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Show Page 279 the apostolic priesthood, how under Joseph Smith the apostles were ranked equally, with the oldest appointed to preside. The First Presidency was now dissolved, the Twelve were the rightful leaders of the Church, and the only business before the conference was to sustain them in 28 Solemn Assembly. The quorums did so without reservation. The question of pre-eminence was solved. Orson would not become the third President of the Mormon Church, and he turned with relief to his beloved observatory and the work of the Historian's Office. For months, reading and composing tables of planetary motion, he contemplated the "ether" and puzzled over the geometric possibilities that might crack the code of the universe and open up a system of celestial mechanics which would meet Joseph Smith's tantalizing challenge: 29 "If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be." The patriarchal apostle became a familiar sight as he shuffled the streets of the busy city, mumbling theorems and derivations under his breath, his head crowned by a ragged straw hat. Once, when his daughter asked him why he continued wearing the straw hat in winter, he replied, "To keep my head warm." "But is a straw hat warm in winter?" "Better than no hat 30 at all , my daughter." His long white beard shone with glory as he preached in the Assembly Rooms of Salt Lake or presided with honor among the fresh and reverential missionaries in their instructional meetings. Forty years had passed since he had barqued the Mississippi by night for fear of marauders - such days had not passed away forever, though. One spring morning Orson set apart a young missionary,bound for the Southern States, named Joseph Standing. Within a year this elder's corpse would be abandoned in a Georgia thicket, his face brutally gun-shot by anti-Mormon vigilantes. The memories of Missouri and Illinois were dying rapidly, however. As H1U1 fflt tl'lStorlg^, Orson grew more and more concerned that the majority of |