The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-20
CRISOE,S ISLAND.
Painful Rumor that 1t Has Been SwaI-
lowed by the Sea.
London Daily Mail.


There is bad news for the boys of Eng
land to-day. 1t is rumored that Robinson
Crusoe's island has disappeared. Briefly.
report is current in Santiago that the group
of islands amongst which is Juan Fernan-
dez was swallowed by the sea during the
seismic disturbances of last March and
gunboat has been dispatched to ascertain
the truth Of this tragic story. Until corrob-
grafton arrives we will hope that the report
way OF, ana we nave as poor an opinion of
the Spanish press as Mr.. Lillivick had of
the French language. So there is a reason
able and thoroughly British ground of dis
belief in the accuracy of news filtered from
Santiago through a Spanish newspaper
and a Madrid correspondent. The latter\ OF
course. is Daily Mail representative and
incapable of mendacity. Bet he lives il
Spain, and the climate is believed to induce
relaxation of the moral sense. For that W.
have the authority of the late Lord Byron.
But if Crusoes island IS really gone ii
will be a sad thing for the thousands Of
story, and the hundreds of thousands of
boys who are fighting their way through
the alphabet to the pleasant country of the
story book. and the millions of boys who
arr yet to be born, and to grow to the age
of knickerboekers. and to master the art OF
reading. We could better spare St. Helena.
The existence of Juan Fernandez was half
the glory and delight of reading Robin
which carried Crusoe ashore still
beating the same sandy shore that the
descendants of the immortal parrot still
chartered in the same trees that the veri
table island existed somewhere very far
off, a mere dot on the map, but a solid
geographical fact-these things We're a de-
light to many generations of boys. And the
boy of the future. poor fellow. will lack
them. Robinson Crusoe'' to him will be
only a kind of fairy tale, lacking the dig
nifty of history little more worthy than
Jack and the Beanstalk," or Tim Pip
PIN In time, even. 1t may sink to the class
of instructive fables. and be held in the
contempt rightfully due to '.Sandfort and
Merton"
The value of a favoring of hard fact in
the fiction dear to boyhood can hardly b,.
estimated. Even the grown-up cynic of the
smoking room listens more respectfully to
the man who tells of lighting a shark in
md-ocean. and glor;ously Staying the mon
ster of the deep with a fruit knife when
he is confronted with a real tooth taken
from real shark. Even the hardened ang-
friends tale of exploit with the rod when
he looks the finny spoil, stuffed ana
framed, and glazed, albeit his native
shrewdness suggests the possibilities of
plaster of Paris. We want a concrete fact
on which TO hang our beliefs, and the island
of Juan Fernandez has been the geogra phi
cal truth that makes Robinson Crusoe''
real to the world of boyhood We cannot
spare it, any more than can spare Cru
would be youthful dreams of living in
a desert island. and having no schools. or
impositions, or collars or washing of hands
if the real true island that Alexander Sc,
kirk really lived on is to be taken from US?
Wherefore we will bless the Spanish nation
and forgive a little bit of the Iuouisiti don
and a good slice of the Armada If only
that newspaper of Bilbao be convicted Of
retailing false news