| Show A STORY ALLING commissioner THE utah commission has baa been holding a session cession in chicago that seems to be a favorite spot on which to draw up reports to the secretary of the interior concerning the situation in utah one of the commission who wh 0 really knows known the least about this territory and the mormon question seems very fond of imparting what he be calls information on those subjects to newspaper report reporters ene he has been clin inter viewed many limesand time sand always co contrives n to convey through the press ideas that are entirely incorrect and misleading they are usually bouc couched hed in language that exhibits considerable bitterness as an well as lack of knowledge or a desire to misrepresent the liberal organ of this morning has bag a special dispatch from V chicago conveying what purports to be remarks made by col B R 8 robertson Bo berteon who is said to have made mormonism his study and to know more leaders in the church than any other man not within its pale and here is a specimen represent ion of his wonderful ac quire meats he states that in Is a recent book which he obtained with great difficulty president wilford woodruff lT the wily leader of the mormon church relates the following experience brethren that you may all continue to know that I 1 the keeper of the keys to all the holy of holies and the sealing ordinances din ances of god am possessed of the great power ot the clasped hands bands north star and ever seeing eye I 1 state that I 1 went to tennessee and while sojo sojourn sojourning inc at a place lace not far from nashville an n angel angea appeared unto me commanding me to reinforce my faith I 1 was conducted to the entrance of a dark daik and gloomy cave ordered to follow my conductors and ie fear r not 0 aye ye of frail faith listen As I 1 looked I 1 behold beheld a lighted room the change had had been in there crawling over the floor were myriads of hissing snarling darting reptiles snakes and vermin the very air appeared full of poison and threatening voices I 1 shuddered 1 En enter terl said the spirit and I 1 obeyed the hissing monsters jumped J into the air striking at nothing but for the last I 1 ast time their bodies swelled up and then there were reports like pistols the bodies had turned black and had no enemies remained to molest mo me that was a preliminary to what was waa to befall me that day tn in the course of my travels that day I 1 encountered a baptist minister who sought to crush me again the spirit ordered me to advance As I 1 did the mortal met the fate of the snakes his and blackened body fell by the wayside etc the recent book which the veracious commissioner obtained with so BO much difficulty iu its called leaves from my journal it was published in 1882 by the juvenile instructor office and has been on public sale there at the DESERET NEWS office aad the bookstores book stores ever since mow let us see how fairly commissioner robertson Be berteon represents what the wily leader actually wrote in his journal as published in the recent book in the early days of the church it was a great treat to an elder in hi hia s travels through the country to find a mormon it was so with us we were hari bar ly in arkansas when we heard of a family named akeman 0 wear we ar rived that night within five miles of mr akemann Akeman Ak emans sand and were kindly entertained bya by a stranger during the night I 1 had the following dream 1 I thought an angel came to us and told us we were commanded of the tord lord to follow a certain straight path which aich was pointed out to us let it lead us wherever it might after we had bad walked waked in it awhile we came to ahe door of a house which was in the line of a high wall running north and south so that we could not go around I 1 opened the door and saw the room was filled with large serpents and I 1 shuddered at the sight eight my companion said he would not go into the room for fear of the serpents I 1 told him I 1 should try to go through the room though they killed me for the lord had commanded it As an I 1 stopped stepped into the room the serpents coiled themselves up and raised their heads some two feet from the floor to spring at me there was one much larger than tb the e rest in the centre of the room which raised his bis head nearly as high as mine and made a spring at me at that instant I 1 felt as though nothing but the power of god could save me and I 1 stood quite still just before the serpent reached me he dropped dead at my feet all the rest dropped dead swelled up turned black burst open took tok fire and ana were consumed before my eyes and we went through the room unharmed and thanked god for our deliverance 1 I awoke in the and pondered upon the dream we took bre started on our journey jou on sunday morning to visit 10 mr akeman aldeman I 1 related to my companion my dream and told him we should see something strange we had great anticipations of dt meeting mr akeman au supposing I 1 n arci iff him to be a member of the church when we arrived at his house he received us very coldly andee and we soon found that he had apostatized he brought railing accusations against the book of mormon and the authorities of the church word was sent through all toe the settle ments on the river for twenty miles that two mormon preachers were in the place A mob was waa soon raised and elace ing sent to us to leave immediately or we would be tarred and feathered ridden on a rail and hanged banged I 1 soon saw where the serpents were my companion wanted to beave I 1 told him no I 1 would stay and see my dream fulfilled 1 I was commanded of the lord by the holy ghost to go and warn mr akeman to repent of his wickedness I 1 did so and each time he railed against me and the last time he ordered me out oat oy of the house when I 1 went out he followed me end and was waa very angry when he came up to me about eight rods fram the house he fell dead at my feet turned black ana and welled swelled up as I 1 saw tle the serpents do in ma my dream his family as well as ourselves felt it was the judgment of god upon him I 1 ail preached his funeral sermon wherever revor president woodruff is ig known his word will be received quite adulte as readily as anything colonel itch robertson might say and after the numerous evidences afforded by the press of the commissioners desire to misrepresent both mormonism niam and the mormons cormons Mor mons in utah at least and V X among the people who are best acquainted quain ted with the parties the value of any affirmation of the latter would count for nothing as against the simple simpie statement of the former the dream which president W woodruff od had and saw fulfilled was in arkansas in 1884 1834 so it is in very es easy by to u understand why none of the papers of recent times in tennessee contained an account of the occurrence if commissioner robertson Bo berteon desires to amuse cronies at an hotel with stories about the mormons cormons Mor mons and th their air gullibility he should be careful not to allow them to appear in print it does not add to any ones permanent P popularity OP flarity to be caught in wilfully misrepresenting anybody and the mormons cormons Mor mons will not always be the victims victim mf of brej prejudice adlee as they are today his estimate of the masses of the cormons mormons Mor mons nall is that they are an ignorant and fanatical set begotten of worse fan fanatics atles 11 we will not publish our estimate of commissioner robertson Bo bertson but from the several attempts he has evidently made to put utah and its people in a false light before the eastern public we regard him as several degrees lower than the most ignorant and fanatical of the Mormon 9 people who value truth and honor as more precious than oil V riches or position and who would scorn acorn to bear false witness against their neighbors |
