STANLEY'S WAY,

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1904, Page 13

STANLEY'S WAY,

I romomber once asking him what ho would havo dono if ho had been in Emm Pasha's place on that last fntal day when tho emissaries of tho slavers camo into his tout. "I should not have allowed mysolf to bo slaughtered like that," /aid Stanley; "I should* havo thought it nil out beforehand, and I think I should havo known very well what tho ruffians meant tho moment I sot oyes upon thorn. I might havo beon killed, but no£," he ndded, grimly, "by thoso men, for I should have killod thorn first." Similarly ho spoko of Gordon's end. "If," ho said, "1 had been sent to got tho Khartoum garrison away, I should havo thought of that and nothing else 5 I should havo calculated tho chances, mado out exactly what resistance 1 would havo to encounter, and how it could bo overcome, and laid aH my plans with tho single object of accomplishing my purpose." I believe, though ho did not say so, that ho thought tho retreat could have beon chected, or tho town held till tho relief column arrived, if proper measures had been taken and the ono definite aim had boen kept steadily in'viow all the timo. That was his own principle of action. When he had an object to fulfil, a commission to carry out, he could think of nothing else till tho work was dono. Difficulties, toil, hardships, sacrifices of all kinds, of timo, of men, of money, were only incidents in the journey that led to a goal, to bo reached if human endeavour could gain it. "No honour," ho wrote, "no reward, however great, can bo equal to tho subtle satisfaction that a man feels when ho can point to his work and say : 'Soo, , now, tho task I promised you to perform with all loyalty and honesty, with might nnd main, to tho utmost of my ability is to-day finished.' " This was tho prime articlo in Stanley's confession of faith — to do tho work to which he had sot his hand, and in doing it, liko Tennyson's Ulysses : -. To strive, to seek, to find, arid not to yield. — Sidney Low, hi the Cornhill Magazine.