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Chapter XV. The Secret Of Success In Public Speaking
As to how my address at Atlanta was received by the audience in
the Exposition building, I think I prefer to let Mr. James
Creelman, the noted war correspondent, tell. Mr. Creelman was
present, and telegraphed the following account to the New York
World:--
Atlanta, September 18.
While President Cleveland was waiting at Gray Gables to-day, to
send the electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta
Exposition, a Negro Moses stood before a great audience of white
people and delivered an oration that marks a new epoch in the
history of the South; and a body of Negro troops marched in a
procession with the citizen soldiery of Georgia and Louisiana.
The whole city is thrilling to-night with a realization of the
extraordinary significance of these two unprecedented events.
Nothing has happened since Henry Grady's immortal speech before
the New England society in New York that indicates so profoundly
the spirit of the New South, except, perhaps, the opening of the
Exposition itself.
When Professor Booker T. Washington, Principal of an industrial
school for coloured people in Tuskegee, Ala. stood on the
platform of the Auditorium, with the sun shining over the heads
of his auditors into his eyes, and with his whole face lit up
with the fire of prophecy, Clark Howell, the successor of Henry
Grady, said to me, "That man's speech is the beginning of a moral
revolution in America."
It is the first time that a Negro has made a speech in the South
on any important occasion before an audience composed of white
men and women. It electrified the audience, and the response was
as if it had come from the throat of a whirlwind.
Mrs. Thompson had hardly taken her seat when all eyes were turned
on a tall tawny Negro sitting in the front row of the platform.
It was Professor Booker T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee
(Alabama) Normal and Industrial Institute, who must rank from
this time forth as the foremost man of his race in America.
Gilmore's Band played the "Star-Spangled Banner," and the
audience cheered. The tune changed to "Dixie" and the audience
roared with shrill "hi-yis." Again the music changed, this time
to "Yankee Doodle," and the clamour lessened.
All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked straight
at the Negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man
was to speak for his people, with none to interrupt him. As
Professor Washington strode to the edge of the stage, the low,
descending sun shot fiery rays through the windows into his
face. A great shout greeted him. He turned his head to avoid the
blinding light, and moved about the platform for relief. Then he
turned his wonderful countenance to the sun without a blink of
the eyelids, and began to talk.
There was a remarkable figure; tall, bony, straight as a Sioux
chief, high forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong,
determined mouth, with big white teeth, piercing eyes, and a
commanding manner. The sinews stood out on his bronzed neck, and
his muscular right arm swung high in the air, with a lead-pencil
grasped in the clinched brown fist. His big feet were planted
squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned out. His
voice range out clear and true, and he paused impressively as he
made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an
uproar of enthusiasm--handkerchiefs were waved, canes were
flourished, hats were tossed in the air. The fairest women of
Georgia stood up and cheered. It was as if the orator had
bewitched them.
And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with the
fingers stretched wide apart, and said to the white people of the
South on behalf of his race, "In all things that are purely
social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand
in all things essential to mutual progress," the great wave of
sound
dashed itself against the walls, and the whole audience was on
its feet in a delirium of applause, and I thought at that moment
of the night when Henry Grady stood among the curling wreaths of
tobacco-smoke in Delmonico's banquet-hall and said, "I am a
Cavalier among Roundheads."
I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not even
Gladstone himself could have pleased a cause with most consummate
power than did this angular Negro, standing in a nimbus of
sunshine, surrounded by the men who once fought to keep his race
in bondage. The roar might swell ever so high, but the expression
of his earnest face never changed.
A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of the
aisles, watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face
until the supreme burst of applause came, and then the tears ran
down his face. Most of the Negroes in the audience were crying,
perhaps without knowing just why.
At the close of the speech Governor Bullock rushed across the
stage and seized the orator's hand. Another shout greeted this
demonstration, and for a few minutes the two men stood facing
each other, hand in hand.
So far as I could spare the time from the immediate work at
Tuskegee, after my Atlanta address, I accepted some of the
invitations to speak in public which came to me, especially those
that would take me into territory where I thought it would pay to
plead the cause of my race, but I always did this with the
understanding that I was to be free to talk about my life-work
and the needs of my people. I also had it understood that I was
not to speak in the capacity of a professional lecturer, or for
mere commercial gain.
