--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1842 to 1843. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 4 number: 7 published: 1843-02-15 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "β€œTo the Editor of the Times and Seasons,” *Times and Seasons* 4, no. 7 (February 15, 1843): 98–99." printed_title: To the Editor of the Times and Seasons. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1843-02-15_4_7 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v4n07.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1843-02-15_4_7 start_page: 98 end_page: 99 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1843 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1843-02-15_4_7 publication_year: 1843 --- # To the Editor of the Times and Seasons Sir,-The distressing vicissitudes to which man is subject, in these days when Jehovah is putting forth his hand to vex the nations of the earth, and they are fast filling up the measure of their iniquity, is calculated to draw forth the voice of sorrow from the humane breast. At the present time, and previous to my leaving England, the hand of oppression and misery was very heavy upon the working classes, and lan hunger had visibly marked the countenances of thousands with woe and despair. The factories were mostly (in fact on my last visit to the manufacturing districts, entirely) stopped. And vast numbers were parading the streets or collecting together in groups, and in their desperation pulling down prisons, breaking up machinery, and otherwise destroying property. In Nottingham, and other places, as many as two thousand walking in a body begging, and drawing a cart before them to receive whatever the charitably-disposed might be inclined to give. But, Sir, the heart sickens at the scenes of wretchedness and woe which I myself have witnessed-women fainting in our streets from actual want, and again and again has the coroner's verdict been-Died from want of the necessaries of life. But I will leave this part of the subject after stating two FACTS.-One of our elders travelling [traveling] in the north of England, and calling at a house to make some inquiry as to his road, when a haggard, pale, and death-like female came to the door, with an infant at the breast, which, on hearing the voice of a stranger it turned round, when he made the sad discovery that it was actually SUCKING THE BLOOD of its wretched parent, in which he made the inquiry if she had plenty to eat, and was told that that was the third day since she had tasted food. The following occurred in Scotland:-A young man, about 27, was observed, on passing a green-grocers store, to steal a potatoe [potato], and the day following he again made his appearance, and took three, and so the third and fourth day, but on the fifth the store keeper had provided himself with the assistance of a constable, and when he paid his usual visit they followed him at a distance to the cellar in which he resided, and on entering they beheld two half naked females, the mother and sister to the young man, sitting over a few dead ashes, where a fire had once been, and over which hung a pan; on examining the contents of the pan it was found to contain part of a dog, which had been gathered from a neighbouring [neighboring] pond. On seeing her visitors the mother exclaimed-"Oh, forgive him, for I was afraid to ask him where he got the potatoes, lest he had not come honestly by them!" These reflections arise from meeting a number of my English brethren at Nauvoo, who were struggling hard with poverty and ruin, and by the united assistance of their brethren were enabled to emigrate to this place; there they are in the midst of plenty, and in a state of comparative independence. This has been a source of not small joy to me. And gladly do I listen to their accounts when they expect to get their houses finished. The change of circumstances from despair to hope has nerved them with new vigour [vigor], and they seem determined to be independent. I hope, as occasion may require, when their brethren shall arrive here, who, like themselves, have made a mighty effort to break off the shackles of oppression, and escape to the place where the tyrants vex not and the weary rest, that then they will not forget the pit from whence they were dug. If peace and happiness is to be found in the world, it is at Nauvoo. I remain your affectionate brother, in the covenant of hope. John Greenhow.