The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.10, page 125, May 1909, U. of Illinois Press

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MAY . 1 909 education and in the development of their agricultural life. It seemed to me that he was quite as much interested in the possibility of helping the people along the line of his railroad as he was in completing the road itself. I remember asking Mr. Rogers once in what way he got the most enjoyment out of life. He replied that it was in hard work, in doing good, and getting caught at it. And yet one could not think of Mr. Rogers as being a slave to business. I remember that he remarked to me once that he pitied a man who had no resources outside the hard, daily routine and could find no relaxation except in business. He pitied the man, he once told me, who could not enjoy literature and the friendship of literary men. OFFICE INCIDENTS He seemed to get a great enjoyment out of doing the little unexpected things for people. For example, he had in his office three or four bright young colored men who served as messengers. He saw in some of my writings the following sentence: ''I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragements, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day that is, tries to make each day as nearly as possible reach the highwater mark of pure, unselfish, and useful living.'' At once he made arrangements for this sentence to be put in an attractive form and given to the colored boys, so that it would be near them as they worked in his office day by day. Another incident, which illustrates the kindness and gentleness of Mr. Rogers's disposition, happened in connection with his plan to which I have already referred of aiding a number of county schools to obtain better school buildings and prolong their school terms. In order to stimulate the work of raising funds among the country people, we started a little county newspaper. In this paper, we printed, among other things, the names of all those who contributed anything toward the local community school fund. I remember the first time I showed him a copy of this little paper it contained an account of a school rally in which the farmers of one little community had gotten together and had raised, as I remember, something like one hundred dollars. He smiled as he began reading the ~5