The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1867-12-25

70 w est rOurtn street, cincinnati. Terms,
SO year.
This tri-monthly is edited by George E. Day,
d. d., assisted by an able corps of associate
editors The contents of the present number
are THE Significance of Miracles in Chris
tianity," 1.-The Peninsula of Sinai, 1.-The
Agricultural Metaphors of ST. Paul, " 1.-The
Cherubins and their Symbolical Meaning"
DOMESTIC MISCELLANY.
Mormon Troubles.---We are likely to have stir
ring times on the Mormon question. The Con-
gressional Committee on Territories has re-
ported bill relative to affairs in Utah. Among
other things, it provides that marriages shall
only be solemnized by regularly elected and
qualified law officers, or regularly ordained min
listers of the Gospel. Polygamy is positively
prohibited, and marriages within certain de-
grees of consanguinity are declared incestuous
and void, and persons entering into such mar
riages to be liable to severe penalties
Oil wells---The Parker farm of three hun
dred and nine acres near Titusville, Pa, which
cost in 1868 Sl20,000, and on which twenty
one oil wells have been sunk, was recently sold
at auction for $4,000; At one time one of its
wells produced | 200 barrels per day. There
are uOM iOui VI nNC HlOQUSluS WVioi ouV ShSl
are of small capacity. Alas for "Oildom!"
The Agricultural College, recently organized
at Morgantown, West Virginia, has the follow
endowment:
Proceeds of Congressional Land Scrip, $50, 900
The College, formerly WOODBURY.,
grounds and buildings, $4,000
The Academy grounds and buildings, $4,000
ac parcnpal
erty of the above, 800
Cash. bonds, &C., as endowment of the
above, 1856
Total, $l37, $40
Religious Newspapers Baptists have 81
weekly newspapers in the United States and
Canada; the Methodist "a, and the Presbyte-
rlans 25.
The Gold yield for the country for the present
year is about as follows:
Montana $l2,0O0000: Idaho $4,000, 900 !;
Oregon $2,000,000; Colorado $4,000 600 !;
Nevada $l9 600, 900; California $25, 900 900,
and miscellaneous S5,0O0,000. Total $74,-
100000.
Mrs. Gen. Sam Houston died of yellow fever at
Independence, Texas, December 5th.
St. Louis in Danger---St. Louis is again alarm
ed at the danger of becoming an inland town.
A careful examination by the city officials re-
vealed the fact that the Missouri river, which
discharges into the Mississippi some twenty
miles above, sends i.s volume of water ct right
angles across with such force against the Hi
nois shore, as to have worn it away nearly a
mile. There is some danger of the river max
ing a channel through the American bottom,
so as to leave st. Louis two miles from the
stream. 1t is proposed to rivet the Illinois
shore with stone, where the river infringes, to
prevent it from wearing away.
Suffering Poor at the North.---The Richmond
Enquirer and Eramiaer says:
"Our Northern exchanges are filled with &C
counts of the suffering condition of the labor
ing classes at the North. At this season of
the year, when the cost of living is greatest
and when the severity of the climate demands
warm clothing, generous diet and abundant
fuel, the industry of the country has been par
alyzed. Manufacturing establishments and
factories are everywhere suspending operations,
and casting multitudes of men, women and
children adrift without the means of support
In New York, upwards of fifty thousand per-
sons are out of employment, large majority
of whom are young women, and many of whom
will find it impossible to resist the temptations
to vice which surround them.
The leading and significant fact in connec-
ton with this stagnation of business is that the
branches of industry which are suffering most
are those in former times dependent upon the
patronage of the South. AS the prosperity of
this section Succumbs to the madness of the
Radicals, the North begins to feel the terrible
effects of Africanizlng ten States.
Cold at the North.---It seems to have been IN
usually cold for two weeks past The Chris
han Mirror says;
"This severe spell closed bodies of water
never before known to freeze: the Pool at Sa
co was recently frozen, for the first time, with.
in the memory of any living, except through
the intervention of snow comminged with the
water, thus facilitating the congelation. Some
eight hundred boats are ice bound in the Erie
canal; one firm in Buffalo has seventy-one car
goes of grain thus embargoed, There has
been great loss of apples and potatoes. One
barge, laden with $500 bushels of corn has
been sunk by the ice cutting through the boat {;
another with 1856 barrels of apples sprung
aleak and sunk. The locks are leaking, and
unless the levels are kept supplied at the re-
quired height, more serious loss will follow.
Mr. Peabody's Gift to the South.-Dr. Fuller,
of Baltimore, has addressed letter to Dr.
Sears, the agent for this fund, urging him to
employ Southern teachers. He says:
81 cannot be mistaken in believing that such
an arrangement will be in entire harmony with
the feelings of Mr.. Peabody and of those
trustees whom l have the honor of knowing
personally. Nor do question that the unani-
nous sentiment at the North would commend
it.
In other days it might have been necessary
to introduce instructors from the North, as the
men and women of superior intellect and cul-
tivation at the South were either rich, or had
other pursuits open to them. But at this
time, the most refined and gifted and accom-
plished are, in common with all classes, re-
duced to penury, and are seeking any hon.
orable occupation by which to earn livelihood.
In selecting teachers from among them you
will retain those who are most deeply interested
in the education of the rising generation
who, in the apostles words, will naturally
care for their state" You will, also establish
schools which will enlist the respect and affec
ton of all good citizens, and which will thus
soon become self supporting, and allow the
funds to be transferred to other quarters. And
Mr. Peabody's generosity will thus reach and
bless, not only the young, but the entire COM
munity; going farther to relieve the destitu-
ton of the South than all the contributions
which the North has, more than once, charlta
bly, yielded, or can yield; and silently but IRE
sistibly shedding an influence which will dc
more to aSsuage asperltIeS, and to restore peace,
love, harmony, than all the schemes OF states
men and legislative committees, however pa