ntly impressed upon his staff and his
students: namely, that if every dollar contributed were made to do
the work of two, more dollars would be forthcoming from the same
source.

The two events upon which Booker Washington's popular fame chiefly
rests are his speech before the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta,
Ga., in 1895, and the publication of "Up from Slavery" five years
later. Since "Up from Slavery" played so great a part in aiding its
author to secure funds for his work it seems appropriate to give here
some account of how it came to be written, how it was written, and how
it was received.

In the year 1900 the editors of the _Outlook_ decided to illustrate in
the concrete the opportunities of America by getting some of the
Americans of greatest achievement to tell how they had risen by their
own efforts from the very depths of untoward circumstances. For this
purpose they selected Jacob A. Riis and Booker T. Washington. After
much hesitancy on his part and urgency on theirs Booker Washington
finally agreed to write the story of his life for serial publication
in the _Outlook_. His hesitancy was due merely to the fact that he
could not believe that the events of his life would be of any interest
to the public. So convinced was he in this belief that he had the
greatest difficulty in starting to write even after he had agreed to
do so. Finally, after a particularly urgent letter from the editors,
he stole some hours from his absorbing and exacting duties at Tuskegee
to write the first chapter. After these efforts had been typewritten
by his stenographer they produced only three and one-half pages--an
amount of copy discouragingly inadequate for the first installment.
He mailed the material, however, with a line of apology for its
inadequacy and promising to send more the next day. On receipt of this
scant initial copy the editors wrote him a letter of congratulation
and approval which greatly encouraged him, in spite of his heavy and
unrelenting administrative duties, to push ahead with new courage.
Notwithstanding, however, the best intentions on the part of the
writer and the most patiently insistent reminders on the part of the
editors there were many and wide gaps in the supposedly consecutive
series of chapters before the story was finally finished. Much of the
story he dragged from his tired brain, and jotted down on odds and
ends of paper on trains, while waiting in railway stations, in hotels,
and in