eD mmunitatirats. LETTERS FROM THE HILLS. NEWCASTLE, PA., Sept. 10, 1869. DEAR. DOCTOR :-I have got back to my sanitarium, as they call their cool retreats in the Hills in Hindustan. This 'hill country of Penn sylvania, where old convulsions have broken up the earth's strata, and have thrownup her inter nal wealth, to within man's reach, stretches from the Alleghanies to our Western border, and is rich' not in whit human folly calls " the precious metals," but in the realty precious mines of iron and coal. Their contribution to the wealth of Our commonweath and of the nation will make this region a place of the first importance, until some lucky chemist doylies a process which wilj make every clay-bank a mine of aluminiurn, and give us for ordinary use a metal as tough . as iron, one.third of its weight, inodoroits, tasteless and bright as silver. , Till then, the coal and iron re gion will rank among the especially favored re gions of our land.' I came hither by way,of'Baltimore,talting the boat by fiver, canal and bay. The one that cam' by ranks as the dirtiest, moatincohvenient, and shabbiest craft thati ever saw propelled by steam on an American river. - The only seat with a back to irthat passengera had access to was,the long fixed-bench aroun.d.the:upper deck. The furnishirig of the "Sabina was so musty and mouldy that onliby throwing the windows wide open could tvve of us pass the night, in it. The . . crew were gruff, the attendants'saucy.. Catch us setting foot in the RidliaPd again f The approach' to Baltimore . ; shows" that the wharfage is s - mall in proportion to the ' blisineas done. The extent of the harbor is but. trifling, So long wharves are cut into the land runninc , up some squares into the town. 'lnto these, with the thoughtfulness characteristic of AmiriCan municipalitiei, the city culverts empty selves, and the odoroui freight; Of filth anct gar bage is beaten back and forward, but never ,car: ried away by the tide. On a'hotsummer's day the fragrance Must 'be delicious—not to say healthful—to the occupants of the multitudes of stores and warehouses along the wharves. A run through several sections of the city shows that Baltimore has the, characteristics of Southern society. It is largely what New York will be in a few years, the city of the rich and the poor. There are no middle-class districts, such as extend over nearly all the Noith-Eastern and a great portion of the Southern quarters of Philadelphia. Around Monument Hill lies a district superior in style and magnificence to any part of PhiladelPhia. The houses are of - the plantation-mansion type. The fronts are broader than with us; the styles more various: A uni form block is a rarity. The use of drab and other paints on brick fronts is very common, the brick generally being far inferior to our own. The streets are very clean, being repeatedly and carefully swept by machinery and at night. They also get the full benefit of every rain shower, as they are rather more on the , slope than with us. The grandees of' this quarter seem even more bent on privacy than with us; some of their brick-yard walls reach well up into the second story, and board fences are a rarity. AU through this part of the city, you could distinguish traces of the class that founded it, the English Roman ists and aristocrats who embodied their thought in their houses, as the middle-class English quak ers have left their mark on our own city. From this to other and humbler parts of the city there is very little of gradual transition. Street after street, square after square, are made up of red brick houses such' as fill our extreme outside districts, and line the streets of the lower wards of New York. They nearly all look like the abodes of day-laborers and poor men who take no pride in their homes, while the thousand indications of taste and comfort are wanting. I take it as a sign of the place, that in a long walk through this part of the city, I could not find a drug store to buy a glass of soda water. Places where stronger beverages are sold are, over-abun dant. Baltimore will never be a strong city until it has a strong middle class, who have neither made their fortunes nor broken with fortune, who are neither living in the idleness and luxury of the rich, nor in the hand-to-mouth style of, the poor. This class alone will be able, by wise manage ment, to abolish the'caste spirit, by standing be tween the upper and the loWer. Nothing is more striking than the prevalence of this spirit in the public journals of other American cities, and its absence from our own. It