Part 15 (1/2)

At the expiration of my first year as a night-school student, I entered day-school, devoting about equal time to academic and agricultural cla.s.ses, and a small portion of the time to the study of music, being a member of the Inst.i.tute bra.s.s band, and in my last year a member of the orchestra.

During my second summer's vacation I went into the southern part of Montgomery County, Ala., in search of a school to teach. There was no schoolhouse, no school fund, nor any appropriation available except for a three months' term during the winter. After further canva.s.s I was permitted to open a school in the little church at Strata, Ala. The large attendance of pupils and their eagerness to learn won my sympathy and I would gladly have planted a sprig of Tuskegee there had I not had strong inclinations for a commercial life. I conducted a cla.s.s in agriculture for the benefit of the farmers. I believe it was helpful to them. My spare time was spent in going through the country noting the waste of the land and the lack of enterprise among the owners and tenants, due in large measure, I am sure, to the mortgage system and the deep ignorance of the people. Most of the evenings I spent listening to the terrible stories of slavery days from the lips of those who had pa.s.sed through them.

In the midst of this service I received a telegram announcing the death of my mother. I was too far from home to return in time to see the last of her, even if I had had the means to do so. I was in grief; I had sustained a great loss; she was my all, my mother.

I returned to Tuskegee and graduated with the Cla.s.s of '98.

I am grateful to Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, to the genius of Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, for the opportunities I had to acquire an education; to the members of the Faculty for their a.s.sistance, and to my father, who gave me much of material aid and encouragement.

After graduating, I spent two months at special work in the school dairy; then, with the a.s.sistance of my father, I secured a position with the Forest City Creamery Company of Rockford, Ill. Entering this company's employ about the 15th of August, 1898, I have been employed ever since at the same place.

The Forest City Creamery is one of the largest b.u.t.ter-making concerns in the United States, averaging twenty thousand pounds of b.u.t.ter per day. We make two grades of b.u.t.ter, known as process, or renovated, and creamery b.u.t.ter. There are employed at this plant about seventy-five persons.

My work consists in what is known to the trade as ”starter-making” and preparing the flavor for the b.u.t.ter. The work is bacteriological, propagating a species of bacteria which produces the pleasant aroma and flavor of good b.u.t.ter. It requires not only an understanding of bacteriology, but skilled workmans.h.i.+p and earnest attention to details.

The secret processes of this company are known to a close group only, of which I am one. My work here has been entirely successful and satisfactory to my employers, if I may judge from a highly complimentary interview with one of the officers of the company regarding my work, published in one of the leading daily newspapers of Rockford, and the fact that I am now receiving double my initial wages.

I have a record not surpa.s.sed by any other employee of this company.

Between June 24, 1901, following a wedding-trip to Tuskegee, and August 15, 1904, when we visited the St. Louis Exposition, I have worked each day at the Creamery, including Sundays and holidays, my work requiring that I do so. These 1,155 consecutive days of labor were made possible by a total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors and tobacco. My success here can be credited to the efficient training I received at Tuskegee.

”It is not well for man to live alone.” Following this injunction I have taken unto myself a helpmeet, who is all that the word implies, loving, economical, and well trained in domestic arts. Shortly after our marriage we began paying for a home of eleven rooms located in a good residence portion of the city. The lower part of the house, containing six rooms, we occupy, and have comfortably furnished; the up-stairs portion, containing five rooms, we rent to a family of white people; the rent we receive equals the interest on the investment.

We have one child, a little girl two years old, who furnishes suns.h.i.+ne to an already happy home.

Our house is surrounded by a lawn with shade- and fruit-trees, and many flower-beds. The back yard contains a garden with berry plants, a well-built and well-arranged poultry-house, a yard containing a flock of pure-bred fowls, the nucleus of a future enterprise, and a barn with a good horse, a buggy, etc., for our pleasure and convenience.

My ambition when leaving school was first to endeavor to become independent financially, so that I might enjoy my old age; then, if it were possible, to gain that independence early in life by economy, by earning for myself what I earn for my employer; to try to make it possible for the Negro farmer to sell his produce to the Negro gin, the Negro cotton-mill, or creamery, as the case might be; my idea being, by this community of interest, to help the Negro people about me to help themselves and their fellows. I believe, in the words of the motto of the Cla.s.s of '98--my cla.s.s--that ”we rise upon the structure we ourselves have builded.” I have tried to live with this thought ever before me.

XII

THE STORY OF A WHEELWRIGHT

BY EDWARD LOMAX

I was born in the small town of Demopolis, in the western part of the State of Alabama, January 17, 1877. My uncle was a wheelwright, and I, at an early age, was led to desire to become an artisan such as my uncle was. I interceded with him and became the ”handy boy” around the shop in which he worked, and picked up much useful information; but there was nothing progressive or directly helpful in the work I was permitted to do. I also did some little work in blacksmithing while in the shop.

What to me was a fortunate circ.u.mstance was the meeting with a chance acquaintance who was returning from Tuskegee Inst.i.tute for his vacation.

This young man told me most glowing stories of the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute.

He was so enthusiastic that he imparted much of his enthusiasm to me. He himself was taking instruction in the wheelwrighting division, and could give at first-hand the information I most desired. The whole Tuskegee plan was outlined to me: how I could learn my trade, and at the same time get book instruction; how I could earn by labor enough to carry me through school while securing to myself the advantages mentioned. I had had to learn by seeing others do, and it was now pointed out to me how I could ”learn by doing,” and that was the thing I wanted. I had been used to being kept from the use of tools and everything that would really help me to learn wheelwrighting; the only chances I ever had being to ”knock about” the shop, occasionally having some worthless job, with cast-off tools to work with, entrusted to me.

The upshot of it was that I decided to go to Tuskegee, and carefully saved as much of my wages of $2.50 per week as I possibly could, so as to purchase clothing, books, and those incidentals insisted upon by the school that each student must have. I wrote to the school, and received a letter from Princ.i.p.al Was.h.i.+ngton admitting me should I find myself able to meet the requirements stated as follows:

No person will be admitted to the school as a student who can not pa.s.s the examination for the C Preparatory cla.s.s. To enter this cla.s.s one must be able to read, write, and understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Applicants for admission must be of good moral character and must bring at least two letters of recommendation as to their moral character from reliable persons of their communities.

_The Day-School._--The Day-School is intended for those who are able to pay all or the greater part of their expenses in cash.