In my efforts on the public platform I never have been able to
understand why people come to hear me speak. This question I
never can rid myself of. Time and time again, as I have stood in
the street in front of a building and have seen men and women
passing in large numbers into the audience room where I was to
speak, I have felt ashamed that I should be the cause of
people--as it seemed to me--wasting a valuable hour of their
time. Some years ago I was to deliver an address before a
literary society in Madison, Wis. An hour before the time set for
me to speak, a fierce snow-storm began, and continued for several
hours. I made up my mind that there would be no audience, and
that I should not have to speak, but, as a matter of duty, I went
to the church, and found it packed with people. The surprise gave
me a shock that I did not recover from during the whole evening.
People often ask me if I feel nervous before speaking, or else
they suggest that, since I speak often, they suppose that I get
used to it. In answer to this question I have to say that I
always suffer intensely from nervousness before speaking. More
than once, just before I was to make an important address, this
nervous strain has been so great that I have resolved never again
to speak in public. I not only feel nervous before speaking, but
after I have finished I usually feel a sense of regret, because
it seems to me as if I had left out of my address the main thing
and the best thing that I had meant to say.
There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary
nervous suffering, that comes to me after I have been speaking
for about ten minutes, and have come to feel that I have really
mastered my audience, and that we have gotten into full and
complete sympathy with each other. It seems to me that there is
rarely such a combination of mental and physical delight in any
effort as that which comes to a public speaker when he feels that
he has a great audience completely within his control. There is a
thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a public speaker
with his audience, that is just as strong as though it was
something tangible and visible. If in an audience of a thousand
people there is one person who is not in sympathy with my views,
or is inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him
out. When I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it
is a great satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out.
I find that the most effective medicine for such individuals is
administered at first in the form of a story, although I never
tell an anecdote simply for the sake of telling one. That kind of
thing, I think, is empty and hollow, and an audience soon finds
it out.
I believe that one always does himself and his audience an
injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do
not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart,
he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver. When one
feels, from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, that
he has something to say that is going to help some individual or
some cause, then let him say it; and in delivering his message I
do not believe that many of the artificial rules of elocution
can, under such circumstances, help him very much. Although there
are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch of
voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place
of soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like
to forget all about the rules for the proper use of the English
language, and all about rhetoric and that sort of thing, and I
like to make the audience forget all about these things, too.
Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am
speaking, as to have some one leave the room. To prevent this, I
make up my mind, as a rule, that I will try to make my address so
interesting, will try to state so many interesting facts one
after another, that no one can leave. The average audience, I
have come to believe, wants facts rather than generalities or
sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw proper
conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on
which to base them.
As to the kind of audience that I like best to talk to, I would
put at the top of the list an organization of strong, wide-awake,
business men, such, for example, as is found in Boston, New York,
Chicago, and Buffalo. I have found no other audience so quick to
see a point, and so responsive. Within the last few years I have
had the privilege of speaking before most of the leading
organizations of this kind in the large cities of the United
States. The best time to get hold of an organization of business
men is after a good dinner, although I think that one of the
worst instruments of torture that was ever invented is the custom
which makes it necessary for a speaker to sit through a
fourteen-course dinner, every minute of the time feeling sure
that his speech is going to prove a dismal failure and
disappointment.
I rarely take part in one of these long dinners that I do not
wish that I could put myself back in the little cabin where I was
a slave boy, and again go through the experience there--one that
I shall never forget--of getting molasses to eat once a week from
the "big house." Our usual diet on the plantation was corn bread
and pork, but on Sunday morning my mother was permitted to bring
down a little molasses from the "big house" for her three
children, and when it was received how I did wish that every day
was Sunday! I would get my tin plate and hold it up for the sweet
morsel, but I would always shut my eyes while the molasses was
being poured out into the plate, with the hope that when I opened
them I would be surprised to see how much I had got. When I
opened my eyes I would tip the plate in one direction and
another, so as to make the molasses spread all over it, in the
full belief that there would be more of it and that it would last
longer if spread out in this way. So strong are my childish
impressions of those Sunday morning feasts that it would be
pretty hard for any one to convince me that there is not more
molasses on a plate when it is spread all over the plate than
when it occupies a little corner--if there is a corner in a
plate. At any rate, I have never believed in "cornering" syrup.