is a spirit fatal to all municipal life and neighborliness, and we hope that it will long be absent. Nothing in the agitation I'm: the running of the cars on Sunday was more reprehensible, than the attempt on the part of T he Press and some other papers to ex cite' it; by all sorts of monstrous clap -trap fictions in regird to church-goers riding ahout in their carriages and taking holiday, when anti-Sabbata rians were at work. Such trash has no force. with the native American and Irish Protestant part of our people, but it is to be feared that our. German and Irish Romanist population are not insensible to such appeals. Since the war, Baltimore his taken a huge stride forward in point of commercial importance. Trans-atlantic steamers now ply from her, wharves, and new lines of communication with the South 1 and the " Old West" are projected. Should this movement continue, a middle class must grow up here speedily, and already no slight influx of Philadelphians and others has taken place. Should they be heartily welcomed, they will, in time, do much to improve both the appearance of the city and the tone of its society. From Baltimore I came to Pittsburgh by the North. Central and Penna. Central R. R. It rained all the way, as it had done during most of my sty in Baltimore. The day I was in . burgh was dreary and gloomy, as only a wet day in a• smoky city can be. J.•S. T., your. well known correspondent, took ime. up the hill to see the Western University of Pennaylvania, and in troduced me to some of its Merida in the city— among them. thi' editors of The Post and • The Commercial, - and Wm. Thaw, Esq., .th'e welli knowb-and•open-handed New School layman.' My connection 'with the University of Pennsylvania, Bemired, me a ready weleoma r and no slight inter: eit *as evinCed in' the 'recent movements for die better eudowmerit of the senior institution: - Of this'younger Western sister, I shall hive more to say in my next::. ' ON !ilia ,Wiloa. TILE PRESENT POSITION AF Tirri,)PRO IIIBITOEY LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS. This fnllj we expect to see in ,Massachusetts as exciting a political canvass as, we have, wit nessed, for, a number of years. The question whether the . State : shall pursue the policy of prohibition or lipense is to, be, decided -at the polls. This is ti :n question which has, always awakened a great. deal ;:of_interest in ,our , State, and* it now comes. up possibly for ,a final set tlement-it is natural that-the friends of the. two opposite policies should be in earnest and should make every effort to secure a victory. The con= test, therefore ; between the two, parties cannot ibe otherwise than hard, and bitter., To other law in our. State has had to encounter the disadvantages that have attended- _the Pro hibitory law. It may be said without a figure of speech to have come up to its present, psi,. tion out,otgreat When it was fiffitt enacted, it had, as it has still, ,the. ill will of large,and unscrupulous class. ...The property in vested in liquors was considerable, amounting to many millions of dollars.,, The number who de pended Upon, the liquor traffic for; a ,livelihood was great, while the number was 'larger still, who used intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and who considered the Prohibitory . Law as an inter ferenee with their sumptuary. rights. The con sequence was that the ,Inw, from ,its, first, enact, merit, met with a formidable opposition. Every means that ingenuity and skill could devise to defeat its execution was tried. The constitutionality of, the law" was assailed, and- a case under it, beginning . in the lowest courts, was not decided until it had come before the highest court of the State, and from the highest court of the State it had to go up to the Supreme Court of the. United States: Then the machinery by which all the other crim inal laws were executed, was found inadequate to the execution of this, especiaklyin the larger towns and cities. The local authorities ,of towns and cities upon whom the. execution ,of the law, de pended, could not or would not enforce it. The liquor interest in the large, cities had power enough to, erect. their own men to office. Each political party in all the local elections con sidered it necessary to conciliate the vote of the liquor• interest in order to its, success. For -in stance, Boston has never had a Mayor in favor of the execution of the Prohibitory 'Law. It has been an understood fact, that the Mayori and ,a majority of the - board - of Aldermen have been opposed to the execution of -the