oval. In this part of Georgia the Negroes
outnumber the whites by at least six to one. The afternoon of the same
day the Mayor invited Booker Washington and his party to come to the
city hall and confer with himself, the other city officials, and a
group of prominent private citizens on the relations between the races
in that city and locality. At this conference there was a friendly,
easy interchange of ideas interspersed with jokes and laughter, but
all the time Mr. Washington was leading them step by step to see that
by giving the Negroes proper educational opportunities they were
helping themselves as well as the Negroes. Mr. Stowe, who was present
at this conference, noticed to his surprise that some of the arguments
advanced by Dr. Washington, which seemed to him to be almost worn-out
truisms, although freshly and strongly expressed, were seized upon by
his auditors as new and original ideas. When he made this observation
to Mr. Washington after the meeting he said that several other
Northerners had under similar circumstances made the same observation
and then he added: "I only wish that it were possible for me to spend
several months of each year talking with just such groups of
representative Southern men. They are always responsive, eager to
understand what we are driving at, and sympathetic when they do
understand. The necessity for raising money has forced us to devote
the bulk of our time to educating the Northern public to the needs of
the situation to the neglect of our Southern white neighbors right
here about us."

It was an interesting illustration of the illogical workings of race
prejudice that this man to whom the city fathers from the Mayor down
gave up practically their entire day--this man to whom the city hall
was thrown open and at whose feet sat the leading citizens as well as
the officials of the city, could not have found shelter in any hotel
in town. This man whom the officials and other leading citizens
delighted to honor arrived at night on a Pullman sleeping car in
violation of the law of the State; and, after all possible honor had
been paid him, save allowing him to enter a hotel, departed the next
night by a Pullman sleeper in violation of the law!

This constant "law-breaker" was welcomed and introduced to audiences
by Governor Blanchard of Louisiana at Shreveport, La.; by Governor
Candler at Atlanta, Ga.; by Governor Donaghey at Little Rock, Ark.;
by Governor McCorkle of West Virg