The New York herald., 1872-07-09
THE FINDING OF DIR. LIVINGSTONE


and popular selections. |!
THE FINDING OF DIR. LIVINGSTONE.
from the New York World July 81
Whether DR.. Livingstone, like the hero OF Robert
BrOwning's poem OF "Waring," has been found In
his own despite or not, II seems to be toleraby |
certain that he has been found. Not less certain
does 1t seem to be that he never would have been
found had he not been looked after by the American
envoy OF an American newspaper His personal
friends in Great Britain, who represent the highest
and what ought to be the most influential scientific
circles of the British realm had entirely failed to
enlist either private public enterprise In Great
Britain in the search for the lost traveller.
Possibly they were In his secret, ana knew
that, like Humboldt's companion, Bonpand, VINO
preferred Paraguay to Paris, and cnose
to live out his long span OF harmless, happy years
in the boundless pampas Of the New World rather
than on the SNUG boulevards and within the sound
of the cacke Of the Academy, the adventurous
scotchman had fallen In love with the tropic wilder
and It's unfettered life. Or 1t may be that in
the bottom nf their hearts they dreaded his return
with a vast new vocabulary of unprOnOunceable
mumbo-jumbo names and calculations upsettng all
previous conclusions about the watershed OF the
Mountains OF the Moon and the fountains OF the
Nile. All accounts represent Dr. Livingstone
US I'LL eAtIcmcIy BcuNdi, plcdsduU sOit VI
man, whom men may well love and like.
But the sweetest and the cleverest Of men-it is
q dreadful thing to say, and dreadful because
1t Is true-the sweetest and the ceverest OF men
may become bore to his nearest and dearest II he
once mounts O hobby. And when that hobby Is
wOOy hobby from Central Africa, smeared all over
with palm Oil and called BY decasylabc names that
patience may not be expected to give way under 1t
Whatever may have been the cause or the causes,
1t Is fact that LivingstOne's own people had prac
tcaly given him over to the ignorance and silence
Of the great Ethiopian mystery when the editor Of
should be sought and found. The determine
tion itself was gallant and ,;p spirited de- de,
carried out to brilliantly successful result was not
less gallant and spirited How Livingstone liked
yens % ssd Ss nt IN dna H
HERALD expedition has enlarged the boundaries OF
human knowledge, even % about the interler OF
long. 1t would not be at all surprising were it to
turn out that Livingstone really was more vexed
than gratined by the intrusion upon his sub-egua-
torlal retreat ofa sympathetic world in the person
of a Yankee correspondent We are all OF us a
society must be the highest boon that can be as
pred to by our fellow creatures. 1t is astonishing
beget comey children build comfortable houses
laugh and grow fat, whom yet we never invite to
them in the street What each small social circle Of
the civilized world Is to many Jolly and unregen-
soul that the Whole czed n woa may be 70
was but few years ago that Parson Speke aston
ished all England by deliberately walking out OF his
parsonage into the prOfOundest mystery-turned
his back on the decencies and responsibilities OF his
recognized social position, and went Off by an ex-
press train into the southwest Of DevOnshire, there
to bury himself forever, as he fondly hoped,
under an assumed name out of sight and
sound of all his friends and acquantances
1t had perhaps occurred to speke, as it doubt
less sometimes occurs to all of US, that the only
duty which oil our friends and acquaintances would
unhesitatingly agree that they owe us is the duty
of attending our funerals. And Speke may have
thereupOn conceived the daring notion that 1t was
SnpnUinQ
forty years In one place at one work. with no more
exhilarating object In view than that Of securing
living. At ali events speke suddenly and viclously
"boted." SO, as we have said, did Robert Brown.
know, may Livingstone have done And who
shall rashly assure us =. that at there may
Africa quite SUFFICIENT to balance, even in
the mind of a Scotch Presbyterian, the
the ministrations of the Kirk, and the drizzling,
drooling mists OF the gray metropolis Of t. the
Sar declares M lfho a % our many
after ALL on "cimate and the affections" DR.. Liv-
tn ike the 4ean Climate % and II the Children Of
the sun are not to be reckOned affectionate where
has SO a IN
Africa he will not be plucked up by the mere fact
that the place where ne has planted himself has
been found to be accessible by scion Of that YAM
kee OF which we are told on good authority that
the gulf of Hades itself will not keep any one OF
them who may be on one side Of 1t from getting at
penny upon the other side He can always flee
to the Mountains of the Moon, and put new leagues
of poisonous desolatiOn between his pursuers and
himself. Dark intimatiOns that he has probably
done this have been given out already by certain OF
the London papers,
Whether he put into the hands Of the HERALD
correspondent any data to be OF use in setting forth
the discoveries such as they may have been, made
by him during these latter years, we shall know
more exactly in q short time. But whatever may be
the worth or the wOrthlessness to Livingstone him.
self to geographical science OF the HERALD's
enterprise, 1t is quite small and unwise thing for
any American journal to do what we see with re-
gret that sundry American journals have shown
disposition to do, and that is to deride and beittle
! this enterprise OF the HERALD. or course the sue
| cess of the enterprise may be safely pronounced
| valuable advertisement Of the journal which has
carried 1t out and, of course too, 1t Is quite likely
| that this view OF the issues of the affair may have
| been present to the EDITORS mind when the enter
| prise was planned. To say this does not de-
precate the value Of the enterprise nor d-
ninish the credit due to its originator. part
| of that credit is reflected upon the country to
which he belongs, and upon American journalism
in generals and IL Is not easy to see what interest
either OF the country or OF American journalism
can be served by making an idle jest of really
daring, costly and resOlute attempt to show the
| Old World that Americans are neither absorbed in
the affairs OF their own continent, indifferent to
| capable OF rlsking that "money" which Eui opean
| princes and mobiles worship quite as devoutly as
| New England grocers, as the members Of the
"White House Ring' themselves, in the prosecu-
| ton OF an undertaking which interests Americans
only part OF the family of nations and as lovers
and students of science.