A boys' life of Booker T. Washington

by Walter Clinton Jackson

After a fine voyage of ten days, they landed at Antwerp, a famous old city of Belgium. Here they spent a few quiet days, finding it extremely interesting to observe the people with their dress and manners and customs, different from anything they had ever seen before.

Then they went on a delightful journey through the picturesque country of Holland. Washington, always interested in farming and especially dairy farming, was greatly delighted on this trip. On every hand were the wonderful farms of the Dutch. He had never seen such intensive cultivation of land. Every foot of ground was used. Vegetables were grown in boxes, one row above another, on the back porches of the houses, so precious was the scarce land. Ten or twelve acres was a good big farm. Coming from a country where land is so abundant and cheap and so extravagantly wasted and so carelessly cultivated, these beautiful farms were a delight to him. And the herds of fine Holstein cattle pleased him immensely. He loved cows; and these seemed to be the finest herds he had ever seen in his life.

Out of Holland and back into the historic and now heroic Belgium, the party went, going to Waterloo, the famous battlefield of Napoleon’s defeat, and to other places of interest; and from here to Paris, the gayest and brightest of all the cities of Europe, the capital of France.

While in Paris, Washington met a number of distinguished Americans. He made two or three important speeches and was given a reception by the American ambassador at Paris. He met ex-President Harrison, General Horace Porter, our ambassador, Justices Fuller and Harlan, of the United States Supreme Court, and other distinguished men, all of whom were most cordial and friendly.

The American whom he found most interesting in Paris, however, was a negro—Henry O. Tanner. Tanner is an artist, a painter. He is the son of the beloved Bishop Tanner and was born in America. He showed marked talent for painting in his youth. When he grew up, he determined to go to the greatest city in the world for art. He went to Paris and became so successful in his work that he has continued to live there. He has several paintings in the Louvre, the greatest and most exclusive art gallery in the world. A picture cannot be put in the Louvre unless it is recognized and accepted as a great work of art. Washington spent much time with Tanner and was greatly pleased to see what marked success had been won by this American negro. He took it as proof of his contention that, when a negro proves himself really worthy, he will be recognized and honored, for Tanner enjoyed the esteem and regard of all his associates, regardless of race. And they esteemed him because of his worth, and not because of his color.

From Paris the Washingtons went to London. Here they visited many places of historic interest,—the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s, and the House of Commons. They met many interesting people,—the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, Joseph H. Choate, American ambassador to England, Henry M. Stanley, the great African explorer, with whom Washington conversed at length. They were also received by Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle.

It had been a wonderful trip. Washington had learned many lessons from the Old World. He had seen and talked with men who helped him in the better understanding of his own great task. He had had a wonderfully good time. He was thoroughly rested—a new man. He plunged into his work again upon his return with great vigor and enthusiasm.

Washington made two other trips to Europe during his lifetime. The second one was largely like the first—a trip for recreation and pleasure and rest. But the third trip was undertaken with a serious purpose. He wanted to see how the poor people of Europe lived, and how their living conditions compared with those of the workingman in the United States. He was particularly anxious to see how conditions there compared with those affecting the negro population of the South. He also wanted to see whether or not he could find anything in Europe that would justify the system of education he had established at Tuskegee. So this time he left the usual highways of travel and went far into the interior, visiting the peasant in his hut, in the remotest regions of the country,—the miner toiling underground, the laborer in the quarry, and the poor man at his work whatever it was and wherever he could be found. He visited the farms in the remote parts of Poland, Austria, and Italy. He went to the sulphur mines in Campo Franco. At Catania he saw the grape harvest and the men barelegged, treading the wine press as they did in Bible times.

In a very remote part of Poland, away up in the mountains, he stopped at a little thatched-roof cottage. Desiring to see how the place looked on the inside, he knocked at the door. In response a man opened the door, and Washington said something to him in English, thinking, of course, that the man would not understand, but that he would be able to see inside the hut. To his utter astonishment, the man answered him in English. Upon further conversation, he found that this man had once lived in Detroit, Michigan.

When he was in the mines at Campo Franco, Sicily, he by chance met a man who had once worked in the mines near Malden, West Virginia, where Washington himself had worked when a boy. The world is not such a big place after all!