Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1890 — ANECDOTES TO STANLEY. [ARTICLE]

ANECDOTES TO STANLEY.

PATIENT TACT WITH THE NATIVES. Probably nothing has contributed more largely to the wonderful success of Stanley than his mastery of the art of managing that child-man, the untutored savage. The many fights that Stanley has had with the natives of Africa has given rise to the utterly erroneous notion that he is indifferent to human life, and that he has even shot down natives in pure wantonness. All students of his work know that he never fired a shot at a native unless he was driven to it by the dangers that threatened him and his expedition. To one who was about to start up the Congo river the great explorer once said; “Pat a native, slap him if you will with the open hand, but never strike him with the clenched fist, and never shoot until you are first attacked and escape seems hopeless. ” Stanley’s policy from first to last in dealing with the natives could not be more tersely summed up than in these words. He has always been willing to waste any amount of time in stopping to talk, to argue, to cajole, to disarm hostility with wheedling words and humorous tricks, and he has resorted to firearms only as a last resort.

BEADINESS OF RESOUBCE. Herbert Ward tells a story illustrating Stanley's readiness of resource in lealing'with a crafty savage trying to overreach him. When the explorer reached Stanley Pool on his last expedition, the big Bateke chief Ngalyema who figured conspicuously in Stanley’s Book*on the Congo State, came to him demanding a big present on the ground that some of his carriers had taken bananas from his plantation. Stanley had good reason to believe the wily ivory trader was lying, and he did not propose to fall into his trap. Almost my one else would have told the chief ho was a prevaricator, and there would have been an angry discussion and bad feeling on all sides; but that was not Stanley’s way. He at once summoned all his men into line and walked up and down in front of it with the chief, asking him to pick out the culprits. Ngalyema said he could not do it.

“Now look here, Ngalyema,” said Stanley, 1 ‘how gob I pay you for stolen bananas unless you give me proof that my men have stolen them; and how can I punish thieves unless I know who they are? Wait a minute.” Stanley withdrew into his tent and presently emerged with a piece of chalk. “See here, Ngalyema,” he said, “thi9 little thing in my hand makes a white mark on the black skin. Try it. The next time you catch my men stealing your bananas you mark the thieves on the back with this piece of chalk. Then 1 will know who the thieves are, and can punish them, and I will pay you for the bananas they have stolen.” The chief was not quite emptyhanded when he went away, for he had the chalk:" “ ■

FORBEARANCE AND KINDNESS. There are men who have served with Stanley who do not like him, for he came to believe them inefficient, and he has no patience with incompetency. But, though they complain of bis harsh and superoilious treatment, they one and all bear testimony to his kindness to the natives. 1 ‘ln his dealings with the natives,” writes Braconnler, • ‘he is invariably kind, meroiful and polite. He palavers with them. He respects their customs, their religions, and their traditions. There is not an atom of truth in the accusations of oruelty against him.” The same policy has guided Stanley in his dealings with the semi-savages who by hundreds have been in his 1 service as porters. A more rascally, ungovernable mob than the crowd of Zanzibaris, who have sometimes followed Stanley’s leadership, could hardly be conceived. It is a.fact that on one occasion at least, the jails of Zanzibar were emptied to supply Stanley with the porters he required. But he has always sought to have his men regard him as a kind, considerate father. They have involved him in many a dilemma. and he can be very severe when necessary; but in his career he has never executed but four of his followers, all in his last expedition. One man he sentenced to death for selling rifles and ammunition to the slavedealing enemy.

ORGANIZING ABILITY. Besides being a strict disciplinarian and a master in the art of bending the natives to his will, Stanley owes his success in large part to his remarkable organizing and administrative ability. During his founding of the Congo State he made it a point never to pash a mile forward until he had thoroughly organized the mile behind him. Sometimes he was confronted by difficulties that seemed insuperable. Then he would retire to his tent to think the matter over, and the ohances were nine in ten that in a few houns he had hit upon some way out of the situation. He was never ohummy with his subordinates, nor even ordinarily sociable. hen his load of care was heavy, though at rare intervals, he would be delightfully entertaining in conversation* He had the confidence and esteem of every man who ever served under him, but they did not love him. One of his Lieutenants wrote of him: ‘ ‘He lives apart from us. I would □ever think of asking him for reasons. Sometimes he would say to me, ‘Strike your tents; we start in ten minutes Had I been foolish enough to say •Whape are we going?’' ha would have answered, ‘Mind ysur own business not mine.’” < / • • STAMUr OM TUI KABOS. ' Father Sohynze, the Catholic mis(denary who returned to tho coast with Stanley and Emin from tha sooth of

Victoria Nyanza, draws this graphic picture of the commander. ‘ ‘Stanley is a leader, a oomm&nfier. He keeps strict order. At sunrise a shrill whistle, sounded by" Stanley himself, orders everybody to take his place In the caravan and inarch. He maintains the strictest discipline, and his men know him. Scarcely has the last sound of the whistle died away before all stand ready to march, with their burdens on their shoulders. Stanley lights Ms short pipe, and, armed with a long cane, walks at the head of the caravan followed by a boy with a parasol, his servant with a Winchester rifle and a Wangwana who leads his ass. Then follows the cavavan. After an hour or two Stanley mounts his ass, and the speed of the march is then much increased, but none of Stanley’s men lag behind. Even in running, Stanley’s two companions always keep close order. With the Soudanese it is different. They are forced ahead by the third company in the rear. But the great traveller can always be merry. He sits under a tree, smoking his pipe and watching the pitching of his tent. When this is done he disappears into it, and does not appear again until after sunset. I think he spends that part of the day in writing his notes, for whenever I have found him sitting by a large book. If Stanley is in a cheerful frame of mind, then the minutes we spend while the tents are being pitened are the most interesting of the whole day. He then tells incident after incident from his adventurous life with suoh fire and such vigorous expression that we forget how broken*his French is.”

Cuba’s Tobacco Declines. New York Star. “Tobacco raising is yet one of the chief sources of wealth in Cuba,” said Senor Don Nicolas Garrido, a rich land owner and planter of the great Spanish colony, while in this city a few days ago on his way to Europe. ■ ‘lt is not carried on upon as great a scale as it used to be, however. For a long time it was supposed that the celebrated Vuelta Abajo region, which is situated between the twenty-second-and twenty-third degress of latitude, was the only spot on earth where the very best grade of tobacco could grow, but lately there has been a strong competition from different parts of Spanish Amerca, where just as good tobacco as ours can be gathered, if properly planted and cared for. The' first condition that has to be fulfilled is that of proper climate. Tobacco thrives best in the temperate climes, for its peried of vegetation lasts only three months, and requires an average temperature of 75 degress during the development of the plant. The Havana peoies, which is so appreciated throughout the world, is so delicate that it perishes whenever the temperature falls below 60 degrees, which however happens very rarely iD Guba. Tobacco does not require much water, two or three showers being quite sufficient for its growth in Cuba; but, „ then, dew in our climate is quite copious, and the moisture is received by the leaves and rune along them to the upper ring of roots. Be it on account of the soil or climatic conditions, our tobacco is entirely different from that of North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky; but I see that much of the weed sold here under the name of Havana is far from being genuine, and in many instances the tobacco is grown in this country or South America, and nobody is the wiser, so long as the people have the satisfaction of thinking they smoke the imported article. ”