Volume II Part 35 (1/2)

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO MITChell McDONALD

TOKYO, June, 1898

DEAR McDONALD,--I wonder if you are perfectly disgusted with eneral invisibility But perhaps you have been far too busy to think enough aboutlittle soul!”

(which is what I would have said under like circu about you,--and know that you have had some sad and very important duties to perforot by the last stea, because they represent two entirely different religious points of view in Methodist criticism Perhaps you will think the favourable notice very kindly under the circumstances

What to say about the Manila matter I don't know My notion is that you will not be likely to get the furlough so soon Events are thickening, and looking very dark as well as strange What lo-Ale of races--British and Yankee against the Slav and his allies Hope we shall not see that--it will be a very awful thing,--a vast earthquake in all the world's ether by the saer Loti offers his services to Spain, after having been dropt from the French navy,--not because the moral justice of the question is understood by him, or even felt by his naturally attract him to Spain rather than to America I should be sorry to see the best writer of prose of any country in this world blown to pieces for his chivalrous whioes into this mess All enius will have been throay for nothing--since there is no ghost of a hope for Spain

I shall get down to Yokohah: the weather has been so atrocious that I had fire in my room up to last week I hope you have not felt any the worse for these abo” would drive me wild! In spite of it I have nearly completed a sixth chapter or essay for book Nuestions; but cannot yet decide which ah to survive and bear developiveness,

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO ELLWOOD HENDRICK

TOKYO, June, 1898

DEAR WIZARD, MAGICIAN, THAUMATURGIST,--Your letter onderful It s quite vivid before me; and I can actually see G and M

and the others you speak of (including myself, under the influence of deood such a letter does a fellow in my condition It is tonicky,--slips ozone of hope into a consumptive soul I must now keep out of blues for at least another seven years

Anyhow, things are about right My little wife is getting strong again; ht; the exains; Little, Brown & Coo to the seaside as soon as I can ineers

Speaking of pupils reminds me that just as you keep me from follies, or mischief, by a bit of sound advice at times,--not to say by other uided by K's e a purely japanese household, or direct japanese according to his own light Things are so opposite, so eccentric, so provoking at tin e his own japanese clerks--he must trust their direction to a japanese head clerk And this is the way all through the Orient,--even in Aryan India Any atte directly is hopelesslyto abstain therefro, and have learned to prize so to say especially is in reference to pupils and students In Tokyo students do everything everywhere for or against everybody They are legion,--they are ubiquitous The news-vender, the hotel-clerk, the porter of a e house is sure to be a student, struggling to live (I have had one for a year--a good boy, and inconceivably useful, who soon enters the ared_ to have students about hiuards than police, and better servants than any servants If you don't have a student or two, you may look out for robbers, confidence-men, rowdies, trouble of all kinds at your house

Students _police_ Tokyo

Well, I found I could not be familiar with my students It spoiled matters I had to be a little unpleasant Then reserved As a consequence all is admirable Direct interference won't do I have to leave that to the lady of the house; and she can ry But another student, who, until I became simply cruel with him I should have dropped him; but I was told: ”You don't understand: have patience, and wait” ”But,” I said, ”his work is trash--worthless” ”Never mind,”

was the answer, ”wait and see!” At the end of the year, I am surprised by the improvement and the earnestness ”You see,” I am told, ”that boy was a spoiled child while his faood

He will do well yet” And I find this quite probable How the japanese can hter e cannot ht to be a lesson And I sympathize with this character--only, my own character is much too impatient and cranky to allow of correct imitation

I anificant in English, are literary celebrities in their own tongue Their portraits are known over japan; their poems and stories celebrated Naturally they feel proportionately averse to being treated as ently made, will sometimes onders I tried it the other day, by advice of the director, when there had been a refusal to obey He said: ”Don't write to theo and talk to them You knohat to say” And they obeyed--_in spite of the fact that the whole rooe of resolve_ There is hope for this class of ed, they would be splendidly earnest

Affectionately, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO MITChell McDONALD

TOKYO, July, 1898