FOLLOWING BIOGRAPHY ON BACK OF PLATE:

Timothy Thomas Fortune, the subject of this stretch, Is an author, a journalism an agitator, and a lecturer. Mr. Fortune's grandmother was a mulatto, and his grandfather a Seminole Indian. Thomas was born of slave parents in Florida in 1856. His father took an important and active part in the Reconstruction of Florida, being a delegate in the Constitutional Convention that framed the present constitution of Florida, and a member of the first five sessions of the reconstructed Florida Legislature. During the Ku Klux Xian period, which followed, the father of Thomas had to stand for his life, which he manfully did by preparing his house to receive the night marauders. The father finally moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida. Here young Thomas soon found a position as printer's "devil," which was the first step to that high position which he now occupies. He left his printer's case" for two years in order to attend school and to work in the Jacksonville city postoffice. In 1874 he was appointed mail route agent between Jacksonville and Chattahoochee; but he was soon promoted to the position of special inspector of customs for the first district of Delaware. A year later, 1876, young Fortune entered that school which has been an inspiration to so many negro youths, Howard University. After two years' study in this school he returned to the printer's trade. While in Washington he married Miss Smiley, of Florida. In 1878 Mr. Fortune returned to Florida to try his hand at school teaching. After a year's experience at this work, he again returned to his first love, the printer's trade, but this time he went to New York City. Of course the other compositors objected to working with a "Nigger," but by the manly stand of the publisher, Mr. John Dougall, the "Nigger" remained, and after a short strike the white compositors were glad to return. Mr. Fortune's real career as journalist began in 1880, when, with two friends, he began the publication of the Rumor, which, after two years, was changed to the New York Globe. After four years the paper was forced to suspend. Mr. Fortune immediately began the publication of the New York Freeman. A year later, 1885, the name of the paper was changed to the New York Age, of which Mr. Fortune is still editor. His writings are, however, not confined to the editing of his paper. He Is the author of several books, but "Black and White," and "The Negro in Politics," are perhaps the most noted. Mr. Fortune was the first to suggest the Afro-American League, an organization in the interest of the Negro race. He was the president of the first convention of this league, which met in Chicago in 1890. His address as president of the convention was a scathing arraignment of the South. Mr. Fortune was also elected chairman of the executive committee of the National Afro-American Press Association which met In Indianapolls, Indiana, in 1890. The National Negro Business League was the outcome of a conversation between Booker T. Washington and Mr. Fortune. Mr. Fortune was elected chairman of the executive committee of the National Negro Business League which met in Boston in 1900, and also at its meeting in Chicago In 1901 Mr. Fortune is, as might be suspected, a Republican in politics. In the presidential election of 1900 he took an active part in the political canvass of that year. He spoke In Indiana and In Missouri, advocating the re-election of President McKinley. The whole energy of his life is devoted to the interests of the Negro race in America. He wields a sharp rapier. " He is the complement of Booker T. Washington. Each is doing his own work in his own way; the one supplements the other's work.