Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-04
flee cigarl

Why
Should
Weep, wall or sigh7
What il luck has passed me byf
What If my hopes are dead
Ny pleasures fed?
Have not still
NV fill
OF right good cheer
Cigars and beer7
Go. whining youth.
Forsoothl
Go, weep and wall
Sigh and grow pale,
Weave melancholy rhymes
On the old times,
Whose joys like shadowy ghosts appear.
But leave me my beer!
Gold is dross-
Love is loss
30, IL gulp my sorrows down,
Or see them drown
In foamy draughts Of old nut-proWn,
Then do l wear the crown,
Without the cross!
Arnold wrote for the press until within
four weeks o. his all too sudden cutting
down. As his bosom friend and admirer
has said OF him, ''To the end of his life he
worked with the pen, incurring the perils,
bearing the sorrows, surmounting the OBJ
stacles and enjoying the pleasures of the
noble and fascinating profession of letters"
THE GOOD GRAY POET.
There were many other courtiers of the
Muse who were numbered among the
knights of the Round Table. For several
years be ore the breaking out of the war a
picturesque figure at the Pfatf gatherings
was that of Walt Whitman, who even then,
through the premature whitening of his
locks and the benefcence of his character,
was called ''The Grod Gray Poet" and who
even then wore his flowing shirt collar thrust
back in display of a hairy chest. He owed
much in those days to the openhandedness
OF his friends in Bohemia, and he only left
them when President Lincoln gave him
sinecure in the Attorney Generals Office in
Washington; post which he continued to
occupy until the HAYES administration
drove forth the man who had been guilty Of
writing Leaves of Grass
A frequent trio at Pfaff's was formed by
Charles G. Halpine. better known to fame
as Miles O'Rielly; the late Fitz James
O'Brien, one oil the brightest of the young
literary men of the day, and Hugh Farrar
McDermott. It was on the Round Table that
the last named wrote his verses beginning,
20, do not sing that song again." McDer-
mott is q remarkable exception to all rules
governing poets, if those who are frenzied by
the Muse are governed by any rules. He is
now afauent and a political power, and yet,
like Silas Wegg. hestill drops into verse;"
In his Pfaff days Harper's Weekly fire.
quently gave full page to his illusions. It
was not poetry, however, which brought him
riches. He got into politics, started the
Jersey City Herald, through his influence
MADE IT OBLIGATORY
that all legal advertisements should be in
serted in the columns OF that newspaper and
thus he piled up hundreds of thousands of
dollars, while his son Albert McDermott has
been installed as the Democratic boss of the
State of New Jersey.
1t was at Pfaf7s that the brightest liter
ary men OF those times read many of their
illusions before submitting them for publi-
cation, the Bohemian circle being, as it
we're, the fortunate canine upon which they
we're tried. There William 'O'Brownell
irst read his lines beginning, "All that
Ask Is Let Me Alone;" there Stephen Mas
yet, who is still valued contributor to hu- |
norous publications, submitted the pungent
'ayings of ''Jeems Pipes. OF Pipesville;"
here Henry Clay Lukens who is still WELD |
'ller, had judgment passed upon the prose |
lumor OF ''Erratic Enrique;" there Frank |
5ellew invited criticism OF the sketches |
which were to be submitted to the Harpers |
n Frank Leslie; there Thomas Worth, now !
he high salarIed caricaturist of Texas Sift- !
ngs, displayed the clever pencilings which |
le sold wherever he could find purchaser; |
here Edward II. House, now occupying re- |
ponsible and confidential relation with the |
imperial Government of Japan, fascinated |
he circle with the brilliancy of his conver- |
alton and won its admiration with the |
,readth and depths Of his general iniorma-
ion.
OTHERS THAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS.
But there were others than writers and |
rtists who made the Pfaf coterie brilliant. |
frequently seen about the Round Table we're |
edwin Adams, genial. whole-souled and the |
most versatile oil all actors; Lawyer Charles |
". Brooke, whose recitation of THE Bells |
4 Shandon" was then and is now consid- |
red the perfection of rhythmic and melo- |
ious elocution; the late Dan Bryant, the
ling of all negro minstrels; the late Nelse |
seymour, one of the husbands of Efie Ger |
non, and with whom died peculiar phase |
f burlesque in negro minstrelsy OF which |
e was the only exponent; selfassertive and |
ogmatlc "Show" Bateman, the father of |
he Bateman Sisters; Dolly Davenport, a
opular actor OF his day and the one-time |
usband OF Lizzie Weston, who afterward
1arried Charles Matthews, the celebrated
English actor. There were also occasional
roppings in of such men as James w.
Vallack and John Brougham, and E. L.
davenport and others, who could add to the
onviviality of collection of choice spirits.
1t was famous coterie while it lasted, but
uthless progress soon caused this order,
hose knights had never felt the touch OF
ccolade, to dwindle and pass away.
'leecker street, which had been the avenue
,r fashionable residences, was given up to
and became "far down town."
tut the first blow delivered at Pfaffs was
hen q man named Garrad opened a rival
hop house in Bleecker street next to the
wings bank, which was also graced with a
.ound Table. This caused division in the
bohemian circle, and from that time the
Ime Of the cellar alcove began to pale until
was no longer found profitable to keep it
pen and Pfaf went uptown in vain search
n his former patrons. That ended the story
hich his death now revives.
LOUIS N. MEGARGKE.
The Blues.
m {o a tor |