PUBLICATION OF THE RECORD.  
The exact time when the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed cannot be ascertained. According to the history of the Prophet it was early in June, 1829, when David Whitmer, took Joseph and his wife and Oliver Cowdery to his father's home near Waterloo, at the north end of Seneca Lake, to the neighborhood called Fayette.[1] There the Prophet remained until the translation was completed and the copyright secured. Since David Whitmer arrived at Harmony "in the beginning of June," to take the Prophet and his wife and Oliver Cowdery to his father's home, and as Mr. John H. Gilbert (the chief compositor on the Book of Mormon), says in a signed statement[2] that he commenced the work of setting the type for the Book of Mormon in August, 1829, the translation was completed between those dates, that is, between the early part of June, 1829, and August of the same year, as the work of translation was completed before the work of printing began.
 
The contract for printing was made with Mr. Egbert B. Grandin, of Palmyra, the edition to be five thousand copies, and the price $3,000, Martin Harris guaranteeing the payment of that sum to the publisher.
 
As soon as arrangements were completed for publishing the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Joseph started for Harmony, Pennsylvania, but before his departure he left the following directions to be followed respecting the work of printing:
 
First, that Oliver Cowdery should transcribe the whole manuscript.
 
Second, that he should take but one copy at a time to the office, so that if one copy should get destroyed there would still be a copy remaining.
 
Third, that in going to and from the [printing] office, he should always have a guard to attend him, for the purpose of protecting the manuscript.
 
Fourth, that a guard should be kept constantly on the watch, both night and day, about the house, to protect the manuscript from malicious persons, who would infest the house for the purpose of destroying the manuscript. All these things were strictly attended to as the Lord commanded Joseph.[3]
 
These precautions, at first glance, may seem excessive, and under ordinary circumstances would be totally unnecessary; yet the following communication to the Signs of the Times, by J. N. T. Tucker, who was employed in the printing establishment of the Wayne Sentinel, in the establishment at which the Book of Mormon was printed, in Palmyra, will demonstrate that the precaution in this case was necessary; and incidentally tends to prove true the statement of the revelation in which the Prophet Joseph is warned that the 116 pages of manuscript stolen from Martin Harris were changed by those into whose hands they had fallen, with the intention to make them conflict with the reproduction of them, should the Prophet again translate that part of the work. With these preliminary remarks the following letter will be self-explanatory:
 
"MORMONISM"—SOME CURIOUS FACTS
 
Messrs. Editors:—Having noticed in a late number of the Signs of the Times, a notice of a work, entitled, Mormon Delusions and Monstrosities, it occurred to me that it might, perhaps, be a service to the cause of truth, to state one circumstance in relation to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, which occurred during its publication, at which time I was a practical printer and engaged in the office where it was printed, and became familiar with the men and their principles, through whose agency it was "got up."
 
The circumstance alluded to was as follows: We had heard much said by Martin Harris, the man who paid for the printing, and the only one in the concern worth any property, about the wonderful wisdom of the translators of the mysterious plates, and resolved to test their wisdom. Accordingly, after putting one sheet in type, we laid it aside, and told Martin Harris it was lost, and there would be serious defection in the book in consequence, unless another sheet like the original could be produced. The announcement threw the old gentleman into quite an excitement. But after a few moments' reflection, he said he would try to obtain another. After two or three weeks, another sheet was produced, but no more like the original than any other sheet of paper would have been, written over by a common schoolboy, after having read, as they did, the manuscript preceding and succeeding the lost sheet.
 
As might be expected, the disclosure of the plan greatly annoyed the authors, and caused no little merriment among those who were acquainted with the circumstances. As we were none of us Christians, and only labored for the "gold that perisheth," we did not care for the delusion, only so far as to be careful to avoid it ourselves, and enjoy the hoax. Not one of the hands in the office where the wonderful book was printed ever became a convert to the system, although the writer of this was often assured by Martin Harris, if he did not he would be destroyed in 1832.
 
Yours in the gospel of Christ,
 
J. N. TUCKER.
 
"Gorton, May 23, 1842."
 
"Signs of the Times, June 8, 1842."
 
The description in this letter of Martin Harris' excitement from the loss of the sheet mentioned, and the claim that the reproduced manuscript did not fill the blank created through their hiding that one sheet of type-set matter, will appear at once as a fabrication when it is remembered that Martin Harris must have known that the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon had never left the hands of those having the work in charge, and they were by that precaution prepared against just such emergencies as this whether practiced playfully or in dead earnest to bring the work into disrepute.[4]
 
These several precautions relative to the manuscript of the Book of Mormon stated by Lucy Smith in the work quoted, account for several circumstances regarded as peculiar in connection with the publication of the Book of Mormon: The almost entire absence of Joseph Smith the prophet from the printing establishment of Mr. Grandin while the book was being set up and printed; the presence of two persons always when a portion of manuscript was carried to the printers, one of whom was always Hyrum Smith; the guard constantly upon the watch at the Smith homestead; and the existence of two manuscript copies of the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery during the time that the type setting and printing was going on made a copy from the original manuscript for the use of the printer; carefully keeping the original (which, too, in the main, he had written as the prophet Joseph translated from the Nephite plates) in his possession at the home of the Smiths, that if peradventure the copy sent to the printer should be destroyed or stolen it could be copied again from the original.
 
It is said by Mr. Gilbert that the manuscript as sent to him was neither capitalized nor punctuated, and that the capitalization and punctuation in the first edition was done by him. This statement, however, can only be true in part, as an examination of the printer's manuscript will prove; for that manuscript is very well capitalized and in the main in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery. Mr. Gilbert may have capitalized and punctuated to some extent, but it is clear that he did not do all of it, or even the main part of it.[5] The printer's manuscript, after it had served its purpose, was evidently taken possession of by Oliver Cowdery, while the original manuscript remained in the possession of the Prophet Joseph.
 
In 1850 Oliver Cowdery, a little before his death, which occurred at Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, on the 3rd of March of that year—gave into the possession of David Whitmer, his brother-in-law and fellow witness of the truth of the Book of Mormon, his printer's manuscript of that book, and the descendants of David Whitmer have it in their possession to this day (1903); regarding it—though in that they are mistaken—as the original manuscript.[6] The original manuscript having been preserved by the Prophet Joseph, it was, on the 2nd of October, 1841, in the presence of a number of elders, deposited by him in the northwest cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, with a number of coins, papers and books, in a cavity made in the corner stone for that purpose. Among those who were present at the time the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon was thus deposited in the corner stone of the Nauvoo House, was Elder Warren Foote, of Glendale, Kane county, Utah, who quotes from his journal as follows:
 
October 2, 1841. The semi-annual conference commenced today. After meeting was dismissed a deposit was made in the southeast corner of the Nauvoo house. A square hole had been chisseled in the large corner stone like a box. An invitation was given for any who wished to put in any little memento they desired to. I was standing very near the corner stone, when Joseph Smith came up with the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, and said he wanted to put that in there, as he had had trouble enough with it. It appeared to be written on fools' cap paper, and was about three inches in thickness. There was also deposited a Book of Doctrine and Covenants, five cents, ten cents, twenty-five cents, fifty cents, and one dollar pieces of American coin, besides other articles. A close-fitting stone cover was laid in cement, and the wall built over it. I was standing within three feet of the Prophet when he handed in the manuscript, and saw it very plainly. He intimated in his remarks, that in after generations the walls might be thrown down, an............