What important lesson does Booker T. Washington say he learns from General Armstrong?

Washington valued cleanliness and insisted on it for his students, explaining, "people would excuse us for our poverty, for our lacks of comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt" (66). He insisted that every student use a tooth-brush, explaining the civilizing influence of such a device: "I have noticed that, if we can get a student to the point where, when the first or second tooth-brush disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have not been disappointed in the future of that individual" (66). Similarly, students were required to bathe regularly, and many learned for the first time how to sleep between two sheets and to wear a nightgown. Their clothing was inspected daily, and they learned never to have missing buttons, torn areas, or grease-spots.