The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-01-12
GENERAL SECULAR NEWS
Domestic.

Experiments In California show that
the almond may be raised in that State as we'll
as IN other States having an even and mild
climate.
"A Christian Chinaman at Sacrament
to, Cal, when asked how he liked being a
Christian, answered, "Ol me like very we'll
If al! Cinnamon be Christians, then no more
trouble about must goI All more happy
and good to each other" And he might have
vastly helped if all Americans were Christians
"A gentleman is reported to have ad-
vlsed another, who was in doubt about the church
he ought to attach himself to, to join the. Con
gregatonal denomination, which he could con.
hdently recommend good, comfortable sect,
where man could either believe with Dr.
Taylor or dlsbelieve with Mr.. Beecher."
Eight of the fifteen Indian girls at
Mr.. Moody's seminary in Northfeld Mass
study music, and are becoming profcients
Most of them will take the four years course so
as to prepare them for teachers to their people.
The offering of wine to New Years
callers has passed almost entirely out of fashion
Three years ago the daily papers preceding the
holidays had many advertisements recommend
ing liquors for holiday purchasers This wear
there were scarcely any such The exhorta-
lions against offering liquors to visitors were not
needed.
Ohio PEARLS. = Humboldt was
greatly surprised at finding fresh water pearls
In South America. But last summer the son
OF Cincinnati gentleman was playing on the
banks of the Little Miami River in Ohio. when
on opening muscle shell, he found a pearl of
extraordinary size and beauty. 1t was cleaned
sent to Messrs. Tiffany of New York, for exami-
nation, who Immediately purchased it for 1850
1t was an lridescent pearl of unusual purity
Pearl fishing then became the general industry
of that region. Boys and men to the number of
hundred or more at once would be seen wad.
ing into the river in depths reaching from their
knees to their neck. With their feet they would
feel the shells raise them by their toes to the
height where the hands could reach them. and
deposit them In miniature canoes which W ere
tied by a rope to the bank. After collecting a
bushel or more of the shells the fisher would 90
to the bank and sit in the shade while he opened
them. The finest pearl yet found there was
sold for 92,8OO This pearl was perfect in its
spherical symmetry. 1t had the brlliancy of
the purest tiRts of the opal 1t seemed to rest
in an aureole of color. The geological confr.
nation of this region is the Old Silurian 1t is
like leaf torn out of Genesis, and is locality
full of revelations to the scientist aside from
the peculiar developments of the pearl fisheries.
Christian at Work.
"A DRUNKEN BEAR-A half dozen
prosPectors camped one night recently in the
Sierra Nevada, Eldorado county, California
The ground was covered with snow, and when
about midnight a grizzly bear approached, the
crunching of his feet aroused the whole camp.
The bear trotted boldly up to within a few feet
of the FIRE and siezed the nearest thing that
could be reached-a bag containing a few such
articles as bread and sugar and a demijohn of
the hottest whisky manufactured on the Pacific
coast. The prospectors fred several shots at
the grizzly, which caused him to seize the bag
and scamper of. Relieved of the unwecome
visitors presence, the party dropped off to sleep
again, to be aroused about dawn by loud and
long roars in neighboring ravine The men
approached the ravine cautiously and were de-
lighted to see the grizzly uproariously drunk
and rolling in the snow. The bear had broken
the demJohn and Tapped up the whisky with an