For the Uplifting of a Race.
Some men according to the world's standard are born “great.” Some men have greatness thrust upon them through circumstance, and through the tide of affairs and events ride on to fame and fortune. Some men are “great” in physical prowess; some, in beauty of form; some, in art; some, in eloquence. Booker T. Washington is not a great man measured by any of these things. He is not a finished orator, he is not noted for book education, nevertheless, Booker Taliefero Washington is a great man. He has grasped the simple, yet great and comprehensive principles of true education, and by persistent, indomitable will-power pushed forward in them to success. Educators have seen these fundamental principles, but few seemingly have known how to put them into practice. Great buildings and expensive paraphernalia have been demanded before the principles were made effective, and the schools have failed, or have lived at a poor, dying rate. Mr. Washington grasped the principles and put them in practice with what he had—a poor, dilapidated hut and thirty poor, black children. Other men have theorized, he has wrought; and in this age, as in all others, it is the men who do that will be heard. Now, where was one hut and thirty scholars then, is property worth half a million, fifty-nine respectable buildings of all sorts, and a population of 1,400. More than this: There are continually going out from the institute at Tuskegee, Alabama, young men and women, trained in all the useful trades, who are enthused with the principles which Mr. Washington has taught them, to do their part in uplifting the colored race, to save them from the ignorance which is a worse enemy than the race hatred they have to meet. We started to tell somewhat of Mr. Washington's work on the coast. This we will leave till our next.