History of the Prophet Joseph, by His MotherSmith, Lucy
History
History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother
Smith, Lucy
Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
I began to plead with them, saying, you will have mercy and spare
my life, I hope. To which they replied, "God d--mn ye, call on yer
God for help, we'll show ye no mercy;" and the people began to show
themselves in every direction; one coming from the orchard had a
plank, and I expected they would kill me, and carry me off on a
plank. They then turned to the right, and went on about thirty rods
further--about sixty rods from the house, and about thirty from
where I saw Elder Rigdon--into the meadow, where they stopped, and
one said, "Simonds, Simonds," (meaning, I suppose, Simonds Rider,)
"pull up his drawers, pull up his drawers, he will take cold."
Another replied, "A'nt ye going to kill 'im? A'nt ye going to kill
'im?" when a group of mobbers collected a little way off, and said,
"Simonds, Simonds, come here;" and Simonds charged those who had
hold of me to keep me from touching the ground (as they had done
all the time), lest I should get a spring upon them. They went
and held a council, and as I could occasionally overhear a word,
I supposed it was to know whether it was best to kill me. They
returned, after a while, when I learned that they had concluded not
to kill me, but pound and scratch me well, tear off my shirt and
drawers, and leave me naked: one cried, "Simonds, Simonds, where is
the tar bucket?" "I don't know," answered one, "where 'tis, Eli's
left it." They ran back and fetched the bucket of tar, when one
exclaimed, "God d--mn it, let us tar up his mouth;" and they tried
to force the tar paddle into my mouth; I twisted my head around,
so that they could not; and they cried out, "God d--mn ye, hold up
your head and let us give ye some tar." They then tried to force a
vial into my mouth, and broke it in my teeth. All my clothes were
torn off me, except my shirt collar; and one man fell on me and
scratched my body with his nails like a mad cat, and then muttered
out, "God d--mn ye, that's the way the Holy Ghost falls on folks."
They then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again; I
pulled the tar away from my lips, etc., so that I could breathe
more freely, and after a while I began to recover, and raised
myself up, when I saw two lights. I made my way towards one of
them, and found it was Father Johnson's. When I had come to the
door I was naked, and the tar made me look as though I was covered
with blood; and when my wife saw me, she thought I was all mashed
to pieces, and fainted. During the affray abroad, the sisters of
the neighborhood had collected at my room. I called for a blanket,
they threw me one and shut the door; I wrapped it around me, and
went in. * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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