My share of the syrup was usually about two tablespoonfuls, and
those two spoonfuls of molasses were much more enjoyable to me
than is a fourteen-course dinner after which I am to speak.
Next to a company of business men, I prefer to speak to an
audience of Southern people, of either race, together or taken
separately. Their enthusiasm and responsiveness are a constant
delight. The "amens" and "dat's de truf" that come spontaneously
from the coloured individuals are calculated to spur any speaker
on to his best efforts. I think that next in order of preference
I would place a college audience. It has been my privilege to
deliver addresses at many of our leading colleges including
Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, Fisk University, the University
of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, the University of Michigan, Trinity
College in North Carolina, and many others.
It has been a matter of deep interest to me to note the number of
people who have come to shake hands with me after an address, who
say that this is the first time they have ever called a Negro
"Mister."
When speaking directly in the interests of the Tuskegee
Institute, I usually arrange, some time in advance, a series of
meetings in important centres. This takes me before churches,
Sunday-schools, Christian Endeavour Societies, and men's and
women's clubs. When doing this I sometimes speak before as many
as four organizations in a single day.
Three years ago, at the suggestion of Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of
New York, and Dr. J.L.M. Curry, the general agent of the fund,
the trustees of the John F. Slater Fund voted a sum of money to
be used in paying the expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself
while holding a series of meetings among the coloured people in
the large centres of Negro population, especially in the large
cities of the ex-slaveholding states. Each year during the last
three years we have devoted some weeks to this work. The plan
that we have followed has been for me to speak in the morning to
the ministers, teachers, and professional men. In the afternoon
Mrs. Washington would speak to the women alone, and in the
evening I spoke to a large mass-meeting. In almost every case the
meetings have been attended not only by the coloured people in
large numbers, but by the white people. In Chattanooga, Tenn.,
for example, there was present at the mass-meeting an audience of
not less than three thousand persons, and I was informed that
eight hundred of these were white. I have done no work that I
really enjoyed more than this, or that I think has accomplished
more good.
These meetings have given Mrs. Washington and myself an
opportunity to get first-hand, accurate information as to the
real condition of the race, by seeing the people in their homes,
their churches, their Sunday-schools, and their places of work,
as well as in the prisons and dens of crime. These meetings also
gave us an opportunity to see the relations that exist between
the races. I never feel so hopeful about the race as I do after
being engaged in a series of these meetings. I know that on such
occasions there is much that comes to the surface that is
superficial and deceptive, but I have had experience enough not
to be deceived by mere signs and fleeting enthusiasms. I have
taken pains to go to the bottom of things and get facts, in a
cold, business-like manner.
I have seen the statement made lately, by one who claims to know
what he is talking about, that, taking the whole Negro race into
account, ninety per cent of the Negro women are not virtuous.
There never was a baser falsehood uttered concerning a race, or a
statement made that was less capable of being proved by actual
facts.
No one can come into contact with the race for twenty years, as I
have done in the heart of the South, without being convinced that
the race is constantly making slow but sure progress materially,
educationally, and morally. One might take up the life of the
worst element in New York City, for example, and prove almost
anything he wanted to prove concerning the white man, but all
will agree that this is not a fair test.
Early in the year 1897 I received a letter inviting me to deliver
an address at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw monument in
Boston. I accepted the invitation. It is not necessary for me, I
am sure, to explain who Robert Gould Shaw was, and what he did.
The monument to his memory stands near the head of the Boston
Common, facing the State House. It is counted to be the most
perfect piece of art of the kind to be found in the country.
