Chapter IV. Helping Others

by Booker T. Washington

　　At the end of my first year at Hampton I was confronted withanother difficulty. Most of the students went home to spend theirvacation. I had no money with which to go home, but I had to gosomewhere. In those days very few students were permitted toremain at the school during vacation. It made me feel very sadand homesick to see the other students preparing to leave andstarting 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-handcoat which I thought was a pretty valuable coat. This I decidedto 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 asI could, from the other students the fact that I had no money andnowhere to go. I made it known to a few people in the town ofHampton that I had this coat to sell, and, after a good deal ofpersuading, one coloured man promised to come to my room to lookthe coat over and consider the matter of buying it. This cheeredmy drooping spirits considerably. Early the next morning myprospective customer appeared. After looking the garment overcarefully, he asked me how much I wanted for it. I told him Ithought it was worth three dollars. He seemed to agree with me asto price, but remarked in the most matter-of-fact way: "I tellyou what I will do; I will take the coat, and will pay you fivecents, cash down, and pay you the rest of the money just as soonas I can get it." It is not hard to imagine what my feelings wereat the time.With this disappointment I gave up all hope of getting out of thetown of Hampton for my vacation work. I wanted very much to gowhere I might secure work that would at least pay me enough topurchase some much-needed clothing and other necessities. In afew days practically all the students and teachers had left fortheir homes, and this served to depress my spirits even more.After trying for several days in and near the town of Hampton, Ifinally secured work in a restaurant at Fortress Monroe. Thewages, however, were very little more than my board. At night,and between meals, I found considerable time for study andreading; and in this direction I improved myself very much duringthe summer.When I left school at the end of my first year, I owed theinstitution sixteen dollars that I had not been able to work out.It was my greatest ambition during the summer to save moneyenough with which to pay this debt. I felt that this was a debtof honour, and that I could hardly bring myself to the point ofeven trying to enter school again till it was paid. I economizedin every way that I could think of--did my own washing, and wentwithout necessary garments--but still I found my summer vacationending and I did not have the sixteen dollars.One day, during the last week of my stay in the restaurant, Ifound under one of the tables a crisp, new ten-dollar bill. Icould hardly contain myself, I was so happy. As it was not myplace of business I felt it to be the proper thing to show themoney 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 ofbusiness, he had a right to keep the money, and he proceeded todo so. This, I confess, was another pretty hard blow to me. Iwill not say that I became discouraged, for as I now look backover my life I do not recall that I ever became discouraged overanything that I set out to accomplish. I have begun everythingwith the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patiencewith the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain whyone cannot succeed. I determined to face the situation just as itwas. At the end of the week I went to the treasurer of theHampton Institute, General J.F.B. Marshall, and told him franklymy condition. To my gratification he told me that I could reenterthe institution, and that he would trust me to pay the debt whenI could. During the second year I continued to work as a janitor.The education that I received at Hampton out of the text-bookswas but a small part of what I learned there. One of the thingsthat impressed itself upon me deeply, the second year, was theunselfishness of the teachers. It was hard for me to understandhow any individuals could bring themselves to the point wherethey could be so happy in working for others. Before the end ofthe year, I think I began learning that those who are happiestare those who do the most for others. This lesson I have tried tocarry with me ever since.I also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming intocontact with the best breeds of live stock and fowls. No student,I think, who has had the opportunity of doing this could go outinto the world and content himself with the poorest grades.Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second yearwas an understanding of the use and value of the Bible. MissNathalie Lord, one of the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught mehow to use and love the Bible. Before this I had never cared agreat 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 ofit as literature. The lessons taught me in this respect took sucha hold upon me that at the present time, when I am at home, nomatter how busy I am, I always make it a rule to read a chapteror a portion of a chapter in the morning, before beginning thework of the day.Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in ameasure to Miss Lord. When she found out that I had someinclination in this direction, she gave me private lessons in thematter of breathing, emphasis, and articulation. Simply to beable to talk in public for the sake of talking has never had theleast attraction to me. In fact, I consider that there is nothingso empty and unsatisfactory as mere abstract public speaking; butfrom my early childhood I have had a desire to do something tomake the world better, and then to be able to speak to the worldabout that thing.The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source ofdelight to me. These were held on Saturday evening; and during mywhole life at Hampton I do not recall that I missed a singlemeeting. I not only attended the weekly debating society, but wasinstrumental in organizing an additional society. I noticed thatbetween the time when supper was over and the time to beginevening study there were about twenty minutes which the young menusually spent in idle gossip. About twenty of us formed a societyfor the purpose of utilizing this time in debate or in practicein public speaking. Few persons ever derived more happiness orbenefit from the use of twenty minutes of time than we did inthis way.At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of somemoney sent me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by