Enoch's Advocate vs. Brigham Young
Nameplate mocking the "Order of Wooden Shoes"
Brigham Young implored Mormon families to avoid buying shoes and other goods imported from the East. Rather, Saints should sew locally tanned leather onto handmade wooden soles, keeping Mormon dollars in Mormon pockets.
The Cephalopod of the Great Basin
Throughout 1874, Young toured Utah Territory, urging Saints to transfer homes, land, farm equipment, and other goods to Church ownership. Critics saw the instruction as a money grab and an effort to extend Church control over all aspects of life.
The First Presidency
The LDS leadership appears as a three-headed man in wooden shoes. L-R are Daniel H. Wells, Brigham Young, and George A. Smith, who together held ultimate decision-making power over the Church, its finances, and its members.
Notice!
Comical instructions to plant broom handles and doughnuts, issued by Brigham Dotage, Brother Gas (George A. Smith), and D.H. Hole-in-the-Ground (Daniel H. Wells).
The ladies of this city...
Given the wide range of Young's financial interests, the Advocate is sarcastic about temperance efforts in Salt Lake City.
The Nymph of Lurleyburg
The Advocate delighted in tweaking Church hypocrisy. For the hundreds of Saints gathered in Salt Lake City in May 1874, conference organizers had suggested a traveling burlesque show as entertainment.
Brigham in his coffin
Cartoon predicting that, upon the death of Brigham Young, the battle for control would spell the end of the Church. The trio in fisticuffs at bottom right are George A. Smith, Daniel H. Wells, and Brigham Young, Jr.
Taking the Herald
The Advocate suggests that a planned takeover of the independent (although Mormon-owned) newspaper, the Salt Lake Herald, by the Church-run Deseret News, was demanded by Young as part of his push for the United Order. "At the Herald office John T. [Caine] and W.C. [Dunbar] commenced taking an inventory of type and office fixtures previous to surrendering all into the hands of the Lord…"
The All-Seeing Eye
The all-seeing eye in an early ZCMI sign refers to God's omniscience, but in the Advocate, it symbolizes greed, insomuch as the Church coveted Utah's worldly goods.
The Great Mormon People
Brigham Young is shown "milking" the faithful, who are yoked to their ill-considered religion. Brother A. Milton Musser is an Elder overseeing Church finances. "Liberal Mormons" refers to Godbeites and other dissenters. "Coopulation" appears to be an amalgam of cooperation and copulation.
He has succeeded...
This jokey list of "successes" harkens back to a Salt Lake Tribune editorial published on April 28, in which no fewer than 26 of Brigham Young's failed schemes are listed, including the Deseret Mint, the Cattle Bank, and the Cottonwood Canal irrigation plan. Young had once boasted that the Church would grow rich enough to purchase all of Jackson County, Missouri, from which the Mormons had once been driven out.
That vile sheet...
A tongue-in-cheek complaint about the Tribune, whose staff were likely among the creators of the Advocate.
The Saints own nothing.
A common worry was that Brigham Young planned to pass both Church wealth and priestly authority to his sons.
Measuring tape
Jokes that surveyors walk the town, measuring homes to be turned over to Church ownership. William Jennings (president of the Utah Southern Railroad) and William Henry Hooper (formerly Utah's representative in Congress) were both Mormon, but neither deeded his home to the Church.
Brigham ascends
Cartoon depicting a multitude of deceased Saints struggling to haul Brigham Young, laden with riches, to Heaven. Top center is Heber C. Kimball, with Joseph Smith in high collar on his left.
