m well. Complaint is
made of more crime showing itself among negroes in certain centres; but
when it is considered that only a generation ago the whole race was in
bondage, the wonder is that so little crime has been manifest. Provide
good schools and an industrial training, and the coloured folk will
prove to be a law-abiding race.

CHAPTER VII

THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE WORK

The singular way in which Booker Washington proceeded from one thing to
another, until, at length, he found himself beginning the great work of
his life before he was himself quite aware of the fact, strongly tends
to prove that he was destined to be a leader of his own people. We
believe that he would himself acknowledge that the chain of
circumstances which led up to his being landed at Tuskegee in 1881 was
entirely providential. He did not himself seek the opening; it came to
him unsought at a time when his services were still urgently needed at
Hampton, where he had become General Armstrong's right-hand man, or his
most efficient assistant. He was still fully occupied with the large
class of Indian boys during the day, and then, until a late hour every
night, with the more enthusiastic coloured pupils of his own people. At
the same time, he was pursuing his own studies for self-improvement with
characteristic ardour. Probably neither the good General Armstrong nor
this chief officer of his staff as yet thought the arrangements at the
Institute, which were found to work so well, were other than permanent.

A great change, which was nothing less than a great forward movement,
was at hand, however. It came to pass that, at a time when he was least
expecting it, the General received an urgent message for help from the
darkest part of the Black Belt of Alabama. The missive in question came
from white people, who were genuine friends of the negroes, and, as
such, were representative of large numbers of others in the Southern
States who were like minded. It occurred to these good souls that a
large proportion of the coloured people--admirable human material, if
turned to good account--was running to waste through lack of that
knowledge which could only come of education or training suitable to
their needs. The blacks greatly outnumbered the whites, and by very many
their capacities for service to the State were not understood. It was
thought by those who had put themselves in communication with Gener