ed with
laughing, jesting, and such like divertisements, which, like second
courses, serve for the promoting of digestion? And as to all those
shoeing-horns of drunkenness, the keeping every one his man, the
throwing high jinks, the filling of bumpers, the drinking two in a
hand, the beginning of mistresses' healths; and then the roaring
out of drunken catches, the calling in a fiddler, the leading out
every one his lady to dance, and such like riotous pastimes--these
were not taught or dictated by any of the wise men of Greece, but
of Gotham rather, being my invention, and by me prescribed as the
best preservative of health: each of which, the more ridiculous it
is, the more welcome it finds. And indeed, to jog sleepingly
through the world, in a dumpish, melancholy posture, can not
properly be said to live.

[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON]

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

There is something in human nature which always makes people reward
merit, no matter under what color of skin merit is found. I have
found, too, that it is the visible, the tangible, that goes a long
way in softening prejudices. The actual sight of a good house that
a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion
about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. The
individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in
the end, make his way regardless of his race.

--_Booker T. Washington_

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

This is a story about a Negro. The story has the peculiarity of being
true. The man was born a slave in Virginia. His mother was a slave, and
was thrice sold in the market-place. This man is Booker T. Washington.

The name Booker was a fanciful one given to the lad by playmates on
account of his love for a certain chance dog-eared spelling-book. Before
this he was only Mammy's Pet. The T. stood for nothing, but later a
happy thought made it Taliaferro.

Most Negroes, fresh from slavery, stood sponsor to themselves, and chose
the name Washington; if not this, then Lincoln, Clay or Webster.

This lad when but a child, being suddenly asked for his name, exclaimed,
"Washington," and stuck to it.

The father of this boy was a white man; but children always take the
status of the mother, so Booker T. Washington is a Negro, and proud of
it, as he should be, for he is standard by pe