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One
day, during the last week of my stay in the restaurant, I found under one of
the tables a crisp, new ten-dollar bill. I could hardly contain myself, I
was so happy. As it was not my place of business I felt it to be the proper
thing to show the money to the proprietor. This I did. He seemed as glad as
I was, but he coolly explained to me that, as it was his place of business,
he had a right to keep the money, and he proceeded to do so. This, I
confess, was another pretty hard blow to me. I will not say that I became
discouraged, for as I now look back over my life I do not recall that I ever
became discouraged over anything that I set out to accomplish. I have begun
everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience
with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot
succeed. I determined to face the situation just as it was. At the end of
the week I went to the treasurer of the Hampton Institute, General J.F.B.
Marshall, and told him frankly my condition. To my gratification he told me
that I could reenter the institution, and that he would trust me to pay the
debt when I could. During the second year I continued to work as a janitor.
The
education that I received at Hampton out of the text-books was but a small
part of what I learned there. One of the things that impressed itself upon
me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the teachers. It was
hard for me to understand how any individuals could bring themselves to the
point where they could be so happy in working for others. Before the end of
the year, I think I began learning that those who are happiest are those who
do the most for others. This lesson I have tried to carry with me ever
since.
I
also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming into contact with the
best breeds of live stock and fowls. No student, I think, who has had the
opportunity of doing this could go out into the world and content himself
with the poorest grades.
Perhaps
the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year was an
understanding of the use and value of the Bible. Miss Nathalie Lord, one of
the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught me how to use and love the Bible.
Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I learned to
love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which it gives, but
on account of it as literature. The lessons taught me in this respect took
such a hold upon me that at the present time, when I am at home, no matter
how busy I am, I always make it a rule to read a chapter or a portion of a
chapter in the morning, before beginning the work of the day.
Whatever
ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure to Miss Lord. When
she found out that I had some inclination in this direction, she gave me
private lessons in the matter of breathing, emphasis, and articulation.
Simply to be able to talk in public for the sake of talking has never had
the least attraction to me. In fact, I consider that there is nothing so
empty and unsatisfactory as mere abstract public speaking; but from my early
childhood I have had a desire to do something to make the world better, and
then to be able to speak to the world about that thing.
The
debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of delight to me. These
were held on Saturday evening; and during my whole life at Hampton I do not
recall that I missed a single meeting. I not only attended the weekly
debating society, but was instrumental in organizing an additional society.
I noticed that between the time when supper was over and the time to begin
evening study there were about twenty minutes which the young men usually
spent in idle gossip. About twenty of us formed a society for the purpose of
utilizing this time in debate or in practice in public speaking. Few persons
ever derived more happiness or benefit from the use of twenty minutes of
time than we did in this way.
At
the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some money sent me by
my mother and brother John, supplemented by a small gift from one of the
teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to return to my home in Malden, West
Virginia, to spend my vacation. When I reached home I found that the
salt-furnaces were not running, and that the coal-mine was not being
operated on account of the miners being out on "strike." This was
something which, it seemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or
three months ahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they
spent all that they had saved, and would often return to work in debt at the
same wages, or would move to another mine at considerable expense. In either
case, my observations convinced me that the miners were worse off at the end
of the strike. Before the days of strikes in that section of the country, I
knew miners who had considerable money in the bank, but as soon as the
professional labour agitators got control, the savings of even the more
thrifty ones began disappearing.
My
mother and the other members of my family were, of course, much rejoiced to
see me and to note the improvement that I had made during my two years'
absence. The rejoicing on the part of all classes of the coloured people,
and especially the older ones, over my return, was almost pathetic. I had to
pay a visit to each family and take a meal with each, and at each place tell
the story of my experiences at Hampton. In addition to this I had to speak
before the church and Sunday-school, and at various other places. The thing
that I was most in search of, though, work, I could not find. There was no
work on account of the strike. I spent nearly the whole of the first month
of my vacation in an effort to find something to do by which I could earn
money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little money to use after
reaching there.
