To understand what progress has been made, we have to contrast the present outlook with that of forty years ago, when negroes were considered to be incapable of living as free people with credit to themselves, and when certain States actually had laws prohibiting their being set free. CHAPTER IX CONTINUED PROGRESS--POPULARITY AS A SPEAKER While the now great institution at Tuskegee continued to grow and to increase in popularity both with the North and the South, there seemed to be no reason for departure in any measure from the course marked out by General Armstrong. The number as well as the need of the negroes was so great that preparatory classes, similar to those which had succeeded so well at Hampton, were arranged for, and candidates eagerly came forward for admission--young people whose mettle was sufficiently well tested by their having to get through a long, hard day's work before they could enjoy the privilege and luxury of some hours of teaching in the night school. This kind of service has grown, and at the present time there are probably not far short of 500 pupils in its classes. Of course many advance from this stage to get admitted to the day school of the Institute. All along Booker Washington has been subjected to the temptation to excel in public speaking, but he has indulged in this only so far as the practice would advance his work. He began to make his mark when he gave an address before the Educational Association at Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, and the seat of a university. Whenever he spoke the founder of Tuskegee Institute was recognised as a gifted, natural orator; and his most famous address, and one which was destined to have most far-reaching consequences, while it added to the popularity of the man and his work, was one which he gave in the autumn of 1895 at a Cotton States Exhibition, which was also to some extent international.