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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 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 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 to 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 "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 the 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 my 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 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 in 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 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
our 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 the table at
which their sat four or 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 and still
were craving an opportunity for an 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 a 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. It
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 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.
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