Now that is as appropriate an ending to a comment as I have ever read.

This paragraph shows that books *were* burned, that they were worth a considerable amount, that the destruction was not accidental (else “volunteers” would not have been called on to repay Stiles and Williams — they were both relatively wealthy, so this is not like taking up a charitable collection for a poor family who has lost everything in a house fire), and that Brigham Young took an executive role in settling the matter (which suggests at least some degree of Mormon involvement, because BY did not normally get involved in private disputes between Gentiles — it’s not like this was an official gubernatorial action).

What it does *not* show is that Brigham Young or any other specific individual was involved in the riot (or however else you want to characterize the incident), or what the motive for the riot was, or that other claims of Mormon lawlessness were true, or that Drummond could tell the truth about anything to save his life.

Is the assumption here that because BY mentions a settlement amount offered to TS Williams for books destroyed by fire, and that some of the settlement would go to Stiles’s son if they can determine what share of the books were owned, that therefore it is true that Mormons burned the judge’s books?

I’m open to the idea that some Mormons might have burned or damaged the judge’s law library. I’m just not seeing how the strikethrough provides the missing link. I suppose the logic is that offering settlement money for burned or damaged books is an expression of guilt? That’s fair enough — I just thought it would be worth it to make that explicit.

In the strikethrough (perhaps I just can’t read it properly because of the format) it appears that two individuals would be compensated for books destroyed by fire. Is there some intuitive step that I’m failing to make that ties the allegations by “Utah” in the New York Times to the strikethrough in the BY letter?

But, hold your praise until I post a few more verses of my best Edgar A. Guest/James Whitcomb Riley imitations.

Researcher, call off the search for the Boy Scouts. I think we’ve found our own Poet Laureate. Or somethin’.

Not a boy scout, but irreverent about things that are not worthy of reverence, there are my first two lines. To be sung to the tune of “We Sail the Ocean Blue” aka “Who’s on the Lord’s Side.”

Or

What’s that ablaze in the old privy vault?
Scenes from my childhood come swiftly to mind,

Tune: The Old Oaken Bucket, aka “Do What is Right”.

Rhymes for “mind” offer some good possibilities–especially “wind.” Yeah, the sound’s not there, but it looks right. And the gross comedic possibilities are terrific.