The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of
delight to me. These were held on Saturday evening; and during my
whole life at Hampton I do not recall that I missed a single
meeting. I not only attended the weekly debating society, but was
instrumental in organizing an additional society. I noticed that
between the time when supper was over and the time to begin
evening study there were about twenty minutes which the young men
usually spent in idle gossip. About twenty of us formed a society
for the purpose of utilizing this time in debate or in practice
in public speaking. Few persons ever derived more happiness or
benefit from the use of twenty minutes of time than we did in
this way.
At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some
money sent me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by a
small gift from one of the teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to
return to my home in Malden, West Virginia, to spend my vacation.
When I reached home I found that the salt-furnaces were not
running, and that the coal-mine was not being operated on account
of the miners being out on "strike." This was something which, it
seemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or three months
ahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they spent
all that they had saved, and would often return to work in debt
at the same wages, or would move to another mine at considerable
expense.
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