own apartment. However contrite he may have
shown himself for this the next morning, nobody desired to have the
scene repeated. Consequently, when Peckaby now entered, defiance in his
face and unsteadiness in his legs, the guests filed out of their own
accord; and Brother Jarrum, taking the flaring candle from the shelf,
disappeared with it up the stairs.
This has been a very fair specimen of Brother Jarrum's representations
and eloquence. It was only one meeting out of a great many. As I said
before, the precise tenets of his religious faith need not be enlarged
upon: it is enough to say that they were quite equal to his temporal
promises. You will, therefore, scarcely wonder that he made disciples.
But the mischief, as yet, had only begun to brew.