Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/122

106 was the large number of invitations that came to him to deliver addresses. These requests came from all parts of the country and from all sorts of organizations. A very large number of these invitations he was compelled to refuse. However, when he felt he could serve his institution and his people, he always accepted. He represented the Negro at the unveiling of the monument of R. G. Shaw, in Boston; and at the Peace Convention in Chicago in 1898, at which time President McKinley spoke. He attended most of the large religious gatherings of his people throughout the country, and spoke before them. Almost immediately there began to pour in on him a perfect flood of letters from all parts of the country, from white and black, high and low, rich and poor, asking a thousand different questions. Now it would be a letter from a railroad president asking about some problem of dealing with his employees; now from a school man asking about the segregation of the races in schools. Again, from a legislator, asking advice on some legislation; but principally the letters came from his own people, asking all sorts of questions about a multitude of things. One man wanted Washington to use his influence to secure the adoption of a flag for the negro race; another wanted his backing for a patent medicine that would take the curl out of the negro's hair. Another wanted to know if the negro race was dying out; another,