I left Topeka--which sounds like a name Franky might have invented--early yesterday morning, but did not reach Atchison, only sixty miles distant, until seven o'clock at night--an hour before the lecture. The engine as usual had broken down, and left me at four o'clock fifteen miles from Atchison, on the edge of a bleak prairie with only one house in sight. But I got a saddle-horse--there was no vehicle to be had--and strapping my lecture and blanket to my back I gave my valise to a little yellow boy--who looked like a dirty terra-cotta figure--with orders to follow me on another horse, and so tore off towards Atchison. I got there in time; the boy reached there two hours after. I make no comment; you can imagine the half-sick, utterly disgusted man who glared at that audience over his desk that night.... And yet it was a good audience, thoroughly refined and appreciative, and very glad to see me. I was very anxious about this lecture, for it was a venture of my own, and I had been told that Atchison was a rough place--energetic but coarse. I think I wrote you from St. Louis that I had found there were only three actual engagements in Kansas, and that my list which gave Kansas City twice was a mistake. So I decided to take Atchison. I made a hundred dollars by the lecture, and it is yours, for yourself, Nan, to buy "Minxes" with, if you want, for it is over and above the amount Eliza and I footed up on my lecture list. I shall send it to you as soon as the bulk of the pressing claims are settled. Everything thus far has gone well; besides my lecture of to-night I have one more to close Kansas, and then I go on to St. Joseph. I've been greatly touched with the very honest and sincere liking which these Western people seem to have for me. They seem to have read everything I have written--and appear to appreciate the best. Think of a rough fellow in a bearskin coat and blue shirt repeating to me _Concepcion de Arguello_! Their strange good taste and refinement under that rough exterior--even their tact--are wonderful to me. They are "Kentucks" and "Dick Bullens" with twice the refinement and tenderness of their California brethren.... I've seen but one [woman] that interested me--an old negro wench. She was talking and laughing outside my door the other evening, but her laugh was so sweet and unctuous and musical--so full of breadth and goodness that I went outside and talked to her while she was scrubbing the stones. She laughed as a canary bird sings--because she couldn't help it. It did me a world of good, for it was before the lecture, at twilight, when I am very blue and low-toned. She had been a slave. I expected to have heard from you here. I've nothing from you or Eliza since last Friday, when I got yours of the 12th. I shall direct this to Eliza's care, as I do not even know where you are. Your affectionate FRANK. LAFCADIO HEARN TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN [KUMAMOTO, JAPAN] January 17, 1893.