fterwards addressed some of his most interesting letters from
Martinique to his "dear brother and friend Rudolfo Matas." By him he is
said to have been told the incidents in the story of "Chita," and to him
the book was dedicated.

* * * * *

After the yellow fever had passed away "there were plenty of vacancies
waiting to be filled," Hearn significantly tells his sister....

A daily newspaper called the _Item_ was at that time issued in New
Orleans. A great deal of clipping and paste-pot went to its production,
"items" taken from European and American sources filling most of its
columns. Hearn described it as a poor little sheet going no farther
north than St. Louis.

He was offered the assistant-editorship; the leisure that he found for
literary pursuits on his own account more than compensated for the
smallness of the salary. He hoped now to be able to scribble as much as
he liked, and to have an opportunity for reading, with a view to more
consecutive and concentrated work than mere contributions to daily and
weekly newspapers. He also had many opportunities, he said, for mixing
with strange characters, invaluable as literary material--Creoles,
Spaniards, Mexicans--all that curious, heterogeneous society peculiar to
New Orleans.

If in Cincinnati to mix with coloured folk was deemed sufficient to
place yourself under the ban of decent society, it was ten times more so
in New Orleans; but Lafcadio Hearn, Bohemian and rebel, took the keenest
pleasure in outraging public opinion, and challenging scandalous
tongues, breaking out of bounds whenever the spirit prompted, and
throwing in his lot with people who were looked upon as pariahs and
outcasts from the world of so-called respectability.

At one time he took up his abode in a ruined house, under the same roof
as a Creole fortune-teller. He describes her room with its darkened
windows, skulls and crossbones, and lamp lit in front of a mysterious
shrine. This was quite sufficient to associate his name with hers, and
many were the unfounded rumours--Nemesis of the unfortunate episode with
Althea Foley at Cincinnati--which floated northwards regarding the
manner of his life.

Some members of a Brahminical Society visited New Orleans about this
time. Needless to say that Hearn immediately foregathered with them, and
in leisure hours took to studying the theories of the East, the poetry
of ancient India, the teachings of the wise conc