New-York tribune., 1918-02-10
He Was Not an
Unattractive Man

"No, he was not unattractive He
was we'll built, something like the late
Jacob Wendell, jr., the actor, save that
be did not carry himself so we'll; he
had nothing of Wendellrs buoyant.
sprngy step. His head was well set
on his shoulders, and his hair, which
later in life became very gray, was
then dark brown. He had a brown
mustache somewhat lighter than his
hair. He had an aquiline nose.
broad. clear brow and perfectly
modelled chin and throat He was
then thirty-nine years old. In 2
game of tether-ball at school he had
been injured in his left eye and had
lost the sight OF It, although it was
not offensive in appearance. The iris
remained intact, but the pupil was
somewhat Irregular, SO that while it
was not surprising to learn that he
could not see with it, I cannot under
stand how any one could have been
distressed by looking at it, The right
eye protruded more than is usual and
was exceedingly myopic. He had, he
told me once, only about one twen-
tleth normal vision. Some dreadful
friend had once told him that he
should avoid the society of women be-
cause they. with their greater tender
ness and delicacy, would suffer dis
tress in looking at his blind eye And
SO, being one of the most sensitive of
mortals, he usually spoke holding his
left hand over his blind eye lest he
offend. When some one once asked
Captain Macdonald if he really was
as uncanny IN appearance as his de-
tractors made him out TO be. To me-
answered the captain, 'he was always
beautiful | can say the same. His
voice was gentle and there was touch
of Irish brogue in his speech. lust that
little rounding out of words, the Celtic
strain that seems to make them COM
plete.
He was, moreover, d real. live, mas
culine man. There was nothing sissy OF
eftemlnate about him. In fact he could
and would even tell a risque story
There is no use of making an angel
out Of our hero. He was a mans man
Quotations from the letters of Hearn
to Hendrick are always interesting
but in one letter Hearn lays down the
core of his system-the idea that he
found both in Buddhism and modern
science. Without ii grasp Of his no
tlons on inherited memory aud uncon-
sclous feelings, knowledge or appre-
cation OF Hearn is not complete.
The passage follows:
The law that inherited memory
becomes transmitted into ntu-
tlcns or instincts is not absolute.
only some memories, or rather parts
OF them, are SO Transformed Others
remaln-will not die. When you felt
the charm of that tree and that lawn.
many who would have loved you
were they able to live as in other
Gays We're looking through you and
remembering happy things. At least
l think it must have been so. The
different ways in which different
places and things thus make appeal
would he partly explained; the su-
preme charm referring TO reminls-
cences reaching through the long
est chain of life and the highest
But no pleasure of this sort can
have so shostly a sweetness as that
which belongs to the charm of an an
cestral home in which happy genera
tlons have been. Then how much
dead love lives again. and how many
ccstasles OF the childhoods Of
hundred years must revive, We do
not all die. said the ancient wise
man. How much of US dies is an un-
utterable mystery"
The Hearn letters to Hendrick. as
We'll AS those TO other correspondents
INK" Captain Mitchell Macdonald, II. Z.
hrehblel, B. II. Chamberlain, Mrs
Elizabeth Wctmore, will probably live
as long as any other letters in English
or American literature The master art
lst and thinker Is never absent from
these personal communications. Hearn
wrote to his friends without any sub
terfugc. but frankly and intimately.
He poured fort n his ideas and gave dc
scrlptions of his methods Of working,
accounts of his devotion to his art, and
"reminiscences OF his struggles. When
! looked at the original OF the letters
IN MIR. Hendricks home on East tortl-
eth Street, New York. and saw the neat
handwriting lines as they flowed
from Hearn's pen-a sort OF fetichistc
feeling came over me. These, then, were
the original OF letters the publication
or which swept the literary world with
deep admiration. As the massive.
towering hgure of Mr.. Hendriok. brim-
ming with life and good nature, bent
over me, | mentally pictured the slign,
stature of Hearn. ) feet 3 inches. and
thought of Hendrick, though eleven
years younger, as of a physical guard
ian Of Hearn, the rather diminutive,
tlmd writer. Hendrlck was proud OF
having had Hearn's friendship, for No
shares with Captain Macdonald the DIS
| tinct.on of having retained it TO the
time of Hearn's death.