. Our Congregational churches are quite as useful for
toning up other churches and their ministry as in the direct work done
by them.

Dodds, Roxton and Dallas in Northern Texas were next visited, and in
each a small church is established and doing a good work.

At Austin, I found our Tillotson Institute rapidly filling with
students--bright and earnest. A girls' hall is greatly needed here at
once. This institution with its unlimited opportunities in the great
State of Texas ought not to be cramped in any way, but to be given
every facility. Who will give it at once what it so urgently needs? I
found several intelligent people here greatly desiring a Congregational
church in the city--the school-church being too far away to reach the
mass of the people. Said an educated colored man to me: "Our most
intelligent people cannot endure the ignorant worship of these old
churches much longer. We want Congregationalism, but if we can't have
that, we must look elsewhere. We must have something to hold our
educated young people from falling into infidelity." And so they must,
for that is a coming danger.

At Helena, I found a most interesting state of things. Our church is in
a country place called "The Colony." The church and the colony began
their existence together, and a more prosperous community of colored
people it would be hard to find. They own several thousand acres of
land, and are in every way ahead of their white neighbors. The school
house of the latter was a poor tumble-down affair and the children were
untidy, while the school house of the former was a neat, painted and
well-kept building, crowded in school hours with bright, enthusiastic
children--clean and polite. The teacher was from Talladega College and
has taught here for five years. His school is pronounced the best in the
region for white or colored. The pastor of this church has charge also
of the Congregational Church at Goliad.

Corpus Christi is a curious town on the Gulf of Mexico. It has about
6,000 people--Americans, Mexicans, Negroes, Italians, Greeks and
Chinese. The Negroes here hold an unusual position, being regarded as in
every way superior to the Mexicans and Italians. Our pastor here is
popular with all classes and has been chosen an alderman of the city,
and is treated with as much consideration as any other of the City
Council.

Our church is one of the oldest Congregational churches in the South,
and has had a very interesting histo