ng. Besides this, I
have had to put the sewerage system into the institution, and the
heating apparatus into several of the school buildings. Still, a part of
my time in 1894 was devoted to teaching in the literary department. My
work now, while as exacting as ever, is more along the line of
superintending the mechanical industries and in teaching mechanical
drawing.

The school has grown, since my coming here, from 3 teachers and 30
students to a faculty of 18 teachers and 187 students. There are 6
instructors in the mechanical department for boys. We give instruction
in carpentry, printing, blacksmithing, brick masonry, plastering,
wheelwrighting, and mechanical drawing. These industries are housed in a
building--the "A. B. White Trades Building"--that cost $35,000.

In concluding this sketch, I repeat with emphasis what I said in the
beginning: Whatever my accomplishments may be, the credit is due to
Tuskegee. I do not wish in life to be regarded as a man of chance
possibilities, but rather as one who has consistently persevered in all
of his struggles. Tuskegee teaches nothing with greater force than that
success lies in that direction. Principal Washington, among other
things, has taught that it is necessary to get property and have a
bank-account. I have complied with that teaching. I own a farm of 100
acres within one-eighth of a mile of the school. My first property,
which I still own, consists of a one-acre lot and a seven-room house. It
gives me pleasure to contribute annually $10 to Tuskegee, although this
but inadequately expresses my gratitude to the institution to which I
owe so much.

[2] The West Point system is followed in training the young men. Except
that there are no guns, a complete battalion organization exists.

XVI

A NEGRO COMMUNITY BUILDER

BY RUSSELL C. CALHOUN

I have been asked to here set forth incidents of my life as I remember
them, especially as they relate to my life at Tuskegee and my work since
leaving there. Though there have been quite a number of events in my
life, it is somewhat difficult for me to give them in the way they are
now desired, as it never occurred to me that they would be worth
repeating.

Concerning my ancestry, it is impossible for me to give anything beyond
my maternal grandfather, who was about three-fourths Indian. My
recollections of him go back to the time when I was about six or seven
years of age. My mother, having more children than sh