He
remained with us a week, and made a careful inspection of
everything. He seemed well pleased with our progress, and wrote
back interesting and encouraging reports to Hampton. A little
later Miss Mary F. Mackie, the teacher who had given me the
"sweeping" examination when I entered Hampton, came to see us,
and still later General Armstrong himself came.
At the time of the visits of these Hampton friends the number of
teachers at Tuskegee had increase considerably, and the most of
the new teachers were graduates of the Hampton Institute. We gave
our Hampton friends, especially General Armstrong, a cordial
welcome. They were all surprised and pleased at the rapid
progress that the school had made within so short a time. The
coloured people from miles around came to the school to get a
look at General Armstrong, about whom they had heard so much. The
General was not only welcomed by the members of my own race, but
by the Southern white people as well.
This first visit which General Armstrong made to Tuskegee gave me
an opportunity to get an insight into his character such as I had
not before had. I refer to his interest in the Southern white
people. Before this I had had the thought that General Armstrong,
having fought the Southern white man, rather cherished a feeling
of bitterness toward the white South, and was interested in
helping only the coloured man there.
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