ow. As I turned I
saw a small white child, poorly clad, being thrust upon the end of the
flower-laden platform. Then followed an old white man, collarless,
wearing a dingy blue shirt and a coat somewhat tattered. After him
came two strapping fellows, apparently his sons. All grouped
themselves there and listened eagerly, freely spitting their tobacco
juice on the platform steps and on the floor.

"How thankful would Dr. Washington have been for their presence. What
a triumph! Ten years ago those men would not stop at the school. They
cursed it, cursed the whole system and the man at the head of it. But
quietly, persistently, he had gone on with that everlasting doctrine
that service can win even the meanest heart, that an institution had
the right to survive in just so far as it dovetailed its life into the
life of all the people. Beautiful to behold, to remember forever;
there was no race and no class in the Tuskegee chapel on Wednesday
morning, November 17th; heart went out to heart that a common friend
had gone.

"Broken as everybody is over the loss, no one is afraid. No panic as
to the future of the school disturbs the breasts of the 190 odd
teachers here. In the first place, poor as most of us are, we are
ready to suffer many a privation before we see the institution slip
back the slightest fraction of an inch. All these years it has been on
trial, on record. It has been a test, not of a mere school, but of a
race. A tacit pledge--not a word has thus far been spoken--has gone
out among us that it shall remain on record, that it shall stand here
as a breathing evidence that Negroes can bring things to pass.

"Back of this is the unshaken faith in our Board of Trustees. I doubt
if such another board exists. It is made up of white men and black
men, of men of the North and men of the South. There is not a
figurehead among them. Though intensely engaged they go into the
details of the workings of the school, getting close to the inner
workings and to the lives of the teachers and students.

"Finally, we are confident that the public will have a good deal to
say before Tuskegee is let die. The beaten path has been made to her
door. Her methods have not only been commended but adopted wholly or
in part both in this country and in other lands. Her use is
undisputed. She takes students almost literally out of the gutter,
puts them on their feet, and sends them out honest, peaceful, useful
citizens. This is the ideal