During the many years I have spent in the South among the colored people, I have made a special study of the development of many of the towns and cities. I have done this to ascertain what part the colored man is playing in this development. In view of the fact that Nashville has three large colleges for advanced studies and a number of well-equipped day-schools, I devoted special attention to this city. It is a well-known fact that a very small percentage of all the educated people, white or colored, put their education to any practical use. I claim that there are as many, if not more, of the colored people who make good use of their education as any other class in this country. I found in this city (Nashville) men of culture and refinement, who possessed all the energy, enterprise and push that characterize any thoroughly civilized people. I think I can safely say that Nashville, for its size, can boast of a larger number of colored business and professional men than any other Southern city. Among those I met in person was Dr. D. L. Martin, who has the honor of being the first colored druggist in the State. He has succeeded in building up a fine drug trade, and has purchased some very good property. Speaking of colored Doctors, I am told that there are not less than six in the city. And they each have a good practice. One of this number is Dr. L. W. Crostwait, who is of the School of Homœopathy; but few colored men have gone into that branch of medicine. DR. R. F. BOYD. [Illustration: DR. R. F. BOYD.] Those who have attended my illustrated lectures will doubtless remember Dr. Boyd, one of the most progressive colored physicians in the South. I have never met a man with whom I became more favorably impressed than I was with Dr. Boyd. He is a man of deep thought, lofty aspirations and untiring zeal. His work at Meharry Medical and Pharmaceutical College marks him as one of the most useful men of the race. He is a graduate from this institution; and I feel that if it had never turned out but one such man, it would have accomplished wonders. He came out of this school after a hard struggle for an education, and cast his lot among the people he had come in contact with from day to day in that community. You have only to go into his office any day and see the number of patients waiting for him; then see the splendid horses and carriages used in his practice, to form an idea of his success. Still, one of the best evidences of his prosperity to me was the fact that all over the city he owns houses which are rented. [Illustration: BOYD BUILDING.] The new Boyd Building has twenty-eight rooms which are rented to Colored business and professional men. J. C. NAPIER.