_John T. Douglass_ is very justly ranked with the best musicians of this country. His fame is by no means confined to New-York City or State, as he has travelled quite extensively, and has been engaged in many musical enterprises. He is a skilful, artistic performer on several instruments, chief of which are the violin and guitar. As a performer on the last-mentioned instrument he has few equals, while for it he has arranged and composed a great deal of music. He has also composed many fine pieces for orchestras and for the piano. When only about twenty years of age, he composed a grand overture called "The Pilgrim." He enjoys an enviable reputation in New York as a teacher of music, and is very remarkable for the enthusiastic, devoted attention he gives to the study of the art. As Mr. Douglass is but thirty years old,--having been born in New York in 1847,--it will be seen that he has made most wonderful progress, and that he has before him a very brilliant future. _Mr. David S. Scudder_ has fine natural talents, and has made very commendable progress in music. He is a fair performer on the flute, piano, and double-bass; playing quite well Mendelssohn's music, of which he is very fond. He deserves special mention for his successful endeavors to promote a love of good music among his acquaintances. _Mr. Walter F. Craig_, although quite young, has already attracted much attention, and received the praises of the critics, as a performer on the violin. He is a close student, very ambitious and enthusiastic, and without doubt will ere long be ranked with the first violinists of the day. He has lately composed a march. _William Appo_ is a veteran musician, having had a long and varied experience, beginning his career when there were but very few persons of his race in this country that could compare with him in scientific acquaintance with music. He was for a long time one of the principal performers in the once famous "Frank Johnson's Band" of Philadelphia. He taught music for several years in New York. Quite advanced in years that have been filled with incidents well worth recording for the instruction of those who follow him, he now leads a retired life on his farm in New-York State. These pioneer musicians of ours should ever be gratefully remembered. But few, if any, of the large number of musical students of these better times, can realize the vast difficulties that on every hand met the colored musician at the time when Mr. Appo and some others elsewhere mentioned began their ambitious, toilsome careers. First in loving art with all their might, They steadily strove in the unequal fight, Till Prejudice, convinced at last, Retired, ashamed of the cruel past. Now _all_ who prize fair Music's ways Pursue their journey with far brighter days. The laurel crown, then, give the _pioneer_, Whom ever in our memories hold we dear.