o
solve. We finally mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth
and sewing pieces of this together as to make large bags. These bags
we filled with the pine straw--or, as it is sometimes called, pine
needles--which we secured from the forests near by. I am glad to say
that the industry of mattress-making has grown steadily since then, and
has been improved to such an extent that at the present time it is an
important branch of the work which is taught systematically to a
number of our girls, and that the mattresses that now come out of the
mattress-shop at Tuskegee are about as good as those bought in
the average store. For some time after the opening of the boarding
department we had no chairs in the students' bedrooms or in the dining
rooms. Instead of chairs we used stools which the students constructed
by nailing together three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the
furniture in the students' rooms during the early days of the school
consisted of a bed, some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the
students. The plan of having the students make the furniture is still
followed, but the number of pieces in a room has been increased, and
the workmanship has so improved that little fault can be found with the
articles now. One thing that I have always insisted upon at Tuskegee
is that everywhere there should be absolute cleanliness. Over and over
again the students were reminded in those first years--and are reminded
now--that people would excuse us for our poverty, for our lack of
comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt.

Another thing that has been insisted upon at the school is the use of
the tooth-brush. "The gospel of the tooth-brush," as General Armstrong
used to call it, is part of our creed at Tuskegee. No student is
permitted to retain who does not keep and use a tooth-brush. Several
times, in recent years, students have come to us who brought with them
almost no other article except a tooth-brush. They had heard from the
lips of other students about our insisting upon the use of this, and
so, to make a good impression, they brought at least a tooth-brush with
them. I remember that one morning, not long ago, I went with the lady
principal on her usual morning tour of inspection of the girls' rooms.
We found one room that contained three girls who had recently arrived
at the school. When I asked them if they had tooth-brushes, one of the
girls replied, pointing to a br