A weak and narrow man would have reasoned that all the money which came to Tuskegee in this way would be just so much taken from the Hampton Institute; but none of these selfish or short-sighted feelings ever entered the breast of General Armstrong.

He was too big to be little, too good to be mean.

He knew that the people in the North who gave money gave it for the purpose of helping the whole cause of Negro civilization, and not merely for the advancement of any one school.

The General knew, too, that the way to strengthen Hampton was to make it a centre of unselfish power in the working out of the whole Southern problem.
In regard to the addresses which I was to make in the North, I recall just one piece of advice which the General gave me.

He said: "Give them an idea for every word." I think it would be hard to improve upon this advice; and it might be made to apply to all public speaking.