Every student does not profit by a great teacher; but perhaps no
young man ever came under the influence of Dr. Hopkins, whose
whole nature was so ripe for profit by such an experience as
young Armstrong. He lived in the family of President Hopkins, and
thus had a training that was wholly out of the common; and this
training had much to do with the development of his own strong
character, whose originality and force we are only beginning to
appreciate.

* For this interesting view of Mr. Washington's education, I am
indebted to Robert C. Ogden, Esq., Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of Hampton Institute and the intimate friend of General
Armstrong during the whole period of his educational work.

In turn, Samuel Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, took
up his work as a trainer of youth. He had very raw material, and
doubtless most of his pupils failed to get the greatest lessons
from him; but, as he had been a peculiarly receptive pupil of Dr.
Hopkins, so Booker Washington became a peculiarly receptive pupil
of his. To the formation of Mr. Washington's character, then,
went the missionary zeal of New England, influenced by one of the
strongest personalities in modern education, and the
wide-reaching moral earnestness of General Armstrong himself
These influences are easily recognizable in Mr. Washington to-day
by men who knew Dr. Hopkins and General Armstrong.

I got the cue to Mr. Washington's character from a very simple
incident many years ago. I had never seen him, and I knew little
about him, except that he was the head of a school at Tuskegee,
Alabama. I had occasion to write to him, and I addressed him as