The Washington herald., 1914-06-14
At the Cafe Momus.

At the Cafe Momus.
From the day that the four "Bohe-
mians' began TO make the Cafe Momus
their headquarters the place began to
be insupportable for the rest Of the
patrons
The Momus was a rather good sort Of
restaurant on the borders of the Latin
Quarter in the days when Louis Philippe
was King of France.
The "Bohemians," as they called them
selves-but who were known to the other
frequenters Of the place as the -Four
Guardsmen-were, first. Gustave Collino,
the great philosopher: Marcel. the great
painter; Schaunard, the great musician,
and Rodolph, the great poet.
That was what they called each other
and the titles they modestly acknowl-
edged for themselves-though a cold.
careless and inappreciative world had.
as yet. refused to acknowledge their
greatness.
These people chose to meet in . room
which would have accommodated 40 peo-
pie, but they were generally there alone.
For the chance customer who entered
this den became, from the moment Of
his entrance, a victim of the talk Of the
terrible four. who spoke loudly and
poured forth such q fsrago Of unheard-
Of opinions upon music, art, literature
and politics that the stranger fled.
Monopolints.
1t is said that the conversation. the
discussion, of these four was of such
nature that the waiter who served them
became an idiot in the prime OF life and
lost his job by inditing madrigal to
that middIe-aged, corpulent and respect
able lady. his employers wife. who sat
behind the counter in the main room and
took the cash.
Precious little cash she received from
the Order of Bohemia.
There was a most respectable coterie,
presided over by NJ. Bosquet, who, before
the arrival of the Bohemians, had been
good customers Of the Momus. But now
the Bosquets could get neither the back
CANNON bosrd nor the newspapers.
Rodolph carried away the papers to
his own rooms early in the morning, and
the Bohemians monopolized the back
CANNON board from 10 a. m. to midnight.
When it was asked for. Marcel would
say: Somebody is reading it-call to-
morrow"
Long List of Grievances.
Marcel used to bring his easel there
and do some painting in the intervals
between discussion and Backgammon, and
Schaunard talked Of bringing his piano
the only real piece of furniture he
possessed.
He could not have executed his threat.
however. for his landlord would never
have let the instrument go out Of his
garret.
The proprietor made out a long list Of
grievances, among which was that, now
and then, NJ. Schaunard had come there
with a young lady calling herself Mile.
Phemle, who always forgot to bring
her bonnet" And the fifth specification
of his indictment was this:
Not content with being very poor
customers. these gentlemen have tried
to carry their economy still farther and,
under the pretence of having caught the
mocha OF the establishment in an i'm
proper alliance with chicory. have
brought a spirit lamp and make their
own coffee, sweetening it with their
own sugar. which IL an insult to the Cafe
Momus.''
And the Order of the Bohemia was re-
quested to vacate and seek another field
for their operations.
Compromise.
1t was crisis-and they compromised.
The Bohemians would drink the coffee
Of the establishment: Phemie, whenever
she appeared, would wear her bonnet; |
Marcel should make the room q studio |
no more. and reasonable amount of
time was to be allowed the Bosquets to !