Compare briefly between the Hampton and Washington DC. 

The narrator spent eight months studying at Washington D.C. and took the opportunity to compare the influence of an institution with no industrial training with that of one like the Hampton Institute that emphasized on industrial training. He found that the students at Washington, in most cases, had more money, were better dressed, wore the latest style of all manner of clothing, and in some cases were more brilliant mentally.

At Hampton, the school was responsible for paying the students’ tuition fees, but the men and women provided for their own board, books, clothing, and room wholly by work, or partly by work and partly in cash. The students at Washington DC had their personal expenses paid for them.

At Hampton, the students were constantly trying to improve themselves through the industries, and that very effort was of immense value in character-building. The students at the other school seemed to be more dependent. They seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. They had no “foundation” like the students of Hampton. Even though they knew more about Latin and Greek when they left school, they seemed to know less about life and its conditions. Having lived for a number of years in the midst of comfortable surroundings, they did not want to go into the country districts of the South, where it was not as comfortable. These students often ended up working as hotel waiters and Pullman-car porters.