H. M. Stanley sits to Joseph Tussaud--The story of his
life--How he found Livingstone--A mysterious veiled lady--The
Prince Imperial.
In 1873 the nation was saddened by the death at Ilala of Dr. Livingstone,
the great missionary-explorer, who, some time before, had disappeared
in the trackless wastes of Central Africa while preaching the gospel
to savages and making surveys of the great continent. The name of
Livingstone will always be bracketed with that of H. M. Stanley, who, as
the emissary of the _New York Herald_, “discovered” him.
[Illustration: DAVID LIVINGSTONE
Missionary and African Explorer, whose model is in the Tussaud
collection.]
When my father wrote to Stanley asking for a sitting, he replied that
he was too heavily engaged at the time writing his book _How I Found
Livingstone_, and he proposed that the artist should call and make a
study of him at his desk. This he did, with the happy result that he
produced a very striking portrait.
The story of Stanley’s life is a romance in itself.
Born of poor parents at Denbigh, in Wales, about 1840, he at first bore
the name of John Rowlands. When about fifteen years of age he worked his
way as a cabin boy to New Orleans, where he was employed by a merchant,
name Stanley, whose name he assumed.
He served in the Confederate Army, contributed to several journals, and
in the year 1867 began his connection with the _New York Herald_. As its
special correspondent he accompanied Lord Napier’s Abyssinian Expedition,
and the first news of the fall of Magdala was conveyed to this country by
his paper. He next went to Spain for the _Herald_, and he was in Madrid
in October, 1869, when he received the peremptory telegram “Come to Paris
on important business.” He immediately complied, and there received from
Mr. Bennett, junior, the laconic instruction and valediction, “Find
Livingstone! Good-night, and God be with you.”
In January, 1871, Stanley reached Zanzibar, and two months later marched
into the heart of Africa.
It was on the 10th of November that he “found” Livingstone at Ujiji.
Well, indeed, as Stanley himself admitted, was he repaid for all the
dangers he encountered on his journey when he grasped the hand of
the grey-haired old missionary--aged by climate and exposure--whose
whereabouts he had been sent to discover.
We placed in the Exhibition portrait models not only of Stanley, attired
in a facsimile of the explorer’s suit worn by him on the occasion of the
historic meeting, but also one of Dr. Livingstone himself. Probably many
more persons have gazed upon the figure of Livingstone in the Exhibition
than ever paid a pilgrimage to see his final resting-place in Westminster
Abbey.
Together with the model of Stanley was placed a figure of his boy,
Kalulu, concerning whom the explorer wrote a book in 1873 (_My Kalulu_).
* * * * *
[Illustration: NAPOLEON III.]
The death of Napoleon III in the January of this year was associated
with one of the most impressive tableaux in the long history of Madame
Tussaud’s. The Emperor was represented as lying in state, and I find
myself still wondering as to the identity of a tall, stately lady,
dressed in black and wearing a thick veil, who came to the Exhibition on
several occasions, bringing a bunch of violets which she placed on the
steps of the catafalque, after having obtained a vase containing water in
which to put the flowers.
[Illustration: THE PRINCE IMPERIAL
Son of Napoleon III., killed by the Zulus on Whit Monday, 1879. From the
painting by Pichat.]
The son of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, the Prince Imperial, who was
killed in the Zulu War, was made the subject of an equestrian memorial
at Madame Tussaud’s some years later. The tableau closely conformed with
authentic details of the Prince’s attempt to mount his horse and escape
from the Zulu hordes, who pierced him with many assegais.
It had been suggested in the House of Commons that an effigy to his
memory should be erected in the Abbey, in view of the fact that the young
Bonaparte died in one of England’s wars while serving under English
officers. A reference in _Punch_ to this proposal suggested that a much
more suitable repository for a memorial would be Madame Tussaud’s along
with the other memorials of the Bonaparte period on view there.