THE EFFECT OF INTEMPERANCE IN THE CONGO.
MR. STANLEY in one of his lectures in New York gave good strong testimony in favor of total abstinence. He was asked about the climate and healthfulness of the river valley, as compared with the uplands, and of the coast as compared with the interior. Speaking on this point he said:— "Lieutenant Grant is a splendid, stalwart-looking man from Luxembourg. He has an ambition to distinguish himself. He does not like the post assigned him, so I give him other work and fifty men to continue the road from Manyanga to Stanley Pool. He has with him one bottle of Burgundy. He will keep that for a gala day—the birthday of the king. He means to drink that to a larger number of days to His Majesty. Some five miles on the road he meets a friend coming from Stanley Pool, and, "How do you do? I am delighted to see you." The friend has just one bottle of brandy. They club together and they bring out—one his bottle of Burgundy and the other the brandy. Next morning the work must go on, of course. The trader bids him "Good-by," and the officer must muster his working parties and proceed. But the effect of that night's dissipation is pretty soon seen. At nine o'clock the sun comes out strong. Before six o'clock that afternoon he is in his grave. "You ask about the climate and healthfulness of the river valleys. How can you understand unless I specify certain points to illustrate? "A man has been with me on the Upper Congo two years and nine months. He has distinguished himself. I can recommend him to anybody for industry, fidelity, and attention to his duties. I wish to preserve him. He has slight dysenteric symptoms, and I say to him: 'If I thought I could keep you from wine and liquor, I would send you to the coast, and send you home with good care; and if I had authority to bind you under oath, so that you could not touch a glass of liquor, I should be quite sure that you would arrive at home, and after a residence there of from three to six months you would be prepared to return.' He said: 'But I promise you that I will not touch a drop of liquor.' 'I do not want to exercise any restraint over you, but my firm conviction is that if you do touch it you will never reach home. Good-by. Boys, carry him.' "I give him a dozen hammock-bearers. He reaches the coast. The doctors attend him. He recovers from the slight dysenteric malady. They say now he is in a fit condition to go home. That evening he swaps his coat to a native for a bottle of gin, and by midnight he is dead. "Therefore, when you ask about the climate and the healthfulness of the river valleys, people who are suffering from the depressing influences of such instances of fatality will naturally say, with great force: 'Such and such a man died, and such and such a man, and so on; and look at that cemetery at Banana Point!' Go there, and you will see head-stones marked: 'Here lie the mortal remains of So and So, belonging to Stanley's expedition,' and 'Sergeant So and So, belonging to Stanley's expedition,' and you can count twenty or thirty. The people in America and England do not understand that there have been such fatalities. "But they will not tell you the causes; and it is right that I should follow the dead to their graves and say that such and such a man died from such and such a cause? "There was a Scotch engineer who came out recommended by the British East India Company. He was a genius. He knew the tricks of making the rudest structure comfortable and home-like. He takes charge of the steamer Belgic to go down to the mouth of the Congo. Three days afterward I ask the captain where his engineer is. He is dead. He was found sitting on a chair with a bottle of brandy in his hand—dead." A good temperance speech that; and coming from the gentleman from whom it does it ought to have great weight.—Christian Standard.