Gift to the Tuskegee Institute
By W. A. COLCORD.
A FEW years ago Andrew Carnegie gave the trustees of the Tuskegee Normal Industrial Institute, of which Mr. Booker T. Washington is principal, twenty thousand dollars with which to erect a library building. The building was recently completed, practically all the work being done by the students of the institution. Noticing a call by Mr. Washington for books with which to equip the library, we wrote, asking if books of a religious character would be acceptable. Mr. Washington replied:— “We shall be very glad to receive religious books such as you mention in your favor of a few days ago. They will help us very much in our work, as we have quite a number of young men in Tuskegee taking the course in Bible training, and also our general readers in the library would find them very helpful. Thanking you for your thought for us in this connection, and with the hope that we shall receive a number of these books at your convenience, I am, very truly yours.”
We then set about raising sufficient funds to send a good variety of our best books to the library, and also a number to Mr. Washington for his personal use. The following books were sent:— For the Tuskegee Institute Library
Education, Empires of the Bible, Empires of Prophecy, Ecclesiastical Empire, Steps to Christ, Christ’s Object Lessons, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, Patriarchs and Prophets,20Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, Bible Readings, History of the Sabbath, Heralds of the Morning, Coming King, Looking unto Jesus, Marvel of Nations, Story of Daniel the Prophet, Here and Hereafter, Power for Witnessing, Helps to Bible Study, Change of the Sabbath, His Glorious Appearing, Our Paradise Home, Modern Spiritualism, and A Friend in the Kitchen. To Mr. Booker T. Washington
Education, Christ’s Object Lessons, Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets, Desire of Ages, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, Steps to Christ, and Coming King, thirty-four in all. Upon receipt of these, Mr. Washington wrote us, stating that he appreciated most highly our sending this list of valuable books, and assuring us that the teachers and students at the Tuskegee Institute would be much interested and benefited by having access to them. He also thanked us personally for our kindness in including the books we did for his own private library, saying that they would be a valuable addition, and that he looked forward to a great deal of pleasure and profit in reading them “at the first opportunity.” The value of the books sent was about forty-eight dollars. The freight was prepaid. We were glad to place the truth thus within the reach of the fifteen or sixteen hundred colored students who attend this school every year, and trust that good may result from this seed sowing.