---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Musser, J. W.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 2
number: 11
published: 1899-09
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Musser, J. W., "Missionary Experiences: The Character of Our Assailants," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 11 (September 1899): 817–818.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera211unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera211unse
start_page: 817
end_page: 818
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-09)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera211unse
  publication_year: 1899
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Missionary Experiences: The Character of Our Assailants

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CHARACTER OF OUR ASSAILANTS.
                     BY ELDER J. W. MUSSER.
     The following instances, as coming under my observation,
                          some extent the character of many of
will serve to illustrate to
those who assail the Elders of the Church and the doctrines that
they preach:
     We had succeeded in establishing a warm friendship among
the villagers in the "Norton" neighborhood, Northern Mississippi,
where I labored as a missionary in 1895-6, but, during our absence
for a few days, a Mr. A. visited the houses where we had stopped,
and, under the claim that a few years of his early manhood had
been spent in Utah in the early fifties, took occasion to slander us.
He told them of the beautiful valley and briny lake, of the thrifty
farms and sturdy occupants; he grew eloquent in his description
of the "Great Mormon Tabernacle," which he designated as the
largest and grandest building in the United States.    He sang the
praises of our "beautiful Temple," at that time scarcely begun,
and described the wonderful stone wall, completely encircling the
city; but he invariably ended by arraigning us as an immoral
people living in total disregard of law, order or decency.       His
eiforts, however, were unavailing, for they only resulted in making

our friends stancher.
     Who was this man A.?        His former neighbors, in an ad-
joining village where he resided, said that in the early fifties he
had been proven guilty of stealing, and had left his native home to
escape justice.
     In the same country, but in another neighborhood,       we had
decided upon securing a small log school house for services.
One of the trustees. Col. W., had been a man of considerable
wealth   and had served his state as a legislator and in other
public capacities.  His two associates were well-to-do farmers.
Our application for the house was answered by an emphatic "No."
Said they:   "Our consent that 'Mormon' Elders use this house

<!-- page:818 -->

818                       IMPROVEMENT ERA.

would be a serious reflection upon the virtue of our wives and
daughters."
       Now who were these men whose moral instincts we had so
seriously shocked by making application to them for the use of a
little old log hut     long since mustered out of service?   And what
kind of characters did they sustain before God and their fellow-
men?         W. was all but compelled to give his life as the
            Col.
penalty for criminal intimacy with the wife of a neighbor.      He
was shot by the husband of the woman concerned, and left for
dead, and his body now carries lead as a result of his perfidy. He
had also served a term in jail for criminal conduct.       Trustee No.
2,    Mr.    B.,   was the reputed   father   of two illegitimate negro
children,himself a married man.     Trustee No. 3, Mr. H.,
though married, became the father of an illegitimate child, the
mother being an unmarried woman.
    These are the beings who dare question the morality of God's
chosen people, and who, unshamed by their own miserable lusts
and depravities, would volunteer to search for a "mote" in the eye
of a neighbor.

                   THE