Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-26

Viola Ruffner is still living, though at an
advanced age, at the time I write. Her
home now is in Charleston, s. c., with her
son, Major E. H. Ruffner, of the United
States army, and l recently enjoyed the
privilege of visiting her there. 1t was she
who taught the boy Booker to read. Speak
ing of him to me she said:
Learning to Read.
He was always a good boy quiet and
determined to amount to something. He
never wasted his time, as SO many of my
help did. AS soon as his work was done,
even If it was only for a few minutes, he
would sit down in corner of the kitchen
with the book from which / was beginning
to teach him to read. Only one thing ever
made him uneasy. He was never satisfied
with his work unless he was getting on
He left me several times to try different
things; once, | remember, working on a
steamboat, but he always came back to
me- until he finally started for Hampton"
When young Washington was ii years
old the reputation of General Armstrong s
great work at Hampton penetrated to the
West Virginia mountains. To hear of this
was to realize at once that this was a
means for getting on" 1t was not a ques-
ton of whether he should go, or when, but
of how quick he could reach Hampton. He
had no money to spare, for all he had
earned had gone to help support the family.
OF this turning point in his life let his
own words tell: when / found out that
Hampton was a place where a black boy
could study, and at the same time have a
chance to work for his board and that in
addition to study he would be taught how
to work, made up my mind to go there.
Telling my mother goodby. | started out
one morning to find my way TO Hampton,
although l had but a very few cents in
money, and did not have even any definite
idea where Hampton was. But / inquired
my way, and by walking, begging rides, and
paying for portion of the journey on the
steam cars with money earned on the road,
finally reached the city of Richmond, Va.
l was without friends there and entirely
without money. / found a good dry place
under a plank sidewalk and crawled in
there to sleep the first night. The next
day l found work on vessel where l could
earn some money. AS the job would last
several days / kept at work, sleeping every
night in the same place under the side
walk. 1t was a comfortable place, and |
was in that way enabled to save the most
OF my wages TO help me to go on. When
reached Hampton l had so cents left.
AT Hampton | found an opportunity for
class room education and for practical
training in industrial life, opportunity to
learn thrift, economy and push. Amid
Christian influences | was surrounded by an
atmosphere of business, and a spirit OF self
help that seemed to awaken every faculty
in me and cause me for the first time to
realize what It means to be a man instead
of a piece OF property
beginning His Life Work.
while l was at Hampton l resolved that
when had finished my course of training
there l would go into the far south, into the
Black Belt of the south, and give my life
to providing the same kind OF opportunity
for self-reliance and self-awakening that
had found provided for me at Hampton. My
work began at Tuskegee, Ala, in 1881
in a small shanty and church. with one
teacher and thirty students without a dol
lars worth OF property. The spirit OF work
and OF industrial thrift, with aid from the
state and generosity from the north, has
enabled us to develop the school to its
present proportions"
Tuskegee institute is now a school where
over 1000 young colored men and women
are taught each year how TO make their
lives count for the most possible, both for
themselves and for their race. 1t is an in
tensely practical school, and does not teach
books so much as 1t does facts, and how to
use them. The school now owns several
thousand acres Of land and about forty
buildings. The pupils who are studying
farming do all the work upon the land. and