The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-11
TRUE LIFE in BOHEMIA
MURGER's Devil OF A BOOK HAS
BECOME A CLASSIC.
The English Plates Owned I'm This
City-His Sure and Merci-
ciIess Analysis.

lOA ever CAOcSlHS the FONTS QSS Albc,
said Henri Murger. He meant that his
Scenes in the Life of Bohemia barred
him out of the French Acadamy OF Immor-
tails. But that devil of a book has not pre-
vented Murger's crossing the Atlantic
ocean. and 1t is read and respected increas-
ingly forty years after its writer's death.
His other works are forgotten.
The Bowen-Merrill Company, of this city,
WINS the only plates of the complete Eng
lish translation of Bohemia" The plates
include the original Illustrations made for
the book, the original preface by Murger
and a biography of the writer. The Bowen
Merrill Company bought the plates from a
broker in New York. They had been sold
by some publishing firm, probably bank
rupt. From time to time the Bowen-Merrill
Company prints a new edition of the book.
There is a small. but steady demand for 1t
! from all over the county. Every reader OF
Murger becomes a missionary. In this city
there is a club named the Murger Club.
More and more persons that love a good
book are coming to know Scenes in the
Life of Bohemia" Murger bids fair to be an
Immortal despite the French Academy.
Besides the continued reading of DO
hemia' in book form the Metropolitan
Grand Opera Company has it in it's roper
tory. Puccini, the Italian composer, wrote
the music. Mr.. Savage's Castle-square
grand opera in English companies have
sung Bohemia" also. It was first pro-
duced as a play in Paris in 1S49, a year after
it appeared as a book, and it sprang at once
into great popularity. The history of this
book is interesting enough, but its value as
an expression Of the elusive spirit of Bo-
hernia is a still more fascinating subject.
The popular understanding of Bohemia is
that it is a delightful condition i'm which
devotees OF the arts give themselves up
TO the pursuit of beautiful expression and
revel lawlessly. That the Bohemian is sup
posed to be -contemptuous of money and
conventionality, and often does not know
where his next meal is to come from adds
TO his attractiveness. No American city Is
too small to have its Bohemian coterie,'
composed of men and women with literary
tendencies who initiate as far as they may.
which is not far, what they suppose to be
going on in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
Novels and magazine articles dealing with
Bohemia are read eagerly. 'Irilbys great
vogue as book and as a play is still remem-
bered.
The American Bohemian is a funny, af-
fected person. so obviously an imitator that
humorists have had all sorts of fun with
him. He is SO numerous that the romancers
liN lObulO INN III easy iIdl n. III u Oil
that they write. There is enough material
in Murger's Bohemia TO supply thousands
of romancers. and it has supplied many.
Bohemia ~elitters so evidently. But ii is Sc
riously an important and intricate phase OF
the human comedy, and Murger's true, au-
thoIitative and sympathetic treatment or
il must continue to be a well-loved book.
Murger is authoritative. As q poor writer
in Paris his struggles and privatlons were
terrible. He was a newspaper man OF the
cheapest Partisan kind, and there is no
romance about that. In 1874 he Joined the
staff of the Corsaire, and four years Later
He sold the book right to a publisher for 800
francs. and the publisher sold 5000 copies
OF the book. 1t was not until 1T was drama
tized that Murger made enough money TO
provide him with a good living. lie drank
so much coffee. that he was stricken with
purpura several times. and 1t made him so
nervous that he became known as the
wandering Christian
When his first success came he paid some
of his creditors, but it only, made them
keener. Look he said. Il have watcred
my creditors and they are sproutins
afresh." When the dramatist came to him
he was i'm bed. A friend had borrowed his
trousers. one day he had only two sous
in his pocket. He had TO call ON an editor,
The bootblack was just finishing the first
shoe when ii began to rain. 1T would be
useless extravaganza TO go on, said Muir,
ger. handing the bootblack one sou and
walking off. The characters in Bohemia.
women and men. were the associates OF
N1rger. and Rodolphe is Murger himself.
He was true to life when he wrote.
Xxx
1t has been charged TO Murger that after
prosperity found him out he turned on his
unsuccessful brethren. 1t is difficult to be-
lieve this after reading the preface to his
book. which is an essay on Bohemianism.
1.-THE class OF Bohemians referred to in
this book" he says, "are not a race of to-
day; thew have existed in all chimes and
ages and can claim an illustrious descent.
In ancient Greece. to go no further back In
this genealogy, there existed a celebrated
Bohemian, who lived from hand TO mouth
round about the fertile country of Ionia,
eating the bread of charity and hating In
the evening to tune beside some hospitable
hearth the harmonious Tyre that mad sung
the loves of Helen and the rail- OF Troy.
Descending the steps OF time, modern 30
hemia finds ancestors at every artistic and
literary epoch"
life. ii is the preface TO the Academy, the
Hotel Dieu or the morgGe. Bohemia only
exists and is only possible in Paris. In
dividing the Bohemians into classes Murger
says: "The unknown Bohemians are the
largest class. 1t is made up OF The great
family of poor artists. fatally condemned
TO the law of incognito. because they can
not or do not know how TO obtain a scrap
of publicity to attest their existence in art.
and by showing what they are already
prove what they may some day become.
So
for whom art has remained a faith and not
a profession: enthusiastic folk OF strong
convictions. whom the sight of a master
piece is enough 10 throw into a fever, and
whose loyal hearts beat high In the pres
ence of all that is beautiful. without asking
the name OF the master and the school.
They wait for public admiration to break
in on them by burglary"
The end of this class, Munger says, Is:
They are logical in their mad heroism.
they utter neither cries nor complainlngs,
and passively undergo the obscure and rig
orous fate they make for themselves: They
die, for the most part, by that
disease TO which science does not dare give
its real name. want. IL they would, how
ever. many could escape from the fatal
denouement which. suddenly terminates
their life when at an age when ordinary
life is just beginning. 1t would sufflce Tor
them TO make a few concessions to the laws
of necessity; for them to know how TO
duplicate their being, 10 have within them
selves two natures. the poet ever dreaming
on the lofty SUBMITS. where the choir OF
inspired voices are warbling. and the man,
worker out OF his life, able TO knead his
daily bread"
Glass No. 2: at Is composed OF young
fellows who have been deceived or who
have deceived themselves. They mistake q
fancy for a vocation. and impelled by a
homicidal fatality. they die, some the VIC
Tins of a perpetual fit of pride. others wer-
cbipprS of a r1fmera MANY VOnnR fellows |