The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-02-25

|
- look brought to close
Booker r. Washington's re-
narkablc autobiography. up
from slavery" which has for d num-
Der OF weeks been running in that eN-
ceJlent weekly as serial. Inc story
of the rise of this ex-slave from u
state of poverty so dire that for many
days, shortly after the war, he had
nowhere TO sleep but in a cellar-way
under sidewalk in Richmond, Va,
and nothing to eat save refuse picked
up ere II had gone too far toward de-
cay. as told in his own modest but
| graphic way, possesses greater charm
tnan any fiction and is more dramatic
than the average play. This cx-slaVe,
in addition to having built up the
| most successful educational institu-
ti,n for negroes in the United States,
now lectures before presidents, COVER
ncrs and state legislatures, or, when
travelling abroad. dimes with royalty
and Is the center OF attraction at
great receptions; moreover the steps
b" which his progress has been
achieved are all honest steps and
cvery one has been pluckily self
hewn. Up from Slavery which Is
soon to appear in book form, ought
to be in every home and in The library
Of every public school. for the les
| son it teaches is a lesson that every
| American boy, whether white or black.
ought to learn thorouyhly--the lesson
! that where there is a will TO succeed
and a patience to cndure the priva-
| tions OF tho honest way, success will
| surely come. But we wander from our
purpose, which was to make one short
| quotation.
Twenty years have now passed"
writes Professor Washington. "sincc I
made the first humble effort at Tus-
! kcgee, in broken-dowr shanty and
an old hen-kouse, without owning a
dollars worth of property, and with
| but one teacher and thirty students.
| Ut the present time the institution
| (the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
| Instituted owns 1900 acres of land, over
/ 700 of which are under cultivation
each year, entirely by student labor.
| l
counting large and small, forty build
ings. and all except four of these have
been erected almost wholly by the
labor of our students. There are in
constant operation at the school, In
connection with thorough academic
and religious training, twenty-eight
| industrial departments. The value of
| to, al tn
| this our endowment fund, which at
present is $1SSoO0, the value of the
total property is now nearly half n
million dollars. The annual current
expenses are about $4,000. The
| greater part of this | collect each year
from door to door and from house to
house. From thirty students the num-
! Der has grown to 100, coming from
/ twenty-sevcn states aud territories,
from Africa, cuba, Porto Rico, Ja-
maica and from other foreign coup-
tlics. In our departments, there arc
eiGhty-siN officers ANA instructors;
! ana ii We add the families of our in
structors We have II constant popula-
tiun upon our grounds of not far from
tN' l'''Iltf. U' Why ulll'ullN HOW
is that the demand for our graduates
from both white and black pcople in
the South is so great that we cannot
supply more than ouo-halr the per-
sons for whom applications come to
rs. Neither have we the buildings nor
the money for current expenses 10
enable us to admit To the school more
thar onC-half the young men aud
women who apply To us for admis-
sion"
The man who wrought out this mar.
Iclous achievement OF progress: who
has been Instrumental in educating il
| handicIaft and in brain upward ot
5000 negroes now scattered throughout
the south, and in turn educating other
negroes: and whose eloquence, logic
and sane way of looking at things
have made him celebrity of world,
wide renown, to whom the highest IN
all lands feel it no humiliation to show
honor, twenty-five years ago was, tc
all appearances, only darky roust,
about what he has done is a strik
ing proof of what, under rropcr cir,
cumstauces and with proper enCour'
aFement, his people are in some de
gree capable Of doing.