Negro or
"Jim Crow" compartment is usually half of the baggage car which is
usually inadequate for the traffic, badly lighted, badly ventilated,
and dirty. The newsdealer of the train uses this coach and increases
the congestion by spreading his wares over several seats. White men
frequently enter this compartment to buy papers and almost always
smoke in it, thus requiring the colored women to ride in what is
virtually a smoker. Aside from these matters the Negroes rarely have
through cars and no sleeping, parlor, or buffet cars, and frequently
no means of securing food on long journeys since many if not most of
the station restaurants refuse to serve them.

In the _Century_ article Mr. Washington thus quoted the experience of
a sensible and conservative Negro friend of his from Austin, Texas--a
man of education and good reputation among both races in his native
city: "At one time," he said, in describing some of his travelling
experiences, "I got off at a station almost starved. I begged the
keeper of the restaurant to sell me a lunch in a paper and hand it out
of the window. He refused, and I had to travel a hundred miles farther
before I could get a sandwich. At another time I went to a station to
purchase my ticket. I was there thirty minutes before the ticket
office was opened. When it did finally open I at once appeared at the
window. While the ticket agent served the white people at one window,
I remained waiting at the other until the train pulled out. I was
compelled to jump aboard the train without my ticket and wire back to
get my trunk expressed. Considering the temper of the people, the
separate coach law may be the wisest plan for the South, but the
statement that the two races have equal accommodations is all bosh. I
pay the same money, but I cannot have a chair or a lavatory, and
rarely a through car. I must crawl out at all times of night, and in
all kinds of weather, in order to catch another dirty 'Jim Crow' coach
to make my connections. I do not ask to ride with white people. I do
ask for equal accommodations for the same money."

Booker Washington was of course obliged to travel in the South almost
constantly and to a great extent at night. He nearly always travelled
on a Pullman car, and so when not an interstate passenger usually
"violated" the law of whatever State he happened to be passing
through. The conductors, brakemen, and other trainmen, as a rule,
treated him with great respect and con