The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of
delight to me. These were held on Saturday evening; and during my
whole life at Hampton I do not recall that I missed a single meeting.
I not only attended the weekly debating society, but was instrumental
in organizing an additional society. I noticed that between the time
when supper was over and the time to begin evening study there were
about twenty minutes which the young men usually spent in idle gossip.
About twenty of us formed a society for the purpose of utilizing this
time in debate or in practice in public speaking. Few persons ever
derived more happiness or benefit from the use of twenty minutes of
time than we did in this way.
At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some money
sent me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by a small gift
from one of the teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to return to my
home in Malden, West Virginia, to spend my vacation. When I reached
home I found that the salt-furnaces were not running, and that the
coal-mine was not being operated on account of the miners being out on
"strike." This was something which, it seemed, usually occurred
whenever the men got two or three months ahead in their savings.
During the strike, of course, they spent all that they had saved, and
would often return to work in debt at the same wages, or would move to
another mine at considerable expense.
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