The sun., 1919-04-20
R. CRUSOE: HIS ANNIVERSARY.

Its lathrr was not young, daShIng, romantic fe-
low, but of GO, with lean face surmounted
by long nose and wart or two. That is as close
We may come 10 his appearance, for he never
had his picture taken with his chin in his cupped
palm, holding dog in LEASH OF starting out for
ride with his publisher. To those who like ideal
isticaIly to visualize their favorte authors in pub
lie, perhaps slipping. Chateau Veugeot in the base
ment of the Brcvoort we will admit that this aged
reporter named Foe or DEFoE, he called him
self might occasion have been seen in the
Red Lion Inn at Bristol, buying drinks for a big
footed Scotch sailor named ALEXANDER SEIKIRK.
Almost everybody who had any curiosity went to
see SEl.KIRK, Just as in other centuries men have
gone long way TO see the Cardiff Giant John
L. SULLIVAN. RICHARD STEELE, who particularly
liked to make these little journeys because his cred
itors too poor TO follow him, also went to see
SEI.KIRK, and he wrote few hundred words about
the sailors adventure $50 uncommon that it is
doubtful whether the like has happened to any
other Of the human race"
The First Star Reporter. -
DEFoE saw SnkIRk in the same light that
STEELE saw him, but DEFoE, who reporter
first and genius afterward, thought that if Sell
KIRK s experience was new In human history it
might be well worth writing lot more about than
WOfQS. SIEf1E nau an duucilcts duU very
respectable one, which read his few hundred cold
words about SEIKRK and yawned and wondered
why Dick had put such, unimportant stuff in The
Englishnan DEFoE also had an audience, but it
was disreputable as compared with STEEIE's. This
long nosed pamphleteer was not one of Englands
most approved characters. He had been in Mon
MOUTHS rebellion; he had kept livery stable in
London; he had served In King WILLIAM army;
he had been bankrupt; he had tile works in
Essex with one hand while he wrote seditious
pamphlets with the other; he had stood IN the
pillory for libelling the Church while admiring
populace had guarded him and wreathed his
homely head with flowers: he had been in and out
of Newgate at 45, when all respectable Engllshmen
were preparing fer pious death, and again, ten
years later he had been in prison for hbelling LORD
ANNEsLEY in a political pamphlet Meanwhile,
when not locked up, he had written for The ReUiew,
had edited MiSts's Journal and had started the
Whitehall Evening Post. He had written a hun
bred political and religious tracts, but only one
thing that smelled ike fiction-The AppdrittOn Of
Mrs Veal, bit of psychic phenomena stuff that
caused the righteous to rise and call him faker, or
the ancient synonym thereof MARX NOBLE wrote
of him: 'fHe was the darling Of the Wing mob and
the contempt of men Of genius. He disgraced HIM
self by every low artifce as a writer" Perhaps
The greatest liar that ever lived, wrote another
critic.
1t was on April 25 17l9, that DEFoH s publisher,
MILAN TAYLOR, issued the book entitled "The
life and Strange Surprising Adrentures of Robin
son Crusoe, of York Mariner; aohO lired eight and
fucaty gears all alOite, uninhdbited island on
The coast Of 4mericd, near the mouth OF the great
Rirer Oroom0qae; hdring been cast on shore by
shfpurrcE ,cherein all the men persisted but htm
self. WIZ an fccoaht h0w he TGs at last strangely
delivered BIZ Pirates. Written bU Htmse'f.'
Robinson Crusoe,' 1919.
Of course that kind Of a title would never do
nowadays We can see the publisher shaking his
head over it. let S call it Fdte's Football, " he sug
ecss, 'or TIE Castdwdy, The Island of Surprise
or Friday and L. And let s leave off the subtitle so
there II be room for a blurb the jacket. Our
Mr. VACATION has written dandy one; listen In
This novel Mr.. DEFoss has outdone himself. He has
revealed the soul of young sailor who is east away
on a desert island and left to battle with Fate,
S>avagery and the Elements 1t is big, gripping,
Sirile tale: done as only DEFOE knows how
Having won his point the publisher says: DAN,
for the last time eItreat you to squeeze girl into