I told him that I would be willing to try.

Accordingly, he wrote to the people who had applied to him for the information, that he did not know of any white man to suggest, but if they would be willing to take a coloured man, he had one whom he could recommend.

In this letter he gave them my name.
Several days passed before anything more was heard about the matter.
Some time afterward, one Sunday evening during the chapel exercises, a messenger came in and handed the general a telegram.

At the end of the exercises he read the telegram to the school.

In substance, these were its words: "Booker T.Washington will suit us.