ry or Uniform Rank of that Order. The Ancient
United Sons and Daughters of Africa is a creation of his own
brain and he is at present Supreme Secretary of that Order.
As a business man he ranks among the foremost of the race.
He owns some of the best realty of the city, among which is
the Boyd Building, 417-419-421-423 Cedar Street. This
building has four business fronts, a hotel and restaurant,
offices of various kinds and four large society halls, in
which about forty societies meet. The Mercy Hospital was
purchased by him solely, at a cash value of $6,000. Besides
this he is the owner of other valuable property of Nashville
and suburbs.

This is a question of vital importance to us as a race and to the
nation as well. Much thought has been given to it by the best thinkers
of both races and many articles have been written by friend and foes.
All kinds of solutions have been proposed and yet the great death-rate
goes on. In the larger cities of the South our people die from two to
three times as fast as the whites.

The number of premature deaths is on the increase; the infant
death-rate is appalling; and consumption, a hitherto unknown disease
among our people, is credited with one-fourth the victims of all ages.

All the powers of science and art are being taxed to the utmost to
afford a complete solution to this problem. Every large city in the
South is being awakened to the sense of the importance of this
subject. And well they may; for the ignorance, the vice, the poverty,
the habitation and the food that cause this alarming death-rate effect
the whole community.

A proper knowledge and observance of the laws of health will give
happiness to all.

Man is as subject to the organic laws as the inanimate bodies about
him are to mechanical and chemical laws, and we as little escape the
consequences of the neglect or violation of these natural laws, which
affect the organic life, through the air we breathe, the food we eat,
the water we drink, the clothes we wear, and the circumstances
surrounding our habitation, as the stone projected from the hand, or
the shot from the mouth of the cannon can escape the bounds of
gravitation.

What we need is the gospel of the physical health to be preached from
every pulpit, and in every school room and in every home. All strong
motives of religion and the eternal world are taught from the pulpit
and the Sunday school t