Americans have long been puzzled by their compatriots of the Mormon faith. Here are two classic excerpts from the Atlantic archive that wouldn’t see the light of day today. The first from 1900:
Unvarying type traits or stigmata mark Gentile and Mormon. Your Gentile will clench fist, grit teeth, and sputter bad words. Your Mormon, with the usual suavity of an under dog, will spread forth his fat palms, smile a bland, sweet, Asiatic smile, and honey his talk with Scriptural quotations. Half an eye sees which is right. Yet noblesse oblige; let us grant this devil his due. Consider, I beg you, the case of the Mormon, who pleads for polygamy, and boasts a bright liege loyalty to country and country’s flag…
I looked and found that polygamous Mormons were of five sorts — sentimental Mormons, exegetical Mormons, philosophical Mormons, and barnyard Mormons."
Of course, back then, polygamy was the object of greatest fascination/repulsion. From 1864:
A cosmopolitan, especially one knowing beforehand that Utah was not distinguished for monogamy, might well be ashamed to be so taken off his feet as I was by my first view of Mormonism in its practical workings. I stared, I believe I blushed a little, I tried to stutter a reply; and the one dreadful thought which persistently kept uppermost, so that I felt they must read it in my face, was, ‘How can these young women sit looking at each other’s babies without flying into each other’s faces with their fingernails, and tearing out each other’s hair?’
How indeed.
The Dish 