---
title: An Answer to Mark Twain (Brussels pamphlet cover, 1907)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/an-answer-to-mark-twain-1907/
description: An anonymous Brussels pamphlet cover answers Mark Twain's "King Leopold's Soliloquy" and E. D. Morel's campaign by drawing both men with tongues spelling…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Caricature of Morel and Twain, and a burning village. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![An Answer to Mark Twain (Brussels pamphlet cover, 1907)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/an-answer-to-mark-twain-1907.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/an-answer-to-mark-twain-1907.jpg)

# An Answer to Mark Twain (Brussels pamphlet cover, 1907)

An anonymous Brussels pamphlet cover answers Mark Twain's "King Leopold's Soliloquy" and E. D. Morel's campaign by drawing both men with tongues spelling out LIES and SLANDER, meeting the atrocity evidence with a counter-accusation rather than a rebuttal of the facts.

- **Date:** 1907
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Anonymous, Brussels
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Belgium](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=belgium)
- **Medium:** [Books and pamphlets](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=book-pamphlet)
- **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual)
- **Regime:** [Kingdom of Belgium](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=kingdom-of-belgium)
- **Leader:** [Leopold II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=leopold-ii)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Deceive or deny](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=deceive-deny)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [Congo Reform Campaign](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=congo-reform-campaign)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Impersonated Source falsified: fake personas, outlets or documents
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_AnswerTwain.JPG), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (anonymous work published 1907) Front cover of An Answer to Mark Twain, anonymous, Brussels, 1907; scan via American Museum of Natural History digital library

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
An Answer to
Mark Twain

THE PAST

THE PRESENT
BELGIAN CONGO

"The absolute and immediate necessities are the disruption of the Congo Free State and its partition among the Powers."
(The Congo Reform Association's Secretary.)

Price : 1/ Net
```

Two black ribbon-like tongues wind down from the caricatured heads (of Twain and, per the caption, a Congo Reform campaigner) to the 'PRESENT' scene; the caption describes them as spelling out words such as LIES and SLANDER, but the interwoven, curling lettering is too stylized to transcribe with confidence here, so it is left out rather than guessed. A handwritten date 'July 1907' at the top margin is an archival/owner annotation, not part of the printed cover, and is excluded.

[← "In the Rubber Coils" (Punch, 1906)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/congo-rubber-coils-punch-1906/) [The Cairo Punch: The English Councillors (Sir Eldon Gorst and the ministers) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cairo-punch-english-councillors-1908/)

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- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
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- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)