Stanley has received a snuff-box and I have received
considerable snuff; he has got to write a book and
gather in the rest of the credit, and I am going to
levy on the copyright and to collect the money.
Nothing comes amiss to me—cash or credit;
but, seriously, I do feel that Stanley is the chief
man and an illustrious one, and I do applaud him with
all my heart. Whether he is an American or a
Welshman by birth, or one, or both, matters not to
me. So far as I am personally concerned, I am
simply here to stay a few months, and to see English
people and to learn English manners and customs, and
to enjoy myself; so the simplest thing I can do is
to thank you for the toast you have honored me with
and for the remarks you have made, and to wish health
and prosperity to the Whitefriars’ Club, and
to sink down to my accustomed level.
Addressdelivered in Boston, November,
1886
Mr.
Clemens introduced Mr. Stanley.
Ladies and gentlemen, if any should ask, Why is it
that you are here as introducer of the lecturer?
I should answer that I happened to be around and
was asked to perform this function. I was quite
willing to do so, and, as there was no sort of need
of an introduction, anyway, it could be necessary
only that some person come forward for a moment and
do an unnecessary thing, and this is quite in my line.
Now, to introduce so illustrious a name as Henry
M. Stanley by any detail of what the man has done
is clear aside from my purpose; that would be stretching
the unnecessary to an unconscionable degree.
When I contrast what I have achieved in my measurably
brief life with what he has achieved in his possibly
briefer one, the effect is to sweep utterly away the
ten-story edifice of my own self-appreciation and
leave nothing behind but the cellar. When you
compare these achievements of his with the achievements
of really great men who exist in history, the comparison,
I believe, is in his favor. I am not here to
disparage Columbus.
No, I won’t do that; but when you come to regard
the achievements of these two men, Columbus and Stanley,
from the standpoint of the difficulties they encountered,
the advantage is with Stanley and against Columbus.
Now, Columbus started out to discover America.
Well, he didn’t need to do anything at all
but sit in the cabin of his ship and hold his grip
and sail straight on, and America would discover itself.
Here it was, barring his passage the whole length and
breadth of the South American continent, and he couldn’t
get by it. He’d got to discover it.
But Stanley started out to find Doctor Livingstone,
who was scattered abroad, as you may say, over the
length and breadth of a vast slab of Africa as big
as the United States.
