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.