In 1881 General Armstrong was asked by some gentlemen in Alabama to recommend someone to take charge of a Normal School for the coloured people in Tuskegee. He recommended Washington, who was immediately accepted. Tuskegee was a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, nearly one half of whom were coloured. Washington expected Tuskegee a school-building and the necessary teaching apparatus. To his utter disappointment he found nothing of the kind. The State had given a grant of 2000 for the payment of teachers only. What however he found was hundreds of hungry and earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge.

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His first work was to find a place in which to open the school. After a careful enquiry he could secure an old shanty, near the Methodist Church, with the Church itself as an assembly room. Both these places were in a dilapidated condition. The school was opened here in July 4, 1881, with thirty students of both the sexes. It soon became apparent that something else must be done besides teaching mere books. The students were ignorant of many essential things. They did not know how to bathe and care for the body; they scarcely thought what was proper to eat and how to eat it; they had no idea as how to care for their rooms. Besides this, he also wanted to give them a practical knowledge of some one industry with the spirit of labour economy. They were to be so trained and equipped with the industrial education that they would be sure of knowing how to make a living after they had gone out in the world. Eighty per cent of the coloured people depended upon agriculture. Such an education was therefore absolutely essential as would fit a large proportion of the students to return to their farms as good farmers, and put "new energy and new ideas into farming, as well as into the intellectual, moral and religious life of the people."

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Three months after they began their work an' old plantation came into the market for sale. It was bought for 500 with the help of General F. B. Marshall, the treasurer of Hampton. No time was lost in occupying the place. There were standing upon the plantation only a cabin, an old kitchen, stable, an old hen house. As soon as the cabins were in a condition to be used, it was resolved to clear up some land in the neighbourhood to plant a crop. When this was explained to the students, they did not welcome the idea. It was defficult for them to see the relation between clearing land and an education. Washington, however, took his axe and led the way to the woods. When his students saw that he was not ashamed to work, they gladly came forward with a smile. The school was daily growing in numbers, and an adequate provision of buildings and

apparatus became a pressing necessity. From the very beginning Washington was determined that the students should erect their own buildings. "During the nineteen years' existence of the Tuskegee school," forty buildings had been built, and "all except four are almost wholly the product of student labour. Under his presidency the Tuskegee institute at present has become the foremost exponent of industrial education for the Negroes."

His work demanded more and more money; to promote its interest it became necessary co establish better understanding between the white and the coloured people; and on account of these and similar causes he took to public speaking. Soon his fame as an orator increased and he delivered many addresses and lectures throughout the United States. His speech in 1895 at the opening of the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exhibition is especially noteworthy. It was equally liked and appreciated by the white and the coloured people, and is considered to be one of his best, finest and most thoughtful speeches.

A few extracts from this speech will not be out of place:

"To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say, 'Cast down your bucket where you are'-cast it down in making friends in every mnly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded."

"No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling the field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities."

"In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."

"In 1898 the Tuskegee Institute was very fortunate to receive a visit from the then President of America. In the course of his address to the students President Mackinley observed :

"To meet you under such pleasant auspices and to have the opportunity of a personal observation of your work is indeed most gratifying. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is ideal in its conception, and has already a large and growing reputation in the country, and is not unknown abroad. I congratulate all who are associated in this undertaking for the good work which it is doing in the education of its students to lead lives of honour and usefulness, thus exalting the race for which it was established."

"Nowhere I think could a more delightful location have been chosen for this unique educational experiment, which has attracted the attention and won the support even of conservative philanthropists in all sections of the country."

'To speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to Booker T. Washington's genius and perseverance would be impossible. The inception of this noble enterprise was his, and he deserves high credit

for it. His was the enthusiasm and enterprise which made its steady progress possible, and established in the institution its present high standard of accomplishments. He has won a worthy reputation as one of the great leaders of his race, widely known and much respected at home and abroad as an accomplished educator, a great orator, and a true philanthropist.'

