to know more than I do. I
can easily marry some one who knows more than you do, but if you will go
to school I will assist you in any way that I can." This proposition I
accepted, and on September 2, 1890, I reached Tuskegee and began my
first day in school.

I had some knowledge of carpentry, and was for that reason assigned to
the carpenter-shop for work during the day; I attended school at night.

There were ninety-three young men and women in the class when I entered
school; of that number only two, in addition to myself, remained through
the entire course. I can never forget my examination by Miss Maggie J.
Murray, now Mrs. Booker T. Washington. There were quite three hundred
new students in the chapel of Porter Hall, one of the oldest buildings
of the institution, taking examinations at the same time.

She gave me two slips of paper, a pencil, and the questions, and said to
me: "Write the answers to these questions." She went about other duties,
and after about three hours returned to me for my papers; then for the
first time in my life I learned the meaning of geography and arithmetic.
The slips of paper mentioned asked questions on those subjects. I had
not put anything on the paper. She asked me if I knew of any large
cities; if I had ever crossed a river or seen a hill; if I knew the name
of the railroad over which I had come to reach Tuskegee.

I was able to answer each of these questions very readily; and she said,
"Calhoun, that is geography."

She assigned me to one of the lowest classes in the night-school. I
bought books which cost $1.70, and had fifty-two cents left. I soon
spent the fifty cents.

For seven months during my first year's stay my only possession was
represented by a two-cent stamp. I had had many "good friends" before
going to Tuskegee, and debated long as to which of them I should devote
the two-cent stamp, trusting to receive some financial aid. Finally I
decided on one of these "good friends." I used the stamp, and have not
heard from him from that day to this.

While carpentry was my special trade, I found the opportunity to get
information as to the other industries on the grounds. All of this
supplemental study has proved most helpful to me in my present work.

Most persons who enter school for the first time, and especially
industrial schools, get wrong impressions at the start. Notwithstanding
the fact that I was a young man who had "knocked about" the world quite
a littl