trip. On the conclusion of the
tour one paper said, "No more popular man ever came into the State,
white or black, and no man ever spoke to larger audiences than he did.
He is the only speaker who ever filled the Jackson, Miss., Coliseum."

Only six months before his death Booker Washington made a similar tour
through Louisiana. Louisiana has always been reputed to be in the same
category as Mississippi in opposing Negro progress. To some of his
audiences Mr. Washington said that he and his party of twenty-five
colored men had felt before they started very much like the little
girl who was about to go on a trip to Louisiana with her parents. The
night before they started she said her prayer as usual:

"_Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take._"

With a deep sigh she then added, "Good-bye, Lord, for two weeks. We
are going down to Louisiana."

In introducing Mr. Washington to a great audience in New Orleans, made
up of both races, Mayor Berhman said, turning to Booker Washington:

"The work you are doing for the uplift of your people means untold
good to the great State of Louisiana and to the whole country. Nowhere
has your race greater opportunities than in Louisiana. If the people
of the Negro race will follow your teachings, they will help
materially to bring about a condition that will mean much for
Louisiana, the South, and the nation."

At Shreveport former Governor N.C. Blanchard, in introducing Dr.
Washington to an audience of over 10,000 white and colored citizens,
said: "I am glad to see this goodly attendance of white people,
representative white people at that, for his Honor, the Mayor, is
here, and with him are members and officials of the city government
and other prominent citizens of our community. They are here to give
encouragement to Mr. Washington, to hold up his hands, for they know
that he is leading his people along right lines--lines tending to
promote better feeling and better understanding between the two
races....

"Our country needs to have white and black people, sober, honest,
frugal, and thrifty. Booker T. Washington stands for these things. He
advises and counsels and leads toward these goals. Hear him and heed
his words."

At the invitation of Superintendent Gwinn the colored school children
of New Orleans were given a half-holiday to hear Dr. Washington. He
addressed them