were going to succeed, but in our case I felt that people
would be surprised if we succeeded. All this made a burden which pressed
down on us, sometimes, it seemed, at the rate of a thousand pounds to
the square inch.

In all our difficulties and anxieties, however, I never went to a white
or a black person in the town of Tuskegee for any assistance that was
in their power to render, without being helped according to their means.
More than a dozen times, when bills figuring up into the hundreds of
dollars were falling due, I applied to the white men of Tuskegee for
small loans, often borrowing small amounts from as many as a half-dozen
persons, to meet our obligations. One thing I was determined to do from
the first, and that was to keep the credit of the school high; and
this, I think I can say without boasting, we have done all through these
years.

I shall always remember a bit of advice given me by Mr. George W.
Campbell, the white man to whom I have referred to as the one who
induced General Armstrong to send me to Tuskegee. Soon after I entered
upon the work Mr. Campbell said to me, in his fatherly way: "Washington,
always remember that credit is capital."

At one time when we were in the greatest distress for money that we ever
experienced, I placed the situation frankly before General Armstrong.
Without hesitation he gave me his personal check for all the money which
he had saved for his own use. This was not the only time that General
Armstrong helped Tuskegee in this way. I do not think I have ever made
this fact public before.

During the summer of 1882, at the end of the first year's work of the
school, I was married to Miss Fannie N. Smith, of Malden, W. Va. We
began keeping house in Tuskegee early in the fall. This made a home for
our teachers, who now had been increase to four in number. My wife was
also a graduate of the Hampton Institute. After earnest and constant
work in the interests of the school, together with her housekeeping
duties, my wife passed away in May, 1884. One child, Portia M.
Washington, was born during our marriage.

From the first, my wife most earnestly devoted her thoughts and time to
the work of the school, and was completely one with me in every interest
and ambition. She passed away, however, before she had an opportunity of
seeing what the school was designed to be.

Chapter X. A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw

From the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I w