When he spoke to his people on these trips he had the faculty of becoming one of them. He described their daily lives in their own language. He told them how much land they owned, how much of it was mortgaged, how much and what they raised, and in fact every vital economic and social fact about their lives and the conditions about them. He praised them for what was creditable, censured and bantered them for what was bad, and told them what conditions should be and how they could make them so. He made these tours through Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and portions of Alabama and Georgia. Besides these State tours he would, whenever he could take the time, shoot out into the country surrounding Tuskegee Institute to encourage and promote the efforts of his neighbors of his own race. In July, 1911, accompanied by some guests and members of his faculty, he made such a visit to Mt. Olive, a village on the east of Tuskegee. The party was first taken to the village church where they found a teeming congregation to greet them. Here Mr. Washington was introduced by the principal of the "Washington School" who said that since Mr. Washington's visit eighteen months ago the colored people had purchased forty-one lots, built several new houses, whitewashed or painted the old ones, and increased their gardens to such an extent that few, if any, had still to buy their vegetables. Mr. Washington opened his talk by saying: "It is an inspiration simply to drive through and see your pleasant houses surrounded by flowers and gardens and all that goes to make life happy." He then appealed to the women to make their homes as attractive on the inside as the gardens had made them on the outside. He told them the best receipt for keeping the men and the children at home and out of mischief was to make the homes so attractive that they would not want to go away. Then, as always, before he closed he put in his warnings and injunctions to the derelict: "Paint your houses; if you can't paint them, whitewash them. Put the men to work in their spare hours repairing fences, gates, and windows. Get together in your church, as you have in your school-work, settle on a pastor and get him to live in your community. Pay him in order that he may live here and become a part of your community." On another such trip through the southwestern part of Macon County, the county in which Tuskegee is located, he was once accompanied by Judge Robert H. Terrell, the Negro Judge of the District of Columbia; the Hon. Whitefield McKinlay, the Negro Collector of Customs for the District of Columbia; George L. Knox, owner and editor of the Indianapolis _Freeman_, a Negro newspaper; W.T.B. Williams, agent for the Anna T. Jeanes Fund and the Slater Board; Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones of the United States Census Bureau, and Lord Eustace Percy, one of the Secretaries of the British Embassy at Washington.