The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-10-06
Foy Th< Aykansay Traptiey. THE NEW YORK BOHEMIANS.
A Sketch of the Life of O'Brien, with a cn,ique on His Writings in
 Prose and Verse.
BY RuFrs WILSON.

Had any of our readers dropped into Piaff underground cave in New York of an evening. five and twenty years ago, among those gathered around the long, low table, they would have been inn pressed by young lrishman of thirty years or more. Short in stature, with a finely developed figure, there was cvi- dence of strength in his every move men,. His hair and sweeping nous taohe, which completely hid small well-shaped mouth, were of rich brown. His eyes were dark blue and singularly expressive, a, times sparkling with mer- rment, and, again. says one of his com panions. wearing a weary look of danger ous, halfslumbering wrath, as of soul ,ha, was a hunted vagabond standing sentinel over its own desolation." Taken as whole the face was 'a frank, prepos- sessing one. showing a manly, open nature This person, about whom there was an indescribable air of vitality. vigor and strong animal spirits, was Fitz- James O,Brien. the most striking of all the /" New York Bohemians.'
 He was born in the County of Linn eriok, Ireland, in the year 1928, and came of good family. His father, prosper ous country lawyer, died when he was still child. and his mother, d woman of rare personal charms. afterwards became Mrs. De Courcy pGrady. Between the ages of sixteen and eighteen years, O'Brien was sent to Dublin university. where he received the sound literary training which that institution bestows on all its students. In connection with his life at the university the temptation to draw comparison between him and another, who, as poor sizar, had there gone in and out over one hundred years before, cannot be resisted. Goldsmith and O'Brien were both natives of the Emerald Isle; both strikingly gifted, but singularly ill-starred: both led lives of wandering and sorrow and both died young far away from home and kindred, but not until they had placed offerings of undying beauty upon the shrine of pure literature.
 Rumor tells us that for time after leaving college O'Brien served in the British army. but be this true or untrue, he soon drifted up to London, where, from natural improvidence, in two years, he spent large part of his inheritance, which at first amounted to nearly forty thousand dollars. While hardly more than boy he had shown an aptitude and liking for authorship, and before he left Ireland had written two poems, Loch Inc :" and "lrish Castles ;" thought worthy of place in 7he Baik.sds of Le- Am9, edited by Edward Halpes, and pub lished in 1856. During his residence in London it is said that he edited journal devoted to the Worlds Fair, but pains- taking efforts to procure copy have been fruitless.
 Aroused by the rapid manner in which his money was slipping from him, and embittered by an attachment that had ended unfortunately, O'Bnen, in 1882, decided 10 emigrate to America. Through the influence of friends he ob- tained from the genial, scholarly K. Shelton Mackenzie, then editor of the Liverpool Star, letters of introduction to the leading journalists and literary men of New York. and by virtue of these he was kindly received upon his arrival there. Attaching himself to the coteric which had gathered around Willis and Morris, and their Home Journal, O'Bnen's brilliant talents were soon recognized, and his career as an Ameri- Soh JOashohSe-aoAhot OpCuCQ duSQi- ciously.
 With the fragments of his fortune that were still left to him, he was at first en- abled to rent handsome quarters, to furnish them with elegant furniture and well-chosen library, and to give sumptu- ous suppers; these things, coupled with his handsome face and winning social ways, made him general favorite. But costly habits, and the scanty and uncer- tain fortunes of man of letters never go hand in hand, and O'Brien soon found his money gone and himself subjec, to the cruel caprices of fortune. Then came the widest days of his Bohemian ism, when, if not depressed by want, he was the gayess of the gay.
 His life as an author, that of the typical Bohemian, was brilliant, irregular and uns>sady. His 6rst work done after he came to New York was for 71s Lov- Sevs, edited by Brougham, the actor, and soon to suspend. His best contribution