Toward
the end of the first month, I went to place a considerable distance from my
home, to try to find employment. I did not succeed, and it was night before
I got started on my return. When I had gotten within a mile or so of my home
I was so completely tired out that I could not walk any farther, and I went
into an old, abandoned house to spend the remainder of the night. About
three o'clock in the morning my brother John found me asleep in this house,
and broke to me, as gently as he could, the sad news that our dear mother
had died during the night.
This
seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life. For several years
my mother had not been in good health, but I had no idea, when I parted from
her the previous day, that I should never see her alive again. Besides that,
I had always had an intense desire to be with her when she did pass away.
One of the chief ambitions which spurred me on at Hampton was that I might
be able to get to be in a position in which I could better make my mother
comfortable and happy. She had so often expressed the wish that she might be
permitted to live to see her children educated and started out in the world.
In
a very short time after the death of my mother our little home was in
confusion. My sister Amanda, although she tried to do the best she could,
was too young to know anything about keeping house, and my stepfather was
not able to hire a housekeeper. Sometimes we had food cooked for us, and
sometimes we did not. I remember that more than once a can of tomatoes and
some crackers constituted a meal. Our clothing went uncared for, and
everything about our home was soon in a tumble-down condition. It seems to
me that this was the most dismal period of my life.
My
good friend, Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always made me
welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this trying period.
Before the end of the vacation she gave me some work, and this, together
with work in a coal-mine at some distance from my home, enabled me to earn a
little money.
At
one time it looked as if I would have to give up the idea of returning to
Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that I determined not to give
up going back without a struggle. I was very anxious to secure some clothes
for the winter, but in this I was disappointed, except for a few garments
which my brother John secured for me. Notwithstanding my need of money and
clothing, I was very happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to
pay my travelling expenses back to Hampton. Once there, I knew that I could
make myself so useful as a janitor that I could in some way get through the
school year.
Three
weeks before the time for the opening of the term at Hampton, I was
pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my good friend Miss Mary F.
Mackie, the lady principal, asking me to return to Hampton two weeks before
the opening of the school, in order that I might assist her in cleaning the
buildings and getting things in order for the new school year. This was just
the opportunity I wanted. It gave me a chance to secure a credit in the
treasurer's office. I started for Hampton at once.
During
these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall never forget. Miss
Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and most cultured families of the
North, and yet for two weeks she worked by my side cleaning windows, dusting
rooms, putting beds in order, and what not. She felt that things would not
be in condition for the opening of school unless every window-pane was
perfectly clean, and she took the greatest satisfaction in helping to clean
them herself. The work which I have described she did every year that I was
at Hampton.
It
was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her education and
social standing could take such delight in performing such service, in order
to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race. Ever since then I have
had no patience with any school for my race in the South which did not teach
its students the dignity of labour.
During
my last year at Hampton every minute of my time that was not occupied with
my duties as janitor was devoted to hard study. I was determined, if
possible, to make such a record in my class as would cause me to be placed
on the "honour roll" of Commencement speakers. This I was
successful in doing. It was June of 1875 when I finished the regular course
of study at Hampton. The greatest benefits that I got out of my at the
Hampton Institute, perhaps, may be classified under two heads:--
First
was contact with a great man, General S.C. Armstrong, who, I repeat, was, in
my opinion, the rarest, strongest, and most beautiful character that it has
ever been my privilege to meet.
Second,
at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what education was expected to do
for an individual. Before going there I had a good deal of the then rather
prevalent idea among our people that to secure an education meant to have a
good, easy time, free from all necessity for manual labour. At Hampton I not
only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love
labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour's own sake and for
the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which
the world wants done brings. At that institution I got my first taste of
what it meant to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the
fact that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others
useful and happy.
I
was completely out of money when I graduated. In company with our other
Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel in
Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get there. I
had not been in this hotel long before I found out that I knew practically
nothing about waiting on a hotel table. The head waiter, however, supposed
that I was an accomplished waiter. He soon gave me charge of the table at
which their sat four or five wealthy and rather aristocratic people. My
ignorance of how to wait upon them was so apparent that they scolded me in
such a severe manner that I became frightened and left their table, leaving
them sitting there without food. As a result of this I was reduced from the
position of waiter to that of a dish-carrier.
