the First National Bank Building, at a cost of
$350,000; and the Bell Building, at a cost of $450,000. Perdue also
assisted as foreman or assistant foreman in erecting many of the
important buildings at Tuskegee Institute, such as the Principal's
house, the chapel, the library, Rockefeller Hall, the Academic
Building, and the Millbank Agricultural Building.

"It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Perdue has accumulated
property or that he owns a good home in Montgomery, for in these
progressive days every black man in the South with any foresight is
investing some part of his earnings in property. The most interesting
and somewhat remarkable thing about the career of Perdue and the
greatest measure of his success is that twenty-three years after he
had left Tuskegee a literary failure he was asked to come back and
become a member of the faculty as an instructor in carpentry. Thus it
was that the man who failed succeeded and returned to the scene of his
failure a success. Perdue was constantly encouraged by Mr. Washington.
He came under the type of those who were not brilliant, but who were
always in his opinion worthy of help and encouragement."

Washington A. Tate was even duller in books than Perdue. During his
early years at Tuskegee he seemed unable to grasp the most
rudimentary information. His native dullness was made unpleasant and
aggressive by a combative disposition. He was constantly trying to
prove to his exasperated teachers that he knew what he did not know.
He was almost twenty-five years of age when he reached the Institute
and entered the lowest primary grade. He had the greatest difficulty
in passing any examinations and never succeeded in passing all that
were required. Motions were constantly made and passed in faculty
meetings to drop Tate, and were as constantly vetoed by Mr. Washington
on the plea of giving him one more chance. Finally when Tate's time to
graduate came the teachers in a body protested against giving him a
diploma. Mr. Washington argued that a man who had made all the
sacrifices Tate had made at his age to stay in school, a man who had
worked early and late in fair weather and foul for the school, a man
who had stuck to his task in the face of repeated failures and
discouragements, had in him something better than the mere ability to
pass examinations. Through Mr. Washington's intercession for him Tate
got his diploma. The next day Mr. Washington had him employed to take
charge