The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-10-31


women. Mrs. M. o. JOHNSTON, Route
D, Box 100, Richmond, Ind
had health and strength, an active
mind and vivid, imagination. Being
without school advantages he follow
cd his own crude ideas. He was fas-
cinatcd with the wild romance of
Captain Kidd, and with a company of
youthful followers he would hunt at
night for buried money in the fields
about his fathers home. He is said
to have had religious turn of mind,
and during revival he was exercised
very deeply or the subject. His i'm
agination, his superstitions, and his
religious excitement combined to
create wonderful visions in his un-
tutored mind. He was about fifteen
years of age when he began to see
visions and dream dreams. These ex-
pcriences continued through seven
years. During four years of this
period Joseph was absent from his
fathers house seeking employment,
in various capacities, in Pennsylvania
and elsewhere. His movements for
two years cannot be definitely traced.
But during his absence he was for a
time in the employ of VIM. H. Sabine,
at whose house the widow of Rev.
Solomon Spauldipg, was making her
home. In the garret of the house was
Slowed away in an old trunk Mr..
Spaulding's Manuscript Found" re-
ferred to above, which she had rcceiv-
ed from the Pittsburg publisher after
MIR. Spaulding's death. Soon after
Joseph's return to his fathers home,
he was visited by Rigdon, from Men
tor, Ohio. Whether they had met dur
ing Joseph's absence, we do not know.
The two doubtless became known to
each other through a mutual friend,
Mr.. Farley P. Pratt, who was a trav-
cling tinker and preacher of some
ability. Mr.. Pratt piled his two-fold
vocation between Palmyra, New York
and Mentor, Ohio. He knew and adj
mired Mr.. Rigdon,-indeed was fire.
quently a member of his congrega-
tion. After this visit of Mr.. Rigdon's,
which was early in the summer of
1927, Joseph said that he was told in
dreams and visions, that he was chos-
en- of the Lord to be great prophet
to restore the Gospel which had been
taken from the world many centuries
ago. He went so far as to declare
that an angel came into his room at
midnlght, awoke him and read to him
five chapters of the Bible, and after
ward took him to hill which he
called Cumorah. The hill is four miles
from Palmyra, and is at present the
property of Admiral Sampson. There
Joseph claims to have discovered the
wonderful plates, and uncarthcd them
by the help of the angel He de-
scribes the plates os bound by rings,
in the form of a book, and concealed
IN a stone srypt or vault where they
had been hidden from this wicked
world 1,400 years. The plates he
says were four inches wide and eight
inches long, and about the thickness
of an ordinary sheet of tin, forming
book about six inches thick.
Joseph Smith concealed himself be-
hind curtain, which was bed
blanket, stretched diagonally across
one corner of his mothers kitchen.
and there read what he claims was a
translation of the cngravings on the
plates, to scribe who sat outside the
blanket and wrote what he read. Thus
was the Book of Mormon produced.
Eleven men testified that they saw
the plates, but none of them were
able to read anything that was on
them, so we have only Joseph's word
for what they contained"
Mormonism is neither dead nor dy
ing. The immoral practices, the dan
gerous doctrines, and the political
ambitions Of its adhcrents constitute
a peril that demands serious consid-
Grafton.
Mormonism is a great social peril.
1t corrupts the home, prostitutes
marriage and demoraIizes children.
1t strikes fatal blow at the home