Up from Slavery: An AutobiographyWashington, Booker T.
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Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
Washington, Booker T.
African Americans -- Biography; Educators -- United States -- Biography; Tuskegee Institute; Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
On various occasions Mrs. Washington and I were the guests of
Englishmen in their country homes, where, I think, one sees the
Englishman at his best. In one thing, at least, I feel sure that the
English are ahead of Americans, and that is, that they have learned how
to get more out of life. The home life of the English seems to me to be
about as perfect as anything can be. Everything moves like clockwork. I
was impressed, too, with the deference that the servants show to their
“masters” and “mistresses,”—terms which I suppose would not be
tolerated in America. The English servant expects, as a rule, to be
nothing but a servant, and so he perfects himself in the art to a
degree that no class of servants in America has yet reached. In our
country the servant expects to become, in a few years, a “master”
himself. Which system is preferable? I will not venture an answer.
Another thing that impressed itself upon me throughout England was the
high regard that all classes have for law and order, and the ease and
thoroughness with which everything is done. The Englishmen, I found,
took plenty of time for eating, as for everything else. I am not sure
if, in the long run, they do not accomplish as much or more than
rushing, nervous Americans do.
My visit to England gave me a higher regard for the nobility than I had
had. I had no idea that they were so generally loved and respected by
the classes, nor had I any correct conception of how much time and
money they spent in works of philanthropy, and how much real heart they
put into this work. My impression had been that they merely spent money
freely and had a “good time.”
It was hard for me to get accustomed to speaking to English audiences.
The average Englishman is so serious, and is so tremendously in earnest
about everything, that when I told a story that would have made an
American audience roar with laughter, the Englishmen simply looked me
straight in the face without even cracking a smile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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