banks of Bear.'' Nearly all Gentiles were condemned "as Satan's co-workers," as "rotten, miserable, stinking wretches," "thick as grasshoppers," and deserving of all the land they want — "five and a half feet by two and a half feet." But for Corinne, "the very stench from the bottomless pit," the Saints reserved their choicest epithets. As an object of defamation, the Salt Lake Telegraph thought the town contained "more rottenness, multiplied ten times, than all the rest of Utah." When news came that three churches were to be built at Corinne, the Salt Lake Herald wrote, "If there is any small sized burg between the oceans that needs all the 'means of grace' invented it is Corinne. Let us have a few more by all means." 64 And editor Dennis J. Toohy of the Corinne Reporter finally received a full volley of grapeshot from the Salt Lake Herald: The fact is this poor creature's talk is all bosh and buncomb. He cares not for facts; he fulminates slang and knows no other vernacular; he insults the people who endure his presence; he assumes to be "liberal," while utterly intolerant of the rights and opinions of others; he cares for nothing but himself and breeds only disturbance, and continues to make himself thoroughly disgusting wherever he goes.65 National observers as well as Corinnethians firmly believed that behind this assault of castigation and contumely stood the shadowy, Machiavellian figure of the Mormon prophet, directing his devils to harass and to attempt to destroy the Gentile town against which he had cast his imprecations. The myth that Brigham Young had placed a curse on Corinne probably had its origin with J. H. Beadle who, in July 1869, wrote that the Mormon leader said of the new town, "leave the Gentiles alone to their own deviltry, and I prophesy, in the name of Israel's God, that the ungodly will get to fighting among themselves and kill each other off, and save us all trouble." 0G Within a short time, most Gentiles accepted the story as true, so that early residents like Alexander Toponce could write matter-of-factly about "Brigham's Curse on Corinne" which expanded to include the prediction that grass would grow in the streets. As a matter of course, the Gentile press commiserated with the Corinnethians who lived under the prophet's curse and who were thus doomed to perdition.67 The fable reached its climax in 1875, during a supposed threat of Indian attack
Bearding the Prophet
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