A boys' life of Booker T. Washington

by Walter Clinton Jackson

CHAPTER XIV
VISITS TO EUROPE

Washington was a great traveler. He was away from his home at least half of each year and often more than that. He traveled principally in the North, making speeches and interviewing people who might help Tuskegee. While on these trips, he did most of his reading and writing. He was very fond of newspapers and magazines. When he started on a long journey, he surrounded himself with a large number of papers and magazines and books, which he thoroughly enjoyed. History was his favorite field of reading outside of newspapers and magazines. He was especially fond of biography—of reading about real men, men of action and thought and great talents. Much of his greatest inspiration as a boy came from reading the lives of great men. Lincoln was his greatest hero. He said that he had read practically every recorded word of Lincoln’s.

Washington also did much of his writing on these trips. He kept his stenographer with him all the time, and, when he was not reading, he was usually dictating a speech, or a letter, or an article for a magazine. A large part of his greatest book, “Up from Slavery,” was written while he was on the train or waiting at stations between trains. It is remarkable that he should have been able to accomplish so much under such circumstances, for traveling was hard work. He often had to get up in the middle of the night to catch a train and then ride all day, often without Pullman accommodations. He said that he had slept in three different beds in one night, so broken was his rest and so often did he have to change trains in order to keep engagements. Undoubtedly it was this hard traveling that helped to break down his great strength and wear him out.

Booker T. Washington, First Principal of Tuskegee Institute

In 1899 he made a speech in Boston, and some of his friends noticed that he seemed extremely tired. He remained in Boston several days. One day during his stay a friend asked him if he had ever been to Europe. He replied that he had not. He was asked very casually whether he thought that he would enjoy a trip to Europe. He said that he certainly would, but he did not ever expect to have such a pleasure. A day or two later some of his friends came to him and told him they had a little surprise for him, that they had made arrangements for him and his wife to go to Europe in the summer and spend several months on a vacation.

Washington was very greatly surprised. He thanked his friends very cordially for their interest but told them that he could not afford to take the trip. Whereupon they told him that all the money for the expenses of the trip had already been raised, and that it would not cost him a cent. He thanked them again very sincerely but told them he could not think of leaving his work that long,—that money had to be raised for Tuskegee, and that he had to stay right on the job to get it. Then they told him that a group of his friends had already raised enough money to keep Tuskegee going until he got back. He then gave another excuse. He was afraid people would say that he was “stuck up”; that since he had made some success in the world he was trying to show off and play the big man. His friends told him that sensible people would not think such a thing, and that he need not bother about the people who had no sense. Washington thought, too, that he had no right to quit work so long. He had worked all his life. There was a world of work yet he had to do. To go off on a vacation of several months, when there was so much to be done, and when other people were at work, seemed wrong to him. But he realized finally that a reasonable amount of rest, when one is tired, means more and better work in the long run.

So it came about that, on May 10, 1899, Washington and his wife went aboard the ship Friesland in New York harbor and sailed for Europe. It was a wonderful experience for Washington. In the first place, as he went aboard the ship, he received a message from two of his friends telling him that they had decided to give him the money to build a magnificent new building at Tuskegee. That was a good “send-off.” Washington was a bit uneasy about how people would treat him aboard ship. He knew what unfortunate experiences some members of his race had had in times past. But the captain received him cordially, and everybody on board was exceedingly courteous to him and to his wife in every way.

Washington on his way to Europe! It seemed to him like a dream. Again and again he had thought of Europe,—much as he did of heaven,—a goodly place, but far away. It had never even occurred to him that he would ever go to Europe. And now he was on his way! He was like a schoolboy; he was happy over the prospect of a wonderful trip.

He did not get seasick on the voyage, as most of the passengers did. The weather was fine, and he had a glorious voyage. But he did not know how tired and worn out he was until he relaxed. About the second day he began to sleep, and he says that from then on until they landed he slept at least fifteen hours every day. He continued the habit of long hours devoted to sleep all the time he was gone, and it was one of the means by which he restored his depleted strength.