Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/116

100 their churches, their schools. He saw their poor farms, their lean stock, their dilapidated houses, their lack of the comforts and necessities of good living. The homes, the churches, the schoolhouses were in bad condition. Washington had the greatest sympathy for these people, knowing why they were in poverty and ignorance, and he had a great desire to help them. And it is through this extension work that these people are helped.

The Institute sends its workers throughout the surrounding country to show the farmers improved farm machinery, better methods of farming, better breeds of live stock of all kinds, better methods of dairying, and better ways of preparing food, keeping house, and caring for the children. They insist on improving the school buildings, the churches, and the homes. As a result of this work, there are now in Macon County a number of neat new schoolhouses, with a teacher's house alongside each school, several acres of land adjoining, and a good church close by. Thus clean, pleasant, and thoroughly happy communities are created. In such communities there is the smallest amount of crime, and there is the largest amount of prosperity and contentment and enjoyment.

All the graduates of Tuskegee are enthusiasts for education and community builders. Wherever they go, they stand for the best in life. They are devoted to Tuskegee and its spirit and its