me club that
he was a guest of. There were Southern men present, and the
fact that I was present and spoke was widely heralded
throughout the South, and so far as I know not a word of
adverse comment was made. For nearly fifteen years the
addresses which I have been constantly making at dinners and
banquets in the North have been published throughout the
South, and no adverse comment has been made regarding my
presence on these occasions.

Practically all of the invitations to functions that are of
even a semi-social character are urged upon me by Northern
people, and very often after I have refused to accept
invitations pressure is brought to bear on special friends
of mine in order to get me to accept. Notwithstanding all
this, where I accept one invitation I refuse ten; in fact,
you have no idea how many invitations to dinner I refuse
while I am in the North. I not only do so for the reason
that I do not care to excite undue criticism, but for the
further reason that if I were to accept any large proportion
of such invitations I would have little time left for my
legitimate work. In many cases the invitations come from
people who do not give money but simply want to secure a
notoriety or satisfy curiosity.

I have stated the case as I see it, and with a view of
having you think over these matters by the time that we
meet.

[Signed] BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

There were two particularly notable occasions upon which Mr.
Washington unwittingly stirred the prejudices of the South. The first
was when in 1901 he dined with President Roosevelt and his family at
the White House; the second, when four years later he dined with Mr.
John Wanamaker and his daughter at a hotel in Saratoga, New York.

The truth of his dining at the White House, of which so many imaginary
versions have been given, was this: having received so many
expressions of approval from all sections of the country on his
appointment of ex-Governor Jones to a Federal judgeship in Alabama,
which appointment was made, as described in a previous chapter, on the
recommendation of Booker Washington and Grover Cleveland, President
Roosevelt asked him to come to the White House and discuss with him
some further appointments and other matters of mutual interest.

On arriving in Washington he went to the home of his friend,
Whitefield