his death the Negro race loses the oldest and one of the ablest of American editors. Fifty-two years ago, in New York, he flung to the breeze as a menace to the slave owner and slave hunter, The Colored American. A quarter of a century ago, he removed to San Francisco, where The Pacific Appeal was started. In 1865 Mr. Bell launched The Elevator, a spicy weekly, which continues to this day the oldest secular Negro newspaper. Educated, original, capable of fine powers of analysis, he flung the sparkling rays of his imagination over the productions of his pen, and came to be regarded as the Napoleon of the Colored press. For some years he had been too feeble to engage in newspaper work. Wednesday, April 24, at the age of 81, his spirit fled to his Maker. He died in the poor-house. And this is the end of a great historic character. Peace to his ashes!"
Below is the tribute paid to him by a writer in The New York Age:
"Philip Alexander Bell has closed his eyes in death, in his 81st year. To all New Yorkers the fact opens a history of the past that is not only interesting but profitable to consider. It brings up precious names; it calls to mind when New York City would call her roll of fifty and more of big-hearted, self-sacrificing men who publicly distinguished themselves and served the cause of their race not selfishly but for justice sake; men upon whom each other could safely rely; sensible, considerate men; stirring, energetic men; who were not simply active in efforts to free and enfranchise their brethren in bonds, but who were actively interested to forward the cause of morality generally, of education, of refinement and of the general weal. They were men of inflexible character when a principle was at stake."
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"All of these, and more besides, are worthy of a place in the heart of every lover of liberty, and especially in the
