Today in Mormon History - May 13

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On this day in Mormon History
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-- 150 years ago today - May 13, 1876 --

Br. Brigham spoke of the folly and indecency of the present fashions; said that some of the Daughters of Zion acted like damn fools and the whores of London or Paris would be ashamed to act like they did. Said it would serve them right for some one to take a knife and slit their dresses from their navel to their knees. Urged the Mothers in Israel to teach their daughters to wash, starch, iron, bake, cook, and to make their own adornments and to teach them industry and economy, and qualify them for future usefulness in their sphere... (1)
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-- 140 years ago today - May 13, 1886 --

I asked him [David Whitmer] if the table, which the angel brought, and upon which the plates lay when he viewed them was a tangible one, and he said that he did not touch it, it had the semblance of a table. He then ex=plained that he saw the plates and with his natural eyes, but he had to be prepared for it--that he and the other witnesses were overshadowed by the power of God and a halo of brightness indescribable. I then asked him if he ever handled the plates and he said that he did not at any time. I refer=red to his going down after Joseph and Em=ma to bring the plates <<and>> them to his fathers, and he said the plates were not in the wagon nor did he see them or at all during the trans=lation. <<He said Joseph and [-] Oliver and Emma told him about the plates and discribed them to him and he believed them but did not [--] at the time testified of>> He said they were in the possession of the Angel during this time. The manuscript by re=quest, said to be the origi=nal
manuscript in the handwriting of Oliver [Cowdery][,] Emma and Christian Whitmer was brought out and untied being wrapped in a sheet of brown wrapping pa=per (or between a brown and buff the paper was) and being laid upon the table I examined the sheets as many as I chose also the scrap of paper containing the characters which were submitted by Martin Harris to Prof Anthon and the certificate of the clerk of the <<U.S.>> District Court of the <<Northern>> District of New York showing that Joseph had deposite=d the title of the book with him claiming to be its author[.] ... (2)
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1 - Diary of Charles Lowell Walker. Andrew Karl Larson, ed. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1980. 423, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses
2 - 1.//Nathan Tanner, Jr., Journal, 13 May 1886, [50-61], LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. 2.//Nathan Tanner, Jr., to Nathan A. Tanner, 17 February 1909, typed copy, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. , as cited in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents: David Whitmer Interview With Nathan Tanner, Jr.