The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-05-05

chanting of heavenly host as he drew
the golden plates from the earth and
bore them to his home,
HE became so proficient in his de-
scription of the estate JOY in heaven
when he found the plates that I have
known a large audience to hold its
breath as the sentences rolled from
Smiths mouth. l have seen some
farmers wives become powerless and
almost unconscious In the spell of reli-
gious enthusiasm that Smith and Rig
don had created. The latter told in
scores of meetings, and to every one
with whom he came in contact, how he
was frequently transported to celestial
spheres at night, while his body lay on
his bed at home; how he had listened to
counsels from Moses and Elisha; how
he actually walked in flowery fields and
down golden streets on some far-off
planet; and he would repeat instruc-
tons that he pretended he had from BIZ
Bile characters in the other world.
"Of the printing of the Book of Nor
mon 1 have a particularly keen recol-
lection. Smith and Rigdon had hard
work to get funds together for the new
lplDlSs lplu lie IllillotlL tllebL tiiN
world was so wicked and perverse that
! it was hard to win converts; that he
| had a vision to print the Bible, and that
as soon as that was done the work
would be prospered wonderfully. A
new convert named Andrews, a plain
old farmer in Auburn, N. Y, mortgaged
his property for three thousand dollars
to start the printing. The Wayne Sem
tinel, published at Palmyra, did the
work on contract for five thousand
copies for five thousand dollars. The
printing office was on an upper floor
near the store where I worked, and |
was one of the few persons who was al
lowed about the office while the pub
fishing was going on.
Il helped to read proof on many
pages of the book, and at odd times set
some type. The copy was about half
ready for the printer when there came
q halt in the proceedings, for Mrs. Har-
ris, wife of Martin Harris, had become
so disguised with her husbands con-
version to the new religion and his
abandonment of his fine farm for
preaching MormOnism that she one
morning threw in the fire all the Bible
manuscript that had been brought to
him for a review by Smith. It was
weeks before Joe Smith and Rigdon re-
covered from their dismay at this act.
Harris went down into his pockets for
three hundred dollars to repay the loss
caused by his wife's destruction of the
manuscript.
The copy for the Book of Mormon
was prepared in a cave that Smith and
others dug near the scene of the finding
of the golden plates on Gold Hill.
went out there frequently for a Sunday
walk during the process of the transla-
ton of the plates and the printing of
the book. Some one of the converts
was constantly about the entrance to
the cave, and no one but Smith and AL
vim CoWdry, a school teacher there,
who had proselyted that season, was
allowed to go through the door of the
cave. Rigdon had some hopes of con-
verting me- and l was permitted to go
near the door, but not so much as to
peep inside. Smith told me later that
no one had ever seen the golden plates
but himself, and that he Wore the
glasses found with the plates and was
thus able to translate the new message
from heaven to the people. He read
aloud, and Cowdry, who was seated on
the other side of a screen or partition
in the cave wrote down the words as
pronounced by Joe.
1.-THE penmanship of the copy fur
nished was good, but the grammar
spelling and punctuation were done by
John H. Gilbert, who was chief compos-
itor in the Office. l have heard him
swear many a time at the syntax and
photography of Cowdry, and declare
that he would not set another line of
type. The copy came in one mass, and
there We're no paragraphs or punctua-
ton, and no capitals. All that was
done in the printing office, and what a
time there used to be in Strengthening
sentences out, too!
During the work of printing the
book I remember that Joe Smith kept
in the background. He was wanted
several times at the printing office to
explain some obscure sentences and ap-
parent blunders in composition, but he
never came near the printers. He sent
word by his brother Hyrum that the
work of translating absorbed his mind
ana lulCllOllS So lHdJ lie COulu mol dJ-
tend to mundane business. Every
morning Hyrum Smith appeared at the
office with installments of copy OF
twenty-four pages buttoned up in his
vest, and came regularly and punctual-
ly for them at night.
THE publication of the book OF
five hundred and thirty-eight pages
was published with spirit, but until il
was completed not a copy was allowed
to leave the office. Every volume was
packed in an upper room, and the pile
they made struck me at the time, and
has since been wildly in my mind, as
comparing in size and shape with g
cord of wood, and l called it cord OF
Mormon Bibles. The work was finished
in the spring of 1890. Not long after
the publication was completed Smith
and his followers began their prepare.
lions for removal, and ere long the
parties, with their converts, packed w
all their belongings and left for Kirt.
land, o.
This removal was not on compul
sion from any complaint of their neigh
bors, like those they were subsequently
compelled to make from Kirkland ant
Nauvoo, but all seemed to enter into i
readily and with the utmost cheerful
ness, though many abandoned homes O.
great comfort and comparative wealth