cracking a smile.

When the Englishman takes you into his heart and friendship, he binds
you there as with cords of steel, and I do not believe that there are
many other friendships that are so lasting or so satisfactory. Perhaps
I can illustrate this point in no better way than by relating the
following incident. Mrs. Washington and I were invited to attend a
reception given by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, at Stafford
House--said to be the finest house in London; I may add that I believe
the Duchess of Sutherland is said to be the most beautiful woman in
England. There must have been at least three hundred persons at this
reception. Twice during the evening the Duchess sought us out for a
conversation, and she asked me to write her when we got home, and tell
her more about the work at Tuskegee. This I did. When Christmas came
we were surprised and delighted to receive her photograph with her
autograph on it. The correspondence has continued, and we now feel that
in the Duchess of Sutherland we have one of our warmest friends.

After three months in Europe we sailed from Southampton in the steamship
St. Louis. On this steamer there was a fine library that had been
presented to the ship by the citizens of St. Louis, Mo. In this library
I found a life of Frederick Douglass, which I began reading. I became
especially interested in Mr. Douglass's description of the way he was
treated on shipboard during his first or second visit to England. In
this description he told how he was not permitted to enter the cabin,
but had to confine himself to the deck of the ship. A few minutes after
I had finished reading this description I was waited on by a committee
of ladies and gentlemen with the request that I deliver an address at
a concert which was to begin the following evening. And yet there are
people who are bold enough to say that race feeling in America is not
growing less intense! At this concert the Hon. Benjamin B. Odell, Jr.,
the present governor of New York, presided. I was never given a more
cordial hearing anywhere. A large proportion of the passengers were
Southern people. After the concert some of the passengers proposed that
a subscription be raised to help the work at Tuskegee, and the money to
support several scholarships was the result.

While we were in Paris I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the
following invitation from the citizens of West Virginia and of the city
near which I had spent my b