New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-25
THE B0HENIlANS.

This term has been applied to the writer's
of ephemerai literature, the sayers of short
and good things which come by chance and
go where no one knows. The Bohemians
are waits and strays in the magazine world
and upon the sea of journalism: they are
bright as dew drops beneath summer sun,
brilliant as flashes of electrical light seen
through night darkness in the salt sea
waves; they go away and are forgotten.
The most of them have been dangerous
men and women in their lives; dangerous as
exemplars for those to come after them
They have worn about them a halo of
genius, light attractive in itself, but
which made all the more painful the
shadows of the reckless, improvident lives
too often led by the average Bohemian.
As the deaths of these men occur, as
Harry Clapp and others have died recently.
remembrances of their lives and associates
come back. Last week Charles d. Stanley
died at Jacksonville, Florida. He was one
of the most Industrious of his class, and
worked always while he had health; but he
wore the easy habit of the Bohemian. Mr.
Stanley was q Canadian, and commenced
to Boston, he found work on the Transcript
and from then on for twenty-five years he
has contributed poems and stories and gen.
eral matter to all of the leading magazines
and papers. Many years ago he moved to
New York, and was one of the founders Of
the brilliant and short lived Vanity Fair
He also was the editor of Puuchinello, a
comic weekly, which flashed and finally
died out a few years since in the Empire
City.
Harry Clapp, who died very recently in
New York. has been called the father of the
order of Bohemians in America. He lived
to be about seventy years of age, and died
wanting the common comforts of life. He
was born at Nantucket, Massachusetts, and
like most Nantucket boys, went to sea- The
stories of the sailors and the voice of the
deep lured him away from home, and
oceanward was the most common way out
of Nantucket. At sea his hands found en-
ployment but his mind did not, and sea
lite became irksome He stepped on shore
and began to talk and write. He became
preacher in the organization of Sunday
schools: temperance lecturer in the cause
of total abstinence. an editor, a socialist
after the philosophy of Fourier and finally
a steady drinker after mis- own philosophy.
He came near being charming vagabond
His biographers say he was at one time
nod hvroi n.1o
may have been, for in his checkered and
eventful life he has done many things in
many places. He was on the .Sutu,day
Press, Family Far, the Leader, and many
which bore his mark of light
and brilliant writing OF his last days the
Graphic says:
Finally he picked up precarious liveli.
hood by contributing brief paragraphs to
he daily press. including the Daily Graphic
For the last few mOHths of his life he ap-
parently did no work whatever That be
was man OF extraordinary brilliancy no
)ne can doubt. He probably said more
good things" than any other American
journalist. He caught the trick of French |
terseness and sharpness, and his feuiilet0ns |
might have been written by a Partisan.
There was only one thing that kept him |
rom assuming the position which his abili- |
les deserved. 1t was the Incorporate |
habits which for the last thirty years were |
aging him steadily downward. Efforts
were Wade t" help him by his friends, but
he we're in vain. Ex Mayor Hall sent
Tim more than once to the Binghamton
nebriate Asylum, but it did him no
good. For the last few years
10 was able to do but very little work, and
hough the kindly old German, Pfatf, fed
i'm Tor years out of gratitude, and his old
C quaintances gave him money, he was
ften in actual want. There has rarely.
cen more pathetic picture than this poor
Id man presented, reduced to rags, con-
umed by horrible thirst, and utterly
Without hope for this world or the next.
hat memories must have haunted him of
he young men who used to meet with him
t Pfafi,s, and whom he had educated to
elieve that drink and infidelity were the
marks OF literary genius! From temper
nee lectures and Sunday school teaching
} beggary, loneliness, and degradation is a