I always make it a rule to make especial preparation for each
separate address. No two audiences are exactly alike. It is my
aim to reach and talk to the heart of each individual audience,
taking it into my confidence very much as I would a person. When
I am speaking to an audience, I care little for how what I am
saying is going to sound in the newspapers, or to another
audience, or to an individual. At the time, the audience before
me absorbs all my sympathy, thought, and energy.
Early in the morning a committee called to escort me to my place
in the procession which was to march to the Exposition grounds.
In this procession were prominent coloured citizens in carriages,
as well as several Negro military organizations. I noted that the
Exposition officials seemed to go out of their way to see that
all of the coloured people in the procession were properly placed
and properly treated. The procession was about three hours in
reaching the Exposition grounds, and during all of this time the
sun was shining down upon us disagreeably hot. When we reached
the grounds, the heat, together with my nervous anxiety, made me
feel as if I were about ready to collapse, and to feel that my
address was not going to be a success. When I entered the
audience-room, I found it packed with humanity from bottom to
top, and there were thousands outside who could not get in.
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