Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-02-10

when as a reporter for the Ne,
missionary-explorer. DR.. David
Livingstone. The comment
gives title to this book:
DIR. LIVINGSTONE, / PRE-
SUME? A Biography of Henry
NJ. Stanley. BY Ian Anstruther
CDutton; $3.50.
There have been, of course,
other biographies of STAN
ley, and he wrote his own
memoirs, the two-volume clas-
sic, In Darkest Africa" as
we'll as an earlier book, How
! Found Livingstone"
Did He Really Say II?
His utterance on finding
Livingston after nearly a years
heartbreaking journey is, as
Mr.. Anstruther says. lone Of
the best-known remarks of the
last century and is a classic
example of Victorian banality.
Even during Stanley's lifetime
it became such a cliche that
people began to wonder If he
had really said it. but to STAN
ley there was no more bitter
truth than that he had done
So"
The biographer adds: MANY
things were more important in
his life than his search for
Livingstone. and most of his
biographers. quite rightly.
make no more than a passing
mention Of it."
His Early Life
Mr.. Anstruther wisely has
left Stanley's career as an ex-
plorer in his own right to those
other biographies and to STAN
ley's autobiography. This
young writer has concentrated
not merely on the dash after
Livingston. but on Stanley's
entire early life, years which
the explorer was willing large
" to forget, not because they
reflected discredit on him, but
because their memory was
painful to him.
It is doubtful If there was a
figure of the 10th century who
started with less likelihood Of
achieving fame. His career
makes an Horatio Alger hero
look like a failure.
Stanley, who was baptized
in Wales John Rowland, spent
his early childhood in a work.
house, not only a waif. but an
illegitimate child, with q claim
on no one. His parentage was
known. but his mother, a Lon
don waitress, took no interest
in him. A grandfather kept
him a while, but had to give
him up to the almshouse. This
workhouse. from Anstruther's
records, must have been worse
than the one described by
Dickens in "Oliver Twist"
Finally, q strapping boy Of
IS. Stanley beat up the school,
master who was about to fog
him and fed. Two years later
he went to New Orleans on q
ship.
In New Orleans
Mistreated on the voyage,
Stanley jumped ship and found
a job. They had taught him to
read and write and to figure
a little at the workhouse. A
New Orleans man took a liking
to the lad and adopted him
the first real kindness the boy
had known. Unfortunately his
foster father died soon after
ward.
Rowland-or Stanley, which
was the name of his adopted
father-saw elegant, educated
men and women strolling
about New Orleans. and he
determined to leap the great
gulf between him and them.
He got an education by main
strength. borrowing books.
reading half the night. He
was working in a small town
on the Arkansas River when
the Civil War broke out. He
didn't know what the war
was all about, but when some
girl sent him a white feather
he enlisted in the Confeder-
ate Army. He was wounded
and captured at Shiloh. Later
he enlisted in the Federal
Army. simply to escape a
fever-ridden prison camp
which had reduced him to
something approaching a
skeleton. He was then dis
charged as useless to combat,
and he began to send articles
to the New York papers. some
Of which were printed.
Roaming Correspondent
Stanley had seen an in
credible lot Of adventure as a
world-traveled correspondent
by the time he was 80, and