The exercises connected with the dedication were held in Music
Hall, in Boston, and the great hall was packed from top to bottom
with one of the most distinguished audiences that ever assembled
in the city. Among those present were more persons representing
the famous old anti-slavery element that it is likely will ever
be brought together in the country again. The late Hon. Roger
Wolcott, then Governor of Massachusetts, was the presiding
officer, and on the platform with him were many other officials
and hundreds of distinguished men. A report of the meeting which
appeared in the Boston Transcript will describe it better than
any words of mine could do:--
The core and kernel of yesterday's great noon meeting, in honour
of the Brotherhood of Man, in Music Hall, was the superb address
of the Negro President of Tuskegee. "Booker T. Washington
received his Harvard A.M. last June, the first of his race," said
Governor Wolcott, "to receive an honorary degree from the oldest
university in the land, and this for the wise leadership of his
people." When Mr. Washington rose in the flag-filled,
enthusiasm-warmed, patriotic, and glowing atmosphere of Music
Hall, people felt keenly that here was the civic justification of
the old abolition spirit of Massachusetts; in his person the
proof of her ancient and indomitable faith; in his strong through
and rich oratory, the crown and glory of the old war days of
suffering and strife. The scene was full of historic beauty and
deep significance. "Cold" Boston was alive with the fire that is
always hot in her heart for righteousness and truth. Rows and
rows of people who are seldom seen at any public function, whole
families of those who are certain to be out of town on a holiday,
crowded the place to overflowing. The city was at her birthright
fete in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens, men and
women whose names and lives stand for the virtues that make for
honourable civic pride.
Battle-music had filled the air. Ovation after ovation, applause
warm and prolonged, had greeted the officers and friends of
Colonel Shaw, the sculptor, St. Gaudens, the memorial Committee,
the Governor and his staff, and the Negro soldiers of the
Fifty-fourth Massachusetts as they came upon the platform or
entered the hall. Colonel Henry Lee, of Governor Andrew's old
staff, had made a noble, simple presentation speech for the
committee, paying tribute to Mr. John M. Forbes, in whose stead
he served. Governor Wolcott had made his short, memorable speech,
saying, "Fort Wagner marked an epoch in the history of a race,
and called it into manhood." Mayor Quincy had received the
monument for the city of Boston. The story of Colonel Shaw and
his black regiment had been told in gallant words, and then,
after the singing of
Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord,
Booker Washington arose. It was, of course, just the moment for
him. The multitude, shaken out of its usual symphony-concert
calm, quivered with an excitement that was not suppressed. A
dozen times it had sprung to its feet to cheer and wave and
hurrah, as one person. When this man of culture and voice and
power, as well as a dark skin, began, and uttered the names of
Stearns and of Andrew, feeling began to mount. You could see
tears glisten in the eyes of soldiers and civilians. When the
orator turned to the coloured soldiers on the platform, to the
colour-bearer of Fort Wagner, who smilingly bore still the flag
he had never lowered even when wounded, and said, "To you, to the
scarred and scattered remnants of the Fifty-fourth, who, with
empty sleeve and wanting leg, have honoured this occasion with
your presence, to you, your commander is not dead. Though Boston
erected no monument and history recorded no story, in you and in
the loyal race which you represent, Robert Gould Shaw would have
a monument which time could not wear away," then came the climax
of the emotion of the day and the hour. It was Roger Wolcott, as
well as the Governor of Massachusetts, the individual
representative of the people's sympathy as well as the chief
magistrate, who had sprung first to his feet and cried, "Three
cheers to Booker T. Washington!"
Among those on the platform was Sergeant William H. Carney, of
New Bedford, Mass., the brave coloured officer who was the
colour-bearer at Fort Wagner and held the American flag. In spite
of the fact that a large part of his regiment was killed, he
escape, and exclaimed, after the battle was over, "The old flag
never touched the ground."
This flag Sergeant Carney held in his hands as he sat on the
platform, and when I turned to address the survivors of the
coloured regiment who were present, and referred to Sergeant
Carney, he rose, as if by instinct, and raised the flag. It has
been my privilege to witness a good many satisfactory and rather
sensational demonstrations in connection with some of my public
addresses, but in dramatic effect I have never seen or
experienced anything which equalled this. For a number of minutes
the audience seemed to entirely lose control of itself.
In the general rejoicing throughout the country which followed
the close of the Spanish-American war, peace celebrations were
arranged in several of the large cities. I was asked by President
William R. Harper, of the University of Chicago, who was chairman
of the committee of invitations for the celebration to be held in
the city of Chicago, to deliver one of the addresses at the
celebration there. I accepted the invitation, and delivered two
addresses there during the Jubilee week. The first of these, and
the principal one, was given in the Auditorium, on the evening of
Sunday, October 16. This was the largest audience that I have
ever addressed, in any part of the country; and besides speaking
in the main Auditorium, I also addressed, that same evening, two
overflow audiences in other parts of the city.
