The Washington herald., 1916-07-12
YOUR WEDDING DAY
The Famous Men and Women Who
Have Shared Il.
July l2-Henry M. Stanley and Doro
thy Tenant.
By MARY MARSHALL.

II was too weak to experience any,
thing save a CAIN delight at the fact
that was married, and that now
should have chance to rest During
my long bachelorhood, I have often
wished that I had but one tiny child to
love. but now, Unexpectedly as it seems
to me, I possess a wife: my own wife,
Dorothy Stanley. Dorothy Tenant this
morning"
These words are quoted from the diary
Of William H. Stanley, the Great Eng
lish African explorer, and they were
written on the evening of his wedding
day just twepty-six years ago today.
The wedding between the already famous
explorer and his gifted young wife had
been planned for weeks and when a few
days before the ceremony was to take
place Stanley fell i'll with a severe attack
or gastrites and neuralgia he was de-
termined to go through the ceremony
whatever the ordeal might cost him Ac-
cording to Dorothy Stanley it was only
the wonderful power Of will possessed
by the great man that made it possible
for him to accomplish this self-imposed
task.
Immediately after the wedding. the
bride laid aside her festive bridal gar
ments and turned nurse. With one of his
Officers she took the sick man to the
country home of one of her friends and
together they nursed him back to health
Later the Stanleys went to the south of
France for the deferred honeymoon, and
the following autumn Stanley brought
his wife to this country where he had
lecture tour to make. 1t was rather in
teresting to read in Stanley's diary,
written at the time of this trip, the i'm
pressions made upon him by America
and things American. For the farmer
OF the United States he had the kindest
and most complimentary comments. But
for New York city-where he stopped
first on his arrival in this country-he
had little to say that was in any way
commendatory.
The noises and bells and wheels and
horses hoofs din the ears he writes
Telegraph posts with numberless wires
obstruct the view and suggest tall wire
fences. Furlongs of posters meet the
eye everywhere and elevated railroads
close the view of the sky"
Twelve years later found the Stanleys
back in England ready to go into their
own recently renovated country home.
The work of preparing this house for
occupancy Stanley took upon his own
shoulders, not permitting his wife to
join him till 1t was all completed. And
when she did arrive a wonderful sur
prise awaited her, for Stanley had had
the home furnished throughout to please
anu lie Hdu not IOTSOIIen a single
detail. Even the store room he had
stocked up with all the necessary staples
and each canister and can, arranged in
neat rows, was labeled in his own hand
writing so that, as Lady Stanley put 1t,
the house was ready to withstand a
months siege as far as supplies went.
Before many weeks had passed in this
delightful home came the shock of
paralysis that rendered Stanley an invalid
and his wife the most dutiful of nurses.
"As looked at his grand head lying ON
the pillows" she wrote, It felt I could
be happy in new and sublime way If
only need not give him up" Later she
tells us that lat times I had a sort of
illusion that I was holding him back
from Death" However, before two
years had passed the great explorer died,
his devoted wife and the only son hay-
ing made their last Intellectual effort to
hold back from death the man whom
they loved so devotedly.
Copyright, lsls)