A WORKHOUSE BOY WHO BECAME AN M. P.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2740, 19 February 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

A WORKHOUSE BOY WHO BECAME AN M. P.

THE LIFE STORY OF SIR. H. M

STANLEY

Truth is stranger than fiction. Charles Dickens, in “Oliver Twist,” drew a, harrowing picture of the sufferings of a workhouse boy, and roused the country by describing the sorrows of poor Oliver, who had the audacity to as'k for more gruel because he was hungry. One of the most remarkable books published last year was the “Autobiography of Sir H. M. Stanley” (Sampson Low). Here we have fact instead of fiction, actual life instead of romance.

Describing his boyhood in tho workhouse at St-. Asaph, Wales, the famous explorer cays: — No Greek helot or dark slave ever underwent such discipline. The ready back-slap in the lace, the stunning clout over the car, the strong blow with the open palm on alternate cheeks, which knocked our senses into confusion, were so frequent that. it is a. marvel we ever recovered again. Our poor' heads were cuffed and slapped and bounded until wo lay speechless and streaming with blood. It is.a startling and terrible indictment Of the Poor Law system of that time.

AN UNNATURAL MOTHER. The tragedy which marked this period of the explorer’s career was heightened by the circumstances which led to him becoming a workhouse boy. Hi.s real name was John Rowlands, and his father died when he was a foTv weeks old. His mother left Denbigh, where lie- was born, and went to London, leaving her son in charge of her father, Moses Parry. Some relatives clubbed together to pay the old man half a crown a week for the child’s maintenance, and when the money ceased he promptly sent the child off to St. Asaph Workhouse to wear the livery cf a pauper. No' one ever visited him, although he had many relatives, and it was not until he was twelve years of age that lie saw his mother again! She arrived at the workhouse with two other children, by a different father, in search of shelter and support. Says the explorer:— Francis (a one-armed cobbler turn-

ed schoolmaster, who like Mr Squeers. took a fiendish delight in flogging the children) came to me during the dinner lio'ur, when all the inmates were assembled, and, pointing out a tall woman with an oval face and a great

coil of dark hair behind her head, asked me if I recognised her. “No, sir,” I replied. “What-, do you not know vour own mother?” I started

with a burning face and directed a sly glance at her, but her expression was so chilling that the valves of my heart closed with a snap. “Honor

thv father and thy mother” ffad been

repeated to me a thousand times, but tills loveless parent required no honor from me.

—Spurned by bis Relatives. — And even in after years, when Stanley returned to his mother’s home at Denbigh as a young man, hoping to win that maternal affection which had hitherto been denied him, he was told ho was not wanted. “They (his relatives) desired me to leave as speedily as possible.” Is it surprising, in view of these circumstances that Stanley grew up a stern and embittered man, with a reputation for narrow-mindedness in his regard for human nature? It was from a stranger that- he received practically his first kindness. After suffering for years at the hands of the brutal Francis he took the law into his own hands, like Nicholas Nit'kleby, and thrashed the brutal schoolmaster before the whole school. In the confusion he escaped, managed to earn a living for a time as an errand-boy, and ultimately obtained a berth as a cabinboy on a Liverpool ship bound for New Orleans; but his troubles were bv no meafns at an end. Ho found the ship’s officers as brutal as Francis, so much so that when New Orleans was reached he deserted and roamed the streets in search of a situation. It was thus that ho met Mr. Thomas Stanley, a merchant, who took a great fancy to the little waif, and not only found him a situation, but also lodgings. A curious and romantic incident is referred to at this jioint of the book: — A young man came to the house where Stanley lodged, and shared, his rooms. He was voluble, but modest, and finally John Rowlands discovered his merry companion was not a boy after all but- a girl, Alice Heaton, who, disguised as a cabinboy, and suffering the self-same trials that the young* Welsh lad suffered, fled from a cruel grandmother in Liverpool. After the discovery John Rowlands went to his work, intending to return to discuss matters with the. girl, but when he got back to his lodgings she had fled, and he heard nothing moro of her. Stanley also tells a curious story concerning the ceremonial manner in which the merchant subsequently adopted him.

