The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
LIFE OF LAFCADIO HEARNE.
Real Romance i'm the Career of the
Erratic Writer.
Correspondence Washington Post.

Correspondence Washington Post.
The Post recently copied from an eX-
change the genesis of LafcadiO Hearne, the
author, the mystic, the nineteenth century
prince of word painters. AS story it was
aptly in keeping with the romance or
Hearne's history, but as a verify it was
totally misleading. | think that no one
knows just the true tale of the mans early
life, but, as he gave it himself. there was
nothing in it beyond the love of Greek
maid and an Irish sailor and the birth of
babe on the Isle of Cypress, which bore the
surname Of the father and the given name
common to the mothers people In London
Hearne picked up an education, and an in
herited fondness for rowing took him
around the world. He worked on news
papers wherever fate camped him, and one
morning he put in at the Enquirer office. in
Cincinnati, and asked John Cockerill then
managing editor, for an assignment. he
was forbidding in face, form and garb,
but CockerilIS heart was moved to Sympa-
thy by ms evident want, ana sone,ni t,n III
there might be good stuff in the queer, for
eign-looking little stranger. Then began
series of stories in the Enquirer which at
tracted by their opuence of ina gerry, their
Dantesque revelng in loathsome grew
some things, their ETHEREAL daintiness of de-
Scription. Down along the WharVeS in the
Shiny spider-webbed haunts of the old Obi
men; in dance halls of Rat Row." where
razors cleaned, sensuous. dusky bellies and
notwithstanding, swart bucks kept rhyth-
mic time to music, out on the waters where
brawny stevedores chanted their folk songs,
Hearne's fervid imagination and marvellous
power of expression found ineXhauStible
wealth of material. Frequently 1t was not
pleasant reading, oftener it was loathsome,
but beyond any later day yellow Journal
ism there was a fascination in what he
wrote which was irresistible.
About the time that the young owner of
the ENQUIRER and his managing editor found
ont that they had a genius on the assign
ment book a horrible tragedy appalled, the
city A man had been murdered under the
most atrocious circumstances. Woven
through the awful story ran a thread of
love, of betrayal and of retribution. Hearne
was given a loose rein and unlimited space,
and the tens of thousands of Enquirer
readers breakfasted, dined and supped off
the Tan Yard Horror" That made
Hearne's reputation and his position on the
paper was assured. But one morning his
table was unOccupied, his name crossed off
the reporters roster, and the frown on
Cockerill's brow when questions were asked
an indication that something "out of
the common" had happened.
Decidedly it had. and to the old Demo-
cratic war horses Washington Mclean and
James ]. Faran, who still kept a hand ON
the lines, though 1.-The two Johnnies held
the whip, nothing could have been worse.
nothing a deeper disgrace to the stanch
Jeffersonian principles of the great expo
nent of Democracy in the North. Hearnes
dangerous tales of the dusky bellies of
BucktoWn had fired his own Corsair blood.
and he had taken for wife a beautiful
octoroon girl. Cincinnati knew him no more
until his Southern fervor enriched the
pages Of Harper's Magazine
A wild. undiSciplined lawless wonder was
Lafcadio Hearne in those days, and now. in
the ldStiiCSStS VI JdpdilCSS iiouillcilitS, Will
a Japanese princess as his mate, he is liv-
ing up to his standard, which IS law unto
itself. Many are the stories that have come
"out of the East of his loves. his wan
derings, his manner of life, but Cockerill
found him, unchanged, and, as always in
scrutable sphinx-lke, and unresponsive to
cOmradeship or friendlness. Ever a re-
served repelling creature in his Enquirer
days. he was still reserved and repeling in
his Orient home. No schackles of conven-
tionalism could bind Lafcadio Hearne none
of the sentiments and social rules which
guide the well-balanced intellects of the