chly
benefited and inspired by all he said, and when I went away I made a
solemn vow to myself. I said: 'If God be with me, I mean to so work
and conduct myself so that some day I shall deserve to shake hands
with Booker T. Washington.' (Hearty applause.) Now let me tell you the
sequel of the story. Away down in Florida, in my humble home in
Jacksonville, there is a room named 'Booker T. Washington.'
(Applause.) I have set apart and dedicated a portion of my home in
honor of this distinguished gentleman and leader of our race.
(Applause.) He is the first human being on earth I have ever permitted
to sleep in it, and his good wife is the first woman and second person
I have ever permitted to sleep in that room. (Prolonged laughter and
applause.) We love him in the South, both Negro and white man! (Hearty
applause.) Booker T. Washington's name is a monument of strength
because he is teaching the Negro to use his hands and head in order
to be useful in the community and to achieve success. (Applause.)

"I have been sick this summer and just got back from
Saratoga--(prolonged applause)--of course all men who get rich go to
Saratoga. (Laughter and applause.) While there I met some folks, and
in the course of my remarks I had occasion to remind them that Dr.
Booker T. Washington, while an earnest advocate of industrial
training, is not an enemy or opposed to higher education. There was a
man from the British West Indies who began to speak on the subject of
the Negro; he began to orate around, began to tell how the Negro must
expect to rise in the world; oh! he made a magnificent speech going to
show that there was nothing in the world like higher education for the
Negro; he even said that the Negro race would never amount to anything
and get its rights until every one of us had secured a college
education. (Laughter.) Why, you ought to have been there and heard him
orate; he took us all through Greek, Roman, ancient, and medieval
history; across the Alps and all around the Egyptian pyramids--(hearty
laughter)--and even cited the Druids of old to testify to the grandeur
and necessity of higher education for the Negro. After he got through
orating I said to him: 'Brother, I was down to a meeting of Negroes in
the State of Florida--at the State Business League, and I saw sitting
on one bench eleven (11) Negro men whose combined wealth would amount
to more than one million dollars, and not one of them ever saw the
inside of a co