Law, and have been elected tO`their offices because of such opposition Another obgtacle which stood in the way of the law was found in the jury bog. No matter how clear the evidence against a party, or 'bow certain his guilt, it was found impossible to se cure his `conviction. The juries were impan elled 'under the direction of the local authorities. They were as much the creatures of city govern ments as the police were, and it was alivays found that there would be men on, the juries who would perjure themselves for the sake of the liquor interest, and such men were put upon juries in sufficient numbers to make it respecta ble to do so. And for this no redress could be had; for - the state had no -right to challenge a "uror. These difficulties with which the law had to contend' are now all overcome. The constitti tionality of the 'law has been affirmed by the highest tribunal in the State, and also by the Supreme Court of the 'United States. It will never, again be called in question. The execu tion- of the laW. has been taken out of the hands of the' lOcal authorities and entrusted to a state police direcVy responsible to the . G.o7ernor and his council, so that the liquor interesLhave not the, power to hinder the execution` of the law by electing city and town officers pledged against its execution: , The state now has the right by a statute recently' passed, to challenge and set aside.a certain :number of jurors, so that it has become a possible thing to drive perjurers from the jury box, and it 'will never more be‘ot any , avail fortiain'or citY . Offibers to pack juries by , . filling up ate lists, from which the - jurtirs.are to, be drawn, with rumsellers or their friends. The law as it now stands may be considered PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEN perfect. It is the most efficient instrument which can be devised for the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. All of its provisions are good; but the most efficient feature of the law is the seizure clause, which gives the police the power, and makes it their duty to enter a place where liquor is sold and confiscate all the liquor which can be found. This provision of the law, of itself alone, when carried out, is sufficient to suppress all open sale of liquor. Its great virtue is, that what it ac complishes, it accomplishes immediately. There is no delay; no waiting for the slow movement of -a court of justice; and none' of those risks which have so Tar attendee trials before a jury. Mid 'b'esides the 1- perfection of the law itself, flan . machinery necessary to mike it nsuccess is now all complete. Tholaw his reached a posi tion in which every•obstruction that stood in the way has been removed, and every facility needed for 'its full and impartial enforcement 'is pos: sessed. It stands. at ,the present time upon higher vantage ground than it ever did - before, and all'it' needs in order to realize all that its friends` claim for = it is, for the• people at' the conti r tig'election to , sustain it at the polls. If it is sustained, the prohibition of the sale of intoxi eating liquors as a beverage will be forever the rule in Massachusettis. But will the la* be sustained by the popular vote? This it is difficult:at the presentinotnent Ur decide. The friends cit Prohibition hope that itrWill be gloriously and triumphantly sustained. But they will have 'to use every effort to secure thiarresult: The interest' itto* that their all `is at Stake, add' their will make .a -desperate fight: 'Vie lines are already 'beginning to be di•awn betWeen'the two'Parties, ana'''ineltr are 'Choosing theii• sides: The'gre'atinsijoiity'bt the 'Republi: can' party' ire truelf&Prohibitidn',"and Vote accordiri&lyr. . -Theliqi;' or interest Will- get' the / otb'of the Democratic 'party and of a m inority ot' the Republican'lpaitY.- -3 But such a diVision' does not fairly , rePresdnfthe 'character of the Ttit pasties. Oa the side 'cif Prohibition found the ministry T tlic inenthera.of our-churches, the teachers of lite.rayy,in,titßtions, the .virkue, the. 