aint idea of the value of education, and manifested a
desire for learning by securing the services of a young man, whose
country-school term had expired, to give me lessons at night when not
otherwise engaged. He was quite a "society" man, so that my
school-nights were few in number.

While my father did not provide for my education, he was himself an
industrious man and provided that I should not be idle. Each year, when
the tobacco season was over, I had regular employment in a cooper-shop
with my father, and I learned to make barrels and hogsheads. This trade
I found to be quite valuable, for before I was twenty-one years of age I
was able to demand wages of two dollars a day as a cooper.

Quite incidentally I heard of the work being done at Tuskegee by
Principal Booker T. Washington and the opportunity offered there to get
an education. I at once applied for admission. I received a letter from
the Principal admitting me to school in the autumn of 1889, when I was
twenty-two years of age. I did not enter the school, however, until
1890. I registered as a night-school student and asked to be assigned to
the carpenter-shop, as that seemed more in line with coopering. This
division was so crowded that I was forced to take shoemaking instead. At
this trade I worked two years and attended night-school. At the end of
this period I resolved to go to North Alabama and work in the coal-mines
to get money for clothing, books, and to help me along with my expenses
when the money earned at Tuskegee should run out. Realizing that every
dollar in my school life would count, I decided to live most cheaply,
even cooking for myself. In the end, following this method, I had more
money with which to return to school. I worked all day and returned to
work again the same night, that I might not lose the prize of education,
the pursuit of which I kept daily before me.

Somewhere I heard this quotation, "If anybody else can, I can, too."
With this sentiment I continued to push ahead, until in May, 1895, I
completed the course of study with the first honor of my class.

During my stay at Tuskegee I made such a record in the shoemaking-shop
that my instructor was anxious to have me take an assistant's place with
him. This I refused, preferring to start a career in Texas, of which I
had heard such glowing accounts. In the months of June, July, and a
part of August, 1895, I was employed with others making the shoes which
constituted a part