The Livingston enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1914, 1884-12-27
THE BOOK OF MORMON.
A True History Of Joe Smiths Zee.
mark able Piece Of Juggle~y.
[St. Louis Spectator

markabie Piece Of Juggle~y.
[St. Louis Spectator
How many people know anything aLo'it the
origin of the Mormon religion, o: rather, of
the Book of Mormon, which is it, anth' rii.r!
knew precious little about it t.st.l tai'
week, when I accidentally fell in ss;tl MI.
Clark Braden, who has recently given the
subject most searching investigat"n His
story shows Of what stuff rel; sion nay / c
made. The Mormons numb,r probably
O,OO0 They are divided into many
sects, but the principal are the polyg-
amous Brighamites in Utah and the
non -rolygamous Josephites scattered in va:i-
GUS places. The story may he given III q fsw
words The Book of Mormon was written
by an old broken down Presbyterian clergy
man named Solomon Spaulding Spaulding
was born in Connecticut in 176l. He> gradu-
ated at Dartmouth college, and settled as
minister for a Congregational church. He
made bad failure at preaching, and went
into business with his brother in Nav York
state, did not succeed, and started an iron
foundry in a town in northern Ohio. He
soon failed in that venture and became very
much discouraged. His wife supported the
family by taking boarders, and he spent his
time in writing, though what did not then
appear. The family moved to Pittsburg,
when he rewrote his book, adding second
part He afterwards rewrote the entire
book, adding third part. This is the origin
Of the manuscript.
Now, what became Of it: Spaulaing made
arrangements to have it printed in Pitts
burg. After part of it had been set up the
whole manuscript was stolen by tanner
named Sidney Rigdon who was in the habit
of loafng around the printing office Rig
don kept it concealed for some years, until he
fell in with joseph Smith, who evolved the
plan of producing it. Smith belonged to a
not over reputable family living near Pal
myra, n Y. They lived in house and
supported themselves by hunting and fishing
and other means suspected to be more ques-
tionable Joseph, one day, found a remark
ably clear crystal, shaped much like child's
foot, and he declared it was ''reap stone,"
in which he could read the future and dis
cover stolen goods, strayed cattle, etc, and
on several occasions was SO successful i'll pre-
dieting the locality Of goods and cat
tie that he soon came to have con-
siderable reputation. He then extended
his field of operations by divining where
treasure was buried, and under his directions
a great many diggings were made, unsuc-
cessfully however. These diggings extended
over large area, some fifty miles or more.
around Palmyra, and some of them may be
seen now. He fell in with Sidney Rigdon,
who told him of the manuscript. Smith soon
devised scheme for producing it under
proper surroundings The alleged book of
copper plates was found under divine guild
ance, on which characters of reformed Egyp-
tan were craven. The book was accom-
panied by a pair Of spectacles of vontlrous
power, which enabled Smith to translate the
remarkable characters This he did from
behind screen, while an amanuensis took
down his words. The Book of Morraon was
printed in 1890, at Palmyra, N. Y, a farmer,
Martin Harris, putting up the cash to pay
the printer. Thus Solomon Spaulding's
manuscript found it's way into print with
such additions and alterations as Smith chose
to make for his own benefit.
A book will soon be published by the Chris
tian Publishing company giving all the i'll
vestigations of Mr.. Braden and the complete
chain of evidence establishing the authen-
ITCHY of his story. A manuscript of the
Book of Mormon is still in existem in the
possession of Mr.. Withmer, Of Ri 'hmond,
Mo-, and the compositor who set up most of
the book at Palmyra, fifty years ago, is still
living, Mr.. j. H. Gilbert. Mr.. Braden is |
now trying to arrange that Mr.. Gilbert shall
see this manuscript to say whether 1t is the |
copy from which the book was originally set |