In person, Mr. Bell is of medium size, of dark complexion, pleasing countenance, gentlemanly in his manners, a man of much energy, strong determination, unbending endurance, and transparent honesty of purpose.
Of good education and a highly-cultivated mind, Mr. Bell attracts to him the most refined of his color, who regard him as the Napoleon of the colored press. Our subject was not intended by Nature for the platform, and has the good sense not to aspire to oratorical fame. In conversation, however, he is always interesting, drawing from a rich and varied experience, full of dry humor.
Mr. Bell has a host of friends in New York, where he is always spoken of in the highest manner, and is regarded as the prince of good fellows.
CHARLES B. RAY, D. D.
Dr. Ray is a clergyman of the Presbyterian order, and has resided in the city of New York for the last half century. In the year 1840, he became the editor of the “Colored American,” a journal which he conducted with signal ability, always true to the cause of the Southern slave, and the elevation of the black man everywhere. Dr. Ray is well educated, a man of liberal and reformatory views, a terse and vigorous writer, an able and eloquent speaker, well informed upon all subjects of the day.
He has long been identified with every good work in New York, and enjoys the confidence and respect of a large circle of friends.
In person, Dr. Ray is of small stature, neat and wiry build, in race standing about half-way between the African and the Anglo-Saxon. He is polished in his manners, and gentlemanly in his personal appearance. As a writer, a preacher, and a platform-speaker, he has done much to elevate the standard of the colored man in the Empire State.
In the multitude of national and state conventions held thirty years ago and thereabouts, the assembly was scarcely considered complete without the presence of Charles B. Ray, D. D.
In the religious conventions of his own denomination, he was always regarded with respect, and his sermons delivered to white congregations never failed to leave a good impression for the race to which the preacher belonged. Blameless in his family relations, guided by the highest moral rectitude, a true friend to everything that tends to better the moral, social, religious, and political condition of man, Dr. Ray may be looked upon as one of the foremost of the leading men of his race.