It was said that there were sixteen thousand persons in the
Auditorium, and it seemed to me as if there were as many more on
the outside trying to get in. It was impossible for any one to
get near the entrance without the aid of a policeman. President
William McKinley attended this meeting, as did also the members
of his Cabinet, many foreign ministers, and a large number of
army and navy officers, many of whom had distinguished themselves
in the war which had just closed. The speakers, besides myself,
on Sunday evening, were Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Father Thomas P.
Hodnett, and Dr. John H. Barrows.
The Chicago Times-Herald, in describing the meeting, said of my
address:--
He pictured the Negro choosing slavery rather than extinction;
recalled Crispus Attucks shedding his blood at the beginning of
the American Revolution, that white Americans might be free,
while black Americans remained in slavery; rehearsed the conduct
of the Negroes with Jackson at New Orleans; drew a vivid and
pathetic picture of the Southern slaves protecting and supporting
the families of their masters while the latter were fighting to
perpetuate black slavery; recounted the bravery of coloured
troops at Port Hudson and Forts Wagner and Pillow, and praised
the heroism of the black regiments that stormed El Caney and
Santiago to give freedom to the enslaved people of Cuba,
forgetting, for the time being, the unjust discrimination that
law and custom make against them in their own country.
In all of these things, the speaker declared, his race had chosen
the better part. And then he made his eloquent appeal to the
consciences of the white Americans: "When you have gotten the
full story or the heroic conduct of the Negro in the
Spanish-American war, have heard it from the lips of Northern
soldier and Southern soldier, from ex-abolitionist and
ex-masters, then decide
within yourselves whether a race that is thus willing to die for
its country should not be given the highest opportunity to live
for its country."
The part of the speech which seems to arouse the wildest and most
sensational enthusiasm was that in which I thanked the President
for his recognition of the Negro in his appointments during the
Spanish-American war. The President was sitting in a box at the
right of the stage. When I addressed him I turned toward the box,
and as I finished the sentence thanking him for his generosity,
the whole audience rose and cheered again and again, waving
handkerchiefs and hats and canes, until the President arose in
the box and bowed his acknowledgements. At that the enthusiasm
broke out again, and the demonstration was almost indescribable.
One portion of my address at Chicago seemed to have been
misunderstood by the Southern press, and some of the Southern
papers took occasion to criticise me rather strongly. These
criticisms continued for several weeks, until I finally received
a letter from the editor of the Age-Herald, published in
Birmingham, Ala., asking me if I would say just what I meant by
this part of the address. I replied to him in a letter which
seemed to satisfy my critics. In this letter I said that I had
made it a rule never to say before a Northern audience anything
that I would not say before an audience in the South. I said that
I did not think it was necessary for me to go into extended
explanations; if my seventeen years of work in the heart of the
South had not been explanation enough, I did not see how words
could explain. I said that I made the same plea that I had made
in my address at Atlanta, for the blotting out of race prejudice
in "commercial and civil relations." I said that what is termed
social recognition was a question which I never discussed, and
then I quoted from my Atlanta address what I had said there in
regard to that subject.
In meeting crowds of people at public gatherings, there is one
type of individual that I dread. I mean the crank. I have become
so accustomed to these people now that I can pick them out at a
distance when I see them elbowing their way up to me. The average
crank has a long beard, poorly cared for, a lean, narrow face,
and wears a black coat. The front of his vest and coat are slick
with grease, and his trousers bag at the knees.
In Chicago, after I had spoken at a meeting, I met one of these
fellows. They usually have some process for curing all of the
ills of the world at once. This Chicago specimen had a patent
process by which he said Indian corn could be kept through a
period of three or four years, and he felt sure that if the Negro
race in the South would, as a whole, adopt his process, it would
settle the whole race question. It mattered nothing that I tried
to convince him that our present problem was to teach the Negroes
how to produce enough corn to last them through one year. Another
Chicago crank had a scheme by which he wanted me to join him in
an effort to close up all the National banks in the country. If
that was done, he felt sure it would put the Negro on his feet.