asmall gift from one of the teachers at Hampton, I was enabled toreturn to my home in Malden, West Virginia, to spend my vacation.When I reached home I found that the salt-furnaces were notrunning, and that the coal-mine was not being operated on accountof the miners being out on "strike." This was something which, itseemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or three monthsahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they spentall that they had saved, and would often return to work in debtat the same wages, or would move to another mine at considerableexpense. In either case, my observations convinced me that theminers were worse off at the end of the strike. Before the daysof strikes in that section of the country, I knew miners who hadconsiderable money in the bank, but as soon as the professionallabour agitators got control, the savings of even the morethrifty 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 hadmade during my two years' absence. The rejoicing on the part ofall classes of the coloured people, and especially the olderones, over my return, was almost pathetic. I had to pay a visitto each family and take a meal with each, and at each place tellthe story of my experiences at Hampton. In addition to this I hadto speak before the church and Sunday-school, and at variousother places. The thing that I was most in search of, though,work, I could not find. There was no work on account of thestrike. I spent nearly the whole of the first month of myvacation in an effort to find something to do by which I couldearn money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little moneyto use after reaching there.Toward the end of the first month, I went to place a considerabledistance from my home, to try to find employment. I did notsucceed, and it was night before I got started on my return. WhenI had gotten within a mile or so of my home I was so completelytired out that I could not walk any farther, and I went into anold, abandoned house to spend the remainder of the night. Aboutthree o'clock in the morning my brother John found me asleep inthis house, and broke to me, as gently as he could, the sad newsthat our dear mother had died during the night.This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life. Forseveral years my mother had not been in good health, but I had noidea, when I parted from her the previous day, that I shouldnever see her alive again. Besides that, I had always had anintense desire to be with her when she did pass away. One of thechief ambitions which spurred me on at Hampton was that I mightbe able to get to be in a position in which I could better makemy mother comfortable and happy. She had so often expressed thewish that she might be permitted to live to see her childreneducated and started out in the world.In a very short time after the death of my mother our little homewas in confusion. My sister Amanda, although she tried to do thebest she could, was too young to know anything about keepinghouse, and my stepfather was not able to hire a housekeeper.Sometimes we had food cooked for us, and sometimes we did not. Iremember that more than once a can of tomatoes and some crackersconstituted a meal. Our clothing went uncared for, and everythingabout our home was soon in a tumble-down condition. It seems tome 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 waysduring this trying period. Before the end of the vacation shegave me some work, and this, together with work in a coal-mine atsome 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 ofreturning to Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that Idetermined not to give up going back without a struggle. I wasvery anxious to secure some clothes for the winter, but in this Iwas disappointed, except for a few garments which my brother Johnsecured for me. Notwithstanding my need of money and clothing, Iwas very happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to paymy travelling expenses back to Hampton. Once there, I knew that Icould make myself so useful as a janitor that I could in some wayget through the school year.Three weeks before the time for the opening of the term atHampton, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from mygood friend Miss Mary F. Mackie, the lady principal, asking me toreturn to Hampton two weeks before the opening of the school, inorder that I might assist her in cleaning the buildings andgetting things in order for the new school year. This was justthe opportunity I wanted. It gave me a chance to secure a creditin the treasurer's office. I started for Hampton at once.During these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall neverforget. Miss Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and mostcultured families of the North, and yet for two weeks she workedby my side cleaning windows, dusting rooms, putting beds inorder, and what not. She felt that things would not be incondition for the opening of school unless every window-pane wasperfectly clean, and she took the greatest satisfaction inhelping to clean them herself. The work which I have describedshe did every year that I was at Hampton.It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of hereducation and social standing could take such delight inperforming such service, in order to assist in the elevation ofan unfortunate race. Ever since then I have had no patience withany school for my race in the South which did not teach itsstudents the dignity of labour.During my last year at Hampton every minute of my time that wasnot occupied with my duties as janitor was devoted to hard study.I was determined, if possible, to make such a record in my classas would cause me to be placed on the "honour roll" ofCommencement speakers. This I was successful in doing. It wasJune of 1875 when I finished the regular course of study atHampton. The greatest benefits that I got out of my at theHampton 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 mostbeautiful character that it has ever been my privilege to meet.Second, at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what educationwas expected to do for an individual. Before going there I had agood deal of the then rather prevalent idea among our people thatto secure an education meant to have a good, easy time, free fromall necessity for manual labour. At Hampton I not only learnedthat it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour,not alone for its financial value, but for labour's own sake andfor the independence and self-reliance