608 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



made by spiking planks on to posts driven into the ground. From 

 its rafters hang masses of Spanish moss, amid which streamers of 

 red, white, and blue bunting are woven. On the walls are many 

 American flags, looped back with the spiked leaves of the palmetto 

 tree. Booker Washington stands on a low platform at one end of 

 the room, and all around him, packed just as closely as they can be, 

 are the people, while hundreds of late comers cluster around the 

 doors and open windows like bees around the opening of a hive. 

 No matter if the benches are backless and hard. No opera audi- 

 ence in five-dollar chairs ever sat half so interested for an hour as 

 do these men and women through all the day, which, long as it is, 

 proves far too short for what they have to say. This is the one 

 day of the year for them, and not a minute must be wasted. The 

 speakers are the men and women themselves. Mr. Washington 

 simply starts the discussions and steers them so as to make all the 

 time count. He is a genius as a presiding officer, and gets more out 

 of the limited time than; any one else could do. The subjects 

 which they discuss are the practical ones which concern them most 

 vitally. Some I have mentioned non-ownership of land, crop- 

 mortgaging, and the evil of raising only cotton. Others are the 

 need of a longer school year and how to get it, the foolish extrava- 

 gances of buying showy clocks, sewing machines, and organs before 

 a house is owned to put them in, and similar subjects. The time 

 is never long enough for all there is to be said. The effort is to 

 make this a center from which some helpful thought will be car- 

 ried out to take root during the year. 



I saw a striking example of the influence which the conference 

 may exert at one of the sessions. A tall young mulatto woman 

 had finally succeeded in getting a chance to speak, for there are 

 always twice as many to talk as can find time. " Last year brother 

 Washington told us," said she, " that three acres of land, properly 

 carried on, would support a person, and told us how, and said that 

 a woman as well as a man could carry on the land. I made up my 

 mind I'd try it. I did, and it's so. I hired three acres of land and 

 had it plowed. I had it plowed deep, too. No lazy nigger half 

 done the job, for I sat on the ground myself to see it done." She 

 then went on to tell what her seed and fertilizer had cost, what she 

 planted and raised, and what her profits were, showing them to be 

 quite enough, as she had said, to support her for a year. 



. Loud applause greeted this report, and cries of " Dat's good! " 

 and " Go ahead, sister! " but through it all the woman was seen to 

 be still standing where she had spoken, waiting for a chance to go 

 on, and with no sign of satisfaction in her face at the approval 

 shown her. Kaising one yellow hand high above her head, as soon 



