The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-16
such a man as her husband would natu- rally prove hard-hearted and ungrateful.
 Fouuht for a Living.

such a man as her husband would natu' rally prove hard-hearted and ungrateful.
 Fought for Living.
 | It is melancholy to reflect that the great
 CT part of Hearn's life and strength was | wasted-the word is not too strong-in the l struggle for livelihood, which was com-
 plicated by his peculiarly sensitive nature | and what he termed his visual misfor- | tune" After the dire poverty of his ear
 Her years in America, his position on the | staff of the Times Democrat and the con- sderation with which he was treated,
 must have made the place seem a tenn
 porary haven of rest to him; but he dis
 liked journalistic work, and grudged the | time he was obliged to give to if. In the | case of certain writers. contact with ae- 1 tive life, is necessary and salutary but it
 was not so with him. He was a dreamer of beautiful dreams, who should have had peace of mind and ample leisure; the rough world merely bruised and irritated him. without teaching him anything. Through the series of New Orleans letters one sees that periodical fits of restlessness assailed him: he was essentially wan derer, and destiny was calling him away. Creature of moods that he was. q spell
 of "hideous weather in February made
 him feel that he had here mo associates
 save those vampire ones of which the less
 said the better" The place then seemed
 to him to have "a material and moral
 rottenness which no pen can do justice
 to- in brief, he was "very weary of New
 Orleans" The next few years after he left this city were spent between New
 York. the West Indies and Philadelphia; and the beautiful works he produced dur ing that period are as milestones marking the way of his wanderings.
 The tropics seem to have charmed him
 somewhat as a snake charms a bird-he
 felt himself almost incapable of effort,
 movement, fisht--but the fascination ex-
 ercised by Japan was of different and
 healthier kind. There his life story really began with his marriage to Setsu Kozumi,
 "a lady of high samurai rank,' but re-
 duced in fortune by the revolution in Ja-
 pan which overthrow the power of the
 Shoguns. Mrs. Wetmore is able to add to the interest of her book by some notes made by Mrs Hearn in her quaint Japa- nese- English Hearn's old friends will
 recognize him in the parsonage who hated polite clothes and could not endure a 'frock coat" This strange foreign hus-
 band must have been a sore puzzle at first
 to the little Japanese wife, whose sweet and gentle nature reveals itself in the
 lines she has written She tells how when they were travelling in the province of Hoki, they were to rest in tea-house where some people were making merry: | ''Hearn pulled my dress, saying, Stop to | enter this house! No good to rest here. | It is an hell. Even q moment we should not stay here He was often offended in such a way. I was younger than now l | am, and inexperienced with the affairs of
 the world; and it was no easy task for me then to reconcile him with the occasions | "Cares of Bread" Pursued Him.
 l But here, as elsewhere, the "cares of
 bread" pursued him. The Japanese mar rage brought heavy responsibilities with | it. for as he wrote to a friend: 'I have nine lives depending on my worldwide. wifes mother wifes father, wife's adopt | ed mother, wlfes fathers father, and then | servants and a Buddhist student" Gov 1 ernment employment in Japan proved precarious; and finally, in spite of his good
 will towards all things Japanese, he was | obliged to admit that he had been unjust ly treated by those in authority. On the surface, marriage for man of his highly