Fayette County Herald

There are few men in the world to whom life should apparently be so pleasant as to Mr. Henry Stanley; there are few, however, to whom it seems to be so bitter.

All England is ready to do him honor; he has been overwhelmed with praise and congratulation: the Queen has received him: Parliament has thanked him: the two great journals for which he has made his explorations have amply rewarded him. But he is sullen, morose, discontented and savage; he seems to enjoy nothing save occasionally making himself intensely disagreeable at a public dinner or meeting where everyone is anxious to do him honor. This is strange: Mr. Stanley is yet a young man, and life should still contain much joy for him. What is the explanation of this mystery?

Mr. Stanley has had a romance; it ended unhappily for him, and this has soured him to the heart. Before he went upon his second expedition to Africa, he met and fell madly in love with a charming young lady, the daughter of a wealthy citizen of Jewish extraction, whose name is perhaps best known in connection with the erection of an extensive but unfortunate opera-house. Mr. Stanley's passion was deep and violent, but he was told that, at least, he must wait, and that an immediate marriage was out of the question. He was anxious to win even greater fame and fortune and lay them at the feet of his beloved. It was at this moment that the second African expedition was proposed to him; in it he saw the coveted opportunity for distinction and reward, and eagerly embraced the perilous commission. Throughout the whole of that terrible journey through the jungles of Africa, amid all his toils, dangers, sickness and disappointments, he was sustained by the thought of his love, and by the confident hope of receiving the reward which was dearer to him than the applause of the world, or the riches of Golconda. He gave the name of the young lady to the most beautiful lake which he discovered, as he gave it afterward to the handsome boat in which he made a portion of his exploration—the Lady Alice.

At length the source of the Congo was found; the great deed was accomplished, and Stanley returned with a proud and happy heart to the coast. At Zanzibar a packet of letters was awaiting him; and he hastened to open them, hoping to find some message of love and affection from the mistress of his soul. A fatal blow struck him. One of the letters contained the intelligence that Miss Alice had been married several months.

From that moment Mr. Stanley was a changed man. His delight in life was wholly lost. His natural good humor and buoyancy of spirit gave place to long fits of melancholy, alternated with violent outbursts of petulance and anger. The plaudits with which he was received upon his arrival in England were distasteful to him; he revenged himself by attacking with unreasonable rage everyone who ventured to differ on even the slightest subject with him.

This, however, was Stanley's second love affair. He had experienced a previous disappointment, but it had not deeply wounded him. Chancing to be spending some time upon the Island of Crete, he saw from his window a young Greek maiden in the garden of the opposite house, and he at once felt that his fate was sealed. She was about 15 years old and Mr. Stanley has since declared that never before nor since has he beheld so sweet and beautiful a creature. He at once sought out the American Consul and revealed to him the state of his heart. The Consul, who had himself married a Greek lady, bade him not despair; took him forthwith to the house of his inamorata and presented him to her mother, who was a widow. Stanley could speak no Greek; the mother no English; the Consul was the interpreter. He did his work so well that at the end of half an hour the young lady was sent for. Stanley was forbidden even to touch her hand: but he conversed with her by his eyes; they soon understood each other well.

At the end of a week he was an accepted lover; at the end of a fortnight the day for the wedding arrived. All this while he had seen the young lady once a day, always in the presence of her mother. On the day before the wedding he had been permitted for the first time to take her hand and to imprint upon it a chaste salute. The morning of the wedding arrived; Stanley was dressed for the ceremony and was waiting the happy moment. There entered to him three Greeks, whom he had never seen before, and an interpreter. They are introduced as the brothers of the bride, and they produce a parchment which the interpreter explains. It is a deed of settlement which binds Stanley to pay so much a year to the mother, and so much to each brother, and so much to his wife, and to plank down the first installments on the spot.

In vain Stanley explains that he is worth nothing and cannot pay; the brothers look daggers, the interpreter frowns, and the scene closes by the arrival of the Consul, who with difficulty gets Stanley out of the clutches of his tormentors and ships him off to Athens. He never saw his beautiful Grecian maiden again.