680 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [s. s., I, 1899
In the meantime, the community at large, actuated by those characteristic impulses which had accompanied its individuals from their old domiciles in New England, had scented the rumor that " old Joe Smith's Joe " was " getting up " — had indeed gotten up — a new Bible. We may be sure that current gossip was not slow in its endeavors to probe the mystery of such a rare report.
In 1 86 1 I visited the site of the hill out of which the alleged " plates " were allegedly taken. Over thirty years had then passed since the new religion had been launched and the Book of Mormon given to the world. But the country neighborhood still had, at that time, many living people who, while they cared very little for " Mormonism," had a very definite remembrance of the Smith family, — father, mother, and sons. I talked with men who were contemporaries of the boys, — " went to school " with them, as they phrased it, always qualifying the statement by the additional one, as one old farmer put it : " None of them Smith boys ever went to school when they could get out of it" Indeed, I found no person willing to say a complimentary word of any member of the Smith family.
The hill from which the " plates " are said to have been taken is a gentle elevation (not unlike many others in that part of the state of New York), of limestone formation, smoothly rounded, and cultivated over its entire surface, barring a small chestnut grove, which, when I saw it, covered a portion of its greatest ele- vation. The Book of Mormon is authority for the statement that there are many more plates " hidden up " — plates not yet re- vealed to the eye of mortal man. If these plates are in such hillsides as those in the township of Manchester, New York, they are most effectually " hidden up " ; for there are thousands of just such likely hillsides all over the state.
But let us return to the manuscript, which in some way has fallen into the hands of the " author and proprietor " at some date prior to 1830. In that day, as in this, it takes money to pay
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