l began in September, but I
determined to be present at the opening of the school year. I was then a
boy wearing short trousers, but I immediately set about preparing to
deliver a "lecture" to help raise funds for my trip. With a knowledge of
the subject, and an assurance which I have never since assumed, I spoke
to a large audience in Vicksburg on the question, Will America Absorb
the Negro? I settled the question then and there to my own satisfaction,
even if I did not convince the nation that my affirmative conclusion was
rational. The "lecture" netted me my fare to Tuskegee, with a few
dollars over, and brought me from Rev. O. P. Ross, pastor of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Vicksburg, the offer of a scholarship at
Wilberforce College at the expense of his church. I respectfully
declined the offer, feeling that I did not want to bind myself to any
particular denomination by accepting so great a gift; but I have always
felt very kindly toward that church ever since.

My first glimpse of Mr. Washington was had in the depot in Montgomery,
Ala., where a friend and I, on our way to Tuskegee, had changed cars for
the Tuskegee train. Two gentlemen came into the waiting-room where we
were seated, one a man of splendid appearance and address, the other a
most ordinary appearing individual, we thought. The latter, addressing
us, inquired our destination. Upon being told that we were going to
Tuskegee, he remarked that he had heard that Tuskegee was a very hard
place--a place where students were given too much work to do, and where
the food was very simple and coarse. He was afraid we would not stay
there three months. We assured him that we were not afraid of hard work,
and meant to finish the course of study at Tuskegee at all hazards. He
then left us. Very soon after, the gentleman who had so favorably
impressed us, and whom we afterward found to be the capable treasurer of
the Tuskegee Institute, Mr. Warren Logan, came back and told us that our
interlocutor was none other than the President of the school to which we
were going.

Arriving at Tuskegee, I found what it meant to be in a school without a
penny, without assurance of help from the outside, and wholly dependent
upon one's own resources and labor; and I found further that in the
severe, trying process through which Mr. John H. Washington,
superintendent of industries, brother of Mr. Booker T. Washington, and
familiarly though very respectfully known to