The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1874-09-11

on, when he escaped so hardly from
wreck and death on the shores of
England, near to Yarmouth /; and fell in
with such bad fellows in London and
hesltated, and wavered, and finally
broke into new vagabondage; and was
followed up by storms and wreck and
at last, as you know, cast ashore, with
scarce life in him, on that far-away
island, where he bewailed his fate for
months and years, and toiled hard, and
tanned his goats and planted his pail
sades?
A great many thousand eyes looked
out with him, year after year, for the
sail that never came. Of course there
had been a great many stories of advent
uers written before, and there have
been a great many since /; but never, 1
think, any that took such hold of the
feelings of all as this story of the adj
ventures of Robinson Crusoe.
And why, do You think?
Because most writer's try to make too
fine a story of such adventures, and don't
keep to that homely, straightforward
way which brings facts most closely to
the understanding of everybody, and
makes everybody feel that the things
told of did really and truly happen.
Why, do you know that crowds of
people believed in Robinson Crusoe
when Defoe was living, and continued
to believe in him after Defoe was dead ?
/ know 1 believed in him q long time
myself, though the preface, and the
sober-sided old school-ma'am (who
caught income day, at the reading Of it in
school-hours, and made me wear q girls
bonnet, for Observation-Disclosures such
as these, | say, warned me that it was
a fable and untrue, yet l kept on, some
now, believing in Robinson, and in
Poll, and Man Friday +; and thought, if
l ever did make 4 long long voyage, and
the ship had a yawl, l would ask the
captain, when he came opposite the
island to "heave TO-" and let me go
ashore in the yawl, and find the cave
and the creek, and very likely the rem
nants Of that big canoe in the forest,
which Robinson Crusoe hewed out by
setting up a big tree "edgewise," and
which was so big and heavy, he never
could and never did move it.
l believed in that old, deserted father
at Hull-somehow 1 thing he is living
there yet-and the mother-Zepining,
grievlng, praying, weeping
Well. rs ] said, Mr.. Defoe found a
great sale for this book of adventures.
The critics, to be sure, thought it was
"carelessly written and a great deal
Every improbable in it; and they
didn't imagine for n moment that there
was the stuff in it which would be pom
dered and read over and over, and
admired and dearly cherished,
years and years after they and
all their fair culture and pretty
talk and very names should be forgot
ten. / don't at all believe that Defoe
himself knew how good a thing he had
done. Ii he had, he wouldn't have gone
about to weaken it's effect by writing a
sequel to Robinson, which, though it
has some curious and wonderful things
in flights with wolves and hair
breadth escapes-is yet hardly worth
your reading. And content with this,
Defoe-under the spur, 1 suppose, of
money-making publishers-issued in
the next year, "Serious Reflections Dur
ing the Life of Robinson Crusoe. with
his Vision of the Angelic World"
Nobody knows it or reads it. Poll
and Man Friday are all alive bu. the
"Vision of the Angelic World" is ut
ter!y dead.
Afterward, Defoe published "The
Adventures of Captain Bob Singleton, a
Famous Pirate ;" but the story is not at
all equal to that of "Robinson C~rusoe."
There are passages OF special adven-
ture in it which are very stirring, and
very like some Of the best parts of
"Isobinson ;" and some day l may Gull
ont a few of the best portions for your
amusement-but We will leave it on the
shelf now.
At a future time, too, l may tell you
more of Defoe's writings /; notably, a
queer story of the appearance Of the
ghost of one Mistress Veal, which was
SO curiously well done that crowds of
people believed it. He wrote, besides,