The Portland daily press., 1883-04-04
LBlackwood's Magazine.
Rohenianisn

Many of the most distinguished French
novelists and dramatists show much Of what
we English would call Bohemianism In their
habits. And if it be said that it arises in
great measure out Of he customs Of the
country, we must remember that their Gus
toms are but the outcome of the national
temperament. They sit loose to the domes-
tic hearth and haunt cafes and lighthouses
In joval company, which conduces. again,
to unbusiness like hours In the morning
when, thanks to the favor of the public, they
have come to afford it, they have their coun-
try-houses in congenial colonies, where, liv-
ing as a race apart, they are in the way Of
entertaining parties Of eccentric visitors, to
the scandal of the citizen neighbors they
look down upon. The bearers of some of
the greatest names in modern French 70.
nance might have been merged in the most
miserable type of Bohemianism. had it not
been for the transcendent talents which, by
giving them a lucrative popularity, saved
them from the worst consequences Of their
imprudence. Dumas the elder, for example,
showed himself model man of business In
one respect; and it was his bold originality
that devised the idea of manufacturing fic-
ton in piecework by employees he inspired
From first to last be made an immense deal
Of money. But he was as free with his
coins as his famous quartet of musketeers
with their pistols, and he lavished the re-
suits of his hard-driven bargains in the day
without giving thought to the needs Of the
morrow. Had his application been smaller
and his talents less picturesque, and his lot
cast in the Quarter Latin, he might have
been in perpetual straits like Henry Murger,
though he would have shown more than
Murger's ingenuity in extricating himself
from them. Or IL we turn back
to the still mightier Balzac, we
stand amazed at the work he &C.
coInplished under the weight of the difficult
ties he imposed on himself BY far the bet
ter part of his ample income went TO swell
the profits Of the usurers. He wrote his
"Balthasar Claeso and 'Eugenie Gfandet''
with his staircase blockaded. He was always
keeping creditors and bailiffs at bay; half
the ingenuity that might have gore to the
composition of masterpieces must have run
to waste in making arrangements to meet
engagements, or, more often, in deyising
fhe means of evading them. The double
wear and tear of the brain must have been
tremendous; and he treated the chronic
malady that came of impecuniousness with
doucl.es Of the strongest coffee, swallowed
at the most unreasonable hours. Turning
day into night, he was forever burning. the
candle at both ends, and the forms OF his
greatest extravagances are characteristic.
His subtle yet strangely distorted fancy pc
came dependent on surrounding itself with
the costly means of realizing the Injuries In
which his imagination loved to revel. lie
crowded his rooms with rich tapestries,
oap utrkd,c and and rara china
he never grudged the money for such an
object of art as might have been among the |
heirleoms in Balthasar Caes's stately Flem
lsh mansion; and the taste had grown upon
upon him as his fancy began to flag, Ii was
but another aspect Of the carelessness which !