urt. His death has saved us from
a calamity that would have been dreadful for the Church--and for the
state."

"Father!" I cried. "Has this thing come back again! And the ink hardly
dry on the bill that restored your church property on the pledge of
honor that there would never be another case--" I had caught the look on
Smith's face, and it was a look of sullen defiance. "How did it happen?"

My father replied: "I know--it's awful. I would have prevented it if
I could. I was asked for my consent, and I refused it. President Smith
obtained the acquiescence of President Woodruff, on the plea that it
wasn't an ordinary case of polygamy but merely a fulfillment of the
biblical instruction that a man should take his dead brother's wife.
Lillian was betrothed to David, and had been sealed to him in eternity
after his death. I understand that President Woodruff told Abraham
he would leave the matter with them if he wished to take the
responsibility--and President Smith performed the ceremony."

Smith could hear every word that was said. My father had included him
in the conversation, and he was listening. He not only did not deny
his guilt; he accepted it in silence, with an expression of sulky
disrespect.

He did not deny it later, when the whole community had learned of it. He
went with Apostle John Henry Smith to see Mr. P. H. Lannan, proprietor
of the Salt Lake Tribune, to ask him not to attack the Church for
this new and shocking violation of its covenant. Mr. Lannan had been
intimately friendly with my brother, and he was distressed between his
regard for his dead friend and his obligation to do his public duty.
I do not know all that the Smiths said to him; but I know that the
conversation assumed that Joseph F. Smith had performed the marriage
ceremony; I know that neither of the Smiths made any attempt to deny the
assumption; and I know that Joseph F. Smith sought to placate Mr. Lannan
by promising "it shall not occur again." And this interview was sought
by the Smiths, palpably because wherever the marriage of Abraham H.
Cannon and Lillian Hamlin was talked of, Joseph F. Smith was named as
the priest who had solemnized the offending relation. If it had not been
for Smith's consciousness of his own guilt and his knowledge that the
whole community was aware of that guilt, he would never have gone to the
Tribune office to make such a promise to Mr. Lannan.

All of which did not prevent Joseph F. Smith from testify