Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-02-19
HENRY M. STANLEY.
His Career on the Plnina-An Inter
esting Leaf from His Life.

IS. @. B." a journalist, thus
writes in the Cincinnati CONNER
cial:
My acquaintance with Stanley
began at Omaha in September, 1867.
He was then engaged in correspond
ing for the st. Louis Democrat.
During the spring and summer of
that year his letters, under the sig
nature Of STANLEY" will be remem~
bered by many, not only from their
graphic descriptions Of Indian life,
buta bold fearlessness in critics.
ing men and measures, military or
civil, that won for him no incon-
siderable reputation. He was pres
ent with General Hancock in April,
when the generals unfortunate at
tack and total destruction of the
Indian village of the Cheyennts
and one hundred thousand dollars
worth of property occurred. The
burning Of this village was the i'm
mediate cause Of the war that fol-
lowed, the damage to the construc-
ton of the Pacific railroad, and the
outrages aud barbsrities that the
Indians afterward perpetrated. 1t
is enough here to say that the affair
settled Mr.. Hancook's Presidential
pie, as subsequent events proved.
The letter Of Stanley, who was an
eyewitness when the order was
given, together with his accounts of
the lives that the officers lead at the
outposts, did not tend to give the
military a very exalted location in
public opinion. In the decline of
summer a peace commission, COM
posed of Generals Harney, Sher-
man, Sanborn, Terry, Senator Hen
derson, Commissioner Taylor and
Colouel Tappan were sent out by
the government to treat with the
Indians. After proceeding as high
up the Missouri river as Fort Sully,
they returned to Omaha in October,
and Mr.. Stanley received orders to
Join the commission as correspon.
dent for the Democrat. The hostile
Indians were agreeable to a meet
ing at Medicine Lodge creek, a
branch of the Arkansas, one hun.
dred and forty.fve miles from Fort
Harker. The expedition occupied
about six weeks, and your CORE
spondent had daily opportunities to
become tolerably well acquainted
with Stanley, and form some sort of
an estimate of the manner of man
he was, since he belonged to that
sort who carry their hearts on their
sleeve, and was particularly out
spoken in regard to himself.
In personal appearance he was
stout, disposed to be thick-set, his
physic not massive nor of that
chubby, wiry, broad-shouldered sort
that would stand a great amounto Of
hardship. His hair was black, and
his eye sort of indescribable color,
perhaps cross between q gray and
a green-an eye Once seen never to
be forgotten-not from any extra
ordinary brilliancy of flash it con-
tained so much as an oddity that
was peculiarly its own. One Of the
correspondents always spoke of his
eyes as "wolf-eyss," lie wore a
slight mustachc, was most sbste-
mions in his habits, and possessed
of more enthusiasm and energy in
his profession than any person |
have ever met. He was o mass of
vital energy that no amount of rid
icule pLased, that no sneer of in
credulity daunted, that no amount
of labor hindered, that no posi-
bility Of danger or fear Of conse-
aasnces turned aside, coupled with
IN amount Of assurance in relating
his own exploits that at the time
seemed, if not on the "bFqg" order,
at least slightly sayoring Of M4p-
chausenism. His life had decided
| ly been a romsntie oas, no eptsr.
tanned us during the long and
dreary ride from Fort Harker, over
| the desolate and dreary Kansas
pfairIee, as the springless ambu-
lance wended its way slowly and
ioltng along over the rutty rad,
with tales OF bis life in Persia aud
| Turkev his rOhberV and imnriSon.