There are many societies in the Northern States for promoting numerous enterprises amongst the negroes. Before reaching Atlanta, I noticed a large crowd of negroes at one of the wayside stations, and found the occasion to be the leaving of a missionary, who had been working amongst them for two or three years, and was then changing his station. The respect and regard paid to him and to his wife were pleasant to see; the missionary was a most intelligent travelling companion, evidently devoted to his work in the genuine spirit of Christianity.” * * * * * TWENTY PER CENT. The enthusiasm evinced at the last Annual Meeting, our freedom from the long-borne burden of our debt, the general interest which seemed to be renewed in the welfare of the Freedmen, and the commencing and anticipated prosperity in the financial world, all conspired to encourage us to plan and prepare for an enlarged work and more abundant results. In carrying out these purposes, the Executive Committee have appropriated about _twenty per cent._ more than in the previous year to the Southern field. The total receipts thus far have been very gratifying,—and yet, when we come to analyze them, we find that they are, in a larger measure than formerly, sent to us to be appropriated to special departments of the work, or more often to special work not included in our estimates. This is both gratifying and embarrassing: gratifying, because it indicates an increasing familiarity with the details of our work, and special sympathy with this or that portion of the whole; but embarrassing, because it cannot fail to be a diversion of funds which have been anticipated by us to meet the appropriations already made to new fields, and often to create, instead of covering, expense. We recognize these needs, of student aid, of woman’s work, and of special endowment, and we would not have these particular demands neglected. It is only that if all the money were to be thus specifically applied by the donors, there would be none left for the main work, on which the ability to carry on all the specialties depends. Don’t starve the body in order to enlarge the hand or the foot. The best growth of all is that which comes from the food, which enters by the mouth into the stomach, and, vitalized, is carried through the whole system. If you appropriate all the fuel on the steamer to the donkey engines, what will you do with the great machinery whose work it is to revolve the main propeller? If in your city water-works, you enlarge the side supply pipes and leave the old mains, you get not more, but less, water into the houses.