Lafcadio Hearn

ighten, and the sun of the Mexican Gulf reappears for his worshippers-with hymns of wind and sea, and the prayers of birds. When one becomes bathed

fying, illuminating, strengthening. I really feel his Religion-the sense of awe that comes to one in some great silent temple.

Gould's book, "Concerning Lafcad

dreams, started for Memphis on his way to New Orleans. Mr. Halstead and Mr. Edward Henderson, editors

rrival of the steamer necessitated a wait of several days at Memphis. The only person with whom Hearn kept up communication in the northern city he had left was Henry Watkin. Hieroglyphs of ravens, tombstones, and crescent mo

hing its head with a claw. The other is merely labelled "Remorseful." His finances had, apparently, run out, and in spite of paying tw

xcept "The Tan-yard Murder" and "The Ascent of the Spire of St. Peters," rescued from destruction, show how long hours of unflagging industry spent on achieving a finished style were at last to bear frui

5, 1877, enabled the identification in the file

d about its heart, leaving the greater portion of its body paralysed. It gave him the impression of a place that had been stricken by some great misfortune beyond the hope of recovery. When rain and white fogs came, the melancholy of Memphis became absolutely Stygian;

the cobwebs in the city to be collected together and heaped before him. Estimated by su

gh, rugged, desperate, uncultured. His character fitted him rather for the life of the border and the planter. He was by nature a typic

ssing the Mississippi into Arkansas like an invading army; then came grey rain, and at last a fierce wind, making wild charges through it all. Somehow or other the

calls of the river traffic, but of the Thompson Dean there was not a sign to be seen or heard. In every corner between the banisters of the old stairway spiders were

are beginning to think I am writing quite often. I suppose I am, and you know the reason why; and perhaps you are thinking to yourself, 'He feels lonely, and is accordingly affectionate, but by and by he will forget.' Well, I suppose you are r

e flood-tide of his genius. A letter contributed to the Commercial, describing the "Fair Paradise of the South," the great sugar country, in which he now found himself, shows how he was gaining in

ned tumultuous soul set free, mentally and morally free, must have come to him. It breathes in every line, in every paragraph of his work. And not only was this passionate joy his, but also the exhilarating assurance of knowing that by self-denial, industry and the determination to succeed he had achieved and perfected th

iny was left behind, the unclean spirit exorcised and cast forth! He had made his body a house of shame, but that very shame had set throbbing subtle, infinite vibrations, a spiritual resonance and response to h

me magic, bewitching the senses of the practical, hard-headed editor, inducing him to offer the piece of poetic prose contributed by