The Mormons—Present appearance of Nauvoo and Vicinity—Recollections of a Former Visit—Character of the Mormon Leaders.

From the Illinois Democratic Press.

Nauvoo, July, 1852.

I am still attracted to this place by the mournful interest which its past history has thrown around it. . . .

I have said, elsewhere, that I was here in 1843. . . .

While in the city, we visited both Joe Smith and Sydney Rigdon, at their houses. The former was a fine looking man—tall, and portly, with an expressive countenance and florid complexion. We found him at first reserved; but after telling him who we were, and what was the object of our visit, he became communicative, and seemed to be pleased with the notice we paid him. One little incident occured while we were at his house, which proved conclusively that the prophet appreciated fully the importance of turning everything to personal account. We had not been seated more than half an hour when his mother entered the room, and informed us that in the next apartment there were some very interesting ancient records which she would be glad to show us. We accepted her invitation, when we were introduced to some half a dozen Egyptian mummies, who, we were informed, constituted the family of Pharaoh. We were then shown a large number of framed sheets of papyrus covered with hieroglyphics, which had been taken from the bandages about the mummies, and these were the 'interesting records,' which the old lady had invited us to see, and which—Gideon like—she undertook to explain to us. We soon found that the thread of her discourse was simply a rehearsal of the bible history of the creation and the end of man, the deluge, and the subsequent history of the Israelites. As we were all more or less familiar with this, we soon wearied of the discourse, and to our great scandal in the good woman's estimation, begged her to excuse us from hearing more. Just as we were on the point of retiring, however, our eyes fell upon a placard, inscribed as follows: "EGYPTIAN MUMMIES AND ANCIENT RECORDS TO BE SEEN HERE—PRICE 25 cents." Of course we paid the score without a word, and bowed ourselves out of the residence of the Prophet.