| 358 answer to our inquiry as to whether she still retains her voice, he wrote: "She has a good voice and is always glad to have her friends call on her, and talk with her, and I can assure you she can do her share of talking, as clearly and plainly as anybody."
In the Herald for June 1, 1881, an editorial under the caption of "Removal," announced the decision to remove the publishing house to Lamoni, Iowa, and giving reasons why other places were not selected. The article reads as follows:
The necessity for a removal of the business center from Plano, to some locality where a better opportunity for Zion to spread abroad and flourish, has been frequently urged upon us; and a variety of opinions have been entertained and expressed in regard to the place most proper and suitable for the new business center to be established. Chicago and Nauvoo, Illinois; Stewartsville, Far West, St. Joseph, and Independence, Missouri; and Council Bluffs, Iowa; have each been named, and the advantages of some of them have been urged upon our attention. Of these, Nauvoo and Independence seem to have been favorites, for reasons easily understood. The former was the resting-place of the Saints after the removal from Missouri, and was the locality of the greatest prosperity the church ever experienced in the lifetime of Joseph and Hyrum. The beautiful city yet lives in the memory of many of the old-time Saints, and by them it is something more than a dream that the waste place will be rebuilt.
For similar reasons, with the additional favor cast by mention in the revelations, Independence is named, and by quite a large class, too, who favor making a bold effort to enter in and occupy and rebuild where once the Saints dwelt, as one might say, within the gates.
Against both of these places there are strong objections that may be urged. To Nauvoo it may be objected: there is but poor connection with the business world, there being no direct railway to the city; the Mississippi lies between it and the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railway, across which there has not been for some years an absolutely reliable transit. There is not much chance for new citizens to get homes, with labor or business to maintain themselves and families. There are no public works, and no enterprise,-there is no good opportunity for the procuring of farming lands, without buying, at high figures, already improved farms. There is almost nothing there to attract the Saints, and if the idea of its early settlement, and the possible prestige to be gained by its being again occupied by the people of God, are separated from that beautiful spot, it would be among the last places in the three states of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois that a half-way shrewd man would locate a business center, such as is contemplated in our work.
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