| 342 "She is not living now; my brother Willard is dead, also. He would know more than I do about those things."
"How did the stone look, you say Mrs. Smith got?"
"I don't know; I never saw that."
"How do you know she got it?"
"They said she did; I was young, and don't remember myself
"Did you ever see the Smiths dig for money; or did you ever see the cave where they say met at?"
"No. I never saw them dig, myself; I never saw the cave."
"Well; you were a young man then, how did it come you lived so near, and never saw them do these things?"
"I was young, and never went where they were. Don't know anything about it but what I have heard. If you will see Mr. Gilbert, at Palmyra, he can tell you more about it than any person else; he knows it all, and had been getting everything he could for years to publish against them; he was in with Tucker in getting out Tucker's work. "
"All right, Mr. Chase, we will see him this evening if possible. Good day, sir. Much obliged for the trouble."
"Oh! it is no trouble; I only wish I could tell you more."
Early in the evening we called upon Mr. John H. Gilbert, at his residence, and made known our desire for an interview, etc. He seemed quite free to give us all the information he had upon the subject, and said he had been for the past forty-five or fifty years doing all he could to find out what he could about the Smiths and Book of Mormon. He is a man seventy-nine years of age, and quite active even in this time of life.
"What did you know about the Smiths, Mr. Gilbert?"
"I knew nothing myself; have seen Joseph Smith a few times, but not acquainted with him. Saw Hyrum quite often. I am the party that set the type from the original manuscript for the Book of Mormon. They translated it in a cave. I would know that manuscript to-day if I should see it. The most of it was in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting. Some in Joseph's wife's; a small part though. Hyrum Smith always brought the manuscript to the office; he would have it under his coat, and all buttoned up as carefully as though it was so much gold. He said at the time it was translated from plates by the power of God, and they were very particular about it. We had a great deal of trouble with it. It was not punctuated at all. They did not know anything about punctuation, and we had to do that ourselves."
"Well; did you change any part of it when you were setting the type?"
"No, sir; we never changed it at all."
"Why did you not change it and correct it?"
"Because they would not allow us to; they were very particular about that. We never changed it in the least. Oh, well; there might have been one or two words that I changed the spelling of; I believe I did the spelling of one, and perhaps two, but no more."
"Did you set all of the type, or did some one help you?"
(page 342) |
