CHAPTER IX. 



THE Mormons were originally of the sect known as 

 " Latter-day Saints," which sect flourishes wherever 

 Anglo-Saxon gulls are found in sufficient numbers to 

 swallow the egregious nonsense of fanatic humbugs who 

 fatten upon their credulity. In the United States 

 they especially abounded; but, the creed becoming 

 "slow," one Joe Smith, a smart man, rose from its 

 ranks, and instilled a little life into the decaying 

 sect. 



Joe, better known as the " Prophet Joe," was taking 

 his siesta one fine day upon a hill in one of the 

 New England States, when an angel suddenly appeared 

 to him, and made known the locality of a new Bible or 

 Testament, which contained the history of the lost 

 tribes of Israel ; that these tribes were no other than 

 the Indian nations which possessed the continent of 

 America at the time of its discovery, and the remains of 

 which still existed in their savage state ; that, through 

 the agency of Joe, these were to be reclaimed, collected 

 into the bosom of a church to be there established, 

 according to principles which would be found in the 

 wonderful book and which church was gradually to 

 receive into its bosom all other churches, sects, and 





