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
One of the many illustrations of this intense activity was shown in a
trip he made to Atlanta, Ga., three or four years before he died. Even
at this time his strength had begun to wane. In accordance with his
unfailing practice he got up at six o'clock in the morning, and after
visiting his poultry and his beloved pigs, mounted his horse and rode
over farms and grounds inspecting crops and buildings and what-not
until eight o'clock, when he went to his office and attacked his huge
morning's mail. After dictating for an hour or more he left his office
just in time to catch a train which brought him to Atlanta at two
o'clock in the afternoon. At the station he shook hands with four
hundred people who had gathered to meet him. As he went along the
streets to the Government Building he shook hands with many others who
recognized him in passing. At the Government Building he shook hands
with another large group assembled there to meet him. After the dinner
tendered him by some of the leading individuals and associations among
the Negroes of the city he posed for his photograph with a group of
those at the dinner. He then made a tour of the city by motor, during
which he visited three or four schools for Negroes and at each made a
half-hour speech into which, as always, he threw all the force and
energy there was in him.
After supper that evening he addressed twelve hundred people in the
Auditorium Armory, speaking for an hour and a half. From the armory he
went to a banquet given in his honor where he gave a twenty-minute
talk. He did not get to bed until one o'clock. Four hours later he
took a return train which brought him back to the school by
ten-thirty. He went at once to his office and to work, working until
late in the afternoon when he called for his horse and took his usual
ride before supper. After supper he presided at a meeting of the
Executive Council and after the Council meeting he attended the Chapel
exercises. After these exercises were over at ten o'clock he made an
inspection on foot of various parts of the buildings and grounds
before going to bed. By just such excessive overwork did he constantly
undermine and finally break down his almost superhuman strength and
powers of endurance. This he did with an obstinate persistence in
spite of wise and increasingly urgent warnings from physicians,
friends, and associates. Where his own health was concerned he
obdurately refused to listen to reason. It would almost seem as though
he had deliberately chosen to put forth herculean efforts until he
dropped from sheer exhaustion rather than to work with moderation for
a longer span of life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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