The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-21

extraordinary size" (6) cit had four
straps of the same material - etc:
The Hstraps were just the width of
two of my (her) two fingers" etc,
Ut is well to here inform the young
reader that because of the excessive
modesty of our New England ancestors,
all that portion of the human body
from the neck downward, front part,
Of course, was called the stomach, -
Mrs. Smiths S statement should have
read " from the neck downwards as
far as the center of the abdomen A
breast-plate extending downward only
to the "center of the stomach would
have been a real curiosity to the an
clients; and this explanation is made
for the purpose Of shielding the mother
of the prophet from the too critically
inchned.)
To the young, and those incapable Of
analysis, a per-abundance of detail
lends to falsehoods the semblance of
truth. (The foregoing sentence is not
intended as reflection on Mrs.
ceded that she saw something which
she tried TO describe.)
Let us examine specification l with
specification D. 1t was a muslin
handkerchief Laban, as Joseph had
no doubt informed his mother during
the evening chats years before he even
saw the plates { Record(, was "a. man
of extraordinary size,' The ordinary
man is about sixteen inches across the
that tragic night in Jerusalem, $500
years ago, Laban might have looked
like ga man of extraordinary size, -
even when wholly "soused. - Or did
Nephi really believe that the "extra~
ordinary size" of Laban added to the
(Nephi) "took Laban by the hair OF
the head and smote off his
head with his own sword'' Unfortu-
nately for the Record as also for
Laban, we cannot call him for a wit
ness on specification 5. and are there
. fore compelled to guess at the size Of
) his "stomach. 50 But it must have
the breast.plate. Add four inches for
lap, and Joseph's "muslin handker-
, chief could not have been less than
four feet square.
There can be no quibble about speci-
{ flcation 2. The handkerchief was :" so
thin y that Mrs. Smith Hcould see the
| glistenlng metal" of which the breast
) the Mormon prophets should take her
, word on that specification along with
: the others which, in the edition of 1902,
Prophet Joseph +. Smith. in the last
paragraph of the Introduction, COM
mends to the cold and young" Saints,
8 ana praYS tnab IL may - create In Cncni
: additional faith in the great work of
, the Lord But the reason for the
y prophets elision of the "glistening
= metul' is readily understood when con-
sidered with specification 8. The four
, straps were of the same material
= as the breastplate and were necessarily
= made Of "glistening metal" OF of strap
! steel or iron.
= Iut why the critical prophets declined
: : to permit the youth of Zion to read Mrs
Smith s assertion that "the whole plate
6 was worth at least $500' is not SO clear
: Surely $500 was not an exaggeration OF
!, the value of that remarkable relic even
9 in the time of Joseph the Prophet, and
, in the backwoods of northwestern New
:. York Or was the elision made because
= II revealed an undercurrent of thrift il
= the Smith mind that inadvertently
y cropped out in connection with the sal
y walton of the human family, and which
> today, is so strikingly manifest in The
6 Smith collection of tithes and offering:
y for the support of the entire Smith
!. tribe of Utah, and the sending of tht
u poorer tithe payers to the county aims
! houses.
Il If the "youth of'Zion will study The
history of Mormonism with the same
II desire to arrive at the truth that the,
} would apply to the study OF any othel
- history they will discover that the claim
of divine origin for the Smith church
e is as thin as the first prophet S fmus
It lin handkerchief, and several time!
d smaller.