Page 243 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

Smith, junior, a Vermont farmer, who revealed himself as
a mystical prophet in 1825; and how, in short, the celestial
messenger appeared to him in an illuminated forest, and
gave him the annals of the Lord.

Several of the audience, not being much interested in
the missionary’s narrative, here left the car; but Elder
Hitch, continuing his lecture, related how Smith, junior,
with his father, two brothers, and a few disciples, founded
the church of the ‘Latter Day Saints,’ which, adopted not
only in America, but in England, Norway and Sweden,
and Germany, counts many artisans, as well as men
engaged in the liberal professions, among its members;
how a colony was established in Ohio, a temple erected
there at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and a
town built at Kirkland; how Smith became an enterprising
banker, and received from a simple mummy showman a
papyrus scroll written by Abraham and several famous
Egyptians.
The Elder’s story became somewhat wearisome, and his
audience grew gradually less, until it was reduced to
twenty passengers. But this did not disconcert the
enthusiast, who proceeded with the story of Joseph
Smith’s bankruptcy in 1837, and how his ruined creditors
gave him a coat of tar and feathers; his reappearance some

242 of 339