The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-05-02 00:00:00

THE LATE Dlt. LIVINGSTONE

In London, on Monday evening, at the meeting of the
Royal Geographical Society, a large number of ladies and
gentlemen assembled to hear extracts from letters of the late
fir. Livingstone. A plaster bust, authentic portraits, and
the instruments used by the deceased traveller on his last
Journey were exhibited, and excited much interest. Mr.
H. M. Stanley, Jacob Wainwright. Colonel Grant.
"

And no this talk ended, as it began, With mutual I Gen RighyT'Aohniiral Hall, Rev. 11;mace Waller, and
good feeling. To use it was deeply interesting, talk, I other gentlemen connected with the recent obsequies
and I have given it fully, iduittissg no points which siviuTlerVotst'ttrd t..._7lllßnaali.s"nra!
told on either side, as far 38 it goes, for I think it hibited a Kaffir kaross, or cloak made of the skins of the
yields a better and fairer illustration of the ease of Letchwee antelope --a species discovered by Livingstone in
employer anti labourer, in the homely words of 18%6, The cloak was made by Livingstone's own hands, and
each, than could be supplied by the pen of any presented by him to the gallant officer's brother, Major
Bryan Millman, in the Mauritius, as a farewell gift when correspondent. Of the men who will thus be out of
re-
work next Friday, the standing wages of the engine- aturrTvillAly'Viter trari,",el-4,!‘"iivnez% trit"je,r,;B!
man were El a week and £6 for the harvest. The very warmly received. Mil.' If. M. Stanley was called forward,
chief spokesman had iitt. 6d. a day when with the this being his first appearance, and wan formally received,
machinery. At other times he was frequently em- amid loud cheers.
played at piecework, and, being a capital workman, Sir Bartle Fevre, in opening the proceedings, said the
he did well on lime ; hia orffinary wages when not greater part of the papers to be read were extracts from
thus employed were Ids. a week, and, as we hearth Livingstone letters to Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Roderick
he made £ll at harvest. The horsemen who take no_di Temin,aryit iren isferlaf
~maenndualosia,f,roron.Liso..ninit,ntoceheisx
ttinizteg
charge of the horses and feed them, receive 15s. a over visor Leen years. It was impossible to imagine a
week, with what is called "journey money" when greater proof of Ids idonsitalcle perseverance than that he
they take corn or other produce to mill, railway, or should have continued to write under such intense din-
market, or cart cake, coals, or manure front the couragement regarding the papers he thus sent off irons
town. This " journey money" is fel, for a short
time to time, without any certainty that they would ever
and Is. for a long journey. fhe remaining able- srselnd: tyhe:irrs t'elittpis74 shilLt.e %el rae(lll:e'ard hkolsein tlg (t(l?sts
bodied men are paid 13s. a week ordinary wages., country. Not a fragment of news had been allowed to reach
and harvest money besides. All have as much lam until the lint authentic bitolligence for years was ear-
piece work am, can be planned for them in draining, red Icy their guest of that evening- Mr. Stanley. (i 'beers.)
fencing, hoeing, and mowing, at BO much an acre. Ile was in greet hopes, from the very voluminous materials
No deduction is made for wet or broken days. The
which had lieeu preserved through the courage and per-
of Nassie boyat they might be abl in
wage is paid independent of weather or of work ; a severance
time to consttheruet a eonnemits, th
eml narrati eve of Livingstone's db.
job is found fir them or made for them through- coyotes, and that no great maid of the labours to which his
out the year, and the farmer said his able-bodied end- lire had been devoted would remain unillustrated. That.
nary lahourers had averaged 168. weekly during the however, must necessarily he a work of time. and every one
winter, and 18s. during the summer. Nor is the work interested in geography—almve all the fellows of that
anything like as hard as it used to be. There are the society—would rejoice with hf
,i,,m to hear that the work of
.ea:s,..:l7..renmlinas2;hcioot.hipos atiheenroehitlei e!ebenll undertaken
in ti
steam plough and scarifier. The artificial grasses and ,
most of the meadow gram are mown by horse- 1 by Eia most worthy son, Mr. Livingstone. who, hail Oven up
machine :the raking and gathering are done by horse- for a time a promising career in Egypt to undertake this
power. Then at bars-cat time the reaping maddne has pious duty to his parent, Isis country, and to mankind. In the
displaced the scythe, and the hardest work of all— : Papers to be read perpetual reference would be found to
pitching corn, hay., peas, or beans from the waggon 14tart;s.r.exarndinefertiaenh1fhis'st a
intcane,soictiitiosii
up to the stack —is done by an " elevator." Horse
to duty, and a determination that nothing should inditry
power also at Westhorpe cuts the chaff, breaks the Is m to give up the work he had undertaken until
cake, pulps the roots, and pumps the water from that had been properly performed, as far as his powers went. •
a well bOft. deep into troughs, which distribute it Here and there were fragments of picturesque description of
into the stockyard and thneighout the farm-build- country, and there were invaluable materials for conotruethrg
;tedniinnilt,i,drteriiinit of the geo,gra phy and etlmogmphy of the
lugs. The engine that drives the steam-plough athl
t Jaen they refer. Jacoob Wainwright had himself
scarifier thrashes the corn and grinds it. Old-fashionmi
