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Page 11
I like your GREAT ROUND WORLD, Mr. Editor, but I like
Robinson Crusoe, too. I like to know just where he was cast
away, and hope if I am right you will tell other boys who read
"Robinson Crusoe" the true place, where Daniel Defoe describes
poor Crusoe as living all those weary years.
EDGAR B.
Aged twelve years.
CHICAGO, ILL.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:
After the very careful work you have done on Robinson Crusoe, and the
evident affection you have for him, it seems a shame to have to tell you
that no such person as Crusoe existed.
As we told in THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, No. 11, a Scotchman named
Alexander Selkirk was put ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez, and
lived there four years and four months.
When he was rescued and brought back to England, he wrote an account of
his life there.
An English writer named Daniel Defoe saw this book of Selkirk's, and
thought it would make a wonderful story if it was well handled. Selkirk's
was a mere statement of what had happened to him, and while intensely
interesting, was not written to amuse people.
Defoe created an imaginary person, whom he called Robinson Crusoe, dressed
up Selkirk's facts to suit the purpose of his story, and wrote the
wonderful and undying story of Robinson Crusoe.
His geographical facts, no doubt, were purposely altered from Selkirk's,
and were made as graphic as possible, in order to add the semblance of
truth to his story. In the early years of the seventeenth century
geography was very little understood. The connection between Selkirk's
sufferings on Juan Fernandez, and the adventures of Robinson Crusoe have
always been so thoroughly understood that, as you read in your GREAT
ROUND WORLD, the island of Juan Fernandez has been called Crusoe's
Island, and Selkirk's cave and hut, Crusoe's. THE EDITOR.
EDITOR GREAT ROUND WORLD.
DEAR SIR:--Your article on salting streets has greatly
roused your subscriber, my small son.
Will you kindly tell him, through your magazine, _how_ the
children may help abate the terrible cruelty? What _action_ do
you suggest for them? He has interested a number of lads in the
subject, but does not know how to put forth effort--when the
discovery is made that the law is violated.
Complain to party giving offence, to police, or what?
Your magazine is warmly appreciated in this household by old and
young, and we hope for its continued prosperity.
Very truly,
D.K. LIPPINCOTT'S MOTHER.
194 FAIRMOUNT AVENUE, NEWARK, N.J.
DEAR MASTER LIPPINCOTT:
I am delighted that you and your little friends are interested in the
matter of salting the streets, and that you are eager to put a stop to
such cruelty.
In the first place, you can help by telling every one about it, and by
getting people, old and young, interested. Do you know that not one person
to whom I have spoken about it--aside from Dr. Johnson, the people at the
A.S.P.C.A., and Mr. Harison--knew anything about it? Strange, was it not?
A good many things are permitted because people do not know just how
dreadful they are.
As to the method of learning just where salt has been used, I know only
the one of which the article tells you, and that is: if there is snow or
ice in other places, and the tracks are covered with water, then you may
know that there is a reason for it. And inasmuch as the water would be
twenty degrees below freezing, I believe that you could determine the
presence of salt by means of the mercury. If you had a thermometer which
would register that number of degrees, and were to plunge it into the
slush, the sensitive mercury would tell the story.
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