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." ...
Yours very sincerely,
LAFCADIO HEARN.