Sunday, March 6, 2022

The Valley Tan (October 5, 1859) on Early Latter-day Saints in Utah Using Seer/Peep Stones

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?