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"Foreigner" Hearn
Sirs:
Apropos of your discussion of Kazuo Koizumi's Father and I (TIME, June 17, p. 73):
1) It is true that "critics who believe that the U. S. is death to genius" have adduced in support of their argument the loneliness and despair that embittered Lafcadio Hearn's American days, but it is also true that Hearn did his best creative work (Chita, Youma, Stray Leaves, Some Chinese Ghosts, etc.) before he went to Japan. In technical excellence Hearn's Japanese writings never surpass, and are often inferior to, his earlier work; while even a cursory comparison of the two groups of writings will suffice to show that the Japanese period is marked by a constant waning of inspiration and a growing fatigue that cannot be attributed solely to the passing of youth.
2)I fancy that Koizumi, who "does not mention . . . that . . . Hearn was compelled to support 13 people on his small salary," also fails to mention that Hearn's salary at the Government college at Kumamoto was reduced soon after Hearn became a citizen of Japan—ostensibly because a "native" could not possibly be worth as much as a "foreigner."
3) Hearn is one of the "minor U. S. writers" only in the sense in which it may be said that Eddie Guest is one of the greatest.
REVILO P. OLIVER
Urbana, Ill.
Off-Duty Curse
Sirs:
TIME-reader Winston points out a coincidence between the accidental death of Senator Cutting and the famed but ill-omened Hope Diamond, and he adds that he wouldn't care to look at the thing for fear of evil consequences [TIME, June 17].
Last August I was a dinner guest of Mrs. McLean at a place somewhere in the Rois in Paris. On that evening Mrs. McLean wore the Hope Diamond as a pendant to a string of pearls. I not only looked at it but held it in my hand and examined it carefully. Since then I have neither lost my life, nor my mind, nor my appetite. On the contrary, I am quite O.K., and my luck has steadily improved. I don't know how to explain that, except maybe the evil influence was off duty on that particular evening. W. E. WOODWARD
New York City
To Author William E. Woodward (Bunk, George Washington—the Image and the Man, Meet General Grant, Evelyn Prentice, etc. etc.), congratulations on his health, appetite, luck.—ED.
Widow's Mite
Sirs:
You will remember the death of some of the U. S. aviators in the recent maneuvers in the Pacific. One of them was the son of a San Francisco man, Capt. Charles Skelly, Secretary of the Police Commission of San Francisco. I heard by accident that the young widow had discovered that her pension was to be $22 for herself—$8 for her eldest child and $3 apiece for the two youngest children—a tragic pittance of $36. It seems incredible but I verified this. . . . The only way this injustice can be rectified is by having a bill enacted in Congress. I feel sure that the American people, if they knew, would not allow an injustice of this kind. Compensation should be comparable to the risk. . . .
EMMA M. MCLAUGHLIN
San Francisco, Calif.
Artists & Poloists
Sirs: