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[[en:Question: Was Joseph Smith's participation in "money digging" as a youth a blot on his character?]] | [[en:Question: Was Joseph Smith's participation in "money digging" as a youth a blot on his character?]] | ||
[[es:Pregunta: ¿Fue la participación de José Smith en la "excavación de tesoro" en su juventud una mancha en su carácter?]] | [[es:Pregunta: ¿Fue la participación de José Smith en la "excavación de tesoro" en su juventud una mancha en su carácter?]] | ||
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Joseph Smith and some members of his family participated in "money digging" or looking for buried treasure as a youth. This was a common and accepted practice in their frontier culture, though the Smiths do not seem to have been involved to the extent claimed by some of the exaggerated attacks upon them by former neighbors.
In the young Joseph Smith's time and place, "money digging" was a popular, and sometimes respected activity. When Joseph was 16, the Palmyra Herald printed such remarks.
And, in 1825 the Wayne Sentinel in Palmyra reported that buried treasure had been found "by the help of a mineral stone, (which becomes transparent when placed in a hat and the light excluded by the face of him who looks into it)." [2]
Given the financial difficulties under which the Smith family labored, it would hardly be surprising that they might hope for such a reversal in their fortunes. Richard Bushman has compared the Smith's attitude toward treasure digging with a modern attitudes toward gambling, or buying a lottery ticket. Bushman points out that looking for treasure had little stigma attached to it among all classes in the 17th century, and continued to be respectable among the lower classes into the 18th and 19th. [3]
Despite the claims of critics, it is not clear that Joseph and his family saw their activities as "magical."
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