The Austin branch of the Texas Central, a few miles below the capital, falls into the valley of the Colorado. As you run up that lovely vale, you soon see on the right, just out of the city, the Tillotson, a five-story stone and brick edifice, crowning a ground swell that overlooks the river and town. Its neat fence and the grounds graded by nature are attractive. As we roll up the valley, I see a fine carriage standing at the door; and this, as I come up to the place, I find to be the turnout of Gov. Pease, who has brought his family up to visit the institute and to call upon the family of teachers. An original Connecticut man, 30 years a resident of Texas, her Governor for a term, during which a fund of $2,000,000 was set apart for public schools, and now a trustee of the Tillotson, his interest and influence are worth much to such an institution at the South. But, so soon, the house is full to overflowing, in its assembly-rooms, in its dining-hall and in its dormitories. So that already the call is for another building. I find 140 scholars, of whom 65 are boarders. I find enthusiasm and spring in these freshly gathered students. In this State the colored people are getting land faster than in any other: partly, for the reason that, from the beginning, there was here the least opposition to their doing so; and, partly, from the fact that Texas is a new and largely a Western State; and so, these more well-to-do parents are ready to avail themselves of the advantage of such a school. The father of one of these young men was a slave, but now owns 500 acres of land, on which he has paid $6,000 of the $7,000 purchase money. The President, Rev. W. E. Brooks, who left his pastorate in West Haven, Conn., to take this position, is supported by Prof. J. J. Anderson, a graduate of Beloit College, with a dozen years of experience, and by Misses Hunt and Topping, graduates of Olivet, who are born teachers and disciplinarians. The President, besides teaching several classes, preaches on the Sabbath in the chapel, and also conducts a Sunday-school. He is welcomed to the pulpits of the city, and is on the friendliest terms with the first citizens. Rev. Dr. E. B. Wright, pastor of the Northern Presbyterian Church, is one of the trustees, and is greatly attentive to the interests of the Institute. Mrs. Brooks, an accomplished pianist, has _twenty-eight_ colored pupils in piano music, which shows the zest for cultivation. Once a week a lecture is delivered before the students by teachers or prominent citizens. The wife of Judge Garland, who has had an A. M. A. school in Austin for fifteen years, continues in a primary school near at hand; and the Judge himself, for the present stress, is volunteering a half-a-day of teaching for a month. A New Hampshire schoolmaster, he became a lawyer, then a judge in Texas, under appointment of Gov. Davis.