The number of people who stand ready to consume one's time, to no
purpose, is almost countless. At one time I spoke before a large
audience in Boston in the evening. The next morning I was
awakened by having a card brought to my room, and with it a
message that some one was anxious to see me. Thinking that it
must be something very important, I dressed hastily and went
down. When I reached the hotel office I found a blank and
innocent-looking individual waiting for me, who coolly remarked:
"I heard you talk at a meeting last night. I rather liked your
talk, and so I came in this morning to hear you talk some more."
I am often asked how it is possible for me to superintend the
work at Tuskegee and at the same time be so much away from the
school. In partial answer to this I would say that I think I have
learned, in some degree at least, to disregard the old maxim
which says, "Do not get others to do that which you can do
yourself." My motto, on the other hand, is, "Do not do that which
others can do as well."
One of the most encouraging signs in connection with the Tuskegee
school is found in the fact that the organization is so thorough
that the daily work of the school is not dependent upon the
presence of any one individual. The whole executive force,
including instructors and clerks, now numbers eighty-six. This
force is so organized and subdivided that the machinery of the
school goes on day by day like clockwork. Most of our teachers
have been connected with the institutions for a number of years,
and are as much interested in it as I am. In my absence, Mr.
Warren Logan, the treasurer, who has been at the school seventeen
years, is the executive. He is efficiently supported by Mrs.
Washington, and by my faithful secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott,
who handles the bulk of my correspondence and keeps me in daily
touch with the life of the school, and who also keeps me informed
of whatever takes place in the South that concerns the race. I
owe more to his tact, wisdom, and hard work than I can describe.
The main executive work of the school, whether I am at Tuskegee
or not, centres in what we call the executive council. This
council meets twice a week, and is composed of the nine persons
who are at the head of the nine departments of the school. For
example: Mrs. B.K. Bruce, the Lady Principal, the widow of the
late ex-senator Bruce, is a member of the council, and represents
in it all that pertains to the life of the girls at the school.
In addition to the executive council there is a financial
committee of six, that meets every week and decides upon the
expenditures for the week. Once a month, and sometimes oftener,
there is a general meeting of all the instructors. Aside from
these there are innumerable smaller meetings, such as that of the
instructors in the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, or of the
instructors in the agricultural department.
In order that I may keep in constant touch with the life of the
institution, I have a system of reports so arranged that a record
of the school's work reaches me every day of the year, no matter
in what part of the country I am. I know by these reports even
what students are excused from school, and why they are
excused--whether for reasons of ill health or otherwise. Through
the medium of these reports I know each day what the income of
the school in money is; I know how many gallons of milk and how
many pounds of butter come from the diary; what the bill of fare
for the teachers and students is; whether a certain kind of meat
was boiled or baked, and whether certain vegetables served in the
dining room were bought from a store or procured from our own
farm. Human nature I find to be very much the same the world
over, and it is sometimes not hard to yield to the temptation to
go to a barrel of rice that has come from the store--with the
grain all prepared to go in the pot--rather than to take the time
and trouble to go to the field and dig and wash one's own sweet
potatoes, which might be prepared in a manner to take the place
of the rice.
I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part
of which is for the public, I can find time for any rest or
recreation, and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of.
This is rather a difficult question to answer. I have a strong
feeling that every individual owes it to himself, and to the
cause which he is serving, to keep a vigorous, healthy body, with
the nerves steady and strong, prepared for great efforts and
prepared for disappointments and trying positions. As far as I
can, I make it a rule to plan for each day's work--not merely to
go through with the same routine of daily duties, but to get rid
of the routine work as early in the day as possible, and then to
enter upon some new or advance work. I make it a rule to clear my
desk every day, before leaving my office, of all correspondence
and memoranda, so that on the morrow I can begin a NEW day of
work. I make it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so
master it, and keep it in such complete control, and to keep so
far ahead of it, that I will be the master instead of the
servant. There is a physical and mental and spiritual enjoyment
that comes from a consciousness of being the absolute master of
one's work, in all its details, that is very satisfactory and
inspiring. My experience teachers me that, if one learns to
follow this plan, he gets a freshness of body and vigour of mind
out of work that goes a long way toward keeping him strong and
healthy. I believe that when one can grow to the point where he
loves his work, this gives him a kind of strength that is most
valuable.
