Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1910 — Stanley, the Stern. [ARTICLE]

Stanley, the Stern.

Henry M. Stanley, as his pictures show, was a man who never relaxed his severity because of anybody’s pleasantry or familiarity. He wanted to gain his object. He was, says William H. Rideing in McClure’s Magazine, "both despot and martinet, stern and exacting, uncompromising, silent, humorless, inscrutable and Cromwellian.” “I cannot say we loved him,” one of his lieutenants said to me; “we were all afraid of him, but we all believed in him. When he hadn’t his rifle in hand, he had his Bible, and no matter where our camp was, or how long and distressing our march had been, he never missed his bath and shave in the morning.” What details te inspire an imaginary portrait of him! The silent man in white, imperturbable in the heart of the African forest, his words reprinted to commands, which his followers recognizing their destiny in him, leaped to obey!