JANUARY 1, 1916 



39 



get a little time at the seed-store. I found 

 just back of the station I should say fifteen 

 or twenty rigs and runners for the different 

 hotels. From the whole lot I singled one 

 and asked for a nearby hotel. He replied 

 he felt sure the ladv would not be pleased 

 with those near by, but that he would take 

 us in his Ford auto to a nice clean place 

 and bring us back by train time, all for a 

 dollar. Mrs. Root suggested he certainly 

 meant a dollar each. 



" No, ma'am. I will give you a nice room, 

 clean bed, and bring you back all for one 

 dollar." 



While we were on the way I ventui^ed : 



" I suppose you don't happen to be any- 

 where near the Crenshaw Seed Co. ? " 



At this question he and his companion 

 both laughed as he replied : 



" Why, my good sir, our hotel is right 

 over the Crenshaw establishment, as you 

 will see." 



Although Mrs. Root and I have paid as 

 much as $1.50 each for staying over night 

 at a hotel in traveling, I don't think we 

 ever had a pleasanter room. Just outside 

 is a spacious elevated porch or veranda 

 running the whole length of two sides of 

 the great building, and this porch contains 

 a beautiful collection of semi-tropical plants 

 and flowers in tubs and boxes. Just over 

 the desk in the office I saw a notice : "Guests 

 taken to meet any train for 15 cts." I tried 

 to have him take pay, since he had enter- 

 tained us so handsomely, and at such a Ioav 

 price, but he replied : 



" Mr. Root, I agreed to take you both 

 ways for the dollar; and what I liave 

 agreed to do I have always lived up to so 

 far." 



How is that for a hotel-keeper? 



A word in closing: Was it nol a little 

 funny that, out of the fifteen or twenty 

 ninners, I should strike just this oncf and 

 funnier still (if you will excuse the expres- 

 sion) that his place should just happen to 

 be where I particularly wanted to gof I 

 had a nice visit with the manager of the 

 seed-house before train time, and the little 

 Ford got us around in ample time, and 

 Mrs. Root got most of the "cobwebs" down 

 before Sunday. Would it not be well for 

 a lot of us to use my little prayer oftener 

 — "Lord, direct our erring footsteps?" 

 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he 

 shall direct thy paths. 



IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINIIIIIIIIIIII!lilllllll!lllllllll!:illlll!llinil|lllll>llll!l!|l||||||||||IIIIIIIIIi:!lllllllllll!llllllllh^ 



BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

 Their works do follow them. — Rev. 14:13. 



One of the pleasant things about living to 

 a fair old age is the opportunity it affords 



of noting the groAvth and development of 

 the good and great men and women of the 

 age. When the boy Edison started out near 

 my own home I hunted the papers for 

 everything that was said of him. It was 

 the same with Booker T. Washington. 

 Thru some correspondence I was soon in 

 touch with him — sent him a copy of the A 

 B C book, and made his school a life sub- 

 scription to Gleanings. When his first 

 book came out it was my privilege to give it 

 a notice and a price with Gleanings that 

 resulted in the sale, I think, of several 

 hundred copies. No one, white or black, 

 who reads the book can well avoid getting 

 a new inspiration for education. Wash- 

 ington started an apiary, and, for aught I 

 know, it is still a part of their institution. 

 One funny thing about it was (and may be 

 is), the colored girls took mostly to the 

 bees, and we gave a photo, years ago, of 

 the colored-girl beekeepers. I planned to 

 make his institution a visit, but never got 

 round to it, and now it is too late to see the 

 man of whom we have heard so much. Be- 

 low are two clippings from the Jackson- 

 ville Times-Union in regaid to his recent 

 death. The first is from the governor of 

 Alabama. 



HENDERSON LAUDS WASHINGTON. 



Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 15. — Governor Charles 

 Henderson today issued the following official .state- 

 ment on the death of Booker T. Washington: 



In the death of Booker T. Washington, the col- 

 ored race has lost its greatest leader. He was a 

 man of unusual force and executive ability, and in 

 many respects rose above the environment of race. 

 In my opinion his efforts toward the development 

 of his race have been of greatest benefit to them 

 and to the entire South. Born a slave, living a 

 life of earnest endeavor, and at his death the chief 

 executive of an institution of nation-wide reputa- 

 tion, created by his own brain and energj', demon- 

 strates to the world the unbounded possibilities open 

 to those whose purpose is to accomplish something 

 and marks him as one of the able men of his time. 

 Charles Henderson. 



booker washington. 



Few men in the United States had stronger in- 

 fluence than Booker Washington, and we do not 

 know of any one who used his influence more bene 

 ficially. There are ten million negroes in the United 

 States, and the man who represented the best that 

 was in this large number, and who had so much to 

 do with cultivating the best that was in them, was, 

 .iust from that alone, a power in American life. 

 But Booker Washington had influence far beyond 

 his own race. White men, north and south, held 

 him in the highest honor. He will be greatly missed, 

 but he has taught others who will follow in his foot- 

 steps. 



We place Booker Washington first among the men 

 of his race. Alexander Dumas probably had a rep- 

 utation that could be better classed as worldwide. 

 Toussaint L'Ouverture showed ability both as a 

 general and a stateman. Maceo was the most suc- 

 cessful general, with the possible exception of Go- 

 mez, in the war that resulted in the liberation of 

 Cuba, and Fred Douglass was an orator of great 

 reputation; but we rank Booker Washington above 

 all these. Dumas was not counted as a negro ^t 



