Wow, what a crazy long piece from Mark Twain this is. Published originally as a pamphlet, it presents itself as a first-person ranting defense by Belgium’s King Leopold II of his colonial adventuring and the Congo Free State. Everything about the Congo Free State I know I basically learned by reading this. Of course I know how terribly Europe has treated Africa for quite some time. The Congo Free State was chiefly about harvesting rubber. Leopold and his private corporate entity enslaved natives for the purpose, and they were brutal about it. My Delphi kindle product version of the pamphlet includes at least some of the original illustrations, which include photos of men, women, and children with amputated hands and other limbs—punishment for not working quickly enough or to quota or whatever. As political satire, this piece is far more bitter than witty. Leopold is an empty vessel of pompous rationalizing. He claims some advances in the quality of native lives, but has no defense for the brutality beyond being within his rights. I should also mention that the piece is a mess on my kindle version. Also, full disclosure, after reading all of the Twain material I’ve written about (and a couple more) the dang kindle product froze up on me and has never worked since. Another $2.99 wasted! (actually, the majority of these invaluable Delphi “shelf” products that I’ve picked up—everything in public domain by a single author in one place—have been very useful and worth every nickel and penny of the $2.99) Some of the text from the pamphlet was printed as sidebars in text-boxes, which were incorrectly converted into largely illegible pictures and thus mostly lost. Not to worry—the online Gutenberg version is correct and available in numerous formats. The HTML looked good. But to the point, I appreciate Twain’s outrage here. The things he describes are terrible, and arguably even more terrible because the Congo Free State for whatever reasons was left out of my education. Twain’s piece is more a long, bludgeoning rant than true satire. You’re likely to imagine some spittle landing on you as you go. Say it, don’t spray it, Mark Twain. Now to find out a little more about the Congo Free State.
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