ced me that
persistent asking outright for money from the rich does not, as a rule,
secure help. I have usually proceeded on the principle that persons who
possess sense enough to earn money have sense enough to know how to give
it away, and that the mere making known of the facts regarding Tuskegee,
and especially the facts regarding the work of the graduates, has been
more effective than outright begging. I think that the presentation of
facts, on a high, dignified plane, is all the begging that most rich
people care for.

While the work of going from door to door and from office to office
is hard, disagreeable, and costly in bodily strength, yet it has some
compensations. Such work gives one a rare opportunity to study human
nature. It also has its compensations in giving one an opportunity to
meet some of the best people in the world--to be more correct, I think
I should say the best people in the world. When one takes a broad survey
of the country, he will find that the most useful and influential people
in it are those who take the deepest interest in institutions that exist
for the purpose of making the world better.

At one time, when I was in Boston, I called at the door of a rather
wealthy lady, and was admitted to the vestibule and sent up my card.
While I was waiting for an answer, her husband came in, and asked me in
the most abrupt manner what I wanted. When I tried to explain the object
of my call, he became still more ungentlemanly in his words and manner,
and finally grew so excited that I left the house without waiting for
a reply from the lady. A few blocks from that house I called to see a
gentleman who received me in the most cordial manner. He wrote me his
check for a generous sum, and then, before I had had an opportunity to
thank him, said: "I am so grateful to you, Mr. Washington, for giving me
the opportunity to help a good cause. It is a privilege to have a share
in it. We in Boston are constantly indebted to you for doing our work."
My experience in securing money convinces me that the first type of
man is growing more rare all the time, and that the latter type is
increasing; that is, that, more and more, rich people are coming to
regard men and women who apply to them for help for worthy objects, not
as beggars, but as agents for doing their work.

In the city of Boston I have rarely called upon an individual for funds
that I have not been thanked for calling, usually before I could get a