Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-25
BObemlnDispu in the Queen City.

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of people, the feverish excitements, the num-
berless passions, the countless %incongruities
of a metropolis.
Bohemianism in Cincinnati Is there
much of it here2 Is not the city too youug2
Young, truly, but old in feeling as any
city in the country; for in many respects
Cincinnati is most blaSe has a Partisan uu-
deItone, rarely heard above the hum of me-
tropolitan life; possesses lights and shadows
so bright and deep that many good people
are blinded and startled by glancing under
the surface.
What is best as well as what is worst 10
Cincinnati is externally invisible. Eddies
are ever on the social stream; but no one
knows how far they extend, or whence their
cause.
THE LAND OF BoHEMIA.
But, no, for Bohemisl
Good reader, place your arm in ours, and
let us walk through the moonlight and
night-shadow into the unique region of
modern gipsy.land.
Bohemiaps are here in abundance, though
they lave TO confederacy.
They are mostly %stragglers and skir-
mishers, often fighting Bohemian battles
single, handed but energetically aud occa-
sionally Drawn together by inward attrac-
ton and by natural pressure.
We shall not find Bohemia a welI.defued
and map.marked region here. 1t is like
many little islands, the sea of Society flow
ing between and around them-a meutal
Venice, penetrated everywhere by hetero
dox lagoons that the heavy gondolas of
public opinion can not reach.
Our Bohemians may or may not know
each other; but they are all intensely indi-
vidual, almost out. DISCRIMINATING Bohemia.
They worship, if not at the same, at SINH
lar sbrines.
They are alike, yet vastly unlike; in varl-
Gus grades and positions of life; opposite in
antecedents and tendencies but banded
sgainst the senseless babble of the rabble-
popularity, public opinion-and the obnox-
ious spirito of conformity, which brushes every
yielding soul.
A RENDEZVOUS OF BOHEMIA.
DO! lOT DUuoulld, OuCS uOToI
We are now within its midst.
Here is a nucleus of the fraternity-a rem
devious where Bohemia meets, and is always
welcome.
A spacious and an elegant drawing room,
with a score of takers, men and women, all
with a free-and- easy air, as if they possessed
themselves completely.
Queer ~coterie, this
1t must be a strong, though unseen, bond
which holds them together.
Vastly dissimilar, these Bohemiaus.
They are all youpg-an old Bohemian is
impossible-at least in feeling Ind appear
ance, though wrinkled cheeks and furrowed
brows, in certain faces that nave not seen the
variegated leaves of thirty Autumns yet,
proclaim the time-unmessured years.
Their t~oilettes strangely varyl Here,
dainty fastidiousness and the latest mode;
there, carelessness and disregard of all ap-
pearance.
This pretty creature in the embroidered
robe, the delicate gloved and fairy CATERED
girl, talks Ruskin and pre-. Raphaelitism to a
wildly. whiskered face and suit of thread
bare black that despises %tailors, but worships
Turner and his school.
In the corner, a gentleman with silkeu
moustaehe, immaculate Jouvins, and the
finest of perfumed muchoirs, peeping out o.
a high-art p%aletot, holds an argument upon
poetry with a plain looking woman, whose
disordered hair and dress proclaim her one
of the bas. bIeU, as popularity understood.
Halfreelining on a sofa, witha meerschaun
between his lips, from which clouds of smoke
alternate with CLEANS of wit, is a rudy
hearty, whole-souled parsonage, who wal
never known to be unhappy for a moment
His life is a humorous poem, his highes
ambition a capital jest.
He is called Democritus, and is just nov
trying to convince that pale and spiritual
looking woman sitting by his side ON al
ottoman, that Hamlet was a fool and Man
fred a mailman.
She smiles half-mournfully at his sallies
but is evidently unconvinced. And then sh,
bursts into an eloquent monologue upon tn,
beauty and fascination of melancholy re
lates how it pervades the highest works 0
art and is the essence of all aesthetic great
ness; citing this philosopher and that poe
in support of her position, until the atmos
phere seems to sparkle with the verbal jewel
of her conversation, and the other takers an
are won to voicsless admiration By her clio
quence.
She has talked herself into glowing beauty
when, seeing the effect she has unconsciousI,
produced, she drops her silken lashes upo
her dark, romantic eyes, and speaks no more
"Bravo, Bella" cries Bohemia. ado nc
STOP "You are as brilliant as Aspasia,
says one; land as charming as De Stael,
adds another; and they applaud her wit
their hands.
"Come, come, Bella, continue" say half
dozen of the company but Bella shakes he
head gracefully, and is silent over a ne
book che has just procured, and in which 81
is now absorbed.
That long,haired man with a foreign al
gszing so intently out of the window, as
he were trying to penetrate the future, {
mayhsp, determine when his debts will |
paid, is an artist OF great talent.
Had he been a worker, he would have bee
one of the first Of his profession.
He paints only when he is compelled toll
~pecuniary pressure; and if he could gain Il
fame ofRaffaelle he would not toll.
A jovial company and a bottle of Sout'
side Madeira, and what to him are fame al
f%ortunel
Here the piano is struck-two Of the OPT
{. site sex sing the delioiously-melanchOly,
Z mi mGdrs duet from TrOVatOrsj and eve
: ear listens attentively. An aira from La
: follows, and a cavatina from BslIsariO clOI
!" the pleasant melody.
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