Page:Fantastics and other Fancies.djvu/30

 in the words of Dr. Rudolph Matas, now a surgeon of international reputation, who was Hearn's friend and early foresaw his fame.

"In those days," says he, "I was not so busy as I am now, and had more time to read the books I enjoyed, and to spend long hours in talk with Hearn. "It was in the early eighties, I remember, that I knew him first, Whitney, of the Times-Democrat, was a friend of mine, and I asked him one day: 'Who writes those wonderful things—translations, weird sketches, and remarkable editorials—in your paper?' And he told me, 'A queer little chap, very shy—but I'll manage for you to meet him.'

"I became editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal in 1883, and it must have been shortly before this that I first met Hearn. He was astonished to find that I knew him so well—but then, you see, I had been reading these 'Fantastics' and his wonderful book-reviews and translations, and his editorials on all sorts of unusual subjects, for a long time.

"He often came to me to get information about medical points which he needed in some of his work. He was deeply interested in