As soon as he had raised a part of the money, he let the man put the material on the ground. Then the building was begun, and again the students did all the work. They first digged the foundations, and some of them became so disgusted with this work that they left the place altogether. Washington was sorry that they left, but he said that any one who was too proud to work with his hands and help out at a time like this did not belong in his school. However, most of the students remained and were perfectly willing to do the work. Rapid progress was made, the foundations were finished, and they were ready for the laying of the corner stone. The laying of the corner stone of this building is an important event in the history of the education of the negro. There was a great crowd present. Washington, his teachers, his students and their parents, and a large number of other negroes were there. There were present, also, a large number of white people,—the mayor of the town, the councilmen, the sheriff and all the other county officers, and all the prominent business and professional men of the community. In a way this ceremony marks an epoch in Negro history in America. Just seventeen years before, it was against the law for a negro to be taught books at all in Alabama. Just seventeen years before, the negroes were slaves,—for this was in 1882 and in the “Black Belt,” in the very heart of the South. That this large group of white men should gather with the negroes for the purpose of dedicating a building to negro education shows what wonderful change of sentiment had taken place. It shows also how thoroughly Booker Washington had won the confidence of all the people among whom he was working. All his students were from Alabama. Most of them were from the country. He knew that most of them would spend their lives on the farm or in occupations of some kind. He wanted them to be practical; to know how to do well the things they would surely be compelled to do. So he determined from the very beginning that his students should learn how to do practical things as well as learn from books. He had them clear the land for the school; he had them farm the cleared lands; he had them do the cooking; he had them make the brick and build the buildings of the school. He says that his idea was to teach the students the best methods of labor and how to derive the greatest benefit from their work. He wanted them to learn new ways of work,—how to use steam, water, and electricity. He also wanted to teach them that work was dignified and honorable and that no man should be ashamed to do any kind of honest work. [Illustration: AUTOMOBILE AND BUGGY TRIMMING AT TUSKEGEE ] He followed this plan till his death, and nearly every one of the many buildings that stood at Tuskegee when he died was built entirely by the students themselves.