The Osceola Herald. Thursday, October 19, 1871. Vol. 6, No. 17.

Missouri newspaper with Mark Twain, Mormon defiance, and Mars’ climate

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Missouri, Mars, Mormons, and Mark Twain (?) —captured in a rare surviving issue of The Osceola Herald, a Reconstruction-era Missouri newspaper.

The front page features a vignette attributed to Mark Twain, a report on Mormon leadership under Brigham Young, and a scientific discussion on Martian meteorology. Other contents include local and national news, politics, and advertisements. Beneath the masthead is an Abraham Lincoln quote: “Let us have faith that Right makes Might; and in that Faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

The (spurious?) Mark Twain passage evokes a tranquil evening scene, reflecting on domestic life and the close of the day (“Mark Twain says: ’Tis evening. The rich glow of the sinking sun casts athwart the little cottage doorway a mellow, golden light that enriches and inspires the scene…”). The Mormon report covers a Salt Lake City conference where church leaders, including Brigham Young and George Q. Cannon, defended their settlement in Utah against federal scrutiny. Young denounced U.S. officials as “tools of the devil” and called for divine retribution. The article on Mars examines contemporary observations of cloud formations and atmospheric changes seen through telescopes.

Via CLARENCE, AAS reports six issues from 1870 but none from this year. The Herald likely ran from 1866 to 1873. OCLC records show AAS as the only institution holding physical copies, with others holding microfilm.

Price: $350.00