TŌKYŌ, March, 1898.
DEAR McDONALD,--I did not think much of the title of Morrow's book;
but your judgement of the stories interested me, and the selfsame
evening I began the volume--in bed. I read three quarters at a run, and
the rest early in the morning. They are queer and sometimes powerful
little stories--not less interesting because they are, most of them,
improbable. They have the charm of the now old-fashioned stories of
1850-70,--perhaps not finished to the same extent as the _Atlantic_
stories used to be; but they make me think of them a little. (The
literary centres clamour for realism to-day; but I fancy that the taste
for the romantic will live a good while longer.) Then again there is a
little of the old-time gold light of California days here--that will
always have a charm for readers. I wonder if Morrow is a young man: if
he is, I should believe him likely to do still better in the future. If
he writes for money, he need not do much finer work; but if just for
love of the thing, I should say that he could finish his work better
than he does,--as in the study of the emotions of the man who finds
his wife untrue to him, and solves a moral problem after quite an
ideal fashion. The subject was splendid: it might have been made more
of.--But not to criticize things--especially things which I could not do
myself--I must say that I enjoyed the tales, and that they ought to have
a very good sale.
Somehow your own story--the "Highbinder story"--kept riding on the back
of that gold dragon all the while I was reading. The real dominated the
romantic, and yet betimes made the romantic seem possible. I could feel
everything to be just as it was--my experience as a police-reporter gave
verisimilitude to the least detail. You are after all a knight-errant in
soul,--a real knight, tilting, not against shadows and windmills, but
against the dragons of corrupted law and the giants of fraud who haunt
the nineteenth century. You are a survival, I fear--there are few like
you: you ride alone: all the more reason that you should take every care
of yourself--care of your health; I fear you are not exercising enough,
keeping too confined. If you are really, as I believe, fond of your
little friend, don't forget his prayer that you make health your No. 1
consideration.
Hope to be down Friday about 2 P. M. or 2.30 at latest.
Affectionately,
LAFCADIO.