Professor Booker T. Washington,
Paris, France:
Dear Sir:
We, the citizens of Charleston and West Virginia,
desire to express our pride in you and the splendid career that
you have thus far accomplished, and ask that we be permitted to
show our pride and interest in a substantial way.
Your recent visit to your old home in our midst awoke within
us the keenest regret that we were not permitted to hear you and
render some substantial aid to your work, before you left for
Europe.
In view of the foregoing, we earnestly invite you to share the
hospitality of our city upon your return from Europe, and give us
the opportunity to hear you and put ourselves in touch with your
work in a way that will be most gratifying to yourself, and that
we may receive the inspiration of your words and presence.
An early reply to this invitation, with an indication of the
time you may reach our city, will greatly oblige,
Yours very respectfully,
The Charleston Daily Gazette, The Daily
Mail-Tribune;
G.W. Atkinson, Governor;
E.L. Boggs, Secretary to Governor;
Wm. M.O. Dawson, Secretary of State;
L.M. La Follette, Auditor;
J.R. Trotter, Superintendent of Schools;
E.W. Wilson, ex-Governor;
W.A. MacCorkle, ex-Governor;
John Q. Dickinson, President Kanawha Valley Bank;
L. Prichard, President Charleston National Bank;
Geo. S. Couch, President Kanawha National Bank;
Ed. Reid, Cashier Kanawha National Bank;
Geo. S. Laidley, Superintended City Schools;
L.E. McWhorter, President Board of Education;
Chas. K. Payne, wholesale merchant;
and many others.
