ee Quartet North that summer. It must not be
understood that I was one of the singers; that was not my good fortune.
I was to tell what Tuskegee had done for me and was to show in turn what
I was trying to do for my people. Dr. Washington reasoned in this way I
would have a chance to meet some of the best people of the country and
thereby gain support for my work. There was to be no collection taken
for Snow Hill, but those who became interested would often come up
after the meetings and give me something for my work.

We left Tuskegee about the first of July. We spent most of the month of
July in the southeastern part of Massachusetts, known as the Cape and
South Shore. We had meetings at most of the churches and resorts in that
section. Dr. Washington himself met us at the most prominent places.

In August we came to Boston and from there went up the North Shore. This
was my first visit to Boston and it was here that I met Miss Susan D.
Messinger and her brother William S. Messinger. Their home was at 81
Walnut Avenue, Roxbury, Mass. Miss Messinger had been an abolitionist.
Both she and her brother were deeply interested in the welfare of my
people. They listened attentively to my story and from that day became
my best friends.

Although I have been going North now for twenty years, I have never met
such welcome as was shown me at their home. I think I have never met
such Christ-like people anywhere. It was largely through Miss
Messinger's appeals in the "Transcript" that the people of Boston and
New England learned of our work at the Snow Hill Institute. Through her
appeals from time to time, we raised much money for our school. I
cannot, in words, express the valuable aid these people gave us in our
work. Sometimes when I had worked hard all day with poor results, I
would go to their home in the evening discouraged and low-spirited, but
would always find there a hearty welcome and a word of cheer. I would
always leave with new zeal and fresh courage. Their home has been to me
a home now for twenty years and although they are now dead, I never go
to Boston but that I find time to go out to Mt. Auburn and put a fresh
flower on their graves. The old home is lonely now, but the Messinger
spirit still abides there in the person of Mr. Reed, their nephew. I
still receive from him the hearty welcome and support that they used to
give in days of old.

Another friend whom I met that summer was Mrs. J. S. Howe of Brookline