Editing Anthon Transcript (section)

==Anthon's accounts of meeting with Harris==
[[File:Charles Anthon - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Columbia College, Columbia University|Columbia]] professor [[Charles Anthon]]]]
In 1834, Anthon stated in a letter that, "The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly false. ... I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax. ... [Harris] requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving."<ref>{{cite book |last=Howe |first=E.D. |author-link=E. D. Howe |chapter=Anthon to E. D. Howe |date=17 February 1834 |title=[[Mormonism Unvailed]] |place=Painesville, Ohio |publisher=Telegraph Press |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/mormonismunvaile00howe#page/270/mode/2up}}</ref> Anthon described the transcript in that letter as containing "(g)reek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways... arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks." Anthon stated in the letter that the story of his supposed authentication was false, that Anthon had identified the writings as a hoax, and that he had told Harris that the writings were part of "a scheme to cheat the farmer [Harris] of his money".<ref>{{cite book |title=So What's the Difference? |pages=154–156 |editor-first=Fritz |editor-last=Ridenour |publisher=Regal Books |year=1973}}</ref>

Anthon gave a second account in 1841 that contradicted his 1834 account as to whether he gave Harris a written opinion about the document: "[Harris] requested me to give him my opinion in writing about the paper which he had shown to me. I did so without hesitation, partly for the man's sake, and partly to let the individual 'behind the curtain' see that his trick was discovered. The import of what I wrote was, as far as I can now recollect, simply this, that the marks in the paper appeared to be merely an imitation of various alphabetical characters, and had, in my opinion, no meaning at all connected with them."<ref name="SRA">{{cite web |url=http://thedigitalvoice.com/enigma/essays/AAffair1.htm |title=The Anthon Affair |first=Jerome J. |last=Kniujet |year=2000 |publisher=Spalding Research Associates |access-date=14 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213225146/http://thedigitalvoice.com/enigma/essays/AAffair1.htm |archive-date=13 December 2006 |url-status=dead }}{{unreliable source?|date=April 2014}}</ref> In the 1841 account, Anthon described the characters as "arranged in columns like the Chinese mode of writing .. (g)reek, Hebrew, and all sort of letters ... intermingled with sundry delineations of half moons, stars, and other natural objects, and the whole ended in a rude representation of the Mexican zodiac."

Anthon provided a third account in an August 12, 1844 letter and indicated, referring to Harris, "I told the man at once that he was imposed upon and that the writing was mere trash."  Anthon described the transcript as containing "in one or two parallel columns rude imitations of Hebrew and Greek characters together with various delineations of sun, moon, stars, &c.."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jennings |first1=Erin B. |title=Charles Anthon - The Man Behind the Letters |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |date=2012 |volume=32 |issue=2 Fall/Winter |pages=171–187}}</ref>

Anthon in the first two accounts maintained that he told Harris that Harris was the victim of a fraud.<ref name=EoM>{{cite book |last=Bachman |first=Daniel W. <!-- |author-link=Daniel W. Bachman --> |contribution=Anthon Transcript |contribution-url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/5471 |pages=43–44 |editor1-last=Ludlow |editor1-first=Daniel H. |editor1-link=Daniel H. Ludlow |title=[[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]] |place=New York |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishing]] |year=1992 |isbn=0-02-879602-0 |oclc=24502140}}</ref> [[Pomeroy Tucker]], a contemporary of Harris and Smith, opined in 1867 that all the scholars whom Harris visited "were understood to have scouted the whole pretense as too depraved for serious attention, while commiserating the applicant as the victim of fanaticism or insanity."<ref>{{cite book |title=Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism |last=Tucker |first=Pomeroy |author-link=Pomeroy Tucker |year=1867 |publisher=D. Appelton & Company |place=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/originriseandpr00tuckgoog/page/n54 42] |url=https://archive.org/details/originriseandpr00tuckgoog |others=quoted: Martin Harris |access-date=4 December 2009}}</ref>