Our annual meeting at Lowell, Mass., October 23d to 25th, promises to be an occasion of great interest. A large proportion of the addresses will be from missionaries. The work throughout the year has been greatly blessed, despite the difficulties it has had to meet from lack of adequate means. The meeting opens at three o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, and the annual sermon will be given by Rev. Charles H. Richards, D.D., of Philadelphia, in the evening, followed by the communion service.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR OUR ANNUAL MEETING

A partial and tentative programme of our Annual Meeting has been prepared. Times are provided for open discussion or the "free parliament." But it is deemed necessary to secure some able writers and speakers to prepare reports and deliver addresses on special and important topics.

We are happy to announce that at this writing a number such have promised attendance. Among these we may name the President of the Association, Merrill E. Gates, LL.D., President of Amherst College; Rev. Chas. M. Lamson, D.D., Hartford, Conn. ; Rev. DeW. S. Clark, Salem, Mass. ; Rev. Dr. McKenzie, of Boston; Dr. Lyman Abbott, of New York; Hon. Frederick Douglass, of Washington; and his Excellency, Governor Greenhalge, of Massachusetts. Some others have been invited from whom favorable answers are expected.

A marked feature of this meeting will be the unusual number of missionaries and workers from the field, who will give living pictures of things as they are. Following the happy precedent of other years, each of the co-operative Congregational societies will be represented by a speaker chosen by itself. These addresses will be brief, and will manifest the feelings of harmony and comity existing between these societies.

The meeting promises to be an interesting and valuable one. The topics discussed are of vital importance to the work, and the addresses will be worthy of the topics. Lowell is accessible, and its welcome will be cordial.

LOWELL

The city of Lowell has long enjoyed a national, even world-wide reputation, as the leading center for the manufacture of cotton fabrics. And, while this industry offers employment to something like 25,000 men, women and children, there are also enterprises in great variety that do not use cotton fibre in any way, yet find work for ten to fifteen thousand more toilers. The principal corporations are the Lawrence, Tremont and Suffolk, Merrimack, Boott, Massachusetts, Hamilton and Appleton, beside the Middlesex, where shawls are made, and the carpet mills, where the famous Lowell carpets are woven. While the city is a veritable beehive of industry, yet the people find time for recreation, and have wisely provided breathing places in different parts of the city, where they can recuperate mind and body. The prominent pleasure resorts are Fort Hill park, the North and South commons, Park Garden, the boulevard—extending three miles along the bank of the Merrimack River—and Lakeview, an attractive watering-place some five miles out from the center. This latter place is reached by means of the Lowell and Suburban Street Railway, an electric line, which also connects the neighboring villages of North Chelmsford, Dracut, North Billerica and Chelmsford Center. A ride to any one of these places costs but twenty cents for the round trip, and the Lakeview line is especially interesting at its terminal.

The city's moral and educational interests are also well provided for, as evidenced by the following: 30 churches, 47 primary schools, 10 grammar and 1 high school, besides a training school for teachers, and a manual training-school for boys; also a prospective State normal school. We also have three or four hospitals, an old ladies' home, and a home for young women and children. The police protection consists of a chief, his deputies, captains and sergeants, and about one hundred patrolmen. The fire system of the city is excelled by none in the country, and is well worthy a careful inspection.

Lowell is not favored with a great many pretentious edifices on her public streets, but the most prominent are the new City Hall, High School, Memorial Building, State Armory, St. Anne's Church and the Federal Building. The city is already furnished with a thorough water system, but, desiring a better quality of water than that taken from the Merrimack River, she has had a large number of artesian wells driven, and they now furnish about 3,000,000 gallons of water per day. All the principal streets are well lighted by electric lamps, and the residential portion by gas.

The Merrimack River affords a means of enjoying aquatic sports, there being rowing boats, canoes, sail boats and steamers in abundance. Two very enchanting spots up the river are Tyng's Island and Harmony Grove, and if one desire a longer trip by water he may ride to Nashua, N.H., by steamer or other boat.

The population of Lowell is probably about 80,000, and excepting in specially hard times there are few persons to be found in want of a situation. These are only a few of Lowell's salient points, but enough is here given to convey to the visitor a very fair idea of the city's make-up.

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