1890-1891.

r(f1 APT AIN James M. McDonald was elected Pres­~ ident of the Club this year, with James D.Phelan, Vice-President; E. B. Pomroy, Secre­

tary, and S. D. Brastow, Treasurer. The Directors were

George W. Granniss, Mountford S. Wilson, Humphrey

J. Stewart, Edward W. Townsend and Raphael Weill.

One of the first events of the year was a reception

given to Mr. Wilson Barrett, the English actor, on June

7th. Mr. Alfred Bouvier, the manager of the Baldwin

Theatre, invited a party of his fellow Bohemians to go

out to meet Mr. Barrett's English company that was to

arrive on a special train. The meeting, which occurred

at night in a wild and desolate glen, was delightful ex­cept for the temporary alarm of the new comers who

imagined from the shouting and stopping of their train

in that lonely place that they were being held up byrobbers of whom they had heard dreadful stories ever

since they had left England, but the music of the band

reassured them, even they knowing that road agents inAmerica do not rob to the strains of a brass band.

The Midsummer Jinks, which was the next event on

the program, occurred July 26th on Austin Creek, and

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

CHAPTER VIII.

I25

I26 THE ANNALS OF

1890 was sired by E. B. Pomroy, and this is what he has tosay about it:

"The' groves were God's first temples, ere man learnedTo hew the shaft, and lay the architrave

And spread the roof above them-ere he formedThe lofty vault to gather and roll back

The sound of anthems; in the darkling woodAmid the cool and silence, he knelt down

And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanksAnd supplication." A FOREST HYMN-

"Brother Bohemians:-

"Let us once more gather together for our AnnualMidsummer Festival, as we have been wont to do, in theprimeval forest, beneath the trees that were old when

modern life was young, that already stood as the gateposts of the western portal when the march of mankind

from East to West had only just begun-and there, inthe presence of the invisible spirits-Pan-the satyrs-­the wood nymphs-and all the denizens of the grove­let us celebrate the rites, and perpetuate the mysteries ofBohemia; let us revel in the contact with nature; release

ourselves for a brief span from the chains of daily occu­pations, and light again the funeral pyre that resolves totheir elements the burdens of care which a cycle accu­mulates.

"There is reason for the presence at this-the great­est of all our feasts-of every Bohemian.

JAMES M. McDONALD.

From a Photog"raPlt.

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

"The artist should be there, for he will be surrounded I890

by models of every type; each of his fellows will be some

sort of a model, and all will be models of deportment.

"The literary Bohemian should go; to him Nature

needs must appeal especially, for in the sylvan retreatwill he

'Find tongues in trees,Books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones,And good in everything.'

"The social Bohemian will find there the woodland

nymphs of his dreams, not the painted coryphees of the

stage-nor the dripping dippers of the seaside-but the

ideal woman-ideal because she does not exist-that is,she will not be there.

"The acquisitive and speculative among us, should,

above all, for this fragment of their feverish existence

exchange the strident odor of Pine street for the whole­

some fragrance of pine boughs-and if after this enu­

meration there yet remain Bohemians unclassified, let

them remember there is always the oblation and the feast.

"The venerable High Priest will invoke

special benediction upon the loyal men of

Bohemia, who will join us upon this occasion,

which marks the emancipation of our Club

from the nickel-plated service of the past;

Mr. E. B. Pomroy

I]O THE ANNALS OF

1890 henceforth no stranger shall be our cup bearer, nor

longer levy a tariff on our wants-Bohemia shall befor Bohemians.

"Let this be a day of rejoicing; let us, to the strains

of the military band, move upon the forest, and, for the

time, all Nature shall be ours by right of love and con­

quest.

"And now by virtue of the power vested in me by the

constituted authorities, I bid all Bohemians wherever

situate, to assemble in the forest on the 26th day of the

present month, and there assist in the celebration of theannual

MIDSUMMER HIGH JINKS)

in strict accord with our time-sanctioned custom.

"E. B. POMROY,Sire."

This is all that we have to show for this Jinks except

the assurances of those who were present that it was aSCHotar B h . l' h f'Lynch presents great success. ut t e next event IS more aVlS 0 Itsthe Club with •• 0

the mummy matenal, bemg no more nor less than a receptIOn to a

J1g~;tian mummy, an embalmed princess, the daughter of aprincess Ph h Whol .. h . h f 11. arao . 1e It IS true t at as m t e case 0 a

notable antiquarian discoveries, doubt was early cast

upon the character of the lady, or rather we should say

her authenticity, her character after two or three thou­

sand years being above suspicion, owing to the prompt

action of the Club these doubts were triumphantly dissi-

pated and the petty carpings of archaeological jealousy 1890

scattered to the winds. The facts are as follows:

In the year 1890, A.D., Senator Jeremiah Lynch went

to Egypt. Why he went to Egypt, what route he took.

or how he took it, has nothing to do with the matter; that

he went to Egypt and arrived there is undisputed by lay-­

men and scholars alike. Once there, common reports

agree that he devoted much of his time to writing that

entertaining volume "Egyptian Sketches" which after­

wards found its way into every library in the land.

