BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 31, 5 February 1916, Page 18

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.

A REMAKEABtE NEGRO. I STORY OF HIS LIFE WORK. Booker Taliaferro Washington, the pioneer of education for the nejrro race and the head of tlie Tuskepee Institute, who died recently, »-*s. according to hia own belief and family tnidltlou. born about 56 years aj-o in tho vicinity of a ulaveoultlvated tobacco plantation at Hale's Ford, Franklin County, Ylrfftnla. Ills father was a white man or octoroon, named (It was thought) TaLlafcrro; ills mother was a negress pur sang. Previous to"her union with the father of Booker she bod had one or more children by a negro, and one of these —John 11. Washington—bos been a hard-worldly;, able, and talented assistant to his better-known brother in the development of industrial and agricultural education at Tuskejee. Booker Washing-ton's mother was the cook of the plantation near Hale's Ford. .She and her three children inhabited a logcabin lift by 16ft, In which aU the cooklns was done over an open fireplace ln pots and skillets. The floor was merely beaten ! earth, unbearded, and on this the three children slept on a bundle of filthy rags. I Booker—*why he was called by this name Ino one knew, and "Washington" was I merely a name of adoption abruptly assumed when he went to school—was of coarse born a slave, and when c4d enough —say la IS63—to do any work he was sent up to the "big houso" to pull tbe cord of a kind of pnnkoh arrangement in paper fans for driving the flies away from tho cHnlng table of the white folks. 1 MODEST BEGINNINGS OF HIS WORK. > When Booker .Washington was about flvc years old rresldont Lincoln's Eonanciij-atlon Proclamation began to take effect ln the regions now held by the Federal troops. Somewhere about 18G5 his mother (who by now "Bad another -negro "husband*') cml-, grated with him and with hor three children to West Virginia, a region which had tieid aloof from slavery as nn institution and was about to bo erected into on Independent State. Here a new life began for the eager, ambitious little mula-tto, who had a not unkindly step-lather and a mother who was far-slgbted in her desire ito secure an education for her children. Booker worked ln salt-furnaces and coalmines, but somehow -managed to obtain teaching at day schools and night schools and in IST2 entered the famous Hampton Institute.

It was to General Armstrong himself that Booker Washington owed Ids great opening in life. The Principal of Hampton discerned uuusual qualities in ihe' mulatto student who had overcome many hardships, privations, and disoibilltles In travelling 500 miles from the salt.fnrnaces of West Virginia to acquire an education, and who soon showed as a pupil teacher ■his extraordinary powers of command and energising influence amongst his coloured and Amerindian fellow students. And -when In 1879-SO, an industrial Institute for negroes was founded near the pretty, sleepy town of Tuskegce ln Central Alabama (founded Jointly by an aristocratic white banker and a negro tinsmith), and when application was made to General Armstrong; for a coloured teacher wno should Instruct ln useful trades a number o£ derelict negro children and loaJlng Uoboie-de-hoys, Armstrong at onco -nicked out Booker Washington.

He had to begin work in this district WiUj two frame houses and n ruined Hmiier chapel as sole premises (tbey still exist as ihemontoea outside the grounds ot the maenMioent Institute), aud tor funds little more than a State grant of 2000 dollars per annum. 114s colleague -was Miss Olivia iDavidson, who came to teach the girls ot ithe little community. Later on she became bis wife, lie having married, flrstiy.

soon aftox taking up his appointment a Miss Katuile .Smith, whom he had met In his student days ln West Vdrginla. Uoth these yonng women may be said to have worn themselves out by their eager and strenuous work at Tuakegec, the first wife after only two years of nKtrriage. and Uie second. Olivia Davidson, tbe mother of Booker's two eldest sous. In ISSO. TUSBBOBE IX.STJTCTB. Rapidly the Industrial Institute nt Tuskegee grow Into a mighty centre of learning and industry, endowed by wealthy white men and by negroes nnd negresses who had accumulated wealth in the Northern States. .Specially should be mentioned Andrew Carnegie, who not only presented the Institute with a magnificent library—*■ noteworthy for Its wide range of literature, its beautiful architecture, and furniture— but also so endowed th<? work ot the Institute that lt need never fear lack of funds to cramp its energies; and so provides! for Booker Washington himself thai henceforth he conld offord to travel comfortably, to occupy a beautiful dwelling-house In the grounds of the institute, and to devote some of his spare time to research work and experiments —perhaps unprofitable— out of which might grow future profitable omployment for the coloured people in the United States and West Indies. The particular Importance of Booker Washington's life work ls that at Tuskegce (and the now innumerable Institutions to which it has given birth all over the United Stages), the coloured boy or girl ls Instructed ln Immediate awl useful ways of earning a living as a nxison, architect, carpenter, drcssmciltc-r, tailor, bootmaker, typewriter, stenographer, poultrykee-per, ploughman, gardener, electrician, tobaccoplanter, cotton-planter, milliner, hatter, cook, housemaid, carriage builder, printer, laundress, mattross-mflker, upholsterer, ■*oapma.ker, beekeeper, farrier, chemist, and hairdresser.

Booker Washington was married a third time ta ISO 3. His -wlilow was nt tliat time the ladr Principal of Tuskegoo Institute, a Miss Mj-L**ca*"et Murray, a native o£ tbe State of Mississippi.