His work is also recognised by the American Universities. Harvard conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in 1896, and Darmouth that of Doctor of Literature in 1901. In 1899 some of his friends raised a sum of money to enable him and his wife to undertake a trip to Europe as he was very tired on account of eighteen years' strenuous and laborious work. He visited Belgium, Holland, France and England, and returned home after a three months' stay in the Old World !

The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute was established by the legislature of 1880. The school was opened in 1881 in a rented shanty and church with thirty pupils and but one teacher. During the first session the present location with three buildings thereon was purchased. The population of the school community is at present over 2000. This includes 193 teachers, officers and employees with their families. From its foundation upto 1912 over 9000 men and women have finished a full or partial course. In 1912 the total enrolment was 1645. Of these 1067 were young men, 578 young women.

The educational plant consists of 2345 acres of land, and 107 buildings. This does not include 19910 acres of public land as remaining unsold from 25500 acres granted by Act of Congress, and valued at 25000000. The control of the school is vested in a Board of 19 Trustees. The Endowment Fund amounts at the present time to 1,871,647. The current annual expense is about 270000. Including the agricultural department, the industries for girls and the Nurse Training School there are now forty different trades or professions taught at Tuskegee. They are grouped under agriculture, mechanical industries, and the industries for girls.

At the present time the farm comprises 22300 acres. An extensive live-stock industry is also conducted on the basis of this farm. Landscape gardening, horticulture, and floriculture have recently been added. There is a Museum in which specimens of various products of the soil are preserved for illustrating lectures. Experiments in cotton breeding are carried on since 1905.

In the shops, where the mechanical industries are taught, arrangements are made for the following trades :-Carpentry, wood-working, printing, tailoring, black-smithing, wheelwrighting, harness-making, carriage-trimming, plumbing, steel-fitting, electric-lighting, architectural and mechanical drawing, tinning, painting, steam-engineering, and shoe-making.

Girls' trades include laundry, cooking, dressmaking, and millinery. All girls in the school study cooking and domestic science. The school maintains a practice cottage, where the girls of the senior class keep house, and do their own cooking on a small fixed allowance given them by the school.

There is also an academic department. All the students are required to take academic studies. There is a systematic effort to harmonise academic studies with industrial training and practical interest of the pupils. Teaching in this department is carried on by a faculty of fifty-two teachers, giving instruction on the subjects of English, Mathematics, History and Geography, Science, Education, Book-keeping, Vocal and Instrumental Music, Kinder-Garten, Drawing, Writing and Physical culture. There is also a public school of the institute community called the Children's House. A summer school is conducted each year for teachers from the northern and the southern States.

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Religious and spiritual education is given in the Phelp Bible Training School. The aim of this department is to give its students comprehensive knowledge of the whole English Bible. This is done with a view to give them such knowledge and training as will fit them to work as preachers and missionaries.

In 1892 a Hospital and Nurse Training School was started. Seventy four nurses have gone out from the school since 1894, and are doing good work in different parts of the country.

Besides these, there are other special features of educational work at Tuskegee for which a school extension department is created. In 1891 the Annual Negro Conference was started. which has resulted now in the annual farmers' and wokers' conferences. A Farmers' Institute was established in 1897. A short course in Agriculture is started since 1904 to give the farmers the advantage of two weeks' study and observation of the work of the school farm. In 1907 the demonstration farming experiment was started. A Negro County Fair has been held for a number of years in connection with the Farmers' Institute. There is a Rural School Extension, a Model School, a Plantation Settlement, and Mothers' Clubs, the last two being established through Mrs. Booker T. Washington's efforts. A National Negro Business League also meets annually at Tuskegee.

The discipline of the school is in charge of the commandant of the battalion and the Dean of the Women's Department. Military discipline of some sort has been enforced since the foundation of the school.

