At one time, when I was in Boston, I called at the door of a rather wealthy lady, and was admitted to the vestibule and sent up my card.  While I was waiting for an answer, her husband came in, and asked me in the most abrupt manner what I wanted.  When I tried to explain the object of my call, he became still more ungentlemanly in his words and manner, and finally grew so excited that I left the house without waiting for a reply from the lady.  A few blocks from that house I called to see a gentleman who received me in the most cordial manner.  He wrote me his check for a generous sum, and then, before I had had an opportunity to thank him, said:  “I am so grateful to you, Mr. Washington, for giving me the opportunity to help a good cause.  It is a privilege to have a share in it.  We in Boston are constantly indebted to you for doing our work.”  My experience in securing money convinces me that the first type of man is growing more rare all the time, and that the latter type is increasing; that is, that, more and more, rich people are coming to regard men and women who apply to them for help for worthy objects, not as beggars, but as agents for doing their work.

In the city of Boston I have rarely called upon an individual for funds that I have not been thanked for calling, usually before I could get an opportunity to thank the donor for the money.  In that city the donors seem to feel, in a large degree, that an honour is being conferred upon them in their being permitted to give.  Nowhere else have I met with, in so large a measure, this fine and Christlike spirit as in the city of Boston, although there are many notable instances of it outside that city.  I repeat my belief that the world is growing in the direction of giving.  I repeat that the main rule by which I have been guided in collecting money is to do my full duty in regard to giving people who have money an opportunity for help.

In the early years of the Tuskegee school I walked the streets or travelled country roads in the North for days and days without receiving a dollar.  Often as it happened, when during the week I had been disappointed in not getting a cent from the very individuals from whom I most expected help, and when I was almost broken down and discouraged, that generous help has come from some one who I had had little idea would give at all.

I recall that on one occasion I obtained information that led me to believe that a gentleman who lived about two miles out in the country from Stamford, Conn., might become interest in our efforts at Tuskegee if our conditions and needs were presented to him.  On an unusually cold and stormy day I walked the two miles to see him.  After some difficulty I succeeded in securing an interview with him.  He listened with some degree of interest to what I had to say, but did not give me anything.  I could not help having the feeling that, in a measure, the three hours that I had spent in seeing him had been thrown away.  Still, I had followed my usual rule of doing my duty.  If I had not seen him, I should have felt unhappy over neglect of duty.