AN EXTRACT FROM THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH THE PROPHET SIDNEY RIGDON'S TRANSGRESSION-TROUBLE IN JACKSON COUNTY.

I shall now return to the month of September, 1831. Joseph, at this time, was engaged in translating the Bible, and Sidney Rigdon was writing for him. About the first of this month, Joseph came to the conclusion to remove himself and clerk, as well as their families, to the before-mentioned town of Hiram, in order to expedite the work. They moved to the house of Father John Johnson, and lived with him in peace until the following March, when a circumstance occurred, which I shall relate in his own words:

On the twenty-fifth of March, (1832,) the twins before mentioned, which had been sick of the measles for some time, caused us to be broke of our rest in taking care of them, especially my wife. In the evening, I told her she had better retire to rest with one of the children, and I would watch with the sickest child. In the night, she told

me I had better lie down on the trundle bed, and I did so, and was soon after awakened by her screaming murder! When I found myself going out of the door in the hands of about a dozen men; some of whose hands were in my hair, and some hold of my shirt, drawers, and limbs. The foot of the trundle bed was towards the door, leaving only room enough for the door to swing. My wife heard a gentle tapping on the windows, which she then took no particular notice of (but which was unquestionably designed for ascertaining whether we were all asleep), and, soon after, the mob burst open the door and surrounded the bed in an instant, and, as I said, the first I knew, I was going out of the door, in the hands of an infuriated mob. I made a desperate struggle, as I was forced out, to extricate myself, but only cleared one leg, with which I made a pass at one man, and he fell on the door steps. I was immediately confined again, and they swore by God they would kill me if I did not be still, which quieted me. As they passed around the house with me, the fellow that I kicked, came to me and thrust his hand into my face all covered with blood, (for I hit him on the nose,) and with an exultant horse laugh, muttered "ge, gee, God d-mn ye, I'll fix ye.”

They then seized me by the throat, and held on till I lost my breath. After I came to, as they passed along with me, about thirty rods from the house, I saw Elder Rigdon stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged him by the heels. I supposed he was dead.

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.

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My friends spent the night in scraping and removing the tar, and washing and cleansing my body; so that by morning I was ready to be clothed again. This being Sabbath morning, the people assembled for meeting at the usual hour of worship, and among those came also the mobbers, viz., Simonds Rider, a Campbellite preacher, and leader of the mob; one M'Clentic, son of a Campbellite minister, and Pelatiah Allen, Esq., who gave the mob a barrel of whisky to raise their spirits; and many others. With my flesh all scarified and defaced, I preached to the congregation, as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day baptized three individuals.-Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 611. Millennial Star,

vol. 14, p. 148.

Sidney Rigdon went immediately to Kirtland, but Joseph remained at Father Johnson's to finish his preparations for a journey, which he contemplated making to Missouri. Immediately after Sidney's arrival at Kirtland, we met for the purpose of holding a prayer meeting, and, as Sidney had not been with us for some time, we hoped to hear from him upon this occasion. We waited a long time before he made his appearance; at last he came in, seemingly much agitated. He did not go to the stand, but began to pace back and forth through the house. My husband said,