as these present themselves in the course of the story. Since the
usual weapon which the heads of the Mormon church use to meet
anything unfavorable regarding their organization or leaders is a
general denial, this narrative has been made to rest largely on
Mormon sources of information. It has been possible to follow
this plan a long way because many of the original Mormons left
sketches that have been preserved. Thus we have Mother Smith's
picture of her family and of the early days of the church; the
Prophet's own account of the revelation to him of the golden
plates, of his followers' early experiences, and of his own
doings, almost day by day, to the date of his death, written with
an egotist's appreciation of his own part in the play; other
autobiographies, like Parley P. Pratt's and Lorenzo Snow's; and,
finally, the periodicals which the church issued in Ohio, in
Missouri, in Illinois, and in England, and the official reports
of the discourses preached in Utah,--all showing up, as in a
mirror, the character of the persons who gave this Church of
Latter Day Saints its being and its growth.

In regard to no period of Mormon history is there such a lack of
accurate information as concerning that which covers their moves
to Ohio, thence to Missouri, thence to Illinois, and thence to
Utah. Their own excuse for all these moves is covered by the one
word "persecution" (meaning persecution on account of their
religious belief), and so little has the non-Mormon world known
about the subject that this explanation has scarcely been
challenged. Much space is given to these early migrations, as in
this way alone can a knowledge be acquired of the real character
of the constituency built up by Smith in Ohio, and led by him
from place to place until his death, and then to Utah by Brigham