—Re-Baptized.— “As you are wholly unclaimed,” said the merchant one day, “without a parent, relation or sponsor, I promise to take you for my son, and fit you for a mercantile career; and in future you are to bear my name, ‘Henry Stanley.’ ” Having said which, he rose, and, dipping his hand in a basin of water ho made the sign of the cross on my forehead, and went seriously through the formula of baptism, ending with a brief exhortation to bear mv new name worthily. —Earnings as a Journalist.— It was not long 1 after that Stanley’s benefactor died. After working in a store as a clerk and shopman the future explorer became a soldier, and from soldiering drifted into journalism. In his early days as a journalist lie made on an average 90dols. a week, i.e.y about £ls. And then came the Abys-4 sinian war. during which he acted af special correspondent for the “NcvJ York Herald.” The promptitude withl, which be accepted the appointment was characteristic of Llio man. Mr. Gordon Bennett told him he could go if ho paid liis -own expenses, and the “Herald” would pay him at the rate they engaged their European specials. “Very well, sir,” replied Stanley, “I am at yo'ur service.” “Wh-en do- you intend to start?” “The day. -after tomorrow.” “Well, consider it arranged.” For several years, he acted as “special” in Europe, Asia, and India for the “Herald.” And tlron came the laconic message from Air. Bennett, “Find Livingstone.” How Stanley at o-noe subordinated everything else to that aim, and liow liei ultimately succeeded, is a. familiar story. By tho natives of Africa he was clubbed “Bula Matari,” meaning “Breaker of Roc'ks.” And lie deserved the name. Tor no man possessed greater .determination to overcome obstacles.-

—How Great Britain Lost the Congo.— Verv interesting is the hitherto unpublished material - contained' in Stanley’s “Autobiography” concerning his

finding of Livingstone, his rescue of Emin, and the opening up of the Congo. ■ /• And great was his chagrin when this country refused to take advantage of this pioneer work and place the Congo under the British Flag. At that time, 3/7) King Leopold was already interested in. African possibilities, and asked Stanley to visit Brussels for a conference.

Disgusted with apathy shown bore towards the question of opening uo the Congo to commerce, Stanley went to the Royal Palace at Brussels, and the ultimate result of tho conference was that Kii>g Leopold got a grip on the country which has poured millions into his pockets, and which lias brought odium upon his head on account of the cruelties practised' under his government in the course of commerce.

—“My Stanley.”—

It was the Gordon tragedy of 1885 which really led to tho first meeting between Stanley and Miss Dorothy Tennant, who became his wife, and who has edited his “Autobiography” in so capable and praiseworthy a manner. Mr. Gladstone wanted to speak to Stanley about tho tragedy, and a dinner was arranged by Mrs. Tennant, at which the two met. Miss Tennant sat between Gladstone, and Stanley, and she leaned back in her chair while they talked of the great question of the day. This was 1,855. The following year Sir William Mackinnon invited Mrs Tennant and her dangfitcr to yacht with him and Stanlev off the West Coast of Scotland. And thus ill the year bofore Stanley undertook his last great expedition for the relief of Emin they were thrown much together. In 1889 Stanley emerged from his expedition from Darkest Africa, and the following year he married his countrywoman, Dorothy Tennant-

By Lady Stanley the famous explorer is still affectionately referred to as “My Stanley,” and the description of the death-bed scene is pathetic to a degree. She nays:—

“On the last night, the night of Monday, the 9th of May, liis mind wandered. He said: ‘I have done — all—my work—l have—circumnavigated—’ Then, later, with passionate longing, he cried: ‘Oh, I want to he free. I want to -o—into the woods—to he free.’ Towards dawn he turned his head to me, and, looking un at me said: ‘I want—l want—to" go home. . . As six o’clock rang out Stanlev left me and was admitted into the nearer presence of God.”