Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-23
stanIey's Mission.

1t is no longer doubted by anybody that STAN
ley did make his way to Uiiji, and did see DR..
Livingstone there, and visit, in his company,
some of those places with unmanageable names,
which have been the despair of printers and
readers since his letters began to arrive, But
there is not entire agreement in assigning the
object of SANKEY'S visit. He says-and the
Herald of course says the same-that he went
to Africa to find Livingstone. Other people
think and say that the sole object Of the expedi-
ton was to give the Herald magnificent adj
vertisement. The general opinion probably is
that each Of these motives had its influence in
determining Mr.. Bennett to appear as a munif-
cent patron of geographical discovery. But
even this is not quite satisfactory. Nowith-
standing Mr.. Benefits undoubted enterprise
and possible benevolence, both of which might
have urged him toward this undertaking, it still
seems a strange thing for him to do. Another
object Of the expedition has occurred to u.s. and
it does not appear unreasonable to believe that
this may have had something TO do with it, We
all know that, in some mysterious way, our
fences and dead walls, and pretty much every
accessible rock on this continent, whose face is
covered with invitations to use Dusenbury's
death defer, Browns bitters or some other al
lucrative Or otherwise seductively named nos
trum. These offensive reminders of quackery
are inscribed by human hands no doubt, but
when or by whose nobody can tell. No place is
secure from them, The traveller who seeks re-
mote and secluded hooks, apparently never in
vaded before by the foot of man. is appalled, and
disguised to find, as the only evidence of a for
mer visitant highly colored recommendation
OF Jones cathartic balsam.
All the attractive scenery in New England and
the other northern states we know to be thus
disGgured, and probably the abutments of the
natural bridge, the domes of the Yosemite, the
canyons of the Colorado, have been desecrated
in the same way. Without having visited Mex
lco or South America, we suppose it is safe
enough to say that the cliffs of Popocatepetl,
the rocks of the Straits of Magellan, aud posi-
bly, the snowy slopes of Chimborazo and Aeon
cagua, have been appropriated by the patent
medicine men for advertising purposes. Hay.
ing possessed themselves of this continent de-
filed il, and made the names of their nostrums
familiar to all its inhabitants, it was natural
that they should look for new opportunities to
proclaim the virtues of their wretched wares TO
a ereduous and unsophsticated people. This,
we suspect, was in part Mr.. SANKEY'S mission;
he has painted on the trees of the Afri-
can forests, the rocky shores of Lake Tan
ganyika, and the stockades nd cottage walls
OF ujiji and Unyanyembe, the virtues of the
bitters, balsams, pills and oils with whose names
we have long been so Interestingly familiar
King Cazembe has gazed with wonder and dis
quietude at the strange characters and, like the
Babyonian monarch, has sought for the in
depreciation Of the handwriting on his walls,
which is as portentous of evil, if he only knew
1t, as that which loretold thedownfall Of king.
dom. If our conjecture is correct, it may now
be triumphantly declared that there is no quar-
ter of the world where the wayfarng man NAV
not read, if reading is among his accomplish
ments, OF the wonderful efficacy Of American
nostrums. We may be entirely mistaken about
this, but we offer it as our contribution TO the
mass of conieetures about Stanley the Herald
and Livingstone.