which the ability to dosomething which the world wants done brings. At that institutionI got my first taste of what it meant to live a life ofunselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the happiestindividuals are those who do the most to make others useful andhappy.I was completely out of money when I graduated. In company withour other Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiterin a summer hotel in Connecticut, and managed to borrow enoughmoney with which to get there. I had not been in this hotel longbefore I found out that I knew practically nothing about waitingon a hotel table. The head waiter, however, supposed that I wasan accomplished waiter. He soon gave me charge of the table atwhich their sat four or five wealthy and rather aristocraticpeople. My ignorance of how to wait upon them was so apparentthat they scolded me in such a severe manner that I becamefrightened and left their table, leaving them sitting therewithout food. As a result of this I was reduced from the positionof waiter to that of a dish-carrier.But I determined to learn the business of waiting, and did sowithin a few weeks and was restored to my former position. I havehad the satisfaction of being a guest in this hotel several timessince I was a waiter there.At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home inMalden, and was elected to teach the coloured school at thatplace. This was the beginning of one of the happiest periods ofmy life. I now felt that I had the opportunity to help the peopleof my home town to a higher life. I felt from the first that merebook education was not all that the young people of that townneeded. I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, asa rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night. In addition tothe usual routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to comb theirhair, and to keep their hands and faces clean, as well as theirclothing. I gave special attention to teaching them the properuse of the tooth-brush and the bath. In all my teaching I havewatched carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I amconvinced that there are few single agencies of civilization thatare more far-reaching.There were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, aswell as men and women, who had to work in the daytime and stillwere craving an opportunity for an education, that I soon openeda night-school. From the first, this was crowded every night,being about as large as the school that I taught in the day. Theefforts of some of the men and women, who in many cases were overfifty years of age, to learn, were in some cases very pathetic.My day and night school work was not all that I undertook. Iestablished a small reading-room and a debating society. OnSundays I taught two Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden inthe afternoon, and the other in the morning at a place threemiles distant from Malden. In addition to this, I gave privatelessons to several young men whom I was fitting to send to theHampton Institute. Without regard to pay and with little thoughtof it, I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that I couldteach him. I was supremely happy in the opportunity of being ableto assist somebody else. I did receive, however, a small salaryfrom 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 ofthe time in the coal-mines in order to support the family. Hewillingly neglected his own education that he might help me. Itwas my earnest wish to help him to prepare to enter Hampton, andto save money to assist him in his expenses there. Both of theseobjects I was successful in accomplishing. In three years mybrother finished the course at Hampton, and he is now holding theimportant position of Superintendent of Industries at Tuskegee.When he returned from Hampton, we both combined our efforts andsavings to send our adopted brother, James, through the HamptonInstitute. This we succeeded in doing, and he is now thepostmaster at the Tuskegee Institute. The year 1877, which was mysecond year of teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did thefirst.It was while my home was at Malden that what was known as the "KuKlux Klan" was in the height of its activity. The "Ku Klux" werebands of men who had joined themselves together for the purposeof regulating the conduct of the coloured people, especially withthe object of preventing the members of the race from exercisingany influence in politics. They corresponded somewhat to the"patrollers" of whom I used to hear a great deal during the daysof slavery, when I was a small boy. The "patrollers" were bandsof white men--usually young men--who were organized largely forthe purpose of regulating the conduct of the slaves at night insuch matters as preventing the slaves from going from oneplantation to another without passes, and for preventing themfrom holding any kind of meetings without permission and withoutthe presence at these meetings of at least one white man.Like the "patrollers" the "Ku Klux" operated almost wholly atnight. They were, however, more cruel than the "patrollers."Their objects, in the main, were to crush out the politicalaspirations of the Negroes, but they did not confine themselvesto this, because schoolhouses as well as churches were burned bythem, and many innocent persons were made to suffer. During thisperiod not a few coloured people lost their lives.As a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a greatimpression upon me. I saw one open battle take place at Maldenbetween some of the coloured and white people. There must havebeen not far from a hundred persons engaged on each side; many onboth sides were seriously injured, among them General LewisRuffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola Ruffner. GeneralRuffner tried to defend the coloured people, and for this he wasknocked down and so seriously wounded that he never completelyrecovered. It seemed to me as I watched this struggle betweenmembers of the two races, that there was no hope for our peoplein this country. The "Ku Klux" period was, I think, the darkestpart of the Reconstruction days.I have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of theSouth simply for the purpose of calling attention to the greatchange that has taken place since the days of the "Ku Klux."To-day there are no such organizations in the South, and the factthat such ever existed is almost forgotten by both races. Thereare few places in the South now where public sentiment wouldpermit such organizations to exist.