Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-30
THE CRITIC. C.

Pirate-His New Voyage Around the
World-The Heroine of fhe Open Door
Burrough's Indoor Studies.
We have got a long way past the time when
books were three feet high. The only books
which reach that altitude in these days are &C
count books. There are old folios, such as we
look at in the windows of Lewis store on Lib
erty street. but which, somehow very few of US
j seem to go in and buy. Those old towers be.
longed to the days when people had leisure.
Leisure to-day is almost as obsolete as chain
armor. Everybody is in hurry. And yet al
| most everybody is interested in books. The
result Of this peculiar condition of things is the
| small book.
The small book, which we can hold in our
| hand and put in our pocket if we please and
read through in 80 minutes, is one of the signs
| of the times. And the publishers are always
| up with the times. That is why we have SO
many excellent series of short biographies and
histories. American Men of Letters, Amer
can Statesmen" american Commonwealths."
These books are small only by measurement
or inches. They are meant for people who are
both thoughtful and busy.
zxx
Here is a new volume in MacMillan's "En-
| glish Men of Action" being the biography OF
William Dampier. William Dampier was not
| one of the worlds great ones doubt if many
| people will find any facts or associations COM
ing up to meet his name. Wellington we
know, and Lord Lawrence we know; these En-
| glish men OF action we have some idea about.
| But William Dampier-who can answer ques-
| tions about him?
The fact is that William Dampier was a
| pirate He was one of those old seventeenth
century buccaneers who are SO interest
ing to meet with in books, but whom in real
70 ,,11 dn1h how Cyla
wide berth. The passengers of the Acapulco
treasure ship, with its lading of $4,000 pieces
of silver, besides many chests of jewels, were
not at all pleased when they saw Samplers
| flag floating i'll the breeze on the horizon.
Dampiers piratical expeditions took him on
| on long voyages, and several times he sailed
around the globe. That was great feat in
those days. The sailing vessels Of the seven
teenth century differed from the ocean grey
no unds" of to-day as an ox-wagon differs from
locomotive engine. They made good time If
they got over reach of water in Il months
which men run over easily nowin go days. For
one thing, they had no sheathing on the bot
toms of their ships; and in all long journeys
they had to put In every once in white to
shore, careen the boat over on the beach,
scrape off the shells and seaweed, and put on a
coat of pitch and talow.
Then they had such instruments and SUCH
charts that finding their way was more than
half guesswork The captain was in good
spirits if the ship was anywhere within a hun
dred miles of the course he wanted to Keep.
The sunken rocks, and reefs, and shoals were
most of them waiting to be made known by the
costly experience of shipwreck. A man to be
sailor in those days needed to have the strong
heart which Horace wrote about
He needed an equally strong stomach. The
ouiO of iarie dav
in brine which made it harder and less nourish-
ing than mahogany" before they were out of
sight of land. Lucky was the ship which did
not lose two-thirds of all her seamen by the
plague Of scurvy.
William Dampier braved all these dangers
and discomforts and added to them the perils
of the profession of a pirate. They had no
"repellersi' nor "crabs" in those days. "The
great war Syndicate had never been dreamed
Of But they had "powder chests" which dis
charged broadsides of old iron and rusty nails,
and they had pixies, with stout arms to WELD
them. Mr.. Clark Russell, who writes this life OF
Dampier, puts one of those fierce fights into
sentence. 1.-THE castellated fabric rolling on
the seas, echoing in thunder to the blasts which
roar from her wooden sides. The crowds OF
men swaying half naked at the guns; the fall
with smoke-blackened sailors wildly cheering
as they fling their grenados upon the decks of
the enemy, or silent as death as they level their
long and clumsy muskets at forms distinguished
as the leaders of the fight by their attire, COM
bine in picture that rises in crimson-tlnctured
outlines upon the dusky canvas of the past,
and. though two centuries old, startles and
fascirates as if it were memory of yesterday"
Be!she his feats of circumnavigation there
wereStwo things which marked out William
Danibier from the crowd ofpirates who harried
the'seventeenth century seas; he wrote book,
and he was personally acquainted with Robin
son Crusoe.
Mr.. Clark Russell has read more old books of
voyage than most of us have ever heard of.
And among others he came upon one with this
title: 4 NeU HoydOe Round the World, de-
scribing particularly the Isthmus of America;
several coasts and islands in the West Indies;
the Isles of Cape Verd; the passage by Terra
del Fuego; the South Sea coasts of Chilli, Peru
and Mexico, and a long list of other places
which have no space to quote (Those i'm
mense old tones had spacious vestibules.)
''Their soil, rivers, harbors plants fruits, ami
mails and inhabitants. Their customs, religion,
government, trade, etc." This was Samplers
book. This sturdy buccaneer had Keen and OBJ
servant eyes, We know more about geography
their eyes. And he handled lis blunt pen as
well as his sharp sword.
And he knew Robinson Crusoe. He knew him
before Defoe did, SO long before, in fact, and so
well, that there is good reason for thinking
that he was the man who brought Robinson
Crusoe and Daniel Defoe together. We ought
to have kindly feeling toward this old pirate
for that, at least. But how it happened, will
have to leave the book to tell.
So
There are no pirates in the last three Henty
books. But there are adventures enough of
other kinds to make up. Nobody to-day is
writing such interesting, wholesome and manly
books for boys as Mr.. Henty. One would have
to offer large reward to get any healthy boy
to read such bulky volumes as Sir T. Gardner
Wilkinson's book on Egypt or Hazlett's His
tory of the Republic of Venice. And after the
boy got through he would very likely have
learned little. But all the best that is in these
books is in The Cat of Bu6GStes and The Lion
of st. Marks. One of these stories turns upon
the killing of a sacred cat in the DAYS before
the Hebrews made their escape from Egyptian
bondage The other tells the adventures of a
plucky English boy among the gondolas. and
braves and conspirators oe Venice in the days |
of her struggle with Genoa Captain BdyIey's |
Heir wanders away to the gold fields of Cali
fornia, and not only gets plenty OF treasure, |
but wins back his good name from the stain of |
an unjust and unfounded accusation. Mr.. |
Hentv;s boys are all sturdy, honorable manly |
fellows and good company for any boy in Pitts
burg.
To hate lie, to love a horse, to be serenely |
Indifferent to the gossip of the neighbors, these
good principles which are common to most of
Mr.. Henty's heroes, were taught by her father