whereabouts of things lost or stolen; and Malagasies, Zulus, and
Siberians" to see what will happen. "Perhaps its most general use
has been to discover lost objects, and in this practice the seers
"have very often been children, as we shall see was the case in
the exhibition which gave Joe Smith his first idea on the
subject. In the experiments cited by Lang, the seers usually saw
distant persons or scenes, and he records his belief that
"experiments have proved beyond doubt that a fair percentage of
people, sane and healthy, can see vivid landscapes, and figures
of persons in motion, in glass balls and other vehicles."

It can easily be imagined how interested any member of the Smith
family would have been in an exhibition like that of a
"crystal-gazer," and we are able to trace very consecutively
Joe's first introduction to the practice, and the use he made of
the hint thus given.

Emily C. Blackman, in the appendix to her "History of Susquehanna
County, Pennsylvania" (1873), supplies the needed important
information about Joe's visits to Pennsylvania in the years
preceding the announcement of his Bible. She says that it is
uncertain when he arrived at Harmony (now Oakland), "but it is
certain he was here in 1825 and later. "A very circumstantial
account of Joe's first introduction to a "peep-stone" is given in
a statement by J. B. Buck in this appendix. He says:--

"Joe Smith was here lumbering soon after my marriage, which was
in 1818, some years before he took to 'peeping', and before
diggings were commenced under his direction. These were ideas he
gained later. The stone which he afterward used was in the