The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-11-14

/ ington's table, in Booker Washington
room. oh, no. That is all right. And
| it no more occurs TO him to pay Booker
Washington for this hospitality than it
occurs to Booker Washington to charge
him money for it. He has had a free
and full meal for nothing, and he has
had it alone.
Alone is the important consideration
To eat Booker Washington's food Is ali
right-but not with him To eat II in
Booker Washington's house is all rlght-
but not in his company. To be waited
on by Booker Washington's waiter is all
right-but Booker Washington must not
be present The mans hunger is salts
fed and his susceptibilities are regarded
The mans strength is renewed and his
prejudices, or principles, or habits, or
theories, or whatever you may choose TO
call them, are preserved Moreover, ne
has kept within the lines which those
with whom he associates set down for
him and for themselves, and he goes
home filled with Booker Washingtons
food. filed with Booker Washington's
knowledge, convinced that Booker Wash
ington lis really a very sensible and ex-
cellent Niger VINO knows his place., and
that the man who has been fed and in
formed by Booker Washington is "a per-
feet gentleman.
This is no fancy sketch. It is a fire.
ouent occurrence when Booker Wash
ington is at home. 1t shows the condi-
lions in which Booker Washington does
his great work and it shows the way in
which he adjusts himself to them. 1t
does not show-it cannot show-the feel
ings of Booker Washington, whatever
they may be, for he has been trained
not to show them and not to let the ex-
istence to say nothing of the exhibition,
of them hinder him in his work in the
world. The success of that work de-
10 lfzar of he
ments of white men toward men not
white, only partly white, and upon
his realization of the necessity of the
help and the good feeling OF white men
toward him. toward his work and toward
his race. Why, Booker Washington has
advised his people even against political
activity and he has always discouraged
the idea of any of them trying to cross
or trespasS on the lines of social division
which the institution of slavery created,
which emancipation has not effaced and
which the mere fact of the equality or
superiority of negroes in numbers to
white men in any given locality accen-
tuates more than ever.
The sense of Booker Washington is
manifest. His self-control natural or
acquired, is evident The influence which
his tact and his character, his learning,
his industry and his wisdom exert is
well known The respect to which he is
The danger of his losing his balance
ceased long ago, in the opinion of those
who have studied him well.
We have chosen to narrate Booker
experience with white men
around him, and to do it accurately and
coolIy, as an offset to the ado made in
sundry quarters over the fact that Pres
ident Roosevelt lately entertained Book |
or washington at his family table in the |
White House. Advces from various |
parts of the South are to the effect that |
the act has made a great stir there. Po- |
litical significance is given to it. Grave |
political consequences are predicted to |
follow from it. The story we have told |
makes the stir which has been aroused |
not only ineligible but unsurpriSing. |
Of course. any structures on a private |
gentlemans personal and private hos
pitality insolent and uncivilized. |
Those who indulge them are impudent.
and do not know it, are unciyilized, and |
are unaware of it, are really barbarous.
and are not conscious of it, are not gen
tlemen, but think that they are. That is
L matter in psychology, or sociology, OF
Tor missionaries 1t is for academic and
not acrimonious consideration.
The instance is of course only sim
gle one. Booker Washington is ex-
,eptional among men of his race-or
aces, because he Is one-third white, one
bird African and one-third Indian-as
Frederick Douglas was, with whom Abb
'aham Lincoln, Henry Ward Beecher,
Charles Sumner, S. p. Chase, George
William Curtis, Wendell Phillips, u. S.
irant, James A. Garfield. Chester A. Ar
hur William Mckinley and Theodore
Roosevelt dined in the past. They were
lever ashamed of him. No reason exists
o conclude that Douglas was ashamed
# them. If Booker Washington can get
long with Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore
can get along with Booker l
And the fact is nobody's I
BUSINESS
Not long ago one of the prominent OBJ /
ectors today to Mr.. Roosevelts dinner | {
o Booker Washington came to this Dor /
ugh. He was and is an eloquent, snowy /
erson and perfect Southern gentle q
nam But he carried dinner given to |
i'm by some plain Northern people to I
UGH a elimination that TWO walters a t
street policeman, an Insti- S
ute professor, and the editor of an in a
ependent newspaper had great difficulty C
] getting him into a carriage, more s
ifficulty in bearing him to an hotel. Z
nd most difficulty of all in preventing f
i'm from fighting all creation. One
ould no more regard him a type Of
section or of 4 vocation than one
ould regard contemporary believers
yer the Roosevelt Booker Washington
cident as representatives. of the really
vilized and progressive South.-Brook- y
n Daily Eagle. Il