Booker T. Washington, Builder of a CivilizationScott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
History
Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization
Scott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
"As I have said, I had been warned as to what might be the
result of this visit to the King and that I had best be
careful how I made my plans for the evening. As the
interview was closing, the King took me by the hand and
said, 'The Queen would be pleased to have you dine at the
palace to-night,' at the same time naming the hour.
"The Minister had told me that this was his way of
commanding persons to dine, and that an invitation given
must be obeyed. Of course I was delighted to accept the
invitation, though I feared it would wreck my plans for
seeing the country people. The King was so kind and put me
so at my ease in his presence that I fear I forgot Minister
Eagan's warning not to turn my back upon him, and I must
confess that I got out of the room in about the same way I
usually go out of the room when I have had an audience with
President Taft.
"Leaving the King and the palace, I found out on the street
quite a group of newspaper people, most of them representing
American papers, who were very anxious to know, in the usual
American fashion, just what took place during the interview,
how long I was with the King, what we talked about, and what
not. They were especially anxious to know if I had been
invited to the palace for dinner."
And further on he thus describes the dinner:
"The dinner was not at the palace where I was received in
the morning, but at the summer palace several miles out of
Copenhagen. When I reached the hotel from the country it
soon dawned upon me that I was in great danger of being
late. To keep a King and Queen and their guests waiting on
one for dinner would of course be an outrageous offense. I
dressed as hastily as I was able, but just as I was putting
on the finishing touches to my costume my white tie bursted.
I was in a predicament from which for a moment I saw no
means of rescuing myself. I did not have time to get another
tie, and of course I could not wear the black one. As well
as I could, however, I put the white tie about my neck,
fastened it with a pin, and earnestly prayed that it might
remain in decent position until the dinner was over.
Nevertheless, I trembled all through the dinner for fear
that my tie might go back on me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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