'intelligence anti ta i large preponderanee of the. wealth of the State. ;And - it is as saiito see..from whaeksources the lfcenSe party , will draw their heaviest vote'....T.here will' be men: of high social iposition and- of blameless character whol - will. undoubtedly, vote on the side of lieeneq ..but the .vote drawn from this class wiFl be..light r and will 'have'lardly a perceptible in fluenee on • the result. ..The license party will get the stiangth of their vote from the lowest ranks in society, and from the most ignorant arid degraded portion of our` people - . The vicious and the depraved in every •Community, the - rowdy element in our towns and villages, the dangerous - classes in our large cities, are all a unit in their- oppositien to Prohibition, find will present an unbroken front at the polls in favor of a License Law. The avarice; the sensuality, the crime of =the state will be found on the side of License, although it would be useless to deny that men of charitcter and 'lain ence also have: placed themselves on the same. side. Which of these two parties, composed, in the main, of such opposite elements will succeed, we can not as yet tell for a certainty, but the-proba bilities are, that the party of Prohibition will be the successful one. At any rate• Prohibitionists are 'hopeful in reference to the result. ON SEA AND . SHORE. A trip from , Philadelphia to Boston by sea, fourihundred and eighty :miles, river and bay in cluded. So your, correspondent. improved his vacationett of two weeks, taking therefor the capacious steamship Saxon,,one of a semi-weekly line between those ports. .Why is it that people, travelling only. or recreation, and not driven by the haste of business, so generally eschew the rivers or sea as the means of conveyance between places where they have the choice of land or wa ter route? The train throws up its cloud of dust: who ever saw the sea dusty?. The train rushes you through dinner: on the,genteel vessel you may take aristocratic leisure for the service :of appetite. About two square feet of sitting room is all the_ liberty of space secured by,your car ticket, in the place , of the two hundred and fifty feet of promenade, or the luxurious sofas of the cabin, or, the comfortable, state rooms of the ves sel. In the car, if you happen to go, alone, you are pretty much lonely to the end. You may striko.up a sort of reserved fellowship with,your seat-mate, but never, as on shipboard, get up conversational circles, -and form here, and there a really pleasant acquaintance with persons whom you met as strangers. , . "But," said a lady to , whose husband I was proposing a water excursion, "do you never get drowned?" Certainly, madam, we sometimes get drowned ;, and dosou'never get smashed up, tortured and killed on the railroad? In speak ing of. modes of travel, the term safety is only.a comparative one, andi it is by no means, certain against what modes of travel lies the heaViest ac count of calamities. "But how about sea-sickness-?" Or, Us' wad inquired, " What becomes of those leisurely taken dinners?" Well, all enjoyments have their alloy, and something on this score must be confessed BER 23, 1869. against the water. And yet sea sickness is not so forlorn a case as to be without one redeeming feature. As you bend over the vessel's side, for other purpose than that of sentimental contem plation of the " deep blue sea," you may wish at the bottom of the said sea, the kind friend who steps to your side and tells you how much good this episode in marine experience is sure to do you, and how glad for it you will by-and-by be. This, I . suppose, is sympathy, and sympathy is always good. Whether in this case it makes up to evenness the account of comfort, is an open question. . On our way outward' we-,had a strong head wind, and, of course, a rough tea, Among the passengers were three clergymen—a Presbyte rian Bishop, an Episcopal Presbyter, and. a Unitarian Minister; One of the trio (not he of your acquaintance) carried-a:docile stomach to the -last. Presbyter came on board expressipg. his hope that he should become seasick, it being , just the : medical servicewhich his system needed. His wishes, so far as concerns treat ment,.were realized hilly .- very hilly.% i :: 4 .' There is not much to tell of :the scenery' of such a trip. The ocean itself is-a sight..of.which I never--become satisfied. See it as _I will; in the soft beauty of its rest, er__the awful-sublimi ties of its aroused action, it inspires thoughts- ofi the vastness of God's dominion, _the .measureless eternity; and the majesty of Him who holds the waters in Ile.hollow. of His hand, which I could- not cherish without becoming-betteroor failing to cherish which, rshould degrade n3y.immortal powers. After,passing out from the !Delaware there is, until entering Massachusettsjtayy little: else than ocean ,visible., Off Barnegat the sight. of , the Jersey-coast is lost, and then the .view-is• all sea-„ until the southwestern shore- of Long Island appears in‘ the -dim distanee. That is , again lost , at Montauk. Point„ . a.iadr,:then.