46 THE STORY OF MORMOXISxM.

aster to guard them well until he should call for them. Persecutions increased when it was known that Joseph had in his possession the plates of gold, and every art that Satan could devise or put in force through the agency of wicked men was employed to

aggeration. It had a substantial door of two-inch plank, and a secure lock. Lapse of time and other causes have almost effaced its existence. Tucker's Uriiiin and Frog. 3Ior., 48. 'In 1843, near Kinderhook, Illinois, in exca- vating a lai-ge mound, six brass plates were discovered of a bell-shape four inches in length and covered with ancient characters. They were fastened together with two iron wires almost entirely corroded, and were found along with charcoal, ashes, and human bones, more than twelve feet below the surface of a mound of the sugar-loaf form, common in the Mississippi Valley. Large trees growing upon these artificial mounds attest their great antiquity. . .No kej'^ has yet been discovered for the interpretation of the engravings upon these brass plates, or of the strange gylplis upon the ruins of Otolum in Mexico.' Daniel Wedderburn, in Popular Science Monfhli/, Dec. 1876; see also Times and Seasons, iv. 186-7, and engraved cuts in 1'ay- lor's Discussions, and in Mackay's The Mormons, 26-7. On the authority of Kidder, Mormonism, 23-6, Willard Chase, a carpenter, said: 'In the fore part of September (I believe) 1827, the prophet requested me to make him a chest, informing me that he designed to move back to Pennsylvania, and ex- pecting soon to get his gold book, he wanted a cliest to lock it up, giving me to understand, at the same time, that if I would make the chest he would give me a share in the book. I told him my business was such that I could not make it; but if lie would bring the book to me, I would lock it up for him. He said that would not do, as he was commanded to keep it two years without letting it come to the eye of any one but himself. Tliis command- ment, however, he did not keep, for in less than two years twelve men said they had seen it. I told him to get it and convince me of its existence, and I would make him a chest; but he said that would not do; as he must have a chest to lock the book in as soon as he took it out of the ground. I saw him a fews days after, when he told me I must make tlie chest. I told him plainly that I could not, upon which he told me that I could have no share in the book. A few weeks after this conversation he came to my house and related the following story: That on the 22d of September he arose early in the morning and took a one-horse wagon of some one that had stayed over night at their house, without leave or license; and, together with his wife, repaired to the hill which contained the book. He left his wife in the wagon, by the road, and went alone to the hill, a distance of thirty or forty rods from the road; he said he then took the book out of the ground and hid it in a tree-top and returned home. He then went to the town of Macedon to work. After about ten days, it having been suggested that some one had got his book, his wife went after him; he hired a horse, and went home in the afternoon, stayed long enough to drink one cup of tea, and then went for his book, found it safe, took off his frock, wrapt it round it, put it under his arm, and ran all the way home, a distance of about two miles. He said he should think it would weigh sixty pounds, and was sure it would weigh forty. On his return home he said he was attacked by two men in the woods, and knocked them both down and made his escajie, arrived safe, and secured his treasure. He then observed that if it had not been for that stone (which he acknowledged belonged to me) he would not have obtained the book. A few days after- ward he told one of my neighbors that he had not got any such book, and never had; but that he told the story to deceive the damned fool (meaning me), to get him to make a chest.' Others give other accounts, but it seema to me not worth while to follow them further.