There is a large Library housed in the Carnegie Library building, which contains at present 19000 volumes. A special effort is now made to furnish the Library with books and pamphlets on Africa and the Negroes. The Library carries on a considerable amount of extension

work. Circulating Library boxes are being fitted up and sent out to the Rural Schools.

Having seen so far the life of Booker T. Washington, and his noble work at Tuskegee, it will not be a digression to apply the lessons of his story to the present condition of India. Curiously enough the position of the American Negro closely resembles the state of our untouchable and depressed classes. With the stigma of being untouchable, they are in a deep submerged condition of poverty, ignorance, social degradation and isolation from a higher moral and spiritual life. The insanitary life they lead, together with the regular visits of famines and plague, makes their condition simply unthinkable. Our Mahars and Mangs, and the Dheds and Chamars are in a far worse condition when compared to the highly civilised life that is led by the present American Negro. Our Bhils and Koles are also not in a very happy condition of life. As far as their economic, moral and spiritual welfare is concerned, they are in the same boat with our so-called depressed class brethren.

And coming also nearer to the higher classes, what do we find? Eighty per cent of our population, entirely dependent upon agriculture, is living in abject poverty and deep ignorance. The rays of education, sanitation and civilization are yet to penetrate into their poor hamlets! Taking also the condition of our young educated men, with the honourable exception of a few successful and flourishing pleaders, doctors and engineers, it is not far from the truth to say

that they have to remain satisfied with their exceedingly small and poor income which barely enables them to live from hand to mouth.

And how are these great problems to be solved? In my humble opinion education as imparted at Hampton and Tuskegee is absolutely necessary for our people. We most urgently want our General Armstrongs and Booker T. Washingtons. The majority of our people must receive such an education as would enable them to live on their own labour a decent life. The idea of the dignity of labour must be raised to a higher level. The education of the head, heart and hand must be simultaneously given.

We are not hopeless. There are fortunately signs in the country that indicate that our people are thinking over this serious situation, and are trying to face it as best as they can. The Kirloskar Wadi in the Oundh State, the Glass Factory at Talegaon, the Ranade Economic Institute in Poona, are some of the efforts in this direction. I cannot but also mention here the splendid work done by the Depressed Classes Mission Society. The mission at present has four branches at Bombay, Poona, Hubil and Nagpur with ten affiliated centres and fortyfive educational institutions. But taking all these attempts together, we are obliged to say that they are quite insufficient to succesfully meet our economic situation.

T. R. GADRe.

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HE temple of Shânta Durgâ is situated at Kavale in Goa. This Portuguese Settlement on the West Coast of India protected on the land side by the almost impassable forest of the Western Ghats or Sahyadri Mountains and intersected by numerous navigable rivers which flow into the Arabian Sea is the holy land of the Saraswat Brahmans of the Deccan. Shânta Durgâ, Mangesh, Nagesh, Rāmnāth and Devaki-Krishna, the principal shrines of the Saraswats are situated in the hilly the hilly region known as Novas Conquistas (New Conquest).

On board the S. S. Tilak, once a British mine sweeper, the pilgrim from Bombay embarks for the holy land. The steamer winds its way out of the crowded shipping in the Bombay harbour past islands and hills which conceal the British

batteries and the fairy caves of Salsette and Elephanta.

The Konkan Coast, the Ariake of the Greeks and Kemkem of the Arabs, was from ancient times occupied by a multitude of ports some of which like Chaul and Dabhul were the great emporium of trade with the West. As we steam along hugging the shore we pass the former territories of the great Maratha corsair-captain Angre who defied the Portuguese and British fleets. This picturesque region of low hills green with groves of cocoanut trees possesses a number of fortresses built by Sivaji. Vijaydurg the fortress of victory, Ratnagiri the hill of jewels, Suvarnadurg the golden fortress, jut out into the water, breaking the line, and from their high ground favorable to distant vision appear to command an uninterrupted view along the coast.