Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1882 — TACT AND GOOD HUMOR. [ARTICLE]

TACT AND GOOD HUMOR.

Few Europeans have had such an influence over savage African/as Dr. Livingstone. Qe seemed to oast a spell over them, whioh they did not care to break. It was, the spell of a good, man, gifted whin common sense and a knowledge of human nature. He had at playful way of dealing with the natives which put them in good humor and at their ease with him. Such was his faith in the power of humor that he used to say: “ I am never afraid of a man who has a hearty laugh. ” ~ Gooc| feeling, goqd manners and patient continuance in well-doing were tlie meaus by which he acquired an influence over these savages. Onbe, while journeying, the oxen fell sick, and all the party had to walk. Certain natives, having just joined the party, were iguorant that the doctor understood their language. He overheard them discussing his appearance and power of endurance. “Ho is not strong,” they said ; “he w quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself into those bags (trousers). He will soon knock up.” The conversation caused the doctor’s Scotch blood to rise, so that for days no, being in the advance, kept them at the top of their speed. After he heard them expressing a proper respect for bis walking power, he moderated his I >ace. Instinctively, the natives, many of them, seemed to know that they might trust the genial missionary. Once, when raveling in South America, he found a little girl sitting under his wagon. She had run away from a family who had taken possession of her, as she had no relatives. As they were determined to sell her, as soon as she was old enough for a wife, she, not fancying it, came to the good white man. Before long, he heard her Bobbing violently. A man, with a gun, had been sent after her, and he stood demanding that she should return with him. The doctor would not give her up. but stripping off the beads, with which she had been loaded to make her more attractive, he gave them to the man and sent him away. “ Though fifty men had come for her,” he wrote, “they would not have got her.” The incident was a prophecy of Liv • ingstone’s future efforts to break up the terrible slave trade of Africa.