St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-18
WHERE Is BOHEMIA?


The exact locality of Bohemia has
6een a question which has bothered
profounder scholars than the GLOBE.
SHAKESPEARE, who is supposed to have
known everything, and who surely
probed the human heart to depths which
no other man has reached, thought that
this Interesting country was situated
somewhere on the Seacoast; and, since
his time, it has been fixed in every gar
ret and street corner the world over
wherever two or three people have
CHANGED to live who could not pay their
bills, and did not care whether they
could or not. Go to what city you will.
and you can find ladies and gentlemen
leading somewhat irregular and uncon-
ventional lives. dining at cheap reStau-
rants, and promenading the crowded
thorOughfares in CARDS little thread
bare: and, if you ask them for their adj
dress, they will say that they dwell
in a corner of BOhemias On the other
hand, if you are in rural France and
meet swarthy tinker by the roadside
talking that curious Romany jargon,
composite of primitive Sanskrit and
every pat0is heard in modern Europe,
although you may think he is a gypsy.
living nowhere and everywhere, the
natives will tell you that he is Bohe-
milan and that he will kidnap your chill
dren if you do not look out for them.
Or, again, far from the ocean you can
see Bohemia, part of the Austrian
empire, peOpled by race of Slavic
blood and leuton tongue, pursuing the
arts of peace. and thence spreading to
every quarter under heaven, not even
excepting st. Paul.
This is all very confusing, and when
the GLOBE suggested that there was
need of missionary to such OF the Bo-
hemians as lived on our river bottom
and observed not the rules and reguia-
tons of polite society, it indeed ex-
pressed itself to stout denunciation
from all the different races who mas
querade under this ubiquitous cOgno-
men. A local Bohemian, hailing from
the land of the Magyar, declares that
none of his cOuntrymen occupy the
shanties near the Smith avenue bridge,
and that the only reason why this sec
ton Of the city is called the Bohemian
flats is because it is peopled by literary
fellows of a nomadic and independent
turn Of mind who spend their time over
books and do not care much for dinner
parties and the other pleasures which
take so much of the Four Hundreds at
tention. This is probably true, and will
account for the neglect of their chill
dren. of which some of them are alleged
to have been guilty. Men and women
who dwell in a corner of Bohemia, in the
fgurative sense, as they do, cannot be
expected to give much energy to feed
ing little girls or preserving their virtue,
and nobody is justified in criticising
them for not doing so. JEAN
JACQUES ROUSSEAU was the prince
of Bohemians of this type, and
he put his offspring in a founding
asylum while he composed essays on
the regeneration of society. Whyunder
the sun those of his ilk, who live in the
midst of us, should take offence because
some one has said that they are follow
ing his example. and should threaten to
hold an indignation meeting to resent
the imputatiOn, is not very clear. 1t
will do no harm, however, from any
point of view, if they follow out this
programme, and every lover of the
muses. will be glad because the resolu-
tions which the Bohemians-tha is the
literary fellows = of the upper fiat
will draw up will doubtless be couched
in English vigorous and indebted. No
class OF men and women can spend
their days and nights over PINDAR
and the poets, as do they, at the ex-
pense of their progress in society and
wealth. without acquiring stores of use
ful information and complete mastery
of ali the resources of language.