| Show ABOUT THE THIA BOOK OF MORMON interesting ACCOUNT OF ANOTHER INTERVIEW WITH THE ONLY SURVIVING WITNESS WHO BEHELD THE ANGEL AND HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD COD testifying friNG TO THE TRUTH OF THE RECORD ANOTHER VISIT TO DAVID WHITMER j NEW YORK march 1884 miltor deseret news en route to this city I 1 called on of david whitmer who had invited me ime 3 to visit him again and examine the manuscript copy of the book nook of mormon ii etc on copi t the e loth dinst I 1 bad a pleasant IntervIew interviews a few items of which may not be without interest to many of hour readers regretted he Re greeted me with a cappy appy smile as he remembered my former mer visit and the lines written com the interview which he endorsed as a correct expression of his sentiments manuscript COPY of THE till BOOK OF MORMON browing the ule object of my the ithe Ibrous lb rought lit tile tiie manuscript which was carefully wrapped and tied and with evident satisfaction and modest pride unwrapped and spread it before me considering the nitty odd years since it was in the hands of major gilbert th the printer it is well preserved it is written closely on foolscap of a poor quality of which there is fully sully one half ream and perhaps more beang written closely irom from side to side there is no blank margin it is singularly barly free from corrections and has n no 0 erasures era nor interlineations so far as 1 I could discover quite a number of the sheets had been cut in three pieces or takes obviously for the use of the ahe printers they were replaced in position small pieces of blank paper placed over and pinned together observing two or three styles of writing and tile tiie certificate from the clerk cleric of the court of wayne county count that it had been copyrighted there L in june 1884 1 remarked that it looked very much as though it was the original copy and it would in fact take considerable sid erable more evidence than I 1 had seen to convince me that it was not the original and only written copy mr whitmer said igi III 1 I know positively that it is so why look at this he ac remarked here is some of my poor old mothers yarn that was used to fasten jasten the sheets together and sure enough there was the cheeps beeps gray jam yarn that fastened a certain number of sheets together in several divisions As this is a disputed question il 11 simply submit the foregoing leaving each person to judge judg e for himself THE SPECIMEN hieroglyphics I 1 was shown the reformed egyptian hieroglyphics that were copied from the plates by the prophet joseph and taken by martin harris to professors anthon and mitchell Ml of new york city in february 1828 they are written on paper about three and a a half inches by seven and fill up seven dines lines making about thirty five inches of sot writing they remind me very aluch of egyptian hieroglyphics I 1 have seen seea in the british aru Afu museum seum london and in other collections coincidental EVIDENCE the new york tribune in an article published a few days a ago 0 commenting ona on a discovery said to mcbeen vc been made recently by the rev father damazo soto of concordia in the state of vera cruz 31 mexico exico of the key to the aztec writings says it may be that the discovery discover y refers not to the aztec but to the toltec writings and if this be the case it mayled may led lead to interesting developments I 1 the who were tile the precursors of the altees in mexico and who flourished in central america where they left marvelous relics palanque copan yucatan were of a higher civilization than the people who succeeded them and they had a pure system of hieroglyphics of which unfortunately few specimens are kno known lyn to exist the most acceptable b being ein eln in the dressen dresden siu sin museum so the fragments of toltec writing which winch have been preserved however i are lelent to justify the conclusion that this people were accas accustomed tomed to employ for their religious and astrological writings a special hiero hieroglyphic lythle corresponding in some res respects eaf s to the E egyptian 3 hieratic script tye we are not aware al vare yare that any auy of this priestly text Jias lias been deciphered fully could this hieratic writing be deci deel deciphered phere d the xv writer riter remarks it is probable th that at new light would be thrown upon the religion lort and science of that ancient and interesting people and such information would be particularly welcome in this era eril of if analytic inquiry 11 the writer of the tribune article learn from t this S co correspondence esponde nce that the hieroglyphics aph h of f the ancient and late inte interesting people eople who built the cities of cent centgraf america mer that are the most acceptable are not those in dresden but those ailt that were shown by your correspondent the other day in richmond ray county missouri he learn moreover that over GOO pages have been fully translated from such hieroglyphics he has mentioned which con constituted saluted the record called the book ol of mormon which throws a flood of light upon the religion science and history sll jil story of the ancient interesting and enlightened people who have hase dwelt upon this continent during the ages of antiquity it may be inheres interesting ting to th the e critical student to compare the statement of the tribune writer which I 1 haye quoted verbatim ver batum from said journal which refers to their I 1 pure system of hieroglyphics their special hieroglyphics corresponding in some respects to the eg egyptian gy tian hieroglyphic script with the forlow ing quotation from the bookoff book of mormon and now behold we have written this record according to our knowledge in the characters which are called among us the reformed egyptian g being handed down and al altered ere by us according to our man manner er of speech page last edition when we take into consideration the fact that this was written in the year 1829 29 and published in 1830 which was many years before the ruined cities of palenque copan and yucatan were discovered or anything was known concerning the hieroglyphics that were subsequently discovered by stevens and catherwood and other travelers it is simply marvelous that