of a weak or unpopular
race. This, in the words of another, is one of the advantages enjoyed
sometimes by a disadvantaged race."

Naturally no account of Booker Washington's administration of the
great institution which he built would be complete without some
mention of Mrs. Washington's part in her husband's work. Aside from
her duties as wife, mother, and home maker--duties which any ordinary
woman would find quite exacting enough to absorb all her time,
thought, and strength particularly in view of the fact that a wide
hospitality is part of the role--Mrs. Washington, as director of
women's industries, is one of the half-dozen leading executives of the
institution. In addition to her many and varied family and official
duties at the Institute Mrs. Washington has always been a leader in
social service and club work among the women of her race throughout
the country, and has besides all this come to be a kind of mother
confessor, advisor, and guide to hundreds of young men and women. We
will conclude this chapter by quoting in large part an article written
by Mr. Scott and published some years ago in the _Ladies' Home
Journal_, which describes how and when Mrs. Washington entered her
husband's life and work and the part she played in his affairs:

"Even before the war closed there came to the South on the heels of
the army of emancipation an army of school teachers. They came to
perfect with the spelling-book and the reader the work that the
soldiers had begun with the sword. It was during this period in the
little straggling village of Macon, Miss., that a little girl, called
then Margaret Murray, but who is known now as Mrs. Booker T.
Washington, was born. When she grew old enough to count she found
herself one of a family of ten and, like nearly all children of Negro
parentage, at that time, very poor.

"In the grand army of teachers who went South in 1864 and 1865 were
many Quakers. Prevented by the tenets of their religion from entering
the army as soldiers these people were the more eager to do the not
less difficult and often dangerous work of teachers among the freedmen
after the war was over.

"One of the first memories of her childhood is of her father's death.
It was when she was seven years old. The next day she went to the
Quaker school teachers, a brother and sister, Sanders by name, and
never went back home to live.

"Thus at seven she became the arbiter of her own fate. The incident is
interestin