The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-21
FRED DOUGLASS IS DEAD.
MOST NOTED COLORED MAN IN THE
 WORLD PASSED SUDDENLY AWAY.

Knees With Hands Clasped and though n
 His Wife Was Not Alarmed He Sank
 Lower and Lower and Finally Stretched
 Out on the Floor Breathing His Last
 Washington, Feb. 20.-Frederick
 Douglass dropped dead in the hallway
 of his residence on Anacostia Heights,
 this evening, at o'clock. He had been
 in the highest spirits and apparently
 in the best of health despite his sev-
 enty-eight years, when death overlook
 him. This morning he was driven to
 Washington, accompanied by his wife,
 She left him at the congressional lib-
 rary and he continued to Metzerott
 hall, where he attended the sessions
 of the Womens Council in the fore
 noon and the afternoon, returning to
 Cedar Hill, the name of his residence,
 between and o'clock.
 After dining he had a chat in the
 hallway with his wife about the doings of the council. He grew very enthusias-
 tic in his explanation of the doings of the events of the day, when he fell upon his knees with hands clasped. Mrs. Douglass, thinking this was part of his description, was not alarmed
 but as she looked he sank lower and lower and finally lay stretched upon the floor, breathing his last. Realizing he was i'll she raised his head and then understood he was dying. She was alone in the house and rushed to the front door with cries for help. Some men who were near by quickly respond ed and attempted to restore the dying man. One of them called Dr. J. Stew art Harrison and while he was in- jecting restorative into the patients arm MT. Douglass passed away, seem ingly without pain.
 Mir. Douglass lived for some time at Cedar Hill with his wife and one ser want. He has two sons and a daughter, the children of his first wife, living here. They are Louis H. and Charles Doug lass and Mrs Sprague.
 MT. Douglass was to deliver a lecture tonight at Hillsdale African church, near his home, and was waiting for carriage when talking to his wife. The carriage arrived just as he died.
 Mrs. Douglass said tonight that her husband had apparently been in the best of health lately and had shown unusual vigor for one of eighty years.
 Mir Douglass was regularly enrolled member of the National Women's Suf- frage association and had always at- tended it's conventions. It was proba bly, with a view to consistency in this respect that he attended the meeting of the Women's National council to-day. Mrs. May Wright Sewall, president of the council, appointed Miss Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna H. Shaw com- mittee to escort him to the platform, Mrs. Sewall presented MT, Douglass to the council and after he had bowed in response to the applause that greeted him he took a seat beside Miss Antho- ny, his lifelong friend Nothing to in dicate that he was not in his usual good health was remarked at the time, eX- cept that he rubbed his left hand con- stanttly with his right as though it were benumbed.
 The morning session lasted until fa- ter 12 o'clock, and just before that hour an informal discussion was started 1 on the proposition to divide the na- tional council into an upper and lower | house, MT. Douglass, became so much l interested in this discussion that when | the COuIlCll TGCOHNGuGN btL O tlOCh LO | further the matter he was again pres ent, although he had intended to re- turn to his home earlier in the day | He left the hall on the adjournment | of the session at about o'clock.
 When Miss Susan B. Anthony heard l of MT. Douglass death at the evening session of the council she was very much affected Miss Anthony and MT. Douglass formed an intimate friend ship when both resided in Rochester, N. Y, and that friendship has con- tinued for many decades.
 At to-night's meeting of the Women's Council Mrs. Sewall announced the death of MT. Douglass. There was a. murmur expressing surprise and sym pathy and then the council settled down to the business of the evening.
 Frederick Douglass was born in Tuck ahoe, Md, in February, 1S17 His moth CT was a negro slave and his father white man. He was slave on the of Colonel Lloyd until he was ten years old, when he was sent to Bal timore to live with relative of his mas ter. He learned to read and write from one of his masters relatives. He was allowed to hire his own time and work ed in a shipyard. On September 3, 1888, he escaped from slavery. He made his way to New York and thence to New Mass, where he married and lived for two or three years, working on the wharves and in various shops. He was aided in his efforts at self-edu- cation by William Lloyd Garrison. In S41 he made a speech at an anti-slavery gathering in Nantucket. It was well received and he was made agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery society and ectured through New England for four years.
 In 1S45 he went to Europe and lectur- ed on slavery. He remained two years in Great Britain, and in 1S47 began the i of paper at Rochester N Y. He was supposed to be impli- , ,ated in the John Brown raid in 1859, md went to England to escape arrest f m acquisition of Governor Wise of Virginia. In a few months he returned f Q Rochester. Tn 1863 he assisted in f colored troops and especially ( he Ftfty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massa- S ,husetts regiments.
 In 1870 he became editor of a paper in I Washington, In 1872 he was elected a