Grand Prairie, Texas,

June 28th, 1884,

Editor Herald:—On our way south, we stopped at Independence, Mo., where we found the committee on comparison appointed at the last Conference; and by invitation of Bro. W. H. Kelley, chairman of the committee, who was going to Richmond on business, I accompanied him. We arrived at Richmond about 11 o'clock a. m., the 19th inst., and proceeded immediately to the residence of Father Whitmer. We were met by an old lady, whom we supposed to be Mrs. Whitmer, and shown into the sitting room. Presently Father Whitmer entered the room, and I had a privilege I had long desired, of seeing and conversing with the one who had seen the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, as they were exhibited by an angel from heaven. He talked quite freely in regard to his experience in the church, and we were favorably impressed with his manner, and his evident love of truth. His frank, open countenance not only shows him to be one of nature's noblemen, but impresses one that he is not of the type of men who could bo coaxed, or bribed into a system of intrigue or deception.

He informed us that at one time he was told by five hundred armed men that if he did not renounce his testimony he should die; but in the face of death he affirmed the truth of his former testimony. He was with Oliver Cowdery in his last illness, and was by him admonished to never falter in his testimony of the Book of Mormon; for it was true. We saw and examined the original manuscript, and noticed particularly the capitals and puncutation marks, which so far as we examined are correctly inserted.