Up to that time, those Gentiles who did not follow the
army to its permanent camp bivouacked on the public squares. By a Church
edict, all Mormons were forbidden to enter into business transactions
with persons outside their sect without consulting Brigham Young, whose
office was beset daily by a throng of clients beseeching indulgences
and instruction. Immediately after his return to the city, however,
he secluded himself from public observation, never appearing in the
streets, nor on the balconies of his mansion-house. He even encompassed
his residence with an armed guard.
Gradually, nevertheless, the necessities of the people induced a
modification of this system of non-intercourse. The Gentile merchants,
who were present with great wagon-trains containing all those articles
indispensable to the comfort of life, of which the Mormons stood so much
in need, refused to open a single box or bale until they could hire
storehouses. The permission was at length accorded, and immediately the
absolute external reserve of the people began to wear away. Both sexes
thronged to the stores, eager to supply themselves with groceries and
garments; but there they experienced a wholesome rebuff, for which some
of them were not entirely unprepared.
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