The San Francisco call., 1895-11-24
M .se M

A famous cafe chantant is the Cabaret
de Ia Boheme on the Rue ST. Jacques. It's
walls are decorated with fantastic scenes
OF student and carnival life.
The music is accompanied by the fumes
of bad French tobacco. The ''stars'' of the
concert are from the lowest strata of the
quarter. The business OF the skirt-dencer
is not to dance, but to show the assembled
company the secrecy of her anatomy.
When student has not been at a cafe
for some time he is called upon to mount
the platform behind the piano and to give
an account of his delinquency. Three
piano-taps (French fashion) call the
attention of the company. The account is
often amusing and sometimes pathetic,
when the man has had serious grievance
which he does not care to make public,
but is forced to do so because his imagina-
ton will not work quickly enough to
make up an effective, truthlike tale on the
spot. Toast-drinking follows and a chorus
of song.
The Bal Butler, so we'll known in the
history OF student life, has changed hands
and is not what it used to be. It's wild
revelry has become mild frolic. 1t is con-
sidered slow and out OF date. The regular
dances come off on Saturday, Sunday and
Thursday nights. Of course the ball of
the year is the Quatre Ats at the Moulin
Rouge in the early spring.
The students theater is the Gate Mont
parnasse. 1t is small, dingy and cheap.
Saturday night is student night. They
may be seen all over the house. hats on
the back of their heads and smoking like
an Atlantic liner as they sketch. The
programme of the stage consists of ri5ald
jest and song and dance. There IS a
woman here who has the reputation of
singing the smuttiest songs in all Paris.
What she doesn't say in words she ex-
those n
Roscius. She is stout and homely, with
mouth and smile which far exceeds her
corporal proportions.
Scattered all over the quarter are bill
liard-rooms where the old and new stu
dents gather. 1t is in these haunts that
most of the choice French of the student
is learned. When the cafes close in the
early morning hours, squads of students
go to the halles centrales to finish their
fun in the all-night cafes there or to earn
a few sous for the morrow by helping the
farmers unload their vegetables for the
early morning market.
And what is the result of all this scheme
and plan of life which seeks self-indulgence
and sets aside right and wrong as things
for which there is no place in art?
1t is held by many that there is altogeth-
er too much OF that sort of thing to-day for
the growth and well-being of high. ideal
art. A mans moral perceptions are dulled
when he turns the night into day and the
day into night. When his moral percep-
tions are dulled his imaginative faculties
share the same fate. His creations are
coarse and blind or STACEY and limited in
conception.
~ y, -
The best years of young mans life are
given to bohemia. What does she give in
return? Often empty husks.
~ - -
There is here in Paris an old Italian of
good family and position who came
here a boy of twenty, brimming over
with enthusiasm of what he would
do for the advancement of art. He
first tasted and then drank deep OF the
pleasures of bohemia. His art was rele-
gated to the background. Long before the
death of his parents he was disinherited
and disowned. Since then he has lived
from hand to mouth. That was many
years ago. On his next birthday in March
his years will number four score and ten.
His greatest contributions to art have been
exposed in the Cafe de Ia Cabaret de la
Boheme. There are many careers like this
FLORENCE BLANCHARD.
25 Avenue Wagram, Paris, Oct %, 1895.
NoTE.-Next week Miss Blanehard's letter
will tell the story OF Pacific Coast art pilgrims
in Paris. Miss Blanchard is q Californian, and
writes entertainingly OF all subjects touched
by her.