Dr Livingstone and his Showman.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 143, 6 August 1872, Page 7

Dr Livingstone and his Showman.

It is encouraging to the hope that the reported rescue of Dp Livingstone is authentic, to observe that in India, where they are better able than elsewhere to estimate the probabilities of the matter, the news seems to have obtained general credence. The Madras Times writes in the following lively strain on the receipt of the telegram “Dr Livingstone is alive ; and that noble British lion is in charge of a Yankee showman of the first water. The indefatigable special correspondent of the New York Herald, grandiloquently styled ‘ the Commissioner,’ has sought out, found, and seized hold of the great traveller. Never did a journalist perform such a feat. ‘lt licks all creation.’ We dimly remember having read of this special correspondent some time ago. We have an indistinct recollection of this American swearing he intended to cross oceans, leap over mountains, pierce the undiscovered wnlds of Central Africa, and bear away the missing doctor from the lair of the gorilla to the land of the almighty stars and stripes. But the Yankee, with all his brag, has actually performed the feat—at least, it looks very much like it. The doctor (says the despatch) is safe with him. Perhaps the telegram ought to read, that the special is safe with the doctor ! . . . A scene dimly rises before our imagination. Thu great explorer is calmly sitting on the peak of the tallest ‘mountain of the moon.’ He is clothed in the sublimely simple garments of primeval man, and is thoughtfully engaged in trying to masticate his only luggage—his note-book, wherein are jotted down the invaluable notes of his long wanderings. A little spring trickles from under his feet, and the runnel therefrom broadens as it rushes down to flow into a mighty Nyanza, which spreads blue to the Northern horizon. The doctor has climbed to this lonely elevation that he may die there. It is the source of Nile ! His only desire is to leave his bleached bones and his pocket-book just at that place which will attest to those who may discover them that, ere dying, the doctor accomplished the mission of his life. But the pangs of hunger are too severe. The pocketbook is an irresistible luxury. Its brass clasp only remains, and the doctor is about to surrender himself to the. King of Terrors, when lo ! a being approaches ! The doctor scarce deigns to throw even a cursory glance upon this being. He supposes the creature to bo one of his well-known friends, the gorillas. But to his amazement he notices that this being, though extremely like a gorilla, is tailless. The next moment the being rushes up to the doctor, exclaiming, ‘ Wall, and how air yew, ole hoss /” The being is the special Correspondent of the New York Herald, —and j he at once telegraphs (by the cable he has, ! during his journey, laid behind him as he | went on) that the doctor is safe with him !” I — Australasian.