PRESIDENT'S OFFICE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. GIBSON MULER & RICHARDSON, OMAHA. P.O. BOX B. Salt Lake City, U.T. Jany. 20th 1888. Patriarch John Smith, Dear Brother: Your favor of the 17th inst., in which you state that you are very close run and have had to borrow in order to meet your obligations, and informing me that you have drawn all of your allowance for this quarter ending March, and are about $3000 behind now and ...

John, that, under the circumstances which the Church is in, it should not be called upon to give you further assistance. You are at liberty, and have the oppor- tunity of doing something for yourself, and with this amount given you by the Church, you ought, with good management, to be able to keep out of debt. It is not pleasant for me to have to decline an application such as you make; but the calls upon the Church are so numerous in every direction that we are compelled to exercise great care in the disbursement ...