e courts in the United States. [Laughter.] I belonged to
this class of roving writers, and I can truly say that I did my best to
be conspicuously great in it, by an untiring devotion to my duties, an
untiring indefatigability, as though the ordinary rotation of the
universe depended upon my single endeavors. [Laughter.] If, as some of
you suspect, the enterprise of the able editor was only inspired with a
view to obtain the largest circulation, my unyielding and guiding
motive, if I remember rightly, was to win his favor by doing with all my
might that duty to which according to the English State Church
Catechism, "it had pleased God to call me." [Laughter and applause.]

He first despatched me to Abyssinia--straight from Missouri to
Abyssinia! What a stride, gentlemen! [Laughter.] People who lived west
of the Missouri River have scarcely, I think, much knowledge of
Abyssinia, and there are gentlemen here who can vouch for me in that,
but it seemed to Mr. Bennett a very ordinary thing, and it seemed to his
agent in London a very ordinary thing indeed, so I of course followed
suit. I took it as a very ordinary thing, and I went to Abyssinia, and
somehow or other good-luck followed me and my telegrams reporting the
fall of Magdala happened to be a week ahead of the British Government's.
The people said I had done right well, though the London papers said I
was an impostor. [Laughter.]

The second thing I was aware of was that I was ordered to Crete to run
the blockade, describe the Cretan rebellion from the Cretan side, and
from the Turkish side; and then I was sent to Spain to report from the
Republican side and from the Carlist side, perfectly dispassionately.
[Laughter.] And then, all of a sudden, I was sent for to come to Paris.
Then Mr. Bennett, in that despotic way of his, said: "I want you to go
and find Livingstone." As I tell you, I was a mere newspaper reporter. I
dared not confess my soul as my own. Mr. Bennett merely said: "Go," and
I went. He gave me a glass of champagne and I think that was superb.
[Laughter.] I confessed my duty to him, and I went. And as good-luck
would have it, I found Livingstone. [Loud and continued cheering.] I
returned as a good citizen ought and as a good reporter ought and as a
good correspondent ought, to tell the tale, and arriving at Aden, I
telegraphed a request that I might be permitted to visit civilization
before I went to China. [Laughter.] I came to civilization, and what d