Just for fun (?), here’s the colorful statement reportedly printed in 1905 in the publication of a Southern church. A name was given with the letter, but I have been unable to find any trace of such a person in the census, newspapers, genealogical databases, or general Google search, and the town given as his residence is in a different county from the one named. Neither can I find a trace of the religious publication in which it was supposedly published. (You know what? Now that I’ve gone to the trouble of typing this up I’ll post it for your entertainment — but had I done some simple research before going to that work, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. This was printed in an LDS publication in 1905 – at the very least we can try to put ourselves into the shoes of Latter-day Saints who read this in 1905 – but there are definite problems with what that publication gives as the origin of this piece. I take my own advice about doing basic homework …  sometimes not soon enough.)

“Not L.D. Saints but L.D. Devils”

Not L.D.S. but L.D. Devils. Not a Church of Christ but a Society of Satan. It is a shame to this land of Christianity, of general intelligence and of chastity, where woman is the honored queen of our homes and where every base villain who would dare bring reproach upon her fair name is not only despised as having committed the unpardonable sin, but to whom is meted out swift and severe justice. That those infernal slick-tongue scoundrels, enemies of hell, who tramp over our country by twos and threes, and who profanely introduce themselves as missionaries of the Church of Christ, ‘L.D.S.,’ ‘Mormons,’ are suffered to spread themselves like a mighty octopus over our country. Like their father, the devil (for little devils they are), they go into every city and every village and along the highways and hedges, and where permitted enter every home, carrying their damnable heresies and hellish lies.

If there ever was a wolf in sheep’s clothing these so-called L.D.S. or Mormons certainly are. They come, Bible in hand and well-oiled tongue in mouth, and preach salvation and sanctification, and purity and chastity through Jesus Christ the Lord. They tell of their sublime faith and of their heroic sacrifice, of being away from wives, if you please, for months, all for the salvation of immortal souls. If possible they will conceal their true identity and manage to get into some church dedicated to the worship of the one true and living God, and there preach the purest Gospel imaginable and hold themselves up as beacon lights of righteousness, the holiest of the holy, the very embodiment of chastity, and the fountain head of wisdom, with whom only the wicked will disagree.

But wait until they win their way into your confidence, and if possible proselyte you to their faith, till they tell you that the vile Book of Mormon, written as a smutty novel,. but swiped by Joseph Smith, one of the most contemptible men who ever drew a breath of life, as a direct revelation to him – is more truly the word of God than the Holy Bible which was given by direct inspiration of God to holy men of old; till they tell you (all these secrets by degrees as you become confirmed into the Mormon faith and your conscience hardened) that the teachings of Joseph Smith and the other nefarious polygamist Bishops of the Mormon Church are more binding upon Christians than the teachings of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, ever were; till they seize an opportunity to betray your confidence and wreck your happy home, the story of which – too dark to write here – is told in the divorce courts; till your fair daughter – the very idol of your heart – is inveigled into a mock marriage with one of these L.D. Devils, who perhaps starts with her presumably to Utah, but leaves her I some strange city, homeless, friendless and penniless, and often at times writes her insultingly that he no longer has need for her as he already has several wives – and all the world knows her shame.

Shall we under any circumstances permit them to enter our homes? Ten thousand times no. Rather would I let a lousy, ragged, foul-smelling tramp, who was an avowed drunkard, murderer, thief and libertine, enjoy the hospitality of my home than to allow one of those accursed wolves in sheep’s clothing, who is really an emissary of the society of Satan, L.D. Devils, to enter my threshold.

I care not though the night be dark and cold, and the elements raging in all their most awful fury – the devils shall not enter my home if I know it. There can positively be no companion with evil,.

Then, Mormons, or L.D. Devils, back to Salt Lake and hide your shame-covered heads beneath its briny depths, for though your tongue be smooth and your words honeyed, your hearts are as black as perdition and your lives are, as is the life of your father, the devil.

Mormonism, back to your native hills, for from hell did you spring and to hell shall you, with all the poor wretches deceived by you, return. And there shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.