uld not give me a line of
introduction to his son, about whom I had already heard in Washington.
Mr. Baldwin's father readily gave me a line of introduction and I went
in a few days after that and sought out Mr. Baldwin in his Washington
office and he looked through this letter of introduction, read it
carefully, then he looked me over, up and down, and I asked him if he
would not become a trustee of this institution. After looking me over,
looking me up and down for a few seconds or a few minutes longer, he
said, 'No, I cannot become a trustee; I will not say I will become a
trustee because when I give my word to become a trustee it must mean
something.' He said, 'I will study the institution at Tuskegee, I
will go there and look it over and after I have found out what your
methods are, what you are driving at--if your methods and objects
commend themselves to me, then I will consent to become a trustee.'
And I remember how well--some of the older teachers and perhaps some
of the older students will recall--that upon one day, when we were
least expecting it, he stopped his private car off here at Chehaw and
appeared here upon our grounds, and some of us will recall how he went
into every department of the institution, how he went into the
classrooms, how he went through the shops, how he went through the
farm, how he went through the dining-room; I remember how he went to
each table, and took pieces of bread from the table and broke them and
examined the bread to see how well it was cooked, and even tasted some
of it as he went into the kitchen. He wanted to be sure how we were
doing things here at Tuskegee. Then after he had made this visit of
examination for himself, after he had studied our financial condition,
then after a number of months had passed by, he consented to permit us
to use his name as one of our Trustees, and from the beginning to the
end we never had such a trustee. He was one who devoted himself night
and day, winter and summer, in season and out of season, to the
interests of this institution. Now, having spoken this word, you can
understand the thoughts and the feelings of some of us on this
occasion as we think of the services of this great and good man.

"It is one of the privileges of people who are not always classed
among the popular people of earth to have strong friends for the
reason that nobody but a strong man will endure the public criticism
that so often comes to one who is the friend