t was destined to become a
distinguished institute on a solid basis. It was then that Booker
Washington set up a home of his own, into which he was able to receive
his teaching staff. He was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Smith, who,
like himself, had been trained at Hampton. In less than two years the
first Mrs Washington died, leaving an infant daughter. In this early
stage of the work, distinguished aid continued to be given by Miss
Davidson in collecting, in giving shrewd advice, and in other service,
including that of teaching. As will be made to appear, from this date
the progress made and the growth of the Institute was no less rapid than
wonderful.

But while the work was thus extending, the question came to be asked,
even by intelligent and far-seeing people, Is not industrial education
for negroes a craze? The majority were convinced that industrial
training in this case needed to go hand-in-hand with book-learning. It
was thought that men should understand farming and divers handicrafts,
and that women should possess such accomplishments as cooking, sewing
and dressmaking, and other domestic matters. Other friends of the negro,
who in the main agreed with this policy, still thought that there was
danger of its being pushed too far, in which case the movement might
even develop into a craze, and then it was almost certain that the
outcome would be "a less extended and thorough mental and moral
culture." In an open letter in the _Century Magazine_ for 1889, Mr S. W.
Powell referred to such objections:--

"The proposed change implies too great a concession to the widely
prevalent opinion that the negro is, and in the nature of the case must
be, better fitted for manual than for mental labour. They argue also
that the new departure tends to foster materialistic notions of the
value of education, the main object of which should be the ennoblement
of the worker rather than the production of more cotton, sugar, coal,
iron or lumber.... Then, again, the surprising success in some schools,
and notably in one, in mastering the more advanced branches is
profoundly affecting the opinions of many of the most influential
people in the South as to the capacity of the negro, and to do anything
which would make the work in these brigade schools less extensive, or
less thorough, will push him and his friends off this hard-won
vantage-ground."

Still further, we are exhorted to remember that "leaders qualified to
hold th