The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-06
mternatiOnal BohemIanlsm.

for the establishment of a sinking fund and
the eXtiDguishment of the debt
International BOhemianism,
From The ". y Herald.
Mr.. Henry w. Longrellow, the New England
veTsileT, ranks, as We write, equal with bull
Run" Russell on the roll of collegiate homo
rary distinction. Each is an LII. D., or Doctor
Learned in the Law-the one in the law of
doctoring other mems ideas aud prosOdy to
suit his own peculiar verbiage and rhyme, aud
the other in doctOriDg the war history of dlt.
ferent nations after such fashion that the peO-
pie most interested in the issue of the events
frequently fail to recognize them when pre-
septed by his pen and are as much puzzled
to know what he means as was the late Presi-
dent Lincoln when he read the famOusly doc.
toIed account of the battle of Bull Run and
Immediately transmitted to the writer that
peculiar Washington degree which honored
him with permission to remain outside the
lines of the Union armies.
Mr.. Longfeow has been "totng" around
Old England during few weeks and the Bo-
heman interest in Boston and New York Is
just now experiencing an ecstacy Of consola-
tion in the perusal OF mail report from Lon
don describing a ceremonial which took place
in the venerable and musty hall of Cambridge
University ON the occasion when the heads OF
the Cole &c, in the presence Of some few OF the
students aud a numerous assemblage OF ths
"Mutual Admiration Society" of Great Britain
conferred on him the honorary degree of
LII. D. The American B3hemiaus assert that
the restless, wandering, and Rimes5 tralou-
nifty has completed q grand oDicue cordiulc,
and insist that the British branch has grace
fully and literally repaid in the person of
representative Longtellow, the American COM
plments bestowed on their native luminary in
the person of Jefferson Bri3ll' Dickens,
the great de.iueator OF the inside OF the docks
of the Bow street the Maryleboue, and other
police courts of the British metro polls. This
account We leave 10 be settled 10y the members
according to the rules OF the order. We must,
however, in the name of the two peoples, Oh
iect most decidedly to the assumption that
these Bohemian visits show forth anything OF
a national character as expressed i'll the fol-
lowing sentences, printed in a London news
paper of the 18th inst just as Mr.. Dickens
was recognized by the Americans AS belonging
to them, so Mr.. Lougfellow is claimed by US
as one Of the great writers of our common
English tongue. He represents among us to-
day something more even than American lite
Tature; for he represents that community of
faith and feeling OF tradition and of language,
which makes it impossible that the literature
of the one country should ever be foreign to
! the other"
Lord Byron once inquired of the wife of a
! London manufacturer of shoeblacklng how
her husbands firm managed to praise the
article daily in a new verse published in a
city journal. The lady replied at once, "Lor
bless you, sir, we keeps poet" If the Bos-
ton Bohemians choose to "keep poet" it is
no reason why good natured old John Bull
should be- deceived into the belief that the
people Of the United States and Great Britain
have one identical feeling and interest, any
more than he would be induced to restore the
privilege of the habeas corpus to Ireland by
the recitation Of the fine lines of learned
pundit of Erin, Jimmy Burns, which reads:-
Your m other is q good man,
And so is your daddy;
It's q cOwld frosty mOrnin',
Come to the fire, Paddy.
indeed, Mr.. LongfellOw was found employed
in the melancholy occupation of hunting up
the grave of his great grandfather in Carlisle
churchyard just previous to the Cambridge
| College Grafton. He did not succeed in his
search, however, as he himself told the people
thus:-"And yet so much strangeness is there
that when / come to the land of my fsthers
find nowhere any traces of my family or my
name" Now, if Longfelow possessed the
real mems poeticd he would know that poet
naScitm non fit: that he is born of Time and
Genius from the beginning, and consequently
has no ancestry, according to humanity, worth
| looking after.
But Longfellow was in England not as poet
| for there is no poetry nOwadays-but
merely as the versifieT OF American Bohemian
ism, and in this light the LII D. affair is agree
able. We incline to the opinion, however,
that Jefferson Brick" Dickens has had the
most profitable employment. During his late
visit to the United States he had conferred on
him the degree of L. S. D., or master OF
pounds, shilling and pence, and was sent
home equity with DelmonicO's rich wines, after
drawing as many corks as Barnaby Rudge's
|, raven; so that he had only TO reclne in his
stateroom during the voyage and keep count
ing huge piles of greenbacks. Can the tough
parchment of a Cambridge LID. and a ceme-
terry visit at Carlisle compare with this By
no means. The American Bohemian account
with England is not squared yet. 1t is nearly
as bad as the Alabama claims case.