some pretty tight places while
collecting money in the North. The following incident I have never
related but once before, for the reason that I feared that people would
not believe it. One morning I found myself in Providence, Rhode Island,
without a cent of money with which to buy breakfast. In crossing the
street to see a lady from whom I hoped to get some money, I found a
bright new twenty-five-cent piece in the middle of the street track. I
not only had this twenty-five cents for my breakfast, but within a few
minutes I had a donation from the lady on whom I had started to call.

At one of our Commencements I was bold enough to invite the Rev. E.
Winchester Donald, D.D., rector of Trinity Church, Boston, to preach the
Commencement sermon. As we then had no room large enough to accommodate
all who would be present, the place of meeting was under a large
improvised arbour, built partly of brush and partly of rough boards.
Soon after Dr. Donald had begun speaking, the rain came down in
torrents, and he had to stop, while someone held an umbrella over him.

The boldness of what I had done never dawned upon me until I saw the
picture made by the rector of Trinity Church standing before that large
audience under an old umbrella, waiting for the rain to cease so that he
could go on with his address.

It was not very long before the rain ceased and Dr. Donald finished his
sermon; and an excellent sermon it was, too, in spite of the weather.
After he had gone to his room, and had gotten the wet threads of his
clothes dry, Dr. Donald ventured the remark that a large chapel at
Tuskegee would not be out of place. The next day a letter came from two
ladies who were then travelling in Italy, saying that they had decided
to give us the money for such a chapel as we needed.

A short time ago we received twenty thousand dollars from Mr. Andrew
Carnegie, to be used for the purpose of erecting a new library building.
Our first library and reading-room were in a corner of a shanty, and the
whole thing occupied a space about five by twelve feet. It required ten
years of work before I was able to secure Mr. Carnegie's interest and
help. The first time I saw him, ten years ago, he seemed to take but
little interest in our school, but I was determined to show him that
we were worthy of his help. After ten years of hard work I wrote him a
letter reading as follows:

December 15, 1900.

Mr. Andrew Carnegie, 5 W. Fifty-first St., New Y