This is an article from Uncle Dale's Old Mormon Articles.http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IL/mischig.htm#122077

Proof that mormons are dumb, gullible fools and should be ridiculed and spat upon for being so freaking stupid.

SIDNEY RIGDON.
_______

The Man Who Wanted to Succeed Joseph Smith --
His Utter Failure as a Personator of Angels.


Salt Lake Tribune: During the time when the early mormon saints were prospecting Ohio for proselytes, several Elders and preachers, among the number Sidney Rigdon, unfurled their banner at the little Town of Belleville, Richland County. There they were for a time very successful in a "protracted effort," having struck a rich lead of ignorance and credulity in the neighborhoods surrounding the village.

The Town of Bellville stands on the banks of the Clear Fork of the Mohican River, and in this stream were baptized all the converts made during the Mormon raid. Finding many of the people gullible and gaping for miracles, the leader of the Mormon band boldly announced that on a certain Sunday, when several converts were to be baptized, an "angel of the Lord" would make his appearance. This "wonder" was loudly proclaimed -- was told in Gath and published in Askelon. While some persons were sufficiently credulous to believe in the promised angel, the majority either did not sawllow him or took him with a large pinch of salt. A few young men living in the town secretly resolved to lie in wait for the "angel of the Lord" and investigate him in case of his appearing as announced.

On our side of the Mohican River was level bottom land, and on the other a bluff bank about thirty feet in height, crowned with a thicket of brier, hazel, and thorn bushes. At those times when these was to be a washing of the "unwashed," the flock was herded on the brushy bluff. The brow of this bluff therefore would be a place in which the "angel" could appear without fear of suffering the contaminating touch of the vulgar herd. To this conclusion came the young young "doubting Thomases" of the town, and they laid their plans in accordance therewith.

The day arrived and with it an unusually large concourse of people, doubtless the result of the angel dodge. the candidates for baptism were ranged in a row upon the shore and the exercises began. During the singing of the hymn there suddenly went up from the proselytes shouts of, "The angel! The angel!"

"Behold, the angel of the Lord appears!" cried the officiating priests -- "Glory to God, the angel of the Lord!"

There he was, sure enough.

The "angel of the Lord" was arrayed in white, and as he promenaded the verge of the bluff he opened and folded a pair of snowy wings in a leisurely and comfortable way, as we have ssen done by a butterfly seated on a clover blossom.

"Glory to God! He has come! He has come! Glory! glory! the angel of the Lord!" shouted the believers.

Thus encouraged, the angel pranced foward to the end of the bluff and, spreading his wings to their greatest extent, seemed to be about to bless the multitude. Suddenly, however, his angelship darted from solid earth forth into thin air. Though some cried: "He comes! He comes!" the flight was a short one. Down tumbled the "angel of the Lord" into a hole of of blue water at the foot of the bluff.

The people stood astonished. How an angel fresh from Heaven could have so miscalculated his powers of flight they could not comprehend. The Mormon priests and Elders, however, were all activity. They waded and swam out across the stream and dragged ashore the floundering "angel of the Lord," in whom a few at least, were not at all astonished to discover, when he was stripped of his celestial raiment, the redoubtable Sidney Rigdon.

This mischance cooked the Mormon goose at Belleville. Rigdon's goose would also have been "done to death" had it not been for the timely assistance of his friends. Swathed as he was in white muslin to the tips of his fingers, he was utterly helpless in the water, and was at his last gasp when hauled ashore. Unseen by those below, the bad boys of Belleville had crept from their place of concealment in the brush and bounced the pretended angel over the bluff.

Poor Rigdon! he suffered much in the Mormon cause -- he was once tarred and feathered at Kirtland -- yet his claims to consideration were worse than ignored by the "peculiar people." After the killing of Joe Smith, at Nauvoo, Ill., Rigdon was not only "cut off" but was solemnly "delivered to the devil" to be "buffeted in the flesh for a thousand years."

What I would have given to see Sidney fall of the cliff and into the water. I bet people laughed about that for a long time.

Just goes to show the silly things people were willing to do to trick others into believing them. It shocks me that there were those who believed it was an angel up there on the cliff.

We've come a long way these days. Well, in some ways. There are still mormons that believe sine incredibly silly stuff.