The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-05-06
REMARKABLE LIFE
OF DANIEL DEFOE
A Story of Success After Fail.
ure That Still Lives in
Robinson Crusoe."
From the New York American.

But few human lives have been packed
so full Of failure and loss, disappointment
and sorrow, as was that OF Daniel Defoe,
the immortal author of Robinson Cru
Soc" The man who was desrlned to make
SO many millions happy was himself the
victim Of the wry-faced Fate which pur-
sued him from early boyhood TO the day
of his death.
OF the thing men call success Defoe
knew but little. 1t was a dream, always
reckoning to him, but never materializ-
ing.
His first thought was to be a minister,
but after studying divinity he made up
his mind that he would give up the pulpit
and try something else. He has left us his
reasons for not becoming a clergyman. If
a man of brains and honesty enters the
ministry, he claimed, he must soon become
one of two things, a hNpocrite or a
martyr. He did not wish to become either,
so he threw his theology overheard, not,
however, until ne had fired this parting
shot:
Wherever God erects a house Of prayer.
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And will be found upon examination
The latter has the larger congregation.
Throwing his thcolosue's robe aside.
Defoe joined the Monmouth insurrection,
and being fortunate enough to get off
without being hanged or transported,
turned to the more peaceable avocation
OF buying and selling hosiery, but after
seven years in the stocking and under
shirt business the eX-preacher and trader
found himself insolvent.
Ascending from his incensed creditors
Defoe took to the high seas, where he
played the part OF a Observation-Disclosures
for some years.
Later on he appears as one of King
Williams boollleepers. and soon after
losing his job in the royal establishment
he takes once more to trade, or rather.
to manufacture. The net result OF his
brick and tile making venture was a fail
ure TO the tune OF SIS, 600, a big sum for
that time.
Now it happens that when a man can do
nothing else he can write, and it was to
this obliging and never-failing thing that
Defoe now turned. He pitched into the
Z High Church party. and for his pains had
his ears cut off, was fined, pilloried and
thrown for two years into Newgate
prison.
While In prison his wife and children
were kept from starving by the charity
of a friend. and when free again Defoe
turned to fiction.
1t was a wonderful pen that Defoe
handled, writing III verse. in prose, on ev-
cry subject. In all over $50 works; but all
of them Improbable, IL not commonplace.
not one of them destined for Immortality.
And now the little old middle-sized
man. spare. of a brown complexion and
drak-brown hair, hook nose, sharp chin
and gray eyes, and a large mole near his
mouth was nearing the three-score
mark. Strange had been his lot! Well
could he sing:
No man hath tasted differing fortunes
more,
For thirteen times nave l been rich and
poor.
Defoe was in his 6sth year when he
wrote the story that was to make him i'm
mortal, and to furnish for the youth OF
humanity In all lands and for all time
the delight that is found in no other
book ever written.
In Robinson Crusoe' Defoe more than
atoned for all the failures that had come
to him up to the date OF that books pro-
duction. In that one incompatible pro-
duction he scored the grandest success in
the whole history of literary triumph; a
success that must necessarily grow great
er and greater as the generations pass by
for the number of boys and girls on
earth is steadily increasing, and with that
increase must come the enhanced popular
ity Of Robinson Crusoe."
This immortal story-What is 1t. by the
way, but the strongest known proof Of the
fact that we should be very careful about
calling any ones life a failure? This
remarkable man, with his life's sun about
to set, began thinking of what he had
been through. of the battles he had had
to wage with no assistance from any one
but himself-and the result was "Crusoe."
/, the lone fighter, cut OFF from all help save
which was to be found in his own strong
arm and COURAGEOUS soul!