The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-20

remember, and found it furnished with
those comforts and adornments which it is
proper that well-to-do men should provide
for their pleasure. If there were any bo-
hemians present they had, for the time at
least, the manner and appearance OF gen.
tlemen; and if any policemen or detectives
were present to preserve order, they were
disguised in Just such clothes as gentlemen
wear. | have never seen q more comforta-
BILE or more admirably managed club. If
it happens that any true bohemians" are
mem bers OF it 1 can readily understand
their discomfort with its orderly and re-
fined conduct and their desire to "effect
an organization" more to their liking
For my part would rather be member
of the Bohemian Club than of bohemian
club and for being member OF the Be-
hemian Club should feel myself none the
more bohemian and none the less gen.
tleman.
Assuming that the ''true bohemians" of
town have mistaken themselves and the
meaning of the word which they apply to
themselves, still this does not clear up all
of the mystery attending the desires and
futile efforts of the "artistic" members of
local society to rebuke some existing or
ganiZation purporting to embrace and
nourish that class, and to found club
better suited to their tastes. Whatever
may be the merits of that quarrel, neither
l nor the rest of the outside shivering
public care a tinker's dam. 1t has grieved
me to observe among the members of the
'artistic" class some who deIude them
selves most iniuriously and lamentably.
fric
who affect to cherish superior disdain for
conventions the observance of which con-
stitutes the true test of good manners, a
manly dignity, kindly disposition and a
proper regard for the feelings of others.
have heard of other "bohemians" who
rail at responsibility and call it philistin-
ism. / like that word "respectabiiity, for
1t means ability to command respect. and
that in turn implies self-respect and man
illness; and these again mean uprightness
of conduct and dignity of bearing. No one
can afford to outrage prevalent conven-
tionalities III a rude and offensive manner,
nor at all unless his own bearing and char
acter are of the highest order, his strug
giles to overcome his own weaknesses are
brave, persistent aud measurably success
full, and the rules of conduct which he by
example or precept offers in the place OF
those which he scorns are better for hui
manity and himself. An ignoring of these
principles makes him who scorns estab-
lished conventions a pitiable as well as an
offensive object.
1t is impossible to avoid the conclusion
that some of the protestants against the
established order OF things are moved by a
misconceiyed sense of superiority. If so,
then they are ridiculous as well as pitiable
and offensive. The explanation of their
deplorable state of mind may be found in
the fact that their lives are too CONSTRUCTED
and their purview ON the earnest concerns
of hum anity too narrow. inadequate as
ISOLATION with all sorts and conditions OF
men in the absence of an innate compre-
/ hension, and a constant swelling to i'll and
then burst the bounds of the small world
which they have created for themselves,
limit the perception and distort the I'M
derstanding of such persons. They are
but poor crippled children. who need an
asylum in the disciplinary charity of the
wise; but if they seek and expect ordinary
blind charity, and by reason of its exist
ence and exercise constitute themselves a
privileged class, not governable by the re-
! strictions which self-respect imposes on