The font stands upon twelve oxen, four on each side, and two at each end, their heads, shoulders, and fore legs projecting out from under the font; they are carved out of pine plank, glued together, and copied after the most beautiful five-year-old steer that could be found in the country, and they are an excellent striking likeness of the original; the horns were formed after the most perfect horn that could be procured.
The oxen and ornamental mouldings of the font were carved by Elder Elijah Fordham, from the city of New York, which occupied eight months of time. The font was enclosed by a temporary frame building sided up with split oak clapboards, with a roof of the same material, and was so low that the timbers of the first story were laid above it. The water was supplied from a well thirty feet deep in the east end of the basement.
This font was built for the baptisms for the dead until the Temple shall be finished, when a more durable one will supply its place.
I received a letter from N. K. Whitney, stating that he had purchased $5,000 worth of goods for me; and that he should visit Kirtland before his return home.
Up to this period a series of storms and earthquakes have desolated parts of the two Sicilies.
A second English edition of the Saints' hymn book has been issued by Elder Parley P. Pratt.
A great part of Vicksburg, Mississippi, has been consumed by fire.
Saturday, 13.—I attended the city council, and moved that the mayor and recorder of the city receive each one hundred dollars per annum for their services, which became a law.
I also presented a bill for "An ordinance concerning vagrants and disorderly persons," which passed into an ordinance as follows—
An Ordinance Concerning Vagrants and Disorderly Persons.
Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Nauvoo, that all vagrants, idle, or disorderly persons; persons found drunk in or about the streets; all suspicious persons; persons who have no fixed place of residence, or visible means of support, or cannot give a good account of themselves; persons guilty of profane and indecent language or behavior; persons guilty of using indecent, impertinent, or unbecoming language towards any city officer when in the discharge of his duty, or of menacing, threatening or otherwise obstructing said officer, shall on conviction thereof before the mayor or municipal court, be required to enter into security for good behavior for a reasonable time, and indemnify the corporation against any charge, and in case of refusal or inability to give security, they shall be confined to labor for a time not exceeding ninety days, or be fined in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding six months or all, [i. e. or both imprisonment and fine] at the discretion of said mayor or court.