ing about what you could do and what our race has done, and the
white man is just quietly and gently and in every way telling us: 'Go
thou and do what Dr. Washington said you could do.' (Prolonged
laughter and applause.)

"When I began, I commenced working for a railroad company; I had a
splendid job--washing cars for a dollar and five cents a day; I got
$8.40 from the railroad every eight days. After working for a month
and a half I saved enough money to send back and bring my wife from
Charleston, South Carolina, to Jacksonville. Both of us went to work;
we opened a little boarding-house; she ran that, and when my $1.05 a
day enabled me to save as much as one hundred dollars, I quit that job
and began to hustle for myself. I told the white man I was working
under: 'You don't know that a Negro with $100 in cash is a rare thing
among my people. I'm going to strike out and see what I can do by
myself.' I made up my mind that if all of the big Negroes that I had
heard of, read about, and talked with, if they could get honor and
recognition by having brains, money, and ability, there was nothing
the matter with me and my poor little wife to prevent us from getting
up, too; so I went to work and determined to work day and night, if
need be, to get some money, and other things necessary to succeed in
life. I wanted money because I had seen and suffered so many
humiliations put on the man who does not have money. (Applause.)

"The first time I saw this distinguished gentleman (pointing to Dr.
Booker T. Washington) I was laying brick in Jacksonville, Fla., at
$1.25 a day, and he drove by in company with Mr. James W. Johnson, Mr.
J. Rosamond Johnson, and another gentleman. I had always loved the big
men of my race; even as a little boy I delighted to hear of what they
had achieved, and when I heard that the great Booker T. Washington
was in town, I quit my job for that day, went to the place where he
spoke, walked up close, and was hoping somebody would do me the honor
of introducing me. But I found the gentlemen who had him in charge
were introducing him to nobody but the big Negroes, and the big
Negroes were shaking hands with him and completely monopolizing Booker
T. Washington. (Prolonged laughter.) I did not like to be rude and
therefore did not push through the crowd and shake hands with him
anyway, as I felt like doing. I was nothing but a poor brick-layer,
nobody would introduce me, but I heard his grand speech, was ri