[Footnote 18: From _Up from Slavery_, by Booker T. Washington. Copyright,
1900, 1901, by Doubleday, Page & Co. By permission.]
One day, while at work in the coal-mine, I happened to overhear two miners
talking about a great school for coloured people somewhere in Virginia.
This was the first time that I had ever heard anything about any kind of
school or college that was more pretentious than the little coloured school
in our town.
In the darkness of the mine I noiselessly crept as close as I could to the
two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other that not only was the
school established for the members of my race, but that opportunities were
provided by which poor but worthy students could work out all or a part of
the cost of board, and at the same time be taught some trade or industry.
As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must be the
greatest place on earth, and not even Heaven presented more attractions for
me at that time than did the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in
Virginia, about which these men were talking. I resolved at once to go to
that school, although I had no idea where it was, or how many miles away,
or how I was going to reach it; I remembered only that I was on fire
constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought
was with me day and night.
After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a few
months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard of a vacant
position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the
salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General
Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont. Mrs. Ruffner had a reputation
all through the vicinity for being very strict with her servants, and
especially with the boys who tried to serve her. Few of them had remained
with her more than two or three weeks. They all left with the same excuse:
she was too strict. I decided, however, that I would rather try Mrs.
Ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my mother applied to
her for the vacant position. I was hired at a salary of $5 per month.
I had heard so much about Mrs. Ruffner's severity that I was almost afraid
to see her, and trembled when I went into her presence. I had not lived
with her many weeks, however, before I began to understand her. I soon
began to learn that, first of all, she wanted everything kept clean about
her, that she wanted things done promptly and systematically, and at the
bottom of everything she wanted absolute honesty and frankness. Nothing
must be sloven or slipshod; every door, every fence, must be kept in
repair.
I cannot now recall how long I lived with Mrs. Ruffner before going to
Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a half. At any rate, I
here repeat what I have said more than once before, that the lessons that I
learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education
I have ever gotten anywhere since. Even to this day I never see bits of
paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to pick
them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it,
a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it on, an unpainted or
unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or whitewash it, or a
button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or on a floor, that I do
not want to call attention to it.
From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of my best
friends. When she found that she could trust me she did so implicitly.
During the one or two winters that I was with her she gave me an
opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a portion of the
winter months, but most of my studying was done at night, sometimes alone,
sometimes under someone whom I could hire to teach me. Mrs. Ruffner always
encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education.
It was while living with her that I began to get together my first library.
I secured a dry-goods box, knocked out one side of it, put some shelves in
it, and began putting into it every kind of book that I could get my hands
upon, and called it my "library."
Notwithstanding my success at Mrs. Ruffner's I did not give up the idea of
going to the Hampton Institute. In the fall of 1872 I determined to make an
effort to get there, although, as I have stated, I had no definite idea of
the direction in which Hampton was, or of what it would cost to go there. I
do not think that any one thoroughly sympathized with me in my ambition to
go to Hampton unless it was my mother, and she was troubled with a grave
fear that I was starting out on a "wild-goose chase." At any rate, I got
only a half-hearted consent from her that I might start. The small amount
of money that I had earned had been consumed by my stepfather and the
remainder of the family, with the exception of a very few dollars, and so I
had very little with which to buy clothes and pay my travelling expenses.
My brother John helped me all that he could, but of course that was not a
great deal, for his work was in the coal-mine, where he did not earn much,
and most of what he did earn went in the direction of paying the household
expenses.
Perhaps the thing that touched and pleased me most in connection with my
starting for Hampton was the interest that many of the older coloured
people took in the matter. They had spent the best days of their lives in
slavery, and hardly expected to live to see the time when they would see a
member of their race leave home to attend a boarding-school. Some of these
older people would give me a nickel, others a quarter, or a handkerchief.
Finally the great day came, and I started for Hampton. I had only a small,
cheap satchel that contained what few articles of clothing I could get. My
mother at the time was rather weak and broken in health. I hardly expected
to see her again, and thus our parting was all the more sad. She, however,
was very brave through it all. At that time there were no through trains
connecting that part of West Virginia with eastern Virginia. Trains ran
only a portion of the way, and the remainder of the distance was travelled
by stagecoaches.