When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a
successful and pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare
myself for unpleasant and unexpected hard places. I prepared
myself to hear that one of our school buildings is on fire, or
has burned, or that some disagreeable accident has occurred, or
that some one has abused me in a public address or printed
article, for something that I have done or omitted to do, or for
something that he had heard that I had said--probably something
that I had never thought of saying.
In nineteen years of continuous work I have taken but one
vacation. That was two years ago, when some of my friends put the
money into my hands and forced Mrs. Washington and myself to
spend three months in Europe. I have said that I believe it is
the duty of every one to keep his body in good condition. I try
to look after the little ills, with the idea that if I take care
of the little ills the big ones will not come. When I find myself
unable to sleep well, I know that something is wrong. If I find
any part of my system the least weak, and not performing its
duty, I consult a good physician. The ability to sleep well, at
any time and in any place, I find of great advantage. I have so
trained myself that I can lie down for a nap of fifteen or twenty
minutes, and get up refreshed in body and mind.
I have said that I make it a rule to finish up each day's work
before leaving it. There is, perhaps, one exception to this. When
I have an unusually difficult question to decide--one that
appeals strongly to the emotions--I find it a safe rule to sleep
over it for a night, or to wait until I have had an opportunity
to talk it over with my wife and friends.
As to my reading; the most time I get for solid reading is when I
am on the cars. Newspapers are to me a constant source of delight
and recreation. The only trouble is that I read too many of them.
Fiction I care little for. Frequently I have to almost force
myself to read a novel that is on every one's lips. The kind of
reading that I have the greatest fondness for is biography. I
like to be sure that I am reading about a real man or a real
thing. I think I do not go too far when I say that I have read
nearly every book and magazine article that has been written
about Abraham Lincoln. In literature he is my patron saint.
Out of the twelve months in a year I suppose that, on an average,
I spend six months away from Tuskegee. While my being absent from
the school so much unquestionably has its disadvantages, yet
there are at the same time some compensations. The change of work
brings a certain kind of rest. I enjoy a ride of a long distance
on the cars, when I am permitted to ride where I can be
comfortable. I get rest on the cars, except when the inevitable
individual who seems to be on every train approaches me with the
now familiar phrase: "Isn't this Booker Washington? I want to
introduce myself to you." Absence from the school enables me to
lose sight of the unimportant details of the work, and study it
in a broader and more comprehensive manner than I could do on the
grounds. This absence also brings me into contact with the best
work being done in educational lines, and into contact with the
best educators in the land.
But, after all this is said, the time when I get the most solid
rest and recreation is when I can be at Tuskegee, and, after our
evening meal is over, can sit down, as is our custom, with my
wife and Portia and Baker and Davidson, my three children, and
read a story, or each take turns in telling a story. To me there
is nothing on earth equal to that, although what is nearly equal
to it is to go with them for an hour or more, as we like to do on
Sunday afternoons, into the woods, where we can live for a while
near the heart of nature, where no one can disturb or vex us,
surrounded by pure air, the trees, the shrubbery, the flowers,
and the sweet fragrance that springs from a hundred plants,
enjoying the chirp of the crickets and the songs of the birds.
This is solid rest.
My garden, also, what little time I can be at Tuskegee, is
another source of rest and enjoyment. Somehow I like, as often as
possible, to touch nature, not something that is artificial or an
imitation, but the real thing. When I can leave my office in time
so that I can spend thirty or forty minutes in spading the
ground, in planting seeds, in digging about the plants, I feel
that I am coming into contact with something that is giving me
strength for the many duties and hard places that await me out in
the big world. I pity the man or woman who has never learned to
enjoy nature and to get strength and inspiration out of it.
Aside from the large number of fowls and animals kept by the
school, I keep individually a number of pigs and fowls of the
best grades, and in raising these I take a great deal of
pleasure. I think the pig is my favourite animal. Few things are
more satisfactory to me than a high-grade Berkshire or Poland
China pig.
Games I care little for. I have never seen a game of football. In
cards I do not know one card from another. A game of
old-fashioned marbles with my two boys, once in a while, is all I
care for in this direction. I suppose I would care for games now
if I had had any time in my youth to give to them, but that was
not possible.
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