In The Valley Tan 1, no. 47 (October 5, 1859), 2, we read the following rather flippant comment:
Now, the question arises, do the
Mormons as a people, fall behind their neighbors in their liberality to the
press? Perhaps they would not if newspapers were as necessary to them as
to the "world;" but they have better facilities for obtaining
information than through newspapers. About every other family, and generally
the one between is possessed of either astrological science or a "peep
stone." By the former they can cypher out the fate of nations with
much greater accuracy than a Brougham, a Bennett, a Raymond, or any other uninspired
man, and through the latter—a small globular-shaped pebble—they can see cattle
beyond mountains twenty or a hundred miles or even a greater distance off. Then
what is the use of throwing away money upon the printers?