While pursuing his antiquarian researches in the ancient

village of Girgeh, he came across the mummy of this

royal lady, stumbled over it one might say except for the

implied discourtesy, and with that irresistible prompt­

ness which is one of his well-known qualities, coupled

with diplomacy, pertinacity and liberality, the Hon. Mr.

Lynch became the mummy's lawful possessor. The

argument advanced by certain skeptics whose motives

are plainly transparent, that the Egyptian government

would not permit such a valuable relic to be taken from

the country will not hold disputatious water for an in­

stant, because Senator Lynch's well-known urbanity

and genial manners had speedily won him friends among

the greatest as well as the lowliest, wherever he went,from Dan to Beersheba, from the humblest delver of the

soil to Br-sch B-y, Mr. Lynch made friends; and

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. IJI

THE ANNALS OF132

when has friendship ever failed to circumvent the dry

formulas of the law! Indeed, it is well known that no

less a personage than the Director of the Museum him­

self supplied the necessary passport which permitted the

mummy to shake the dust of Egypt from her venerable,

little feet. Indeed, the aforesaid authority even went so

far as to have an examination made of the hieroglyphics

on the mummy case and of the interior where a papyrus

was found, and officially stated that the deceased was a

virgin priestess in the temple of Isis some three hundred

years before the Christian era. In this statement Sena­

tor Lynch, it is believed, at the time concurred. But

subsequently swayed by the decision of a body of men

in whom for fourteen years he had learned to place im­

plicit confidence, he soon found occasion to change his

conclusion. For, extraordinary as it may seem, the Bo­

hemian Club with that unerring insight of the true

scientific mind on receiving the precious casket from the

custom-house (Mr. Lynch having thoughtfully paid the

freight charges and duty), instantly divined that this

was no priestess of Isis, no paltry aristocrat of an un­

known line, but a woman of royal lineage, a daughter

of the Pharaohs. In fact, without stopping even to

decipher the hieroglyphics on the outside, or the papyrus

on the inside, it was plain to the Club that here was no

less a person than the discoverer of Moses in the bull-

The identityof themummy istriumphantlyestablished.

rushes her very own self! In order to dispel the last

lingering doubt that might remain in the minds of the

unlettered, a reception for the distinguished lady was

arranged for the evening of September 27th, at which

some of the Club's learned men were to listen to argu­

ment on this all-important point, and render a decision

previously prepared for them.

This affair developed into one of the most impressiveceremonies ever witnessed in the Club. The costumes

and scenic effects were arranged by Mr. Bouvier, being

designed from the description in Theophile Gautiers'

"Romance of a Mummy." At the appointed hour a pro­

cession led by a band of reed and string instruments

shrilling a wild dirge entered the ancient, vast and lofty

hall, which latter role was assumed by the versatile cafe;

following the band came the dignified President of the

Club, Captain James M. McDonald, arm in arm with

High Priest Bromley, and after them paced the distin­

g'uished scholars who were to discuss the facts of the

case. These gentlemen were robed in red gowns, red

being the official color of the Club. Then came Mr.

O'Connell, arm in arm with Lynch, Pasha) (this title

having been temporarily bestowed upon the eminent dis­

coverer of the mummy to add splendor to the occasion),

and twenty-five acolytes and assistants in Egyptian gar­

ments waving gorgeous fans and burning incense escort-

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. 133

The Clt~bgives areception forthe mummy.

1890 ing in their midst the Mysterious Dead. Following came

a company of choristers appropriately garbed who, at

intervals, broke forth into a hymn of praise extolling

the beauty and virtue of the deceased. The mummy wasthen placed on the catafalque prepared for it, the cele­

brants taking their seats on the platform, and a ritual

composed by Mr. O'Connell was begun, the verses being

chanted by the choir and the responses uttered by theassembled multitude.

I34 THE ANNALS OF

"From the banks of the NileFrom that historic waterLo, hither approachesProud Pharaoh's daughter,Who little Mose saved.

From that ill-advised slaughterIt was well for that girlThat her papa ne'er caught her!

Chorus: It was well, 'twas well,'Twas well, 'twas well,For the girl, that her papaNe'er caught her!

Good Bohemians flock to meet her,Age has made her all the sweeter,Like good wine she has improvedWelcome, Princess, best beloved!

Chorus: "Pious priests your censers swing,Greet this daughter of a king,Fruit and rare wine offering!"

Charles Warr", Stoddard

Mr. CharlesWarrenStoddardacts asamanuensisfor theMummy.

135THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH TO BOHEMIA

Wherefore these revels that my dull eyes greet?These dancers, dancing at my fleshless feet;These harpers, harping vainly at my earsDeaf to the world, lo! thrice a thousand years?

Time was when even I was blithe: I knew

The murmur of the flowing wave, where grewThe lean, lithe rushes; I have heard the moanOf Nilus in prophetic undertone.

