hey needed to be taught how
to work to advantage in the trades and handicrafts, how to be better
farmers, how to be more thrifty in their lives, and, most of all, how to
resist the money-lender's inducements to mortgage their crops before
they were made. It was with these great ideas that he began his work at
Tuskegee."

When Booker Washington acceded to General Armstrong's request to proceed
to Tuskegee to give practical shape to the white people's wishes, he
received as many good wishes and congratulations as if he was going to
accept an enviable appointment in some already founded and flourishing
institution. The fact was, however, that not even the straw was as yet
gathered for the bricks with which the proposed school would have to be
built. Not even a site had been chosen, and no one knew where this might
be found. The most favourable features of the situation were that the
coloured folk were very desirous of obtaining some education, while the
whites were equally anxious that a school should be provided for them.
The cordial greeting accorded to the newcomer on every hand was perhaps
more flattering than reassuring; for the obstacles in the way of success
seemed so formidable that even the sanguine and persevering Booker
Washington might have been excused had he hesitated. Had he not been a
negro, he would probably have declared that the task assigned to him was
impossible.

The blighting effects of the Civil War were still visible; and when a
beginning at teaching was actually made, the class had to be content
with the accommodation of a tumble-down kind of building which was a
very imperfect protection from the weather. In some respects the
ex-slaves appeared to be no better off than when they were in bondage.
In order to become acquainted with the people, and to understand their
general condition and in what degree an effort to raise them promised to
succeed, it was necessary to visit them in their homes in the
surrounding country. In the main, their cabins showed no improvement on
those in which they had been housed in the days of slavery; and some of
their habits were as comical on the one hand as they were improvident on
the other. Practically what we call one-room life was, in a great number
of instances, a chief obstacle to their more complete civilisation.
While in need of better homesteads and of many necessary but commonplace
things, either for use or ornament, which they were, through their
ignoranc