Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-10-07

Amanuensis-One of the Dupes-Cave
on Miners Hi Bringing Out the
Book.
On returning to the village Of PalmyrH
we visited another hill which is celebrated
in the annals Of Mormon history. In
order that the reader may understand
the significance Of this hill we must go
back TO Joe Smith and his bible. The
book, which, by the way, no n ever
saw, was said t. consist Of metal plates,
pierced on n edge, and fastened to-
gether by rings which passed through the
holes. With the book was also found, or
so pretended, q huge pair Of spectacles,
too large for any mortal eyes, which had
the remarkable quality Of turning the
hieroglyphics 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 a legible hand. An accomplish was
necessary. But Smith was equal to the
occasion. He engaged one Oliver Cow
derry, q schoolteacher, to be his scribe,
promising him part of the proceeds Of the
DOOh- 1n6 0LulLuS hC4C bAACh AAfAh
little, one-story log house. There were
only two rooms on the ground floor, with
a pointed garnet in the roof. Across one
corner of this garrett Smith had a blanket
screen stretched. Behind this screen he
eusconced himself with his magic spec
tacles and his golden book Tor, as Hussey
affirms, his tile brick. Cowdery sat on
the other side of the blanket and wrote
from Smiths dictation-
ONE OF THE DUPEs.
Martin Harris, q wealthy farmer, was
induced to bear the expense OF printing
the manuscript. But Harris wife was a
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 filled
Smith with dismay. He and Harris were
morally certain that Mrs. Harris had
taken the manuscript, but they did not
know it 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, 1t
wasn't a time to give up. He aud his
friends repaired to Miners hill by night,
and there dug a sort Of cav on the east
side of the hill. The dimensions Of this
cave were forty feet deep, sixteen feet
wide, and seven feet high. The entrance
was secured by q substantial door of two
inch oak plank. In this dark cave Smith
set about producing a 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
It Is similar to Mormon hill, and like 1t
runs off to the south in a ridge. In the
days of Smith it was heavily wooded.
When we visited the hill the timber had
been cut down, and the whole was a
slashing filed 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. Fffty-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 u knife
and cut off a piece Of the wood. 1t was
as sound as when the frame 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 1T LAST.
Altar q oOod daal of damurrinp Mr.
Egbert B. Grandin, the publisher Of The
Wayne Sentinel, contracted to do the
printing. An edition of 5000 copies was
ordered. The price agreed upon was
5000. Harris pledging himself to pay
the MONEY 1t happened that at that tim
the leading compositor in Mr.. Grandin's
office was Mr.. John H. Gilbert. Mr.. Gil
bert, or, as he is now called, Maj. Gilbert,
is to-day Il hale man of s. years. 1t was
our good fortune to meet him and have a
long talk about the early days OF Nor
monism. He had the chief operative trust
of the typesetting and pressworE. he
got out the first form. There were in all
5SS pages OF the bible, and Of these Gil
bert set up with his W hands over 800.
The original instructions were that no
alterations whatever from the cop. were
to be made. But under Gilbert's earnest
protestations these instructions were re-
scinded. Cowdery, though a tolerable
nina was poor in syntaX, photography,
punctuation. etc. The copy furnished him,
Mr.. Gilbert assured us, was u solid mass.
There was no punctuation, very few
capitals, no paragraphs.
Joe Smith kept in the background. Gil
bert only saw him twice-once in the Of
fee for a few minutes and once on the
street. Hyrum Smith, his brother,
brought the copy to the office every morn
ing, in installments of t~wenty-tour pages,
buttoned up in his vest, and came for
them at night. But after much friendly
expostulation Smith in about ten days re-
Taxed his vigilance, and permitted Gil
bert to take the manuscript home to cor
rect and punctuate. This was on Gil
bert's word that he 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. \, has
the press on which the book was printed.
The book was seven months in printing
that is, from August, 1929, to March,
1880.
Mr.. Gilbert has one copy of the orig.
nal edition of the Mormon Bible. 1t
has never been bound, but IS in loose
leaves. He has been offered 500 for it,
but wants $500. He thinks it ought to
be procured for the library at Washing
ton, La the Mormon Bibles now pub
lished Joe Smith is styled the Trans
Iator." But the first edition bore on the
title page, @By JOSEPH Smith, Jr., author
and proprietor."-F. W. Morton in Chi
cago Times.
Helter-Skelter Travelling.
Ihave often noticed how apt people are
TO 90 on a journey helter- SHELTER and trust
to luck to bring them through all right in
the end. They have a general idea as to
where they want to go n h trains
they want to catch, but apart from that