The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-22
MEMORIES
Of PAUL
Anecdotes Of the
Late Lawyer and
Bon Vivant.

| The Examiner has the following of
| locafsinterest:
Paul Neumann will be very sincerely
| mourned in San Francisco, for he had
the rare faculty of making and holding
friends in all grades of society. He had
good standing as lawyer but was
known far more widely as a wit and bon
vivant Wherever he went he left behind
| a trail of his kindly humor, and up to
the time of his last visit to San Fran
cisco, few months ago, was as full
of frolic as schoolboy.
| His love of fun led him to ally him
self with the Bohemian Club almost from
/ its inception. The club was first spoken
of in February, 1872, and he became a
member on May 7th of that year, when
| the struggling organization occupied
rooms In the old Aston Building at the
corner of Sacramento and Webb streets,
! opposite the morgue.
| He at once became q leading spirit in
| the club life and was Sire" of the Low
Jinks'' the occasion when, on June
| 20, 1878, the club held it's first ''Midsum-
mer Jinks"-a ceremony since become
world famous. On that occasion Harry
| Edwards was Sire of the High Jinks''
and the camp was pitched near Taylor
| vile on Paper Mill creek. Joe Tilden
was commissary and Frank Unger had
charge of the music and Charles War
rem Stoddard was the poet.
/ But that links is, remembered chiefly
| for the ceremonies which Neumann con-.
Quoted over a great caldron of famous
punch brewed by Joe Strong, the artist.
/ The older Bohemians never get together
| that something of that occasion, enliv-
ened by Neumanns bubbling wit. does
not crop up in the conversation. It was
| on that occasion that Neumann persuad-
/ ed Henry George TO hide his own
blankets
Neumann had lost a leg and stumped
around on a cork substitute, of which
| he was ever ready to make fun. c.
| Mitchell Grant, the traveller also had a
cork leg, and at the links Neumann
would lure Grant into Waiting with him,
until the peg-leg waltz became one of
| the side-splitting exhibitions of the later
hours. He was president of the club
in 1SS2-S3
Neumann's lecture on Debt is re-
called as a masterpiece of humor He
often was in some doubt as to just how
his own debts were going to be paid,
and in his lecture he descanted at length
on methods of getting in and out of
debt by hundred hooks and crooks.
AS a lawyer, the partner of Harry
| Eiekhoff, he had a good practice and did
not hesitate to match wits with any
member of the bar. Often he upset
learned argument with quick sally and
people followed him into court in the
4 expectation of hearing him turn a point
and raise laugh. But beyond his
! humor he could be logically forceful and
/ had quite turn of eloquence.
AS an after dinner speaker he was
particularly ready, and was often select
ed to preside as POSTMASTER when an
| evening OF lively fun was expected. Even
when he went into politics he coulo not
keep down his love of a joke. and he lost
some votes among people who feared he
never would be serious enough for
| lawmaker.
| In 1879 he was elected to the State Sen
ate from San Francisco, and served In
! the sessions of 1880 and 1881. That was
when he had apartments just across from
the Capitol with Charles N. FELTON, and
General John II. Dickinson. They enter
tanned lavishly. frolicked a good deal,
played some poker, and Neumann jocu-
4 larly called the place "The Robbers
j Roost"-a term which was taken serious
ly by many. and hurt him when he after
| ward ran for Congress.
During his Senator term many
| questions of great public interest came
up constantly, among them the great
/ fight between the river farmers and
hydraulic miners. He debated these ques-
| lions with force or humor, as the case
/
/ for the taxing of ships where they are
owned or where they We're listed came
up. and the other Day counties were
| ranged against San Francisco. Senator
/ j. t. Wendell of Solano had made an
/ address of several hours in which he
often spoke of the commercial interests
! of Solano county.
! When he had concluded Neumann got
| up on his cork leg, looked around quiz
! zically, assumed a strong German accent,
and said:
Ven der shentleman from Zolano
lsbeaks off der commercial intereshts off
his coundy, do / oondersthand him do
mean dot magnificent fioading palace dot
/ blies between Benicia und Martinez or
/ dot equally doading palace dot blies be-
| tween Mare Island und vallejo-of-der-
1 bay?"
| Every member had seen or travelled on
the wheezy little tubs which ran more
or less irregularly between the places
named, and the effect of WendelPs care
| fully collected statistics and labored
argument went glimmering in great
guffaw.
To Neumann Gas well as to others has
! been attributed the reply OIL the late
and tipsy husband to his waiting and
angry wife:
rs that you Paul?"
1 Madam, whom else are you expecting
at this hour?'
But whether that witticism belonged
to former generation not Neumann
was full of just such bits of mental
| ability, and beyond this he was one of
| the most indulgent of parents and kind
| hest of friends.
!