peech of Henry M. Stanley at a dinner given in his honor by the
Lotos Club, New York City, November 27, 1886. Whitelaw Reid,
President of the Lotos Club, in welcoming Mr. Stanley, said: "Well,
gentlemen, your alarm of yesterday and last night was needless. The
Atlantic Ocean would not break even a dinner engagement for the man
whom the terrors of the Congo and the Nile could not turn back, and
your guest is here. [Applause.] It is fourteen years since you last
gave him welcome. Then he came to you fresh from the discovery of
Livingstone. The credulity which even doubted the records of that
adventurous march or the reality of his brilliant result had hardly
died out. Our young correspondent, after seeing the war end here
without his having a fair chance to win his spurs, had suddenly
made a wonderful hit out of the expedition which nobody had really
believed in and most people had laughed at. We were proud of him,
and right glad to see him, and a little bit uneasy, but vastly
amused over his peppery dealings with the Royal Geographers.
[Laughter.] In spite of our admiration for his pluck and his luck
we did not take him quite seriously. [Laughter.] In fact we did not
take anything very seriously in those days. The Lotos Club at first
was younger in that hearty enthusiastic reception to Stanley
fourteen years ago in that gay little clubhouse next to the Academy
of Music; we were thinking far more of a hearty greeting to the
comrade of the quill who had been having a hard time but had scored
'a big beat' [laughter] than of adequate recognition to the man
already well launched on a career that ranks him among the foremost
explorers of the century. [Loud cheers.] It is the character in
which you must welcome him now. The Royal Geographical Society has
no further doubt as to the credit to which he is entitled. He
brings its diploma of honorary membership ["Hear! Hear!"], he bears
the gold medal of Victor Emmanuel, the decorations of the Khedive,
the commission of the King of the Belgians. More than any of them
he cherishes another distinction--what American would not prize
it?--the vote of thanks of the Legislature and the recognition of
his work by our Government. The young war-correspondent has led
expeditions of his own--the man who set out merely to find