on the platform there and sees before
him eleven or twelve hundred earnest young men and women; and one cannot
but feel that it is a privilege to help to guide them to a higher and
more useful life.

In the spring of 1899 there came to me what I might describe as almost
the greatest surprise of my life. Some good ladies in Boston arranged
a public meeting in the interests of Tuskegee, to be held in the Hollis
Street Theatre. This meeting was attended by large numbers of the best
people of Boston, of both races. Bishop Lawrence presided. In addition
to an address made by myself, Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar read from his
poems, and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois read an original sketch.

Some of those who attended this meeting noticed that I seemed unusually
tired, and some little time after the close of the meeting, one of the
ladies who had been interested in it asked me in a casual way if I had
ever been to Europe. I replied that I never had. She asked me if I had
ever thought of going, and I told her no; that it was something entirely
beyond me. This conversation soon passed out of my mind, but a few days
afterward I was informed that some friends in Boston, including Mr.
Francis J. Garrison, had raised a sum of money sufficient to pay all the
expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself during a three or four months'
trip to Europe. It was added with emphasis that we MUST go. A year
previous to this Mr. Garrison had attempted to get me to promise to go
to Europe for a summer's rest, with the understanding that he would be
responsible for raising the money among his friends for the expenses
of the trip. At that time such a journey seemed so entirely foreign to
anything that I should ever be able to undertake that I did confess I
did not give the matter very serious attention; but later Mr. Garrison
joined his efforts to those of the ladies whom I have mentioned, and
when their plans were made known to me Mr. Garrison not only had the
route mapped out, but had, I believe, selected the steamer upon which we
were to sail.

The whole thing was so sudden and so unexpected that I was completely
taken off my feet. I had been at work steadily for eighteen years in
connection with Tuskegee, and I had never thought of anything else but
ending my life in that way. Each day the school seemed to depend upon
me more largely for its daily expenses, and I told these Boston friends
that, while I thanked them sincerely for their thoughtfulness and
gener