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    r . i July i, 1890 The Publishers' Circu...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Stanley Book Dinner.

    and the old enthusiasm which seems in danger of — dying out for want of __ fuel _ — . We _ all know — —

    that _ ^ there 1 ^ j are plenty of - daggers always ready to find a hole in his back armour , but that

    woul man d must venture be armed to attack with him tri in ple the brass front who . I am not the man to attack him either front or

    known back . him During I have all never the long experienced years that any I thing have from him but the most generous kindness and

    expressions of the warmest gratitude for the very smallest services rendered to him by me . You are all well aware of Mr . Stanley «/' s

    has immense passed popularit through y . in If all I may the cities permi which tted , he I should like to tell you of a small incident

    which shows his popularity in the most unlikely places . A few weeks ago I was wandering over the Downsnear Beachy Head . There I

    , met with an old one-armed shepherd—his right arm had been clipped off close at the shoulder by a thrashing machine when a boy . He was

    engaged in folding his sheep . I had a little chat with him . I found him to be a very learned

    man—in his way he was a geologist and botanist , and he knew all about the natural history of his native hills . He knew all about

    primitive man , the stone age , the bronze age , and Chaldg the & an , iron / and age Egyptian Cjv . He History had read % J . He Persian knew ,

    had all about at his the finger Pyram ends ids , . and He the took Bible me story to his he cottage and showed me a very large collection

    of beautifully arranged flint and stone implements which he had himself collected during the last forty yearsand he exhibited a portfolio

    containing a large , number of well- executed . drawings by his own left hand of the weapons he had discovered . ' Well' he said ' there is one

    thing I should dearly like , to do and , that is to I shake that man Stanley by the hand . I prayed

    for him when he went away , I prayed for him when he left Egypt , and I prayed for him I when he was lost . and I knew .. he would come 1 j — _ — — _

    out all right . _ I have , read _ all _ his books and all his letters , and I should dearly have loved to

    have been with him in that Dark Forest . 1 l it would to read cost too his much new boo . I k wonder , but I if am there afraid is

    " ^ ** v v ^»** ^ v ^ ^^ ^ p' ^ ^^ ^^ r ^^ v ^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^ % A ^» ^^^ M ^^^ t ^ Km V ^ mta V * ^»^ * fc ^» ^^™ ^ rr ^— ^^ v ^ ^ v ^~ ^ " ~ v ~ ^~ - ~^ r ^ w - ' then any way told I him could that pay I knew for it Stanley a bit at , a & time nd that . ' I I

    thought it could be arranged . Subsequently I told him that I was Stanley ' s publisher . ' Be you 1 ' says he . ' Look here , ' and he took out

    an old leathern pouch and handed me a sovere thatand ign . 1 hope ' There you / , ' say will s let he , me 'I ' v pay e saved the rest up

    by degrees , . ' A I han a ded back the soverei A . * r gn and told him I would take care that he had a copy aa soon as it was ready ; it would be time

    enough to pay for it then . The old shepherd added is going : * to By bo the married way , I . hear Well that tell Mr . h Stanley im and

    Miss Tonnant that I wish them , both all the happiness that the world can afford them . I shall pray heartily for them both . ' I promised ,

    saying that I should be delighted to convoy his Tonnant message to and them I now . I have do so alre to ady don sir e so . t It o M will iss yon

    thus be , seen that the very first ^ copy ordered of ' In Darkest Africa ' was ordered by an old

    one-armed shepherd on Beachy Head—and I think it is really a remarkable proof of Mr .

    Stanley ' s popularity . I may tell you that the old shepherd ' s name is Stephen Blackmofe , a

    namesake of my respected friend R . D . Blackmore , who , 1 am glad to know , has honoured us with his presence this evening . It seemed

    to me that some slight information n , not too statistical , respecting the bringing into being

    of Mr . Stanley ' s new book may not be uninteresting . You will all admit that Mr . Stanley's recent passage through Darkest

    Africa was a grand feat . Well , I am inclined to think that the way he wrote his account of that gran od feat wa 3 not much less remarkable .

    The work contains , roughly speaking , a thousand pages of forty lines each . On January 25 of this yearnot a line of it had been

    written . Then it , was that Mr . Stanley sat down at the Villa Victoria in Cairo with a firm determination that nothing earthly should

    stop him till he had finished it . In fifty days he compX leted his self-imposed A . task , or rather the

    task which he says I imposed upon him . This means that he not merely wrote out , but he had to think outtwenty pagessay 8000

    words , a day . Gentlemen , - , , if you J wish , «/ to , know , what an amount of endurance and

    perseverance that means , I recommend you to try the experiment yourselves . It is easy enough

    to write "twenty very long pages a day , for one , two , or three days , but to keep on

    doing so for fifty days consecutively , without any break or relaxation whatever to speak of , is quite another matter . Now let me

    g I n lance . view at of the th manufacture e enormous amo of these unt of volumes ublic . interest felt in this book I see no objection p

    for once to depart from our usual reticence in suc in the h ma house tters , and an to d on say S th at urday t we morn have in orders g we shall despatchover , 16000 copies besides 6 , 000

    of a colonial X edition , ' , and other A . issues . ' You know the whole thing , had to be rushed through , the pressand I assure you it has taxed the

    resources , of Messrs . Clowes' vast establishment for many weeks . To produce this book in the way it has been produced required something

    more «/ than mere routine work . It required a - * thoughtful guiding spirit—one who would devote heart and soul to the work , and wo

    cannot extr feel aordinar too grateful y devotion to Cap and tain personal Clowes attention for the he has given to the accomplishment of this

    task . In the printing department the work has (> 0 composi found tors emp , loymen 17 readers t for , many 12 reading weeks for ys ,

    and about 200 machine-pressmen and warehousemen the edition . da The luxe paper the consumed colonial edition in printing the canvassing edition , and , the trade edition wei , ghs

    si () 05 F n > J i l tons tons e shee . . ts Tins This would paper naner have . , it if it it formed had had been been a white laid laid car out out in in et for Mr . Stanley , to have walked upon from the p

    Congo would have to Zanzibar formed , or a tower if laid something sheet upon like sheet the it Tour Eiffel . The type and material used weighed

    7 each i tons of , and the there above were editions 2 , 500 . , 000 Eighteen types uaed steam in sumed printing 14 machines tons of printing and ten ink hand . Then presses as to con the - _ . _ i Ml

    R . I July I, 1890 The Publishers' Circu...

    r . i July i , 1890 The Publishers' Circular 809

• Citation
  • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), July 1, 1890, page 809, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01071890/page/15/