A NEW MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE.
By Editor
MANY people will rejoice to learn that a special effort is to be made to reach the colored people of the South by means of a gospel steamboat. The following press dispatch gives all the information we have in regard to the matter, excepting the fact that the gentlemen referred to are Seventh-day Adventists. Surely such an enterprise, conducted in the faith of Jesus Christ, ought to succeed:— CHICAGO, August 14.—A new gospel ship, called the Morning Star, is being fitted out in an Illinois Central slip. It is a steamer of the stern-wheel type, which is hardly ever seen on the lakes, and is going south on the Mississippi, where the missionaries, who will live on board, will labor among the negroes. The two missionaries are W. T. Palmer and J. E. White. White goes as master of the boat, and Mr. Palmer as secretary. B. F. Richards is engineer. The steamer is wide and shallow and has almost no sheer. She is constructed on the style of river craft and is eighty-four feet long, seventeen feet beam, and draws twelve inches forward, and six aft. It contains a twenty horse power engine, which runs the paddle wheel by a sprocket chain. The cabins are large and commodious, and the side of the boat is taken up with a row of windows. On top of the cabin the space is arranged for a meeting room, which holds 200 people. Forward are the pilot houses and reception room. Aft of this are the staterooms, the engine room, and galley and dining room. The woodwork is cypress and oak and is very handsome. Altogether the boat is fitted very comfortably and will make a good home. The boat has been built and fitted out by the two missionaries from money raised by selling publications of a religious nature. If their efforts among the negroes are successful, they propose to buy land and start a colored industrial school, teaching the negroes how to till the land.