The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-29
FORTUNE
At Y. N, {, A..
Negro PubIicist
Talks About
Character.
GEN. ARMSTRONG
WAS HIS FRIEND
Links Lives of Lincoln, Armstrong
and Booker Washington
in Clever Way.

T. Thomas Fortune special agent of
the Treasury Department, who is now
making an official visit to Hawaii. was
| the principal speaker yesterday after |
noon at the Y. M. C. A, where an
unusually large audience had gathered
| to listen to the distinguished publicist. |
! Mr.. Fortune drew graphic word pic
| lures of the lives of Lincoln. Samuel
| c. Armstrong and Booker T. Wash
| ington and the character basis upon
which each was founded, all three in
clever way. Hawaii was given
| credit for the part which she has
played in the education of the negro
race of the southern states through
the indomitable courage, sacrifice and
philanthropy of Samuel C. Armstrong,
the founder of Hampton Institute
The basis of character was incul-
/
said in opening his address. AS an
illustration he gave sketches of the
lives of the three men mentioned who,
he said, had largely assisted in the
shaping of the destinies of the Amer
| was born in a log cabin in Kentucky
a boy whose surroundings were of the
| humblest, and to whom there were no
opportunities for religious culture or
mental development. Yet this boy
| through the influence of his mother
and through contemplation of nature
and natures God, rose to the zenith of
power. He told of the boys ambi-
| ton, his struggles, how he obtained
a knowledge of the law, his election
to the legislature and lastly his great
debate with Stephen A. Douglas, the
result of which practically placed him
in the presfdef7tss chair. For four
years he stood at the helm of the ma
ton, guiding it past the breakers and
time millions of slaves were freed.
While all hearts were saddened by
the news that the great Emancipator
had been assassinated youth stood
Mexico. He pondered and gave deep
thought as to what was to become
of these millions of freed blacks. This
was Samuel c. Armstrong. He held
the Emancipation Proclamation in his
1 hands, and he asked himself, What
| is to become of all these people?" He
pitched his tent at Old Point Comfort
Virginia. and remembering what his
father had taught in the Hawaiian
Islands before the war, he started the
| solution of the great problem To-
day Hampton Institute spreads over
many acres and about 1900 students at
tend one of the finest training schools
in the republic. The speaker said he
felt that Hawaii gave to the American
republic one of the greatest of its ed
ucators. He believed in the gospel of
| educating head, heart and hands and
| he was glad that Hawaii gave this
man to the work and that Hawaii had
given him the inspiration. Armstrong
began his work to carry out that be-
gun by Lincoln. Mr.. Fortune counted
| himself fortunate in having been in
timately acquainted with General
Armstrong and that he had. in his
humble capacity as a journalist, sus-
tanned him in his work.
He then spoke of another man, a
negro, who walked 800 miles to Hamp-
ton Institute from the wilds of West
i Virginia. He was barefooted and
ragged and had twenty-five cents in
| his pocket. He toiled by day and
! night and completed the course of
studies, and then this man began to
carry out the work of Lincoln and
Armstrong. In the black belt of Ala
bama he started the Tuskegee Insti-
tute which in eighteen years has
grown to be one of the largest and
strongest educational forces of the
American republic. This man was
Booker T. Washington.
These three men possessed character.
It was a foundation which defied time
and man. The basis of character was
in the home. in the school, in the
church. in a high and noble life and
in virtuous lives, and without it no
one could have character, and without
character no one could have respect.
! The heroes of the world seldom start
in the high places, in the palaces.
Even the life that revolutionized the