ubject students to severe discipline.
Students are liable to reprimand, confinement, or other punishment.

Letter-writing is subject to regulation, and all mail- and
express-packages are inspected and contents noted. Students are
urged to write their parents at least once a week.

Wardrobes and rooms of students are subject to inspection and
regulation by proper officers at all times, and regular and
thorough inspection of same are made from time to time.

I was admitted in due course of time.

I reached Tuskegee on the 5th of September, 1896, and after purchasing
books, etc., my "cash assets," $12, were about exhausted. I could not
enter as a day-school student, as I did not have the money to do so. In
the night-school I found a chance which I gladly embraced. As I had
desired, I was assigned to the wheelwright division for two years,
signing a formal contract to that effect. I spent the whole of each day
in the shop, attended industrial or theory classes two afternoons in
each week, besides taking mechanical drawing (as all trades students are
required to do), and attended evening classes.

I applied myself as earnestly as I possibly could, and lost no time in
getting right down to business. So well had I done that, that when a
call reached the school during the spring of 1897 for a competent
blacksmith, I was sent to do the work. I was excused from school on
April 15th of that year and went to Shorter's, Ala., a settlement about
eighteen miles from Tuskegee. I remained there until October.

[Illustration: STUDENTS AT WORK IN THE HARNESS-SHOP.]

In a way, I regarded that period somewhat as a vacation period, as I did
not lose much time from my classes. The surroundings were pleasant and
profitable, and I had a chance to enter into the life of the people and
help them a great deal. While there I earned enough money to send for my
brother and enter him in Tuskegee, that he might have the same chance I
was enjoying to get an education. I wanted my brother to enter the
blacksmith-shop, as I saw visions of a blacksmithing and wheelwrighting
business to be owned and conducted by Lomax Brothers some time in the
future. I also provided clothing out of what I had earned for both my
brother and myself.

At close of the school term in 1898 I was able to secure employment at
Uniontown, Ala., with Messrs. J. L. Dykes and Company, doing a general
wheelwrighting and blacksmithing business--t