Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0010/00101.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00101}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Chapter IV. Helping Others}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Washington, Booker T.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{hampton
money
home
time
work
year
school
first
end
few}
$Date{1902}
$Log{}
Title:       Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Author:      Washington, Booker T.
Date:        1902

Chapter IV. Helping Others

     At the end of my first year at Hampton I was confronted with another
difficulty.  Most of the students went home to spend their vacation.  I had no
money with which to go home, but I had to go somewhere.  In those days very
few students were permitted to remain at the school during vacation.  It made
me feel very sad and homesick to see the other students preparing to leave and
starting for home.  I not only had no money with which to go home, but I had
none with which to go anywhere.

     In some way, however, I had gotten hold of an extra, second-hand coat
which I thought was a pretty valuable coat.  This I decided to sell, in order
to get a little money for travelling expenses.  I had a good deal of boyish
pride, and I tried to hide, as far as I could, from the other students the
fact that I had no money and nowhere to go.  I made it known to a few people
in the town of Hampton that I had this coat to sell, and, after a good deal of
persuading, one coloured man promised to come to my room to look the coat over
and consider the matter of buying it.  This cheered my drooping spirits
considerably.  Early the next morning my prospective customer appeared.  After
looking the garment over carefully, he asked me how much I wanted for it.  I
told him I thought it was worth three dollars.  He seemed to agree with me as
to price, but remarked in the most matter-of-fact way: "I tell you what I will
do; I will take the coat, and I will pay you five cents, cash down, and pay
you the rest of the money just as soon as I can get it." It is not hard to
imagine what my feelings were at the time.

     With this disappointment I gave up all hope of getting out of the town of
Hampton for my vacation work.  I wanted very much to go where I might secure
work that would at least pay me enough to purchase some much-needed clothing
and other necessities.  In a few days practically all the students and
teachers had left for their homes, and this served to depress my spirits even
more.

     After trying for several days in and near the town of Hampton, I finally
secured work in a restaurant at Fortress Monroe.  The wages, however, were
very little more than my board.  At night, and between meals, I found
considerable time for study and reading; and in this direction I improved
myself very much during the summer.

     When I left school at the end of my first year, I owed the institution
sixteen dollars that I had not been able to work out.  It was my greatest
ambition during the summer to save money enough with which to pay this debt. I
felt that this was a debt of honour, and that I could hardly bring myself to
the point of even trying to enter school again till it was paid.  I economized
in every way that I could think of - did my own washing, and went without
necessary garments - but still I found my summer vacation ending and I did not
have the sixteen dollars.

     One day, during the last week of my stay in the restaurant, I found under
one of the tables a crisp, new ten-dollar bill.  I could hardly contain
myself, I was so happy.  As it was not my place of business I felt it to be
the proper thing to show the money to the proprietor.  This I did.  He seemed
as glad as I was, but he coolly explained to me that, as it was his place of
business, he had a right to keep the money, and he proceeded to do so.  This,
I confess, was another pretty hard blow to me.  I will not say that I became
discouraged, for as I now look back over my life I do not recall that I ever
became discouraged over anything that I set out to accomplish.  I have begun
everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience
with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot
succeed.  I have always had a high regard for the man who could tell me how to
succeed.  I determined to face the situation just as it was.  At the end of
the week I went to the treasurer of the Hampton Institute, General J. F. B.
Marshall, and told him frankly my condition.  To my gratification he told me
that I could reenter the institution, and that he would trust me to pay the
debt when I could.  During the second year I continued to work as a janitor.

     The education that I received at Hampton out of the text-books was but a
small part of what I learned there.  One of the things that impressed itself
upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the teachers.  It
was hard for me to understand how any individuals could bring themselves to
the point where they could be so happy in working for others.  Before the end
of the year, I think I began learning that those who are happiest are those
who do the most for others.  This lesson I have tried to carry with me ever
since.

     I also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming into contact with
the best breeds of live stock and fowls.  No student, I think, who has had the
opportunity of doing this could go out into the world and content himself with
the poorest grades.

     Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year was an
understanding of the use and value of the Bible.  Miss Nathalie Lord, one of
the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught me how to use and love the Bible.
Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I learned to love
to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which it gives, but on
account of it as literature.  The lessons taught me in this respect took such
a hold upon me that at the present time, when I am at home, no matter how busy
I am, I always make it a rule to read a chapter or a portion of a chapter in
the morning, before beginning the work of the day.

     Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure to
Miss Lord.  When she found out that I had some inclination in this direction,
she gave me private lessons in the matter of breathing, emphasis, and
articulation.  Simply to be able to talk in public for the sake of talking has
never had the least attraction for me.  In fact, I consider that there is
nothing so empty and unsatisfactory as mere abstract public speaking; but from
my early childhood I have had a desire to do something to make the world
better, and then to be able to speak to the world about that thing.

     The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of delight to
me.  These were held on Saturday evening; and during my whole life at Hampton
I do not recall that I missed a single meeting.  I not only attended the
weekly debating society, but was instrumental in organizing an additional
society.  I noticed that between the time when supper was over and the time to
begin evening study there were about twenty minutes which the young men
usually spent in idle gossip.  About twenty of us formed a society for the
purpose of utilizing this time in debate or in practice in public speaking.
Few persons ever derived more happiness or benefit from the use of twenty
minutes of time than we did in this way.

     At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some money sent
me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by a small gift from one of the
teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to return to my home in Malden, West
Virginia, to spend my vacation.  When I reached home I found that the
salt-furnaces were not running, and that the coal-mine was not being operated
on account of the miners being out on a "strike." This was something which, it
seemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or three months ahead in
their savings.  During the strike, of course, they spent all that they had
saved, and would often return to work in debt at the same wages, or would move
to another mine at considerable expense.  In either case, my observations
convinced me that the miners were worse off at the end of a strike.  Before
the days of strikes in that section of the country, I knew miners who had
considerable money in the bank, but as soon as the professional labour
agitators got control, the savings of even the more thrifty ones began
disappearing.

     My mother and the other members of the family were, of course, much
rejoiced to see me and to note the improvement that I had made during my two
years' absence.  The rejoicing on the part of all classes of the coloured
people, and especially the older ones, over my return, was almost pathetic.  I
had to pay a visit to each family and take a meal with each, and at each place
tell the story of my experiences at Hampton.  In addition to this I had to
speak before the church and Sunday-school, and at various other places.  The
thing that I was most in search of, though, work, I could not find.  There was
no work on account of the strike.  I spent nearly the whole of the first month
of my vacation in an effort to find something to do by which I could earn
money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little money to use after
reaching there.

     Toward the end of the first month, I went to a place a considerable
distance from my home, to try to find employment.  I did not succeed, and it
was night before I got started on my return.  When I had gotten within a mile
or so of my home I was so completely tired out that I could not walk any
farther, and I went into an old, abandoned house to spend the remainder of the
night.  About three o'clock in the morning my brother John found me asleep in
this house, and broke to me, as gently as he could, the sad news that our dear
mother had died during the night.

     This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life.  For
several years my mother had not been in good health, but I had no idea, when I
parted from her the previous day, that I should never see her alive again.
Besides that, I had always had an intense desire to be with her when she did
pass away.  One of the chief ambitions which spurred me on at Hampton was that
I might be able to get to be in a position in which I could better make my
mother comfortable and happy.  She had so often expressed the wish that she
might be permitted to live to see her children educated and started out into
the world.

     In a very short time after the death of my mother our little home was in
confusion.  My sister Amanda, although she tried to do the best she could, was
too young to know anything about keeping house, and my stepfather was not able
to hire a housekeeper.  Sometimes we had food cooked for us, and sometimes we
did not.  I remember that more than once a can of tomatoes and some crackers
constituted a meal.  Our clothing went uncared for, and everything about our
home was soon in a tumble-down condition.  It seems to me that this was the
most dismal period of my life.

     My good friend Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always made
me welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this trying
period.  Before the end of the vacation she gave me some work, and this,
together with work in a coal-mine at some distance from my home, enabled me to
earn a little money.

     At one time it looked as if I would have to give up the idea of returning
to Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that I determined not to give
up going back without a struggle.  I was very anxious to secure some clothes
for the winter, but in this I was disappointed, except for a few garments
which my brother John secured for me.  Notwithstanding my need of money and
clothing, I was very happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to pay
my travelling expenses back to Hampton.  Once there, I knew that I could make
myself so useful as a janitor that I could in some way get through the school
year.

     Three weeks before the time for the opening of the term at Hampton, I was
pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my good friend Miss Mary F.
Mackie, the lady principal, asking me to return to Hampton two weeks before
the opening of the school, in order that I might assist her in cleaning the
buildings and getting things in order for the new school year.  This was just
the opportunity I wanted.  It gave me a chance to secure a credit in the
treasurer's office.  I started for Hampton at once.

     During these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall never forget.
Miss Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and most cultured families of
the North, and yet for two weeks she worked by my side cleaning windows,
dusting rooms, putting beds in order, and what not.  She felt that things
would not be in condition for the opening of school unless every window-pane
was perfectly clean, and she took the greatest satisfaction in helping to
clean them herself.  The work which I have described she did every year that I
was at Hampton.

     It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her
education and social standing could take such delight in performing such
service, in order to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race.  Ever
since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in the South
which did not teach its students the dignity of labour.

     During my last year at Hampton every minute of my time that was not
occupied with my duties as janitor was devoted to hard study.  I was
determined, if possible, to make such a record in my class as would cause me
to be placed on the "honour roll" of Commencement speakers.  This I was
successful in doing.  It was June of 1875 when I finished the regular course
of study at Hampton.  The greatest benefits that I got out of my life at the
Hampton Institute, perhaps, may be classified under two heads: -

     First was contact with a great man, General S. C. Armstrong, who, I
repeat, was, in my opinion, the rarest, strongest, and most beautiful
character that it has ever been my privilege to meet.

