e, quite unable to turn to any account. Their ignorance also led
to superstition and to one-sided views of things, which suggested
mischievous action. False pride would naturally inspire a love of
showing off, which meant a waste of resources, which, in the hands of
better economists, would have gone far towards providing the family with
the comforts of life.

The school teaching commenced just after midsummer, 1881; and the number
of the students who came was at once as many as could be accommodated,
and their eagerness to learn testified to the earnest desire for
education which was common among the coloured race. Had all been taken
who wished to come, the school would have been a very large one at the
outset; but at first the plan was to take only those who were not mere
children and who had already acquired some learning. Some who sat in the
classes were even approaching middle-age. Perhaps a chief drawback was
that the aims of the teacher and the expectations of the learners did
not generally agree. As Mr Speed tells us, Booker Washington's capital
originally consisted of "nothing but ideas, ambition and a few friends,
none of whom could do much in the way of contributions." His ideas were
worth more than gold, however; while his friends were of sterling
quality, one being an ex-slaveholder, who had done more than anyone else
in originating the school. It may seem to be strange that some of the
best and shrewdest friends of negroes in the Southern States at the
present time are ex-slave-owners. Others among the white people would
have preferred that the old-time hewers of wood and drawers of water for
the superior race should remain illiterate, thinking that their coming
in contact with books would have the effect of marring their capacity
for field service. Not a few, especially at that time, in common with
the coloured people themselves, entirely misapprehended in what an
effective education consisted. It was too often supposed that it meant
mere book-learning that would release its possessors from hard, manual
labour. To General Armstrong and Booker Washington education would be of
value to negroes because it would enable them to do more effectively
the labour connected with a number of important industries to which they
were called. This obvious truth is far better understood than it was a
quarter of a century ago. The work done at Hampton, at Tuskegee, and at
the many schools on a similar basis which have since