“Martin Harris . . .” Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Oh
“Martin Harris . . .” Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Ohio) 2, no. 39 (15 March 1831).
Martin Harris, another chief of Mormon imposters, arrived here last Saturday from the
bible quarry in New-York. He immediately planted himself in the bar-room of the hotel, where
he soon commenced reading and explaining the Mormon hoax, and all the dark passages from
Genesis to Revelations. He told all about the gold plates, Angels, Spirits, and Jo Smith.—He had
seen and handled them all, by the power of God! Curiosity soon drew around thirty or forty
spectators, and all who presumed to question his blasphemous pretensions, were pronounced
infidels. He was very flippant, talking fast and loud, in order that others could not interpose an
opinion counter to his. Every idea that he advanced, he knew to be absolutely true, as he said, by
the spirit and power of God. In fine, the bystanders had a fair specimen of the Mormon slang, in
this display of one of their head men. The meeting was closed, by a request of the landlord that
the prophet should remove his quarters, which he did, after declaring, that all who believed the
new bible would see Christ within fifteen years, and all who did not would absolutely be
destroyed and dam’d.