After three months in Europe we sailed from Southampton in the steamship St. Louis.  On this steamer there was a fine library that had been presented to the ship by the citizens of St. Louis, Mo.  In this library I found a life of Frederick Douglass, which I began reading.  I became especially interested in Mr. Douglass’s description of the way he was treated on shipboard during his first or second visit to England.  In this description he told how he was not permitted to enter the cabin, but had to confine himself to the deck of the ship.  A few minutes after I had finished reading this description I was waited on by a committee of ladies and gentlemen with the request that I deliver an address at a concert which was to begin the following evening.  And yet there are people who are bold enough to say that race feeling in America is not growing less intense!  At this concert the Hon. Benjamin B. Odell, Jr., the present governor of New York, presided.  I was never given a more cordial hearing anywhere.  A large proportion of the passengers with Southern people.  After the concert some of the passengers proposed that a subscription be raised to help the work at Tuskegee, and the money to support several scholarships was the result.

While we were in Paris I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the following invitation from the citizens of West Virginia and of the city near which I had spent my boyhood days:—­

Charleston, W. Va., May 16, 1899.

Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France: 

Dear Sir:  Many of the best citizens of West Virginia have united in liberal expressions of admiration and praise of your worth and work, and desire that on your return from Europe you should favour them with your presence and with the inspiration of your words.  We must sincerely indorse this move, and on behalf of the citizens of Charleston extend to your our most cordial invitation to have you come to us, that we may honour you who have done so much by your life and work to honour us.

We are,

Very truly yours,

The Common Council of the City of Charleston,

By W. Herman Smith, Mayor.

This invitation from the City Council of Charleston was accompanied by the following:—­

Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France: 

Dear Sir:  We, the citizens of Charleston and West Virginia, desire to express our pride in you and the splendid career that you have thus far accomplished, and ask that we be permitted to show our pride and interest in a substantial way.

Your recent visit to your old home in our midst awoke within us the keenest regret that we were not permitted to hear you and render some substantial aid to your work, before you left for Europe.

In view of the foregoing, we earnestly invite you to share the hospitality of our city upon your return from Europe, and give us the opportunity to hear you and put ourselves in touch with your work in a way that will be most gratifying to yourself, and that we may receive the inspiration of your words and presence.