also noitributed very valuable materials in the slope of
fanners( of a past generation would gape with wonder journal which he had been enabled to keep through the
to see all these new-fangled ways. I hear that the in, education which he hail received at the hands of the
plement-makers are not without hopes of perfecting a Church Missionary :society at Naiad, This, with the
aid of such illustrations as it might receive from his
machine for tying imp the eom in the wake (4
oral communications and from the notes of previous
the reaper, which would, indeed, be a valuable journeys through the' mine part ef the countr , wcadd,
ally to the farmer. Meanwhile, on all the large it is -hoped, enable Mr. Livingstone to draw up a
farms around here—and the holdings do not average connected narrative of the route by which the body
less than 600 or 700 acres--labour has been greatly of the great traveller had been brought house. On
economized, and some of the hardest, roughest work the whole, Ice hoped that when the book was before the public
—which, ass our neighbours say, tends to " brutalize" it would proven complete and connected picture, such, as the
t traveller would have wie
the workmen—has now been remitted in agriculture, shd
or me lebour to which his life hadhis countrymen to possess,
been devoted. It was as in in manufactures, to machineq. You will see possible to give any adequate motion of the general enthu-
that the men of -
at did not quarrel with einem with which the country at large seemed to have
their lot and reminded the employer that they were taken up the liews held by the Royal Geographical Society
not complaining of wages. There were other men of their duty with regard to mu. great countryman. From
on the farms who had not joined the Union— per-
every part of the kingdom they had received the fullest an-
stroora,,rneaepamti
sefteelinisimatle haeaet
haps because they felt too well anti fled to ed run any . .thei y l
of the lmot
risk( Perhaps because of their comfortable surroundings. forGigh re t had been shad by their sq t duties
r countrymen at large.
Two cottages had been built for them, each containing (Cheers.) From the Queen in her palace, olown through
a sitting room 12ft. by 12ft., a back room if the name several members of the Royal family to, workmen in their
size, less the space occupied by: the staircase and store- cottages there had been one exmession 44 feeling, and that
closet, and two bedrooms overhead. In the rear wan a feeling had been fully expressed by her Majesty s Govern.
common bakehouse and oven, with a copper, and a me"t
Mr. Major then proceeded to read a large number of
woodhouse for each. The cottages were brick-built
extracts from various letters. The first was dated from
and pan-tiled, and had cost £l7O the pair. But they the Manyuenta country, Oct., 1169, and directed to Sir
were built four years ago, and since then the increaeing ! p.rtje prore. It stated that he was about 150 miles west
price of materials has greatly increased the cottage diffi- or UAL having, as soon as he had recovered from pneu-
culty. l'he same cottages' bnilt upon exactly the monia, gone up to an islet called Kasenge, in Tanganyika,
same plan, would now emit £l7O without the bricks and then struck west, to avoid the mountains opposite
and tiles, which would come to £7O more, while the Ujikd Ile was then in the great bend the Lualaba
farmer would also have to do the cartak,e of these ma-
.1 f"lrt'wfv°sha'v.‘eiy trdg eNLr,lehneair.
terials. The remains- of the old Manor-house at miles broad at times, and he had to go down and see where !
Westhrope were fitted up for three of four other in- it jollied the eastern arm Lualaba and lengauyika be '
bowers on the farm, and with one exception they had took to be the two great head branches into which Ptolemy :
not joined the Union. In all these cases the rental made the head waters collect. Ile was of opinion that
paid is much below the value (4 the cottage But the I:aws-leTirsileirtlisiscev'e7relig'iotis‘se (livard ';osrt
possession of a comfortable house and a nice bit of ; moderns was the rem'scovery' of what had sunk into oblivion.
garden must at all times be a powerful inducement to I He was not without hope that the lost city of Mertie had er-
a labouring man to stay with a growl master. I isted at the confluence of the Lualaba and the Tanganyika,
! and that the extensive underground houses reported there
might prove to be the places of sepulture of a race which
I had left no descendents. Of these he said
The excavations are ascribed to the Deity, and the
modern inhabitants build heir rude huts ineiole. Them
are my waking oireams ; but they will not divert my mind
from following the line if diacovery, to whatever it may :
lead. Sir Roderick by desiring use to examine the water- :
shed of South Central Africa. pointed to the true scientific
way of setting the question of the sources. I tunlerstood :
It to be the wish of the Council too, but have since hail
doubts. Ile said to me, ' You will be the real discoverer
of the sources of the Nile.' You will not readily conceive •
the difficulty. I had to feel every step ef the way, and
was generally groping in the dark, for who cared where
the rivers ran? The great upland valley revealed itself
to the barometers, amid then the courses of the rivers
proved it. I am a little :melees that niy friends
should understand my reasons for striving to make a coin- !
plete work of the exploration. I have had us letters but
Very old ones, and don't know the state of my affairs or of
