dgment than to my
own activity. Whatever I have been able to do myself here in Mississippi
for my people has been due, first, to the teachings of my mother, and,
second, to the all-important life-example and matchless teachings of
Booker T. Washington.

III

A LAWYER'S STORY

BY GEORGE W. LOVEJOY

I can give no accurate date as to my birth, as my mother was a slave and
thus it was not recorded, but I think I was born in the month of
February, 1859. I was born in Coosa, one of the middle counties of
Alabama.

I am the third child and the second son of eleven children, seven of
whom are still living.

My father I do not remember, as he died when I was very young, but I
most vividly remember my stepfather, the only father I ever knew.

Childhood to me was not that long season of "painless play" of which
Whittier so beautifully sings, but I do remember that I was early
impressed that my feet must have been made for the express purpose of
treading "the mills of toil." When seven years of age my stepfather put
a hoe in my little hands and bade me go and help my mother weed the
cotton-patch, and from that day to the present time I have been
constant in my application to some form of labor.

When my mind reverts to that early period of my life I become my own
photographer and get various pictures of myself, either as picking,
hoeing, or planting cotton, of pulling fodder or splitting rails, for
these were the things I did from childhood to manhood.

My stepfather had been the foreman, or "driver," for his master when he
was a slave, and I am persuaded to believe that he must have been an
excellent one, for I can not remember in all my life when a day's work
had been so full, so complete, so well done, that he would not press for
a little more the next day.

Mortgaging of crops was then in vogue, as it is to-day, and my mind
revolts when I think of how my young life and the lives of my mother,
sisters, and brothers were burdened with the constant grind of trying to
eke out a living and, if possible, get even a little ahead.

Some years, when conditions had been favorable, we were able to clear
ourselves of debt and begin anew. But, seemingly, this prosperity was
not for us, for these years of plenty were almost invariably followed by
one or two less fruitful ones that came and "swallowed up the whole,"
leaving us as forlorn and as wretchedly poor as we were before. This
failure of the crops because of drou