The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-10-22

MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BOARD.
The Central Penn. Railroad exhibits some of
the boldest engineering in the country. It
was once problem difficult to solve, how the
| IRON rail could be laid across the Alleghanies.
stationary engine upon the summit, be-
ileve, was thought of, do not know Tut that
Is was attempted, in the early experiment.
But the long and circutuous ascent is now
made by the multiplication of rolling engines.
Two were used to take us over, they were
giant machines, and wrought with frightful
energy to overcome the heavy grade. We
stopped at Altoona, far up toward the crown.
for the night; place of some 10000 inhabi-
tants, where the heaviest railroad work in the
way OF machines &c, is done. The gran
deur OF the scene opened to US in the morn
ing, soon after we left this place. We soon
found ourselves skirting the side of a noun
tain, with the deep valley on our left, seen by
a frightful downward look. Across the val
ley, or dark ravine, is another mountain,
whose side is nearly parallel with the one up
which we are slowly straining On the 9th
er side OF this opposite range we sec another
railway threading its spiral course higher ND
IMAM our own track. Is that a railway?
one asks spontaneously, so far up the noun
tain, its grade pointing so high above the hor-
ison? lis nothing else! And think of our
surprise when told that it was the continue
ton of our road after making a sharp curve
in the gorge of the mountain. And by and
by, true enough, we are on the return line
upon the opposite range, farther up toward
the clouds, making our way slowly and heavi-
ly to the summit, where we went out of sight
ofthe sun and the heavens, for full three
fourths of a mile; emerging at last upon the
western range of the Allegheny, where for
hundred miles we had down grade upon
which the engine was useless.
We arrived at Pittsburg where the Ameri-
can Board of Missions was 70 meet and where
the Allegheny and Monongahela unite to form
the Ohio; where once stood the famed fort
of Duquesne pronounced Du Kane) named
after the old French Earl Duquesne. Pitts
burg is cluster Of cities. Like Boston, it is
the central one. 1t lies in the angle between
the two rivers. 1t is place of foundries and |
forges. 1t is dingy and gloomy. 1t seems al
most subterranean. Paint the buildings as
you please, they soon come to haze nearly
Uniform color. Touch what you will, and it |
pays tribute, if not in gold dust, in some |
other. 1t is itself a vast coal-pit! There is
coal under you, there is coal on every side OF
you; there is coal above you in the darkened
air! And yet this is a city of wealth and
style.
Not far from the rnins of the old fort, the
American Board held its annual meeting in
the 30 Presbyterian Church. The faint sun
l'gnt added to the gaslight made the light of
aim day in our assemblies. There we listened
TO able reports, to wise suggestions, and thrill
ing appeals, including one from Carlton. the
great traveller and writer.
This board has some 1900 missionaries in
be field, male and female, foreign and native.
t has now three times as many native preach
rs of different grades once heather as it has
Missionaries who have been set forth from
ur churches. The Board spends more than
alf million annually upon its work, and has
altered from the first more than seventy
housand converts from heathenism into its
nurches. W. W.