I pity the man, black or white, who has
never experienced the joy and satisfaction that come to one by reason
of an effort to assist in making some one else more useful and more
happy.
Six months before he died, and nearly a year after he had been
stricken with paralysis, General Armstrong expressed a wish to visit
Tuskegee again before he passed away. Notwithstanding the fact that
he had lost the use of his limbs to such an extent that he was
practically helpless, his wish was gratified, and he was brought to
Tuskegee. The owners of the Tuskegee Railroad, white men living in
the town, offered to run a special train, without cost, out of the
main station -- Chehaw, five miles away -- to meet him. He arrived on
the school grounds about nine o'clock in the evening. Some one had
suggested that we give the General a "pine-knot torchlight reception."
This plan was carried out, and the moment that his carriage entered
the school grounds he began passing between two lines of lighted and
waving "fat pine" wood knots held by over a thousand students and
teachers. The whole thing was so novel and surprising that the
General was completely overcome with happiness. He remained a guest
in my home for nearly two months, and, although almost wholly without
the use of voice or limb, he spent nearly every hour in devising ways
and means to help the South.
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