Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1902-03-13

bis waste basket. After little came
another, to tine same purport, but more
urgent. This was treated like tine first,
hut third followed in due course
BY this time Mr.. Simpson patience
was pretty well tried, though he could
not help feeling curious to learn what
all this pertinacity signitied, so he
enclosed Sl5 to his correspondent, and,
as time went on, and he heard no more
about it, he put the incident down as
an illustration of fool and his
money, and dismissed it from his
mind.
Years afterward he was seated on his
porch, when a young negro approached
and introduced himself AS William j.
Edwards, and proceeded to count out
to him his SO and interest to date. To
shy that Mr.. Simpson was astounded
but feebly expresses the fact, The idea
that the poor young man, of a race
notorious through the South for its
responsibility, should have developed
so much character, led him to inquire
something more about Tuskegee, where
the phenomenon had been trained. 1t
set him thinking in u new line, and
when Edwards presently came and said
that although he had had good offers
to 90 away and work at his trade, he
believed that it was his duty to settle
down among his own people and set up
a little industrial school, Mr.. Simpson
furnished the land to start the enter
prise. Since then he has become a
stanch friend and liberal patron of
negro industrial education as carried
on at Tuskegee and Snow Hill. To-day
the Snow Hill Institute, which started
seven years ago in an abandoned one
room log cabin, has 10 buildings, 20
teachers, more than 400 pupils, 10 head
of cattle, one mule and 30 swine, and
Ii industries in operation. Ii is, after
a long struggle, free from debt, and
it is spreading its influence, like
Tuskegee. not only through its returned
students, but by making itself "a direct
power among the adult inhabitants of
the neighborhood. Mr.. Simpson is
president of its Board of Trustees, and
another of his name is treasurer; and
the spectacle of such men volunteering
their services in q cause which they
had been educated to believe i'm
practicable is Il most striking sign of
the times.
~ and ends with less actually accom-
IL
high purpose. lie was pretty we'll off
when he came to Tuskegee, though he
had only SO in cash, and had to work
hard all through his course. When he
was graduated, the opening was good
for him to go back TO his plantation
and get comparatively rich. But he
had been so imbued. while at Tuskegce,
with the idea that his first duty was to
his race, That he started small in
dustrial school, and has put the negroes
in his neigAporhood upon their mettle
to make 1t II success
Smith is not 'fuskegee graduate,
but obtained his education by hard
Work al Atlanta University. He is
chock full of she Tuskpgee spirit.
though, and COMES to the conferences
with lot OF good, sensible ideas. The
pride h. takes III The Farmers I'M
provtment Society, which he organized,
Is genuine, and apparently well founded.
Every one who knows him, white or
black, has first rate word for his
character and influence. lie lives in Il
country two-thirds III whose voters are
white. His work in making the negro
adults good citizens, lmproHinE the
town, and building up a model school
tor the negro children, won uneNi rrted
and perhaps uneSampled recognize
when his nelghbors nominated aud
elected him to the Legislature as u
testimonial of their respect. He served
so acceptably for one term that they
sent HIM back for another.
An amusing thing occurred in con-
nection with this legislative episode. In
the lottery for seats a white member
whose race prejudice was strong drew IL
place next to Smith, whom he knew
only by sight. He went to the pre-
siding officer with a loud protest against
sitting next To a negro, but was in
formed that nothing could be done for
his relief, as the lottery was final. He
settled down, therefore, to make the
best of bad matter. A vacancy
occurring few weeks later, the pre-
siding officer sent for him to say that
there was now Il chance to change his
seat. But | don't want to change
now" was the prompt answer. The
two men had become great friends, and
they remained so. Smiths tact and
good sense had won the adversary over.
l cannot pass Smith without refer
ence to one of his latest enterprises,
characteristic both of his shreWdness
and of his keen sense of humor. His
FARMERS Improvement Society had
worked admirably down to Il certain
point but failed when it came to some
little things. A farmer who would
sell cotton, or yarns, or corn, or pork,
in large quantities felt unwilling to
stoop to take IL few eggs or IA chicken
or Il pat of butter to market. Smith
recognized the fact that the women
would be twice as sensible as the men
about these minor items; so he or
ganized a Ladies' Barnyard Auxiliary
to the Farmers Improvement Society,""
and the title caught and stuck. Enrol
ments have gone on merrily, and the
fruits of the traffic in small things
appear in fresh ribbons on the women5s
clothing and more curtains and other
adornments in their homes. The
Ladies Barnyard Auxiliary was the
joke of this season at Tuskegee.
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