The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-02
"A NIGHT IN BOHEMIA"
Unique Entertainment of the Phila-
deIphia PEN and Pencil Club.

Unique Enterta inment OF the fhila-
deIphia PEN and Pencil Club.
Philadelphia. March This is A Night
in Bohemia. at the Pen and Pencil Club
OF Philadelphia. and the links Of the
chains and cables. that form she portieres
of the parlors in the joyous club house
et Eleventh ard Walnut streets, have
been clanking for hours, like bells in dis
sonanco. as the guests arrived. and paus-
cd. in turn, to wonder on the threshold
In the main reception room the Royal
Marine Band of Italy was disloursing
strains from Wagner, Verdi and Rossini,
with some of the most delicious compo-
sitions of Mascagni, Ponchielli and Flo
tow interspersed. They like good music,
these wielders OF the pencil and the pen,
and there were special reasons why the
band. IN its wood and pigskin, as we'll as
in the brass of ii, should be upon its
mettle
The night was an event in the history
of the club. for il broke a resolution and
a record In all its years Of gaiety, back
even TO the time when IL was the Muer-
ger of the Bohemian Nights now so brill
liant feature OF the hospitality shown
by the press clubs of the country, the
Stevensons early work in fiction. No wo-
mans face looked out from the charmed
mystery of its rope-hung windows how
ever longingly women might peer in
ChesterlieIds or real Quixotes, Rabour-
dins or free Marcels within the blazoned
portal they were misogynists all, though
peris knocked or family ties implored.
Tonight. for the first time, ladies were
the Pen and Pencils guests, and fifteen
hundred responded to the invitation that
was so long delayed The famous Hall of
the Exchanges, that showed on every foot
OF wall space, the pages of the press
throughout the country where husbands
brothers and sweethearts had loyal
friends and colleagues, brought distant
cities strangely home to them. The en-
tryways and stair. with men and women
of the stage in brilliant, pictured pose,
were bright reminders of the critic
nights newspaperdom does trying duty
on. and womanhood delights in. The
paintings in oil and the sketches in cray
on, the carvings on the bare boards of
the hardship room, and the cards that
form the frieze below the ceilings, show
ed gifts and talents these fair visitors had
merely guessed at previously.
The reception was made the occasion
for the presentation, to Signor FerIucclo
Giannini as manager of the Royal Ma
rine Band of Italy. of a baton. carved
from the oak of Independence Hall The
baton. seventeen inches in length, ana
mounted with gold and silver appropri-
ately inscribed, is to be used by Signor
Giorgio Minoliti, of the Royal Conserva-
tory of Naples and formerly director Of
the grand opera of Brazil, so long as he
is the leader.
The ceremony of presentation took
place in the main reception room soon
after 10 o'clock, when Signor Decimo
formerly OF the Banda Blanca, in ITALY,
concluded the clarino solo, Home
Sweet Home" Signor Giannini. in ac-
cepting the baton, said he received it
as a trust from the journalists of Phila-
delphia and from the city itself, and
would hold it as an earnest of the duty
all musical organization owed the Amer
lean people for the freedom every city
gives to true artists to-day AS indie
pendence Hall in Philadelphia, gave free
dom to true men, more than a hundred
years ago. He handed the relic to Signor
Minoliti, and told him to retain it during
the term of his leadership, however long
it might endure, and use it so that no
false note, or composition unworthy of
it's high traditions, should be heard un-
der the speaking oaks inspiring sway.
An instant laters the baton gave the
sign To the anu ltC Guar
Spangled Banners" glorious notes pealed
through the house: it was the baton's
baptism. AS the last bar ended, the
polished wood, with It's glistening gold
and white. uprose again, and the new
Independence Hall March, composed
in it's honor by the9leader, went stirrlngly
on. Setaro, the famous harpist, picked
out one of his brilliant solos, and the
Countess Dassi, prima donna from La
Scala and Covent Garden, sang Ponchiel-
lis "Ate ouesto rosario"
The concert ended at half-past eleven
o'clock, and the ladies' part, in the first
of the Nights in Bohemia, to which I'M
gallant but penitent Journalism had bid
den them, was over The lovely forms
and faces posed on stairway walls and
entry halls were left unrivalled the mas
Sive portieres cianked in musical good
night; and the blazoned door, with n
hundred friendly faces back of it's
craven glass, saw the last carriage roll
away.
Then the Night in Bohemia, which is
the night of all nights in Bohemia, be-
gan.