Musings of the South 145 



I scarcely know how to handle so large a subject 

 as Tuskegee in brief space. Mr. Booker Washing- 

 ton, now the most celebrated man of his race, was 

 a pupil of General Armstrong at Hampton, He 

 found his way to the little village of Tuskegee — 

 pronounced Tus--^^-gy — as a teacher, in the year 

 1881. Beginning with a school in a log shanty, he 

 has built up this great institution, in which thirteen 

 hundred negro boys and girls, young men and 

 women, are taught. The property consists of two 

 thousand three hundred acres of land, and twelve 

 buildings, the largest of which, the auditorium, 

 seats two thousand five hundred, and is really a 

 solid and noble building. There are some ninety 

 teachers. Tuskegee is chiefly an industrial school. 

 Mr. Washington's system of education is for the 

 colored people as they are. Especial attention 

 is given to farming, stock-breeding, fruit-raising, 

 carpentry, brick-making, blacksmithing, cooking, 

 sewing — all the trades which pertain to or aid in 

 agriculture. Upon this solid, practical basis is built 

 the academic instruction. 



This conference is an annual convention of negro 

 farmers, who impart and receive the benefits of 

 each other's experience, and discuss questions of 

 interest to themselves and to their race. The 

 speeches were brief, pointed, emphatic, and enthu- 

 siastic. Farming in this section of the country is 

 wasteful. The farmers purchase the fertilizers of 

 commerce instead of making it for themselves. 



