Mr. Puryear, of Indianapolis, does a large express business, giving employment to quite a number of men. Mr. Puryear was at one time, and perhaps is yet, a member of the city council. H. L. SANDERS. Mr. H. L. Sanders, of Indianapolis, is the only colored man in the country doing the kind of work he is engaged in. In 1889 he began in a small way to make jackets for butchers, waiters' and cooks' outfits, also barbers' coats for shop wear. At first he did not have work enough to keep one woman busy, but now he has several at work all the time, and his sewing machines are operated by steam. And aside from his manufacturing he carries a splendid line of gents' furnishing goods. CHAPTER XVII. FINE PENMEN. I devote an entire chapter to Penmen, because I regard this art as one of the special evidences of race progress. The delicacy of the work and the close application to study required to succeed in it make it doubly hard to command any considerable attention. PROF. RICHARD HILL. [Illustration: PROF. RICHARD HILL, NASHVILLE, TENN.] Prof. Richard Hill, who is principal of Writing, Drawing and Music in the colored schools in Nashville, Tenn., has much to be proud of. Mr. Hill is a native of Nashville; he attended the city schools until he had gone through the ninth grade. At that time the colored schools were not carried any higher. In order that he might better prepare himself for a useful life in the interest of his race, he earned money by blacking boots on the streets until he saved enough to attend Gaines High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. At nineteen years of age he came home, and began teaching in the same room where he himself had been taught his letters. We feel warranted in saying that Mr. Hill is the only colored man in the country who has been placed in charge of Writing, Drawing and Music in so many schools. He has seven buildings, fifty-six teachers, nearly 4,000 children under his care in the branches named. In 1893 the _Penman's Art Journal_, of New York, held a public school writing contest. The colored children in the Nashville schools were allowed to enter on equal footing with the whites. There were two prizes offered and I am glad to say that the colored schools won them both. But we are sorry to say the colored schools have not been asked to take part in any other contests. _Penman's Art Journal_ said recently: "Superintendent Webb, of Nashville, Tenn., writes us that 'the winners of the two certificates awarded to Nashville in _The Journal's_ public school competition, as well as three other pupils whose names were included in the roll of honor, are pupils in the colored schools of that city. Richard Hill, Assistant Supervisor of Drawing and Writing, has charge of the work in these schools, and to him should be given the credit that, without this explanation, would naturally be given to me.' This speaks very well for the colored schools of Nashville and their Supervisor, himself a colored man, and