TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE AND ITS PRESIDENT. 609 



as she could be beard, sbe cried in a strangely tbrilling voice, whicb 

 echoed through the dusky room : " How can you waste the one day 

 of the year for us in such foolishness, when the life of a race is in 

 jeopardy? Get to work! We must learn first to help, ourselves, 

 if we w^ant God to help us! " 



Negro Confekence in Session in Tlskegee Institute Ciurcu. 



Hardly had this woman finished speaking when it was seen that 

 another woman had risen and was waiting for a chance to make 

 herself heard. I think I never saw a more pitiful figure. Very 

 black, old, with a gaunt form on -which a shabby dress hung loosely, 

 her face was that of a person for whom life had been so hard that 

 hope was for her a word unknown. Two or three men in the audi- 



VOL. LT.— 43 



