lt a house for anybody but myself. I build my own property. I have
built since the fire we had in Jacksonville in 1902 two hundred and
eight houses of my own. (Prolonged applause.) I have sold a good many
of them. When I realized that I was beginning to get old and not in
such good physical condition as I used to be, I was afraid I might get
afflicted with tuberculosis, or appendicitis, or some of these other
high-sounding diseases the doctors now talk about--(laughter)--and so
I thought it best to convert some of my estate into another form that
could be more easily handled by my better half when I had gone to
inhabit my mansion in the skies. (Laughter.) So I have begun to sell
off some of my property and get out of debt. I now have one hundred
and twenty-one houses, the rents from which amount to a little over
twenty-five hundred dollars a month. (Prolonged applause.) I have
invested my money in recent years in what I call 'grip-sack'
securities, so that if there should be any little unpleasantness among
the races, I can go to my safe and grab that grip-sack. (Prolonged
laughter and applause.) You see if there should ever be any friction
or trouble, I can grab my grip-sack, jump into a powerful machine, and
come up here around Philadelphia, 'The City of Brotherly Love' or over
here in Canada, and I can sit down at my leisure and read in the
papers what they are doing down there. (Prolonged laughter.)

"Dr. Washington has been in my home in Jacksonville; I have now had
the honor of not only shaking hands with him, but of having him as my
special guest. I know I am going to make one break here now, I'm going
to say something that my little modest wife may not like me to say,
but I hope she will excuse just this one time--(laughter)--for
everybody knows that I ain't very bright anyhow--not really
responsible. (Prolonged laughter.) I want to say this, not in a
boasting way--I live in the best home of any Negro in this country I
have so far seen. (Hearty applause.) I live in a home--we call it
'Blodgett Villa'; we have flowers and lawns and vines and shrubbery, a
nice greenhouse and all those things that go to make up for higher
civilization. I surrounded myself with all these things to show that
the Negro has the same taste, the same yearning for higher
civilization that the white man has whenever he has the money to
afford it. (Applause.) You know they have been saying all these years
that the Negro is coarse and vicious