my family .the only thing inns sure ails, that all my friends
Will wish me to complete my task before I retire In this
wish I join, and think it better to do so now than afterwards
In vain. It seems indispensable that I should go down and
see where the two great head branches join. Then go
round outside and south about all the springs, no as to Inc ,
sure no one else will come and 'cut me out 'by finding
sources south of mine. This may enable me to visit the
rock excavations and the copper mines if Katanga. If we
oould go straight where we wish, the work would soon lie '
done but we have togs where it is safe, and where cowardly
attendants will not he frightened out of their small wits
and smaller sense of duty, We have to, make friends with I
one tribe, in order to venture to ano.her. In this region of •
I dense forests scam-rely three villages own the same headman,
or know each (other. 1 have a seriously long work before
- me, but hope that the kind Provillenoe which has helped
thus far. may aid me through." lie spoke of having Ist
nearly all his teeth, Imhof drifting fast into seeosid childhood,
and that was all the " Sources " had dine for Min. The Andre
I tried tic make him believe the lianyuenias were cannibals,
to prevent his going en with his exploration., end a worse
obstacle• -the rainy season—tad detained him for some I
months. Assoon as he had found mit where the Lurolaba went
Mtn Tanganyika, he would have toc retire. He then offered
sonic suggestions Mr training the pupils from the Nassick
schools. A second letter to Sir Bartle Frere, without date,
from Bangweolo, in South Central Africa, gave some geo-
, logical details of the country he had passed over, and id the
lake people, whom he described as eager slave-traders. In a
postcript dated Nov. 27, 1870, written on a leaf turn out of a
cheque li, mit, he describe. lake Lincoln and some lacustrine 1
rivers of the district. In a conununication to Sir Henry
• Fsawlinson, dated South Central Africa, "1573" he
mentioned the by he felt when Mr. K M.
Stanley provided him with men and goods for further
exploration. No one, he said, who knew him or had a
hind idea of the devotedness with which he had endea-
voured to make a feasible finish of the great problem be-
fore he retired, would suspect him of a desire to make a
fuss about himself. Livingstone next gave an account
of the conspiracy on the part of the Banians and Arabe
by which all news from the coast hod ho-en kept from him,
and all Ids deepatchee home suppressed. and finally went
into a geographical description of the region in which his
last days Were spent. None of these lengthened descrip- 1
Mons would be intelligible without maps to illustrate the 1
dead traveller's remark, Some extracts from private
letters were next read, notably Iwo addressed to a gentle- I
man named Braithwaite, and they were valuable as illus. s
Mating the indomitable perseverance of Dr. Livingstone's I
character in persisting with his work under discourage-
ments and obstacles that would hove rlannted any ordinary '
man. Reference was made in these letters, as well as in
one to Sir Henry Itawlinson, et the receipt of some not very
generous communications from the Foreign Office when
Lord Russell was 111 power, and he spoke warmly in favour of
inireased missionary efforts, and of the necessity of having
native Christians.
The President mid there were many other letters which
time would no permit to he read I but they would all appear
in doe course, and he said lie had no doubt the Assembly
would Ice glad to hear irons Mr. Stanley the impressions left
on his mind by Inca intercounte with Livimodone what views
and objects the Doctor then had, and the spirit in which he
had determined to carry them out.
• me H. M. Stanley, who was loudly cheered, came forward
in response to this invitation, and described tlie critical, and
someuliat cynical, spirit in which he had gone prepared to
nieet Br Livingstone, and how rapidly that feeling hod been
changed into affectionate esteem under the In flounce of the
unaffectedly Christian character of the great traveller, and of
the charm of his manner. Ile described the pic-nicking
voyage they had taken on the Tangenylka, in the hope
that they might discover some broad channel on whtej.4
fl oat towards Raker. ani ad the dliapptinent they felt
on reaching the northern end of the lake trey found it a

basin, walled in by mountains. and that more difficulties
and dangers lay before Livingstone before he could hope
reaih the coast Returning together, Mr. Stanley said
he parted with Livingstone on the 14th of March. 1872,
at Unianlembe, his last words being. "If ever you return,
tell the people at home. who may wonder why I did net
come back, what you know of me, and if there is an.,
thing in my letters that requires explanation, do you give
them the information, and then they will under-
stand why it woo I eould not retaru." Air. Stanley
said he thought he hod fulfilled at Brighton the promise he
had made to Livingixone, and trim that Vale until the news
of the Doctor's death, he had hoped that his dear friend
would return to endorse what he had salt (Metre)

The President, in adjourning the discunglion to that day
fortnight, expressed his repot that time did not permit el
the meeting hearing many gentlemen who were well entitled
to express their views.

ON A SWEET THING CRAMMING FoR
MIDDLE CLASS EXAM.
See that meek maiden at her Logic toiling,
tier lair cheek wan, her soft., sweet brains a.boiling!
hi hats worse. I ask, itaarbarous times' worst ills.
Than Womelithus set grinding at their Mills runoh.