Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-26
TUSKEGEE.S STRUGGLE
ANDREW CARNEGIE WEARS
SHOES MADE.sBY STUDENTS.

Aoohs &NOScIupeF So.-bOOkoF Il.
Washington. in a talk last, night at the
Church. OF the Paternity, Central Park
west and roth street. said that last year
when Andrew Carnegie paid a visit to the
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama he ordered
pair OF shoes from the shoe department
conducted there by the negro students.
And he liked them so well when saw
him not long ago." vent on the speaker.
that now he has ordered two more pairs"
Ihe church was filled last night by 7:90
clock. half hour before the services
We're due to begin. Chairs were placed in
front and between the rows of benches for
| me people that crowded into the church.
me subject chosen by Mr.. Washington
was The Negro Problem" He made no
mention of the Brownsville affair or the
recent assaults and lynch.ngs In Georgia
Instead he delivered an address of hope,
after which the Rev. Frank Oliver Hall
asked tnat collection be taken up for the
Tuskegee Institute
People often ask me why it is that I
am so hopeful of the future of our school,
OF schools like it that are growing up and
United States" said Mr. Washington. And
all in spite of the difficulties that are be-
fore US, dfscouraging things that sometimes
seem to be insurmountable
Boys Made Bricks.
When the institute was first started
back in the eighties decided that 1 would
have the boys make the bricks out of
which cur buildings were to be made Peo-
pie told me that was unheard of. 1 got a
lot of the boys together. however, and we
started in to make bricks. I didn't know q
thing about 1t. but the boys thought 1 did.
me first lot of bricks we nodded were
pretty .tough-iookfng characters. We piled
them up into a kiln. but when we were
half through with it the thing tumbled in.
40 v,YA1 Ir,6 III r.
the kiln made but it tumbled down before
we could fire 1t. The next time we made
twice as many brrelSs, piled them into a
KIN iired them. and got them nearly done
when one morning at 3 O'Clock one of the
students knocked at my door and told me
that the third and largest kiln had also
tumbled in.
Well, our money had given entirely out
by that time, and we had to have a little
money even to keep trying to make
brick l went to Montgomery and pawned
my watch for Sill and have had great re-
spect for pawnbrokers since then We
bought few little things. made a huge
kiln of better brick than we had nodded
before, and compile ed them without any
accident. We've been making brick ever
since; last year we made millions of them.
Selling Cotton.
Another thing. W s advised 10 call one
of the girls in one day to tel her that her
grades were such that she couldn't gradu-
ate with her class. She said: Well, I'm
going to get some good GU: of the training
you've given me here. She went to little
town, took hold of the small public school,
and added to 1t room by room with the
proceeds of the cotton and other things she
and her students raised.
She taught the negroes no VITO sell their
cotton. how to leave cheap jeweiry and
whisky alone. how to avoid beng cheated
in the simplest ways. Room by room she
added to the schoolhouse. and month by
month she added TO the school year. We
were proud to ca. her back to the insti-
tIte and give her that diploma which we
hadn't sense enough to give her il the
first place.
Already 6eO0 students have left Tuske-
gee Institute. Some of them are going into
all parts of the south and doing such work
as that girl did And so it Is that when I
think of the growing hundreds of our stu
dents who Will do such work as hers in
every small part of the south, and when
think or our first four brick kilns, L can
easily be hopeful Of the future, however
dark the clouds may be that lower some
times over the black race in tbs land