-comes Martha's Vineyard and. Nantucket on the outer aide, and landward, the long stretch, of Cape .00.4- eciast, with only here and there a village to re ' lieve. the monotony, of stark sand beach. Round; ing that cape, : Massachusetts lity is entered,, but no sight is obtained, of th sP : .si: : :' cape I Not far up,. pn ,the southern s - i- 'Y:\inee :town is seen. It is the place • where' i e May. Flower Pilgrims first looked out for a resting plaee, but from which they were attracted by the sight of a more elevated land beyond, at the head of, an indentation of the bay. We are in view -of that woody eminence, .:but not of the, town of Plymouth which there - lies.: Passing through. an • unpleasantly narrow ship's channel, we are : in-:Boston. Harbor, whose multitude of littleislandsi_with their ports, public institutions and summer hotels, would make a scene of rare beauty, if there were fertility; in the place of that: sear rocky. surface. We. stopped .upon, Long Wharf at sundown, fifty-four hours after moving off from Pine Street Wharf in Philadelphia. Of Boston I could have almost nothing to.say, for I saw almost nothing of it, and Tabsolutely'no thing of its people except , as strangers in the streets or hotel. I was not in the way of its isms, or its ? ;notions' wild or conservative.. One thing, 'however, impressed me •as .suggestive. In the ' area bef,re the State House, and,•overlooking the large beautiful: Boston Common,, are two bronze statues. One has no inscription, no name. The grand'ontline ef w .skull. and face has passed in prints, fine or rude, all over the land, and it is one to be remembered. The statue of Daniel Webster needed no etching of a name. The other embodies only a phase of the *Christless educa tional system, the system itself incapable of be coming the property of humanity at large, and the bronze representing a man whose reputation has not the element of perpetuity. It was the in voluntary confession of whose statue, in the fu ture, would, and whose would not, need a name engraven on the pedestal, when that care was given to the bronze- of Horace. Mann, and the great brow of Daniel Webster was left to speak for itself. AXTELL I spent three, pleasant days in the quiet suburb town of Beverly—one of them in .courting the acquaintance of my old friends of the scaly order. 'A Sabbath passed 'there, was in every point of view, refreshing. I had heard of appalling de dines from the old Sabbath sentiments and habits of New England, but there general quiet, and a good amount of apparent .devotion prevailed. wor shipped with the Dane Street church, (Congre gational), and heard from 'the pastor, Rev. Mr. Lanphear, a well-reasoned discourse on the hu manity of Christ—the true God manifest in the man Jesus—as a necessity for sinners. After ward I sat with them at the table of our Lord:— with all of them, I suppose, for the first lime, and probably the last, until:the Master gathern us with Himself to the feast in heaven. One feature 'in the little, I saw .of .Beverly Society impressed me too, pleasantly, to be allowed to-pass unmentioned. It Was the affectionate regard in which the widow ea former pastor. is held—a feeling: that is all the more interesting because: of the worthindss of its direction, whether for the sake of him that, is gone, or her that abides. Veneration of localitieS is not iNirtue of mine. But enough of 'it was % sdmehowiengendered to lead me out some forty miles frouLßoaton'to Old Plymouth. 'Many years ago the - " Rook " was; With great effort and some expense;,lifted above the Mud which, filling up the , harbdr, was hiding it, from;sight, and a solid bed was worked, under. ueath. It is now surmounted by an open granite structure in good architectural taste, and floored over with planks to secure it against the chi, of relic pirates. In the centre of the flour round hole some two feet in diameter thro q r,h which you may see, but can hardly kiss, wh at Archbishop Hughes, with irreverent sarcasm, called the Blarney Stone of New England. " But," said an urchin whom I was questionin,, " you can step in and stand upon it." In the process of elevation, a large piece became de tached, which was removed to the yard in front of Pilgrim Hall, a museum of Pilgrim memorials, and is there surrounded with a comely iron en. closure. The old man of the Hall, as if to get off unconsequential matters from his mind, be fore, entering upon the weightier, first mention s the fee, and then becomes your zealous and really valuable cicerone through his little domain, and also tells ; you where in town to find the memorable localities. • It will be remembered that two summers ago the great National Congregitional Council was held in, Massachusetts, (Worcester, if I remem ber, rightly,) te ) give form,,compactness, and ag gressive vigor to the Congregationalism of the United: States.. One of tilt incidents of thi s meeting =perhaps_ chief in • the line of demon ' stration=was the, ceremony of a solemn public re-conseeration,to the ecclesiastical principles of the pilgrim forefathers.:, To make the externals ot,,this act -more impressive, the Council in a body madeits pilgrimage to Plymouth, and there, standing around the Forefathers' Rock," made the, re-conseeratibn, ; A. photograph of the scene was taken, and the pictureywas shown me by the custodinn of :the Hall. It revealed the figures of men of earnest faith and works ; many of them men who have made and are yet to make theii• mark "in' the moral history of the land. Looking upon . the:photograph, T could not avoid the feeling . that the scene, act, and .surroundings inclusive, was siblime—u feeling which; so far as the-'selection'of the place of ceremony was con c'ertied,sooh passed tti anything but the sublime. Fori il'; .after that , Service, any of the actors pass. 'ed, as I didiftiein the rock' to the ancient come thiy'ort qlsb bill, they could not. have failed to notice a' tall 'granite shaft, by far the loftiest monument there, end 'the 'rebuild of a humbler one . of thdaeirenteenth century: •On one side of the pedestalthey wonld'read that it commemorated the "Rev. Robert Cushman, an English friend of the' infant colony, who died in 1625, while pre paring to come over and unite with it. The in •scription on the other side must, after that fresh ,conseciatiot tb the Church principles of the ,pilgrim forefathers on the hallowed ground of the 'Forefathers' Rock; have been read, to say the least, with bated breath. "Thomas Cushman, son of Robert, died X De cember MDCXCI, .aged nearly LXXXIV years. For more than XLII years he was Ruling Elder in the _First Church in Plymouth, by wh,om, a tab let was placed to mark his grave on this spot, now consecrated anew by a more enduring memorial." 1620 the people of the May Flower landed. In, or a little before, 1650 Thomas Cushman is found a RULING ELDER in the Church of those piles ,In 1867 the National Council journeys to that spot to • re-consecrate itself to their eccles iastical principles ll' • My return from Boston was by the same steam ship which carried me out. We sailed on the afternoon of September 8, just:in time to meet, as we were passing down the bay, the terrific gale which has been reported• in all the papers of the country. We succeeded in making the lee of an island : That and three good anchors at our ,bow saved us, while all around were wrecks and beached vessels'. I mean—for I never had more occasion to feel the truth, and I believe never felt it more—through those means, and in the hands of a good commander and crew, God saved us. Yes, God saved us ; and may it be the solemn inquiry of each one then on board, Saved us, for what ? B. B. 11. *Since returning I have been told that the cere mony mentioned took place, not at the Rock, but around the Cushman monument hereafter mentioned. If so, it renders even more striking the absurdity of the association of act and place. I have no accounts at hand bywhich to determine the fact in question. The .phiitograph certainly was taken at the Rock, but it is possible the Council grouped there simplyfor the purpose of being photographed. AMERICAN BOARD-OFFICIAL STATE MENT. MISSIONARY llousn, Boston, Sept. 14, 1860. To the Editor of the American Presbyterian —Some of your readers, I doubt not, will be glad to receive the earliest intelligence in regard to the close of ourAnancial year. The increase of lega cies has •nearly balanced the decrease of our do nations, so that the debt is ascertained, this morn ing, to be $5,925.41.. This result, altogether unexpected a few days ago, is exceedingly grati fying.. Very respectfully. yours, S. B. TREAT. ..29ie Congregation at Williamstown, H. Y, ha's just completed a fine and commodicius par sonage; with the lot on which it stands, valued at $2500, for the use of•their pastor, Rev. H. N. Millard.- The congregation is not large nor the cominunity wealthy, and the house has been se cured by .persevering effort, and as now a source of. unbounded satisfaction tuAhe congrngation. The site has been in possession unoccupied for nearly fifty years. H. N. 31.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers