Lafcadio Hearn.
TO MRS. WETMORE
Tōkyō, July, 1902.
My dear Mrs. Wetmore,—Perhaps you can remember having said, twelve years ago, “I want you to go to Japan, because I want to read the books that you will write about it.” As my tenth volume on the subject is now in press,—you ought to be getting satisfied.
I am writing—not without some difficulty—to ask whether you would or could play the part of a fairy god-sister, in helping me to find, for the time of a year or two years, some easy situation in America.
As my eyes are nearly burnt out, I should have to depend upon quality rather than quantity of work. Some post upon a literary weekly—where I could employ a typewriter—would be good. I doubt whether the universities would give me a chance at English literature.
So much for the want. I must bring my boy with me: it is chiefly for his sake. Once that he learns to speak English well, the rest of his education will not disturb me. I am his only teacher and want to continue to teach him for a few years more.—South or West I should prefer to East—“where only a swordfish can swim.”
As you are a queen of fairies, you might touch with your wand the only thing that would exactly help me. England is hopeless, of course: I have no chance of earning anything in that “awful orderliness.” My family will be well provided for during my absence; but the provision will leave me under the necessity of earning something abroad....
What is worse still, I have been so utterly isolated here that I have no conception of the actual tone and state of things abroad. I do not know “how I stand.”
You should try to think of your old acquaintance as a small grey unpleasant “old man.” ...