The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-15


speeding back from real job of get
ting Russian news to a gorgeous I'M.
certainty of what |, can do in this
crisis. Because saw that 5IIoyt was
interested in the topic beyond any
thing that he had revealed since had
come upon him, pursued its course
After ALL l ended, zones country is
the greatest power for swinging you
back on your old course
Not the greatest" said Hoyt
slowly. He looked not at me, but
at the greenish crest of the churning
wake, as he went on. Il don't know
what you believe, but it's probably
the tepid thing that we blaspheme by
calling Christianity. The East, if you
live there, takes that out of you
Sometimes, though" He broke Off
suddenly, turning to me directly
DO you want to know why I'm going
back?" he demanded, his eyes auger-
ing into my brain, and a fanaticism
blazing in his face that shouted his
need Of passing on whatever message
he had received from Infinity
I.o1 had I not desired to know
what forces had transformed a me.
diocre newspaper artist into a lotus.
eating eXpatriate and what other
forces were driving him back to his
own land, | should have assented to
his compelling query. But, as he
swung into speech, l knew that it
was not to me, but to some other
side of himself, that he was making
explanation. 1t was the artistic egot-
ism demanding expression that ami
mated his confidence. That he could
talk to me in my own language only
heightened the poignancy of his con
fessien. For it was like a man in a
trance that he spoke.
Il wasn't more than five years old
when l began to dream of Japan,
he said. "As other boys thought of
engines, and machines, and printing
presses, | used to think of cherry
trees, and bamboo houses, and queer
reading of Japan when l was child
| was fourteen when I found my first
book about it. 1t must have been
something deeper, something Unborn.
No, it couldn't be atavism because no
Hoyt was ever sailor. Before we
were Ohio farm folk, we were Con
necticut farm folk. Before that we
were English farmers, both sides of
the family. BY all the laws of here
dity, l should have been narrowing
brown fields while | was working in
Chicago, studying art at night at the
Institute, and dreaming wonderful
dreams of that little island I've just
now left.
Because the dream seemed almost
unattainable, I cherished it the more
1 knew Hearn by heart, and | used
to climb to the topmost gallery of
the Auditorium whenever they played
Butterfly at the opera. l spent half
my salary on japanese prints.
studied Japanese from a boy who was
going to the University, teaching him
mechanical drawing as compensation.
While | worked every day, there in
the art department of the paper,
was really living in my hope. of find
ing my way to Nippon. But because
meant my break to be final, abso-
lutte, | was waiting until / could see
my way clear to go without the neces-
sity of coming back. / Was just be-
ginning to see it when l met Frances
Thorne.
do you remember her at all? She
was the telephone switchboard opera
tor in the Office when you were there,
a little girl with brown hair and with
deep blue eyes that had a trick of
looking not at you, but through you.
There was something about her diff
ferent from any of the girls | knew,
an aura of spirituality 1 think I'd call
it now. That was, l fancy, what
drew me to her, although / was so
if analysed my feeling for Frances
at all in those days, | should have
set it down as response to her
sympathy. I fell into the habit of
going down to the board to talk with
her in the hours when neither of us
was busy. / talked, rather, and she
listened. Then | drifted into waiting
for her and walking homeward with
her when she had finished work.
After a while I began to find the
evenings, filled as they were with my
study and reading, dull, and used
to go to the apartment out on the
West Side, where Frances lived with
her married sister.
Il suppose that it was because |
hadn't seen any home life since | had
left home five years before, that I
found theirs beautiful There was a
serenity about that house, five-room
fiat that it was, that lifted it above it's
restrictions of brick, and stone, and
wood, and cheap furniture. Uncon-
sciously | must have been building
ideals of home of my own while /
visited in this one, but I didn't realize
it, for all the time was looking out
to the Orient.
when / had the offer of that New
York job, | refused because I saw that
it would definitely hold ne back from
accomplishment of my ambition. even
though 1t would give me opportunity
for advancing in my work. 1 told
Frances about til had a way of tell