Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-12-22

ly without moral character, as hosts OF wit
3nessesses now alive will testify, and thos
recently deceased have left evidence OF.
Old man Smith was a well digger. Hi
wife undertook jobs of washing about tn
village, told fortunes, pilfered such article
as she had opportunity to pilfer and was
although densely ignorant and vile, an in
stitution among her class.
Old man Smith had several lodi ant
daughters: one Of the sons was nance
Joseph. He was born and spent bis child
hood in Vermont. This son was who'll,
under the evil influence of his mother, VIII
taught him to believe in all the supersti
tions she believed in, to trust in all tn,
signs, omens, etc., that she trusted in apt
from his childhood, she impressed him will
the idea he was to be Gods Prophet anG
work out great things in the world. Thii
son Joseph soon exhibited aptness in al
the tricks, notions and beliefs of the mother
and became, even in early childhood silent
morose, mysterious and given to strange
stories of supernatural beings and visits.
Personally Joseph. in a sort of way,
followed the trade OF his father. During his
early childhood and youth "Joe," as hi
was commonly called by the people of the
neiehborhood, was q shiftless, lazy sort o
fellow, seldom working, unless upon SOM
whisky or cider" and do very little labor.
But he was always ready to tell some wild
story OF miraculous character, and no mat.
ter how often cornered in a falsehood,
| would 'face the lie through This he had
learned from his mother. In short, Joe
was then known, and is, by the old people
of his native village and vicinity to-day
spoken OF as one who, did he live to-day,
would be considered q sort of "boy crank
One day, while Old Man Smith was dig
ging a we'll, Joe espied a curious och or
stone, shaped somewhat like a small hui
man foot. He seized it at once, and in a
short time some OF his supernatural visit
ors-for he had not then advanced sufi-
heavenly, God-ordered visitors-told him
the stone he had been led to find
by their agency, was a ''seer'' or 'peek'
stone, by looking into which he should he
able to divine great things. Joe was now
fifteon years old. He then experimental
under the guidance OF his unseen advisers,
and soon it became noised through the vii
lage and vicinity that by looking into this
"peek" stone, Joe Smith-the son of the
fortune-telling, .onnen-believing, pilfering,
chronic deceiver and vulgar washerwnman
OF whom VIZ have first written-could work
wonders.
1t become more n more generally re-
ported among the low and superstitious
classes-the witch-believers of the period
that by the ''peek" stone Joe could see
mortals. and could tell all about thlnas
that were beyond the knowledge OF those
about him.
Did a neighbor lose an article of pro-
perty, a short consultation with Joe and
his magic peek stone was sure to reveal
it's whereabouts; and it may be easily in
ferred that the profits he reaped from this
use OF the wonderful stone were by no
means unwelcome in the Smith family,
Some gossips, it is true, did not hest
tate to declare that when the
Smith family's e~xchequer ran low, or
became empty, an accommodating
member of the household would about
midnight or some other mysterious,
ghostIy hour. visit a neighbours premises
and carry off a set of harness, perhaps
put them in a place of hiding. But an ap-
plication to Joe and his peek" stone, &C
c~ompanied by a fee OF a few paltry dollars,
never tailed to reveal the whereabouts OF
the pilfered article, and to secure it's safe
return. So it appears that Joe, even
when only a ''cheap John" sort of a "seer"
and prophet, had that eye to business that
characterized him and his followers in af-
ter life.
But be this story as it may, it is certain
that about the year 1880 Joe suddenly as
m a most serious manner, going about
alone with downcast y and saddened
lace, muttering almost inaudibly strange
n curious words, remaining away in Sc
clusion and only appearing in the company
OF the ignorant, the superstitious and gull
!ible villagers when he had some remarka-
BILE vision or revelation to tell of. At such
times ne would assume a strange air, and
the wondering rustics ranged around him.
About this time Joe announced that he
had direct communication with heaven
and Jehovah. Under the assurances
that vast sums OF gold, jewels and pre-
c'ous things were buried in the hills,
the little village of Manchester,
near Palmyra, Joe soon impressed upon
the minds of tho simple and ignorant class
him that the claims he set up were
true. Then began his reign. He would
about him old man Smith, his
father. his brothers and the hummer ele-
meme of the village and in the darkness of
night go forth to the hills around Man
chester. Silence unbroken was enjoined. |
" - "v a. oIVuuCI 6WllCu WulCU NE
broke from the hazel tree as a magic wand, |
and bearing before him the inspired "peek''
move at the head OF his rag-mufins
to the bills where all the we nth, of which |
God had sert a special messenger, in the |
form OF an angel to tell him, Law buried. |
at the hill, strange ceremonies |
were gone through with; weird rites were
performed, and each one enjoined to keep
the silence OF the grave. Then the spades |
were struck into the ground, and when |
after hours had passed in silent labor and
the box of buried treasure was about to
be uncovered, some excited member of
Joe's brigade would speak and 10! the box
and the gold and the precious stones were
away, and work would be sus.
pended until another night.
This mode of proceeding went on for,
perhaps, eight years. In the meantime Joe |
Ind his fanatical followers had dug upon
those hills until the surface for acres round
about wBs honey-combed with holes. But
so far as heard from there is no record that
The buried gold and treasures were ever
brought forth.
Steadfast and p~ersevering vas Toe
Smith. Cheeky, too, he was. With these
traits and the constant urging OF his witch.
believing mother, he kept on in this 'call-
ou0O AO al III" d06UIcO GIC S1mOl6 l
people for great distances around he had
from God.
One day. after an unusually long alb.
Joe came silently into his fathers
house, took up a bearthstone and deposited
it something that looked like a
title box, which he had brought bundled in
old blanket or b%edspread. His move
nents were sly, silent and mysterious.
When he had buried it he turned away
a word. No one interrupted him,
no one spoke. The mother, onlv,
presently broke forth in some of her weird
About twenty years before the time
Joe began to dictate the actions of
he people of his neighborhood under, as he
claimed, the order of God. there lived in
Ashtabula county, Ohio, having left his ma
i've State, Vermont. one oil those cough
ng. asthmatic preachers SO often found in
he Eastern States, whose health compels
hem to give up the good work" His
'ame was Solomon Spaulding. In Yer
mont he wrote poetry and fanciful books,
ike Joaquin Miller and other jacklee poets
Ind novelists. Spaulding wrote a story
liter the style of the Bible. He called It
Manuscript FOund.' and in n he'll