Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/103

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CONTEMPORARIES OF THE ANGLO-AFRICAN.
95

A liberal discount will be made to those who wish to contract for advertising quarterly or by the year,

P. A. Bell, Editor.

Publishing Committee: William H. Yates, James R. Starkey, R. A. Hall, James P. Dyer and F. G. Barbadoes."

Mr. Bell, having had up to this time twenty-five years of experience in editorial work, of course started The Elevator without any trouble whatever, either as to journalistic finish or business enterprise. It was a neatly printed paper, of four pages, with seven columns to a page. Its motto was "Equality before the law;" for which it fought with might and main. It was devoted to the literary culture of his race on the Pacific Slope, and though a contemporary of The Pacific Appeal, it claimed to be the organ of the Afro-Americans in California. The place of publication was 615 Battery Street, San Francisco, Cal.

While an earnest and efficient writer himself, in these his last days of journalism, he had an able corresponding editor in the person of Mr. William J. Powell.

The Elevator was known as a journal of progress, devoted to Science, Art and Literature, and also to the Drama.

As in the other publications of Mr. Bell, he had about him an able class of correspondents, and a willing force of agents.

Very often, during the publication of The Elevator, Mr. Bell was in very straitened circumstances, but he managed to continue the publication of his journal, and it was always readable. Unfortunately, he died April 24, 1889, in destitute circumstances, but his paper still lives, Mr. Bell having given it an impetus that will make it flourish for a long time.

How he was estimated as a journalist can best be told by those who knew him, and loved him for his noble deeds and generosity of heart. The following is the tribute from The Gate City Press, of Kansas City, Mo.:

"Philip A. Bell, the octogenarian journalist is dead. In