Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-09-28
VISIT TO MINERS HILL.
ONE OF THE PLACES CELEBRATED
INTHE HISTORY OF MoRMoNIsM.

On returning TO the village OF Palmyra
we visited another hill which is celebrat ed
in the annals of Mormon history. In
order that the reader may understand
the significance of this hill we must go
back 10 Joe Smith and his bible. The
book, which. by the way, no one ever
saw, was said to consist of metal plates,
pierced on one edge, and fastened to-
gether by rings which passed through the
holes. With the book was also found, or
80 pretended, huge pair Of spectacles.
too large for any mortal eyes, which had
the remarkable quality of turning the
hierogiyphics on the metal plates into
plain English.
Smiths scheme required the publica-
| ton OF his bible How was he to accomp-
/ lish this' No one was allowed to see the
metal plates, and yet Smith could not
write legible hand. An sccomplice was
necessary. But Smith was equal to the
occasion. He engaged one Oliver Cow
derry, a school teacher, to be his scribe.
/ promising him part of the proceeds of the
book. The Smiths were then living In q
little one story log house. There were
only two rooms on the ground floor, with
pointed garret in the roof Across one
] VI GdtIcl udu q pibuhcI
! screen stretched Behind this screen he
ensconced himself with his magic spec
tacles and his golden book (or, as Hussey
sffirms, his tile brick. Cowdery sat on
! the other side OF the blanket and wrote
from Smiths dictation.
ONE OF THE DUPEs.
Martin Harris, a wealthy farmer, was
induced to bear the expense OF printing
. he inf INT 10 rrisf xrifa w n
woman of too much good sense to be
Smiths dupe. So in the absence of her
husband she put the manuscript in the
stove and burnt it up. Here was a check
in the proceeding, and one, too, that filed
Smith with dismay He and Harris were
morally certain that Mrs. Harris had
taken the manuscript, but they did not
know Il was burned. Smith was unable to
reproduce the book exactly, and he feared
that the first manuscript would be pro-
duced to confound him. However. it
wasn't a time to give up. He and his
friends repaired to Miners hill by night,
and there dug a sort Of cave on the east
side OF the hill. The dimensions of this
cave were fortyfeet deep, sixteen feet
wide, and seven feet high. The entrance
was secured by a substantial door Of two
inch oak plank. In this dark cave Smith
set about producing 6 new manuscript,
Cowdery still acting as an amanuensis.
This copy was more securely guarded; 1t
is that from which the Mormon bible was
printed In 1929.
Miners hill is about two and a half
miles south Of Palmyra In appearance
II Is similar to Mormon hill, and like 1t
runs of to the south in a ridge. In the
days of Smith II was heavily wooded.
When We visited the hill the timber had
been cut down, and the whole was a
slashiLg filled with stumps, briers and
burrs. We had little difficulty in finding
what used TO be the cave. 1t is situated
Just below the brow Of the hill. Fifty-six
years, however, have left their ravages.
Instead of a cave we found quite a depres-
sion where the earth had given way and
fallen in. The door had long since disap-
peared. The door-frame, however, still
stands there, buried more than half the
way up in the earth. The frame is
roughly made, the sides not being NOR
tised into the top, but simply secured by
three large spikes driven through each
end of the top piece We took our knife
and cut of piece of the wood. 1t was
as sound as when the frWne was first
made. Hundreds Of people, we were
told, annually visit Mormon hill; but few
ever wend their way through the burrs
and briers of Miners hill.
PRINTED AT LAST.
After a good deal of demurring Mr..
Egbert B. Grandin, the publisher Of Toe
Wayne Sentinel, contracted to do the
printing. An edit a Of 5000 copies was
ordered. The price agreed upon was
5000. Harris pledging himself to pay
the money. 1t happened that at that time
the leading compositor in Mr.. Grandin's
Office was Mr.. John II. Gilbert. Mr.. Gill
bert, or, as he is now called, Maj. Gilbert,
is to-day a hale man of IS years. 1t was
our good fortune to meet him and have
long talk about the early days of Nor
monism. He had the chief operative trust
Of the typesetting and presswork. He
got out the first form. There were in all
5SS pages of the bible, and of these Gil
bert set up with his own hands over 500.
The original instructions were that no
alterations whatever from the copy were
to be made. But under Gilbert's earnest
protestations these instructions were re-
scinded. Cowdery, though tolerable
penman, was poor in syntax, orthography,
punctuation etc. The copy furnished him,
Mr. Gilbert assured US was a solid mass
There was no punctuation, very few
capitals, no paragr apis.
Joe Smith kept in the background. Gil
bert only saw him twice-once in the Of
fee for few minutes and once on the
street Hyrum Smith, his brother,
brought the copy to the office every morn
ing, in installments of twenty four pages,
buttoned up in his vest, and came for
them at night But after much friendly
expostulation Smith in about ten days re-
laxed his vigilance, and permitted Gil
bert to take the manuscript home to cor
rect and punctuate This was on Gil
bert's word that ne would be responsible
for the copy. Grandin read most Of the
proof: Gilbert read the rest. The con-
tract price of the printing was faithfully
paid by Harris. David Whitmer, who
now lives in Richmond, Mo, has the
original manuscript A man living in
Williamson, Wayne county, n. Y, has
the press on which the book was printed.
The book was seven months in printing
that is, from August, 1929, to March,
1890
Mr. Gilbert has one copy Of the orig
inal edition of the Mormon Bible. 1t
he's never been bound, but is in loose
leaves He has been offered 800 for 1t,
but wants $500 He thinks il ought to
be procured for the library at Washing
ton. In the Mormon Bibles now pub
lished Joe Smith is styled the Trans
lator" But the first edition bore on the
title page, "By Josept Smith, Jr., author
and proprietor"-F. w. Morton in Chi
cago Times.
Playing Chess by Himself
! New Workers who live in the suburbs
| indulge in novel and queer pastimes oc-
| casionally while going TO and fro between
rha city and thar hnmas One of them