The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-18
THE ORIGINAL OF oRUsoE.
Has a Statue Erected to Him in His
Native British Town.
From the Pittsburg Dispatel

II You ask native of Lower Largo lin
the kingdom of Fife where anybody lives
who dwells eastward in the village, you
will be told to so east the Statue" says
an English writer. The stranger fails to
comprehend what is meant by this direc-
ton until he puts the Largo precept into
practice and goes eastward. He will then
come upon statue of Alexander Selcraig
or Selkirk, as Robinson Crusoe,n set il a
niche in front of the house which now
stands on the site of the cottage where
Defoe's hero first saw the light of day.
This statue was erected by d. Gillies, of
Largo, who, I believe, claims kinship with
Robinson himself. 1t was the work of T.
Stuart Burnett, A. h. s. A, and was I'M
yelled by the Countess of Aberdeen on
Dec. 8, 1885
Even very small boy can identify
Robinson Crusoe, for the sculptor has
dressed HIM in the familiar goatskin cap
and gOatSkln garments, while he grasps
the OLD musket in his left hand, and
shades his eyes with his right hand as he
looks out from his lonely Juan Fernandez
to catch sight, perchance, of some ship
which will carry him back to the kingdom
of Fife. An appropriate inscription tells
who Selkirk was, what became of him,
and when he died. Let US see what local
records have to say about DefOe's hero.
THE YOUTH OF CRUsoE.
According to authority, Sandy Selkirk
was born in 1876 in the old house along
the street where the statue stands to-day
A restless youth, by all accounts, who
could not thole his fathers trade of
making and mending boots and shoes for
Largo folks, but who, none the less, was
kept to the last till he was about 10 years
old. In 1859 we find him fighting in a
mob who objected 10 episcopacy as then
represented in Largo, and, later on, when
Presbyterianism had come to its own in
the land, Selkirk was called before the
kirk session to answer a charge of I'M
seemly conduct in church. Alexander
apparently did not relish any such cita-
ton, for he went off to sea, and for six
years led a life of rowing kind on the
South seas with the privateers. In 1901
he turns up at Largo, with the result
that again the fathers of the kirk session
had their eyes upon him, and cited him
before their court because of a scrim-
mage, a kind of family free fight, which
had ensued on practical Joke, the result
of which was that Selkirk had given his
youngest brother good thrashing.
This time Alexander did appear, and
was solemnly rebuked before the congre-
cation. But in 1904 we find him off to sea
again. He goes with Captain Dampier
and Captain Straddling, who, of course
were privateers. There was plenty of ex-
element in the life and, best of all, much
chance of prize money, even if a prison
and the gallows doomed as per contra to
the full purse Straddling appoints Sell
kirk as his sailing master or mate, but it
would appear that i'll blood exists be-
tween them, and the end of it is that one
line day Selkirk is maroOned, perhaps
voluntarily, as is more than likely. His
seamans "kist' (which is the Scottish
for ''chcst'D and himself were landed on
Juan Fernandez. He had his gun, of
course, and powder and shot, and sundry
other belongings
FOUR YEARS OF SOLITUDE.
Then Straddling sails away, and leaves
the Largo lad to his fate Four years
pass, in solitude, and then a certain Capt
Rogers lands in Juan Fernandez in 1909 in
the month of February. He finds Selkirk
of course, monarch of all he surveys, >"
and Selklrk, it seems, finds Dampier, in
turn, on board Rogers ship. Standings
craft, the Cinvue Ports, which brought
Selkirk to the island had been wrecked,
and Straddling and the survivors of his
crew imprisoned by the Spaniards. Rogers
agrees to take Selkirk off the island, and
away he sails once more on the privateer-
ing tack. To London he returns in I'LL,
booty. And so it came to pass that some
time in 17l2, just as the kirk bell was
ringing for Sunday service, it is said, Sell
kirk made his temperance in Largo.
To the church-goers Alexander, clad in
gold-laced clothes. Nobody knew him
at first. There must nave been much
inattention that Sunday in Largo Kirke,
l fancy, when this gorgeous apparition
made its appearance. But his mothers
keen instincts detected her BARN, and,
with a cry of recognition, she rushed into
Saudy's arms. Then, it is said, the Sell
kirk pew was cleared out and the family
went home. Let US hope the minister i'm
proved the occasion"
What happened to Crusoe after 1712
seems to have been accurately chronicled
He stayed at home for time, and eloped
to London, for reasons not quite clear,
with a Largo maid, one Sophia Bruce.
There they were married. In 1717 he
made a will in favor Of Mrs. Selkirk, but
she died soon thereafter, for Crusoe's
second wife was espoused at Plymouth in
1920. She was one Frances Candis or
Candle, widow.
MEETING OF DEFOE AND sELKIRK
His own sphere of life, as was natural,
was still the sea. He entered the kings
navy, and became lieutenant II was in
this rank of life that death overlook him,
for in 1923 he died aboard, on board Fl. M.
S. Weymouth. 1t is related that Mrs.
Selkirk number two proved her husbands
will on Dec. 5, 1928. She was then how
ever, Frances Hall, which seems to prove.
as the local chronicler has it, that she
soon found another husband. The best
among us are NOT long missed.
Where and how did Daniel get hold of
Selkirk's romance2 Tradition asserts
that Defoe met Selkirk at Mapping in
I'LL. after his return from Juan E'ernan-
DEE and the successful privateering trip;
and Defoe is further said to have written
his immortal romance at Gateshead-on-
Tyne. ] do not know the date of the
first publication of Robinson Crusoe,"
but Daniel Defoe was himself a peripa-
tetiC philosopher. and among other Jour
neyings he certainly found himself in the
kingdom Of Fife. He was commissioned
by the government of his day to make in
Quiry into Scottish affairs with view to
the question of a union, and the results of
his inquiries are embodied in four small
volumes entitled, "A Tour Through the
Whole Island of Great Britain" pub
lished by g. Strahan, Cornhill, i727.
"Mears at the Lamb" ''Without Temple
Bar, and ar. Stagg in Westminster Hall"
That Defoe was near Largo is proved by
his description of Fife towns and of Buck
haven, that quaint fishing village a mile
or two from Largo itself. He may quite
well have made Selkirk's acquaintance
elsewhere than at Mapping though this,
Of ppupep iG i'm tpria1 and NAV 10 lof