very simple and coarse.
He was afraid we would not stay there three months. We assured him
that we were not afraid of hard work, and meant to finish the course
of study at Tuskegee at all hazards. He then left us. Very soon after
the gentleman who had so favorably impressed us, and whom we afterward
found to be the treasurer of the Tuskegee Institute, Mr. Warren Logan,
came back and told us our interlocutor was none other than the
Principal of the school to which we were going."

Booker Washington was always keenly interested to get at the reasons
which had impelled the new students to come, and they would naturally
state these reasons more freely to a friendly unknown person than they
would to the Principal of the school. As previously mentioned, Booker
Washington always kept his ear to the ground. These raw boys and girls
brought him fresh and frank messages as to how the people were
thinking and feeling about Tuskegee and those things for which it
stands.

Some time after Mr. Washington's death the students of the Senior
Class were asked to write brief themes describing their first
impressions of him. In one of these themes the boy writer says, "His
general attitude did not bear out my idea of how a great man should
appear. I expected to see him with a diamond ring and riding in an
automobile on a pleasure trip, which most great men do. He was quiet,
not overdressed, nor yet self-conscious of the position he held and
the influence he wielded among the people. He seemed to me a man of
great thoughts, yet not realizing his greatness." Another boy writes:
"One of my first questions after arriving at Tuskegee, September 9,
1912, and registering as a student was to ask, where is Mr.
Washington? I was told that he hardly ever stayed here but was often
in the North. Two weeks later he came, and my first opportunity to see
him was one day on the street. I was so enthused over him that I went
to my room and wrote a letter home trying to describe him.

"The following Sunday night he lectured in the Chapel. His title was,
'Have a Place to Put Everything and Put Everything in That Place.' In
his talk he said: 'There are many people who have no system about
their work nor home. Often you visit persons' homes and every member
of the family is looking for the broom. The same is true of a match
when the time comes to light the lamp.'

"That talk was the most impressive one that I ever heard before or
since. From that talk I hav