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
present who were evidently very much impressed by their surroundings.
Booker Washington seemed to be absolutely unconscious of the splendor
of the house in which he was, or of the society in which for the
moment he found himself. Born in a hut without a door-sill, he was at
ease in the most stately and beautiful private palace in London.
"On another occasion there was to be a Tuskegee meeting at Bar Harbor.
The Casino had been beautifully decorated for a dance the night
before. The harbor was full of yachts, the tennis courts of
fine-looking young men and women; it was a picture of luxury tempered
with intelligence. Mr. Washington was looking out of the window.
Presently he turned to me and said, with a smile, 'And last Wednesday
morning I was eating breakfast in a shanty in Alabama; there were five
of us and we had one spoon!'"
At the time of his stay in London, during which this reception at
Stafford House took place, he was given a luncheon by a group of
distinguished men to which Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister, was
invited. In reply, Mr. Asquith sent this note:
_10 Downing Street, Whitehall, S.W._
_26th September, 1910._
DEAR SIR: I much regret that my engagements do not allow me
to accept your invitation to be present at the luncheon
which it is proposed to give in honor of Mr. Booker T.
Washington. I feel sure, however, that he will be welcomed
with a cordiality which his persistent and successful labors
in the cause of the education of the American Negro deserve,
especially at the hands of English men, whose difficulties
in many parts of the Empire have been helped toward a
solution by the results of his work.
Yours faithfully,
[Signed] H.H. ASQUITH.
While at home, no matter how pressed and driven with work, Booker
Washington snatched an hour or so every day for hunting or riding.
This daily exercise became a fetich with him which he clung to with
unreasonable obstinacy. He would frequently set off upon these hunts
or rides in so exhausted a condition that obviously their only effect
could be worse exhaustion. His intense admiration for Theodore
Roosevelt probably had its influence, conscious or unconscious, in
strengthening his devotion to violent outdoor exercise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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