     Second, at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what education was
expected to do for an individual.  Before going there I had a good deal of the
then rather prevalent idea among our people that to secure an education meant
to have a good, easy time, free from all necessity for manual labour.  At
Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned
to love labour, not alone, for its financial value, but for labour's own sake
and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something
which the world wants done brings.  At that institution I got my first taste
of what it meant to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the
fact that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others
useful and happy.

     I was completely out of money when I graduated.  In company with other
Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel in
Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get there.  I
had not been in this hotel long before I found out that I knew practically
nothing about waiting on a hotel table.  The head waiter, however, supposed
that I was an accomplished waiter.  He soon gave me charge of a table at which
there sat four of five wealthy and rather aristocratic people.  My ignorance
of how to wait upon them was so apparent that they scolded me in such a severe
manner that I became frightened and left their table, leaving them sitting
there without food.  As a result of this I was reduced from the position of
waiter to that of a dish carrier.

     But I determined to learn the business of waiting, and did so within a
few weeks and was restored to my former position.  I have had the satisfaction
of being a guest in this hotel several times since I was a waiter there.

     At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden,
and was elected to teach the coloured school at that place.  This was the
beginning of one of the happiest periods of my life.  I now felt that I had
the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life.  I felt
from the first that mere book education was not all that the young people of
that town needed.  I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, as a
rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night.  In addition to the usual
routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to comb their hair, and to keep their
hands and faces clean, as well as their clothing.  I gave special attention to
teaching them the proper use of the tooth-brush and the bath.  In all my
teaching I have watched carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I am
convinced that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more
far-reaching.

     There were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, as well as
men and women, who had to work in the daytime but still were craving an
opportunity for some education, that I soon opened a night-school.  From the
first, this was crowded every night, being about as large as the school that I
taught in the day.  The efforts of some of the men and women, who in many
cases were over fifty years of age, to learn, were in some cases very
pathetic.

     My day and night school work was not all that I undertook.  I established
a small reading-room and a debating society.  On Sundays I taught two
Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden in the afternoon, and the other in
the morning at a place three miles distant from Malden.  In addition to this,
I gave private lessons to several young men whom I was fitting to send to the
Hampton Institute.  Without regard to pay and with little thought of it, I
taught any one who wanted to learn anything that I could teach him.  I was
supremely happy in the opportunity of being able to assist somebody else.  I
did receive, however, a small salary from the public fund, for my work as
public school teacher.

     During the time that I was a student at Hampton my older brother, John,
not only assisted me all that he could, but worked all of the time in the
coal-mines in order to support the family.  He willingly neglected his own
education that he might help me.  I was my earnest wish to help him to prepare
to enter Hampton, and to save money to assist him in his expenses there.  Both
of these objects I was successful in accomplishing.  In three years my brother
finished the course at Hampton, and he is now holding the important position
of Superintendent of Industries at Tuskegee.  When he returned from Hampton,
we both combined our efforts and savings to send our adopted brother, James,
through the Hampton Institute.  This we succeeded in doing, and he is now the
postmaster at the Tuskegee Institute.  The year 1877, which was my second year
of teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did the first.

     It was while my home was at Malden that what was known as the "Ku Klux
Klan" was in the height of its activity.  The "Ku Klux" were bands of men who
had joined themselves together for the purpose of regulating the conduct of
the coloured people, especially with the object of preventing the members of
the race from exercising any influence in politics.  They corresponded
somewhat to the "patrollers" of whom I used to hear a great deal during the
days of slavery, when I was a small boy.  The "patrollers" were bands of white
men - usually young men - who were organized largely for the purpose of
regulating the conduct of the slaves at night in such matters as preventing
the slaves from going from one plantation to another without passes, and for
preventing them from holding any kind of meetings without permission and
without the presence at these meetings of at least one white man.

     Like the "patrollers" the "Ku Klux" operated almost wholly at night. They
were, however, more cruel than the "patrollers." Their objects, in the main,
were to crush out the political aspirations of the Negroes, but they did not
confine themselves to this, because schoolhouses as well as churches were
burned by them, and many innocent persons were made to suffer.  During this
period not a few coloured people lost their lives.

     As a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a great impression
upon me.  I saw one open battle take place at Malden between some of the
coloured and white people.  There must have been not far from a hundred
persons engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured, among
them being General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola Ruffner.
General Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and for this he was
knocked down and so seriously wounded that he never completely recovered.  It
seemed to me as I watched this struggle between members of the two races, that
there was no hope for our people in this country.  The "Ku Klux" period was, I
think, the darkest part of the Reconstruction days.

     I have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of the South
simply for the purpose of calling attention to the great change that has taken
place since the days of the "Ku Klux." To-day there are no such organizations
in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is almost forgotten by both
races.  There are few places in the South now where public sentiment would
permit such organizations to exist.