But
I determined to learn the business of waiting, and did so within a few weeks
and was restored to my former position. I have had the satisfaction of being
a guest in this hotel several times since I was a waiter there.
At
the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden, and
was elected to teach the coloured school at that place. This was the
beginning of one of the happiest periods of my life. I now felt that I had
the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life. I felt
from the first that mere book education was not all that the young people of
that town needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, as a
rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night. In addition to the usual
routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to comb their hair, and to keep
their hands and faces clean, as well as their clothing. I gave special
attention to teaching them the proper use of the tooth-brush and the bath.
In all my teaching I have watched carefully the influence of the
tooth-brush, and I am convinced that there are few single agencies of
civilization that are more far-reaching.
There
were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, as well as men and
women, who had to work in the daytime and still were craving an opportunity
for an education, that I soon opened a night-school. From the first, this
was crowded every night, being about as large as the school that I taught in
the day. The efforts of some of the men and women, who in many cases were
over fifty years of age, to learn, were in some cases very pathetic.
My
day and night school work was not all that I undertook. I established a
small reading-room and a debating society. On Sundays I taught two
Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden in the afternoon, and the other in
the morning at a place three miles distant from Malden. In addition to this,
I gave private lessons to several young men whom I was fitting to send to
the Hampton Institute. Without regard to pay and with little thought of it,
I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that I could teach him. I was
supremely happy in the opportunity of being able to assist somebody else. I
did receive, however, a small salary from the public fund, for my work as a
public-school teacher.
During
the time that I was a student at Hampton my older brother, John, not only
assisted me all that he could, but worked all of the time in the coal-mines
in order to support the family. He willingly neglected his own education
that he might help me. It was my earnest wish to help him to prepare to
enter Hampton, and to save money to assist him in his expenses there. Both
of these objects I was successful in accomplishing. In three years my
brother finished the course at Hampton, and he is now holding the important
position of Superintendent of Industries at Tuskegee. When he returned from
Hampton, we both combined our efforts and savings to send our adopted
brother, James, through the Hampton Institute. This we succeeded in doing,
and he is now the postmaster at the Tuskegee Institute. The year 1877, which
was my second year of teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did the
first.
It
was while my home was at Malden that what was known as the "Ku Klux
Klan" was in the height of its activity. The "Ku Klux" were
bands of men who had joined themselves together for the purpose of
regulating the conduct of the coloured people, especially with the object of
preventing the members of the race from exercising any influence in
politics. They corresponded somewhat to the "patrollers" of whom I
used to hear a great deal during the days of slavery, when I was a small
boy. The "patrollers" were bands of white men--usually young
men--who were organized largely for the purpose of regulating the conduct of
the slaves at night in such matters as preventing the slaves from going from
one plantation to another without passes, and for preventing them from
holding any kind of meetings without permission and without the presence at
these meetings of at least one white man.
Like
the "patrollers" the "Ku Klux" operated almost wholly at
night. They were, however, more cruel than the "patrollers." Their
objects, in the main, were to crush out the political aspirations of the
Negroes, but they did not confine themselves to this, because schoolhouses
as well as churches were burned by them, and many innocent persons were made
to suffer. During this period not a few coloured people lost their lives.
As
a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a great impression upon
me. I saw one open battle take place at Malden between some of the coloured
and white people. There must have been not far from a hundred persons
engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured, among them
General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola Ruffner. General
Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and for this he was knocked
down and so seriously wounded that he never completely recovered. It seemed
to me as I watched this struggle between members of the two races, that
there was no hope for our people in this country. The "Ku Klux"
period was, I think, the darkest part of the Reconstruction days.
I
have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of the South simply for
the purpose of calling attention to the great change that has taken place
since the days of the "Ku Klux." To-day there are no such
organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is almost
forgotten by both races. There are few places in the South now where public
sentiment would permit such organizations to exist.
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