AUSTIN, TEXAS.—Mr. A. J. Turner writes: I was in Austin last week and visited Mrs. Garland’s school. She had just returned from the North and started her school. She has a full Sabbath-school. I visited with her the site of the new building, the walls of which are rising. It will be a beautiful place. I rejoice that Northern people are doing so much for our people. GOLIAD, TEXAS.—“There is an increasing desire among our people to carry the Gospel beyond the bounds of our churches, and so far as it has been done, our polity and purity have attracted favorable attention. There is a growing dissatisfaction with the worship and moralities of the older churches on the part of some of their members and others who would join but for these. The young people, in their plays, imitate the ‘shouting’ to perfection. It is fine sport to them to see the church members perform. They laugh at the claim of Divine help to do what they can so easily do without that help. The young men, on this account, are increasingly more difficult to reach with the Gospel. Education, property and morality are cast aside as of little worth; stealing and shooting among themselves are not uncommon. Only a pure Gospel can save these young men from dissipation and crime; yet they see the grossest immoralities in church members, and the wildest fanaticism in their modes of worship. A wide door is open here for Christian workers, and as promising as any other to those of great patience and self-denial.” * * * * * GENERAL NOTES. The Freedmen. —THE PEABODY EDUCATIONAL FUND—REPORTS OF THE GENERAL AGENT AND THE TREASURER.—The annual meeting of the trustees of the Peabody Educational Fund was held October 1st, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The chairman addressed the meeting, and in the course of his remarks mentioned with regret the shrinkage in the income from the investments, and expressed the hope that from other sources the funds would be rendered adequate to the work laid out. The thirteenth annual report was presented by Dr. Sears, the general agent. He said that the work had made satisfactory progress during the past year. The difficulties arising from the poverty of the South, he continued, are now increased by the pressure of the State debts. The necessity of aid from the Federal Government is now greater than ever before. The evils that are certain to grow out of popular ignorance, if the public schools are suffered to languish, or if they reach only a part of the population, will not be limited to the States where they first appear, but will cast their blight over the whole country.