The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. I had not
been away from home many hours before it began to grow painfully evident
that I did not have enough money to pay my fare to Hampton. One experience
I shall long remember. I had been travelling over the mountains most of the
afternoon in an old-fashioned stage-coach, when, late in the evening, the
coach stopped for the night at a common, unpainted house called a hotel.
All the other passengers except myself were whites. In my ignorance I
supposed that the little hotel existed for the purpose of accommodating the
passengers who travelled on the stage-coach. The difference that the colour
of one's skin would make I had not thought anything about. After all the
other passengers had been shown rooms and were getting ready for supper, I
shyly presented myself before the man at the desk. It is true I had
practically no money in my pocket with which to pay for bed or food, but I
had hoped in some way to beg my way into the good graces of the landlord,
for at that season in the mountains of Virginia the weather was cold, and I
wanted to get indoors for the night. Without asking as to whether I had any
money, the man at the desk firmly refused to even consider the matter of
providing me with food or lodging. This was my first experience in finding
out what the colour of my skin meant. In some way I managed to keep warm by
walking about, and so got through the night. My whole soul was so bent upon
reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness toward
the hotel-keeper.
By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way,
after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about
eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and
dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city, and this
rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was completely out of
money. I had not a single acquaintance in the place, and, being unused to
city ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at several places for
lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what I did not have.
Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets. In doing this I
passed by many food-stands where fried chicken and half-moon apple pies
were piled high and made to present a most tempting appearance. At that
time it seemed to me that I would have promised all that I expected to
possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of those chicken legs or
one of those pies. But I could not get either of these, nor anything else
to eat.
I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so
exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired, I was hungry, I was
everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme
physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of a street where the board
sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till I was
sure that no passers-by could see me, and then crept under the sidewalk and
lay for the night upon the ground, with my satchel of clothing for a
pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet over my head. The
next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but I was extremely hungry,
because it had been a long time since I had had sufficient food. As soon as
it became light enough for me to see my surroundings I noticed that I was
near a large ship, and that this ship seemed to be unloading a cargo of
pigiron. I went at once to the vessel and asked the captain to permit me to
help unload the vessel in order to get money for food. The captain, a white
man, who seemed to be kind-hearted, consented. I worked long enough to earn
money for my breakfast, and it seems to me, as I remember it now, to have
been about the best breakfast that I have ever eaten.
My work pleased the captain so well that he told me if I desired I could
continue working for a small amount per day. This I was very glad to do. I
continued working on this vessel for a number of days. After buying food
with the small wages I received there was not much left to add to the
amount I must get to pay my way to Hampton. In order to economize in every
way possible, so as to be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable time, I
continued to sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter the first
night I was in Richmond. Many years after that the coloured citizens of
Richmond very kindly tendered me a reception at which there must have been
two thousand people present. This reception was held not far from the spot
where I slept the first night I spent in that city, and I must confess that
my mind was more upon the sidewalk that first gave me shelter than upon the
reception, agreeable and cordial as it was.
When I had saved what I considered enough money with which to reach
Hampton, I thanked the captain of the vessel for his kindness, and started
again. Without any unusual occurrence I reached Hampton, with a surplus of
exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. To me it had been a
long, eventful journey; but the first sight of the large, three-story,
brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all that I had
undergone in order to reach the place. If the people who gave the money to
provide that building could appreciate the influence the sight of it had
upon me, as well as upon thousands of other youths, they would feel all the
more encouraged to make such gifts. It seemed to me to be the largest and
most beautiful building I had ever seen. The sight of it seemed to give me
new life. I felt that a new kind of existence had now begun--that life
would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had reached the promised land,
and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest
effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world.
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, I
presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having
been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did
not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon her, and I could see
at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me
as a student. I felt that I could hardly blame her if she got the idea that
I was a worthless loafer or tramp. For some time she did not refuse to
admit me, neither did she decide in my favour, and I continued to linger
about her, and to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness.
In the meantime I saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly
to my discomfort, for I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as
well as they, if I could only get a chance to show what was in me.
After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The adjoining
recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it."
It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive an
order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner had
thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her.
I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and I
dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench,
table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth. Besides,
every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in the
room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large measure
my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the
cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head teacher.
She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt. She went
into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her
handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the
table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the
floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked,
"I guess you will do to enter this institution."
I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room was my
college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for
entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I
have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that
this was the best one I ever passed.