ame ground--now, however, covered entirely by
railroad--that I had traversed nearly six years before, when I first
sought entrance into Hampton Institute as a student. Now I was able to
ride the whole distance in the train. I was constantly contrasting this
with my first journey to Hampton. I think I may say, without seeming
egotism, that it is seldom that five years have wrought such a change in
the life and aspirations of an individual.
At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students. I found
that during my absence from Hampton the institute each year had been
getting closer to the real needs and conditions of our people; that the
industrial reaching, as well as that of the academic department, had
greatly improved. The plan of the school was not modelled after that of
any other institution then in existence, but every improvement was made
under the magnificent leadership of General Armstrong solely with the
view of meeting and helping the needs of our people as they presented
themselves at the time. Too often, it seems to me, in missionary
and educational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to the
temptation of doing that which was done a hundred years before, or is
being done in other communities a thousand miles away. The temptation
often is to run each individual through a certain educational
mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to be
accomplished. This was not so at Hampton Institute.
The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to have pleased
every one, and many kind and encouraging words were spoken to me
regarding it. Soon after my return to my home in West Virginia, where
I had planned to continue teaching, I was again surprised to receive a
letter from General Armstrong, asking me to return to Hampton partly as
a teacher and partly to pursue some supplementary studies. This was
in the summer of 1879. Soon after I began my first teaching in West
Virginia I had picked out four of the brightest and most promising of my
pupils, in addition to my two brothers, to whom I have already referred,
and had given them special attention, with the view of having them go
to Hampton. They had gone there, and in each case the teachers had found
them so well prepared that they entered advanced classes. This fact, it
seems, led to my being called back to Hampton as a teacher. One of
the young men that I sent to Hampton in this way is now Dr. Samuel E.
Courtney, a
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