an unlettered boy should be the first to publish these things to the world ana and and ana can be accounted for on no other principle than that he and his friends nave have claimed from the first namely that they were translated by the gift and power of god HOW MR ME WHITMER FIRST OF IT mr hir whitmer said the first he beard concerning the prophet joseph and the golden bible as it was then called was from oliver cowdery who was then quite a young man about his own age P who went to the neighborhood where joseph had lived and where his parents and family still lived and tau taught lit n school Oliver promised if he could could find out definite and reliable he would let me know soon after this oliver told me that certain young oung men about josephs age who llad kiad had been raised with him in the neighborhood bo were very angry against joseph and complained against him bitterly saying he had not kept his word with them for he had kroml promised sed to give them some of the golden goiden plates when he obtained them whereas he had got them and had not given them any as he had promised when oliver suggested to them that berha perhaps joseph J had hid not got them they replied eis angrily rily we know lie he has for we have seen the place on the hill hlll where he got them 12 mr whitmer continuing his narrative said soon after this oliver concluded to go and see joseph and learn all he be could about the matter and promised to write and tell me the result of his bis inquiries 0 o about the beginning of april 1829 he went to harmony susquehanna county pennsylvania where joseph had gone to get away from hla his enemies and to escape those who were trying to ge get t the plates from him for he be was told dy by the personage p who gave him charge of 0 f said piat pint plates e th that at if he be should let the them m go 0 c carelessly a ra s 1 or through negligence nce nee he e should hou id be e cut off soon after alter r olivers arrival in harmony he wrote to me ine and said that joseph had of the lord concerning him and bad told him secrets secre ts of hl his life that he hb k knew deiv could not be known to any person but himself in any other way than by revelation from the almighty some little time after this he wrote asking meto me to take a team and fetch joseph and himself to my fathers house in fayette seneca Sen ees eca Coun County tyNe New W york where they would continue the translation I 1 condl condi consulted ted with my luy father who consented that I 1 should take a team as requested and bring them home I 1 wah wag was a little over tw two 0 and a half days going and traveled over 40 miles the first day and met them on the third day at the head of cayuga lake oliver told me nie they knew just when I 1 started where I 1 put I 1 up ip at night auti adil even evan the phoc on the they sign board odthe hotel where I 1 each eav 11 night for he had asked joseph to look loot io in die seen been stone that he did so and told hirn hira all these particulars of my journey journer i which oliver 1144 carefully lynsted noted in ais lis his bis book boot oliver asked me when I 1 arst first met them when I 1 left home where I 1 stayed on the theroan road and tho the names of the persons per keeping the hotels I 1 could not hob tell the names butas but as we returned I 1 pointed out the several seral houses where I 1 mid had stopped when he be pulled out his hid bo book 0 k and found lound it to be correct even to the names tue tile translation jn in regard to the translation said sald mr whitner it wasa a laborious work for corthe the weather was very warm and the days were ion lon long iong and th they ey worked from morning tilt till night but hut they were both young and strong and were soon able to complete the work ith the e way a I 1 it t ivas maslone wa slone dode was thus joseph would 12 U place the seer stone ina in a leep deep hat and placing his face close to it would bodia see not the stone but what appeared lik ilk like ilke an oblong piece of parchment on which the hieroglyphics would appear and also the translation in th the english language all appearing in bright luminous letters jose joseph would then read it wold would write it down as spoken sometimes joseph could not pronounce the words correctly having had but little education and if by any means a mistake was made in the copy the luminous writing would remain antil it was corrected it sometimes took oliver several trials to tb get the right letters to spell idil correctly gobac some somo of the more difficult words but when ho 4 had bad written them correctly the c characters and the interpretation pre tation would oui disa disappear pear and be tp replaced by other bt er characters and their interpretation ched when the tife seer was as not placed place d III in tho be hat no characters or writing could be seen therein but when so placed then the hieroglyphics would appear as before described some represented but one word or name some represented several and some from one to two lines emma josephs wife came to my fathers house a short time af and oliver came and she wrote a little of the translation my brother christian wrote some but oliver wrote the greater portion of it TRUE TO THEIR TESTIMONY mr whitmer felt very indignant while speaking of certain statements published recently to the effect that he and had denied their statement as published in the book of mormon this he denounced as false in every particular he said sald oliver never wavered in indis his testimony and when he was on his death bed I 1 I 1 was there with many of his friends until he passed away ile he bore the same testimony on his dying bed that he had always borne through tife life life ilfe and earnestly called upon all to cleave to the truth revealed through the prophet joseph and to serve the lord As for myself I 1 have never denied in my testimony that is published in the book nook of mormon for I 1 know that god has revealed these things for the salvation of the children of men and to him belongs all the honor the power and the glory many other interesting items were given by mr whitmer during our interview ter view but I 1 have already extended this communication much ioner loner ion lon longer er than 1 I intended JAMES IL II HART |
