The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-15

InYS to POSItIOn OI EIllIleIlce
 Among Educators and Re
 Corners the World Over.
 Highly Honored
 TUsKEGEE, Ala, Nov. 15--Booker T. Washington. foremost teacher and leader Gs the negro race, died yester- day at his home here. near the Tus- kegee Institute, which he founded and of which he was president Hard eningtof the arteries, following ner- vous Breakdown, caused his death four hours after pr. Washington ar 5 rived from New York
 Althoughs he had been in failing Health for several months, the negro leaders condition became serious only last week while he was in the East He then realized the end was near, but was determined to make the long trip South He said often: TT was born in the South. have lived all my life in the South, and expect to die and be buried in the South
 Accompanied by his wife, his seere- tarys and physician, Dr. Washington. E left New York for Fuskegee at o'clock on Friday afternoon. He reached home Saturday night, and died at 4:40 o'clock yesterday morn ing His last public appearance was, at the nRtionals conference of Congre-s gat1Ona1f cnurcheS In New 4OfKs where he delivered a lecture on Oct.
 Funeral services win be held at Tuskegee Institute "Wednesday morn Flng at 10 o'clock, followed by inter- ment in the institute grounds,
 The body will lie in state all day to- morrow Thousands of Alabamians lin addition to prominent educators and others from various parts of the country are expected to attend the funeral A special train will be run from Montgomery to bring state off cials and others
 Messages of coincidence reached the
 washington home here today.
 No one knows the day, nor even with certainty the year, of the birth i of Booker T. Washington, but the day. of his death was announced by tele- graph and cable to many parts of the world
 He began life as e.5ust another little nigger' en a plantation *-of family named Burrows in Hale's Ford. Va ! The month and year of his birth were probably April, 1858, although Dr. Washin gton himself was not sure of this. In the Biographical paragraph under his name in Who's Who In America it is said that he was born tsabout 1s59" The only certain fact f is that heswas born into slavery when negro mothers made no record of nor long remembered the date of a chtld's : biftlsx
 Sobn afterftfe close Of the civil war the little negro boy went with his { stepmother to Maiden, w. Va., where, he worked in salt furnaces for nine | months in the year and attended ] school for three months. After sew eraI years of such life the boy obtain ed work in the kitchen of Mrs Viola Ruffner, a New England woman, who ! had married a Southerner- Mrs. Ruff i ner soon recognized the boys eager ] ness and ability to advance himself so she taught him the elementary subjects Booker Washington felt grateful to her to the end of his life because she really gave him his start.
 He heard of the Hampton Institute, ] for negroes, in 1871, when he was about 13 years old and he decided at once to attend it So, with the little money he had been able to save from hissyvag ges of, s6 a week. he set out for { fRiehnaond, Va, hoping to earn enough there to enable him to go on to Hamp- ton which is near Norfolk This was in#1S71 pr " ashtugton founded the Tuxkeegee Institute just ten years lat CT He was admitted to the institute and was graduated at the head of his class in 1875, after working his way through the school
 After graduation Dr. Washington re- turned to Maiden and taught school 11I1l h6N1aG earned onOuSn IO 0ndDle him to go to the. Wayland Seminary in Washington, D. C., where he studied :. until 1879, when he was called to Hampton as teacher in the institute After he had taught for two years. in 1881 the State of Alabama voted to found an industrial institute for ne groes similar to that at Hampton, and, after searching for negro qualified to head the proposed ipstitution, pr Washington was selected This was . A- fs1,T.-. Io.1+S f the South. a chance which he had long desired, and when he assumed charge Of the institute at Tuskeegee, Ala, his real iife's work began
 The State had appropriated $2, 900 year, and it was the task of the negro I to organize the school How well he did this is shown by comparison of statistics The institute opened on July 4, 1881, with one teacher and 30 pupils At that time it had neither land nor buildings, nothing but the g., 900 a year granted by the Alabama Legislature
 When the institute celebrated its 18th anniversary it owned 1000 acres : of land and sa large and small build- 1ngs, which, with it's equipment of livestock, stock in trade, and other personal nropepty, were valued at ss31, ,s95I This did not include 22, 900 acres of public land remaining unsold from the 25.oa0 acres granted by Con- n$TeSS, VaIueO at $403.ouO, nor tllc Slt- dowrnent fund, ~hich was $1,2756A. 1 During the year there were more than 1500 students enrolled in the school. mora than 1000 young men, and more than 800 young women. The students were trained in 37 industries.
 It was on the opening day of the Atlanta Expedition in 1895 that Dr. | Washington became a national char i arter. On that day he delivered an ssddress that was heard by thousands i and read by other thousands in far ]