Page:Boys Life of Booker T. Washington.djvu/123

Rh if the race was being blended with the white race; another, if he thought the negro was being treated right politically. Perhaps the most remarkable request, however, was from a woman, who wanted him to find her husband who had deserted her some years before. And in order that he might be easily identified she describes him: "This is the hith of him 5–6 light eyes dark hair unwave shave and a Suprano Voice his age 58 his name Steve."

To all of these letters he replied in the fullest and frankest and kindest way.

Whenever there was race friction in the South, he was invariably called upon either to go in person or to send a message. For example, when the Atlanta riots occurred in 1906, Washington was in the North. He took the first train South. He went among his own people in Atlanta first, and then he went to the white people—to the Governor, the Mayor, the leading citizens, ministers and merchants. Largely through his wise counsel and efforts order was restored, and plans were made for the future.

As a spokesman for his people he wrote constantly for the press. Such papers as the Montgomery Advertiser, the Atlanta Constitution, the New Orleans Picayune, the Louisville Courier Journal, the Chicago Inter-Ocean, and the Boston and New York papers gladly published his articles.