My sire was monarch of a mighty race:Daughter of Pharaoh, I; before my faceMyriads of groveling creatures crawled, to thrustTheir fearful foreheads in the desert dust.

These awe-inspiring stanzas were followed by ten ortwelve more of a similar character. The debate was

then begun. It was conducted throughout with dignityand wisdom. The participants were Dr. Behr, Mr. Red­ding, General Barnes, Judge Boalt, Mr. Phelan and Mr.Thornton, judgment, as already foreshadowed, beingfinally given that the fair occupant of the casket was invery truth the Pharaonic Lady of the Bull Rushes. Thishistoric fact having been thus incontrovertibly andpleasantly established, Mr. Thornton recited-

"And thou hast walked about (how strange a story!)In Thebes's streets three thousand years ago,When the Memnonium was in all its glory."

Mr. Charles Warren Stoddard, who at the time was

residing in Quincy, Massachusetts, wrote the followingverses, which were then read:

THE ANNALS OF

Above me gleamed and glowed my palace walls:There bloomed my bowers; and there, my waterfallsLulled me in languors; slaves with feather flailsFretted the tranquil air to gentle gales.

0, my proud palms! my royal palms, that stoodIn stately groups, a queenly sisterhood!And O! my sphinxes, gazing eye in eye,Down the dim vistas of eternity.

Where be ye now? And where am I at last?With gay Bohemia is my portion cast;Born of the oldest East, I seek my restIn the fair city of the youngest West.

Farewell, 0 Egypt! Naught can thee avail;What tarries now to tell thy sorry tale?A sunken temple that the sands have hid!The tapering shadow of a pyramid!

And now my children, harbour me not ill;I was a princess, am a woman still.Gibe me no gibes, but greet me at your best,As I was wont to greet the stranger guest.

Feast well, drink well, make merry while ye may,For e'en the best of you must pass my way.The elder as the youngster, fair to see,Must gird his marble loins and follow me.

"THE OLD HOUSE,"

Quincy, Mass., Sept. 8, 1890.

After this memorable affair the mummy lay in state

in the library for many days, where it was visited

DON QUIXOTE)

and Quixotisms in general and particular. That you

among others by Mr. Henry M. Stanley, who had

recently returned from his explorations in Africa.

and who was at this time a guest of the Club. Finally an

appropriate case of Egyptian design with glass sides was

made for it and there it stands in the Club to this day in

its painted casket, a strange memento mori, a most

artistic death's head at the endless Bohemian revels, with

the last verse of Mr. Stoddard's poem most appropriately

carved upon the panels.

In August Mr. Harry Edwards, President of the

Club in 1873, 1874, 1876 and 1877, and in honor of

whom the first Midsummer Jinks was held, came from

N ew York to San Francisco on a professional visit and

was given a dinner by the Club on the 15th of that

month. Mr. E. L. G. Steele, Knight of the Hawaiian

Order of the Star of Oceania, merchant prince, genial

host and good Bohemian, now issues the following sum·mons:

"By a strange coincidence, the last Saturday in Oc­

tober falls on November 1st, and the night of that day

your Sire has selected for a High Jinks. At nine pre­

cisely, he will commence to edify you with a disquisition

on the life and exploits of that famous Knight of LaMancha,

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. I37

Dinner toHarryEdwards.

High Jinks:"DotlQuixote."

THE ANNALS OF

[890. will hear some things which you have never heard be-fore, the Sire promises to all those who are not in thehands of an aurist. After your minds have had time to

absorb the great truths which your Sire will exhibit toyou in all the luminosity which he habitually shedsaround him, stars of greater or less magnitude will ap­pear in Perihelion, within the Bohemian Forum, andthere continue to refulgate upon the works so ably com­menced by your Sire.

"Judge J. H. B--It, the great all around Bohemian,will expound to you a subject upon which he is pro-­foundly ignorant, but of which you are ignoranter.

"P-t-r Rob-s-n will in the melodious accents of

Bonnie Scotland, hold your senses so enthralled that youwill be oblivious to the neighboring bar.

"F--k P-xl-y, with all the magical charms of his

eloquence, will so fill your souls and thrill your beings,that your consciences will vibrate for weeks thereafter.

"F. P. D-r-g, although not a maiden, will make hismaiden effort. Let the old bachelors draw up theirchairs.

"D. O'C--ll will sing to you in words which shallmake you weep; yea, though your tear ducts have beendry for years,-and our dear Bohemian L. H. F--te,will with winning metaphor and aptful simile, twine thetendrils of Poetical Bohemia, so tight and fast around

--From a newspaper cut

Mr. 0' Connell and j1yfr. Peters.as Don Quixote and SanchoPanza

I39THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

your hearts, that you will be content to live and die in

their loving embrace."At common intervals between the literary exercises,

will be heard joyful strains of witching music, and so

ably has Manager Rosewald arranged the interludes,

that only those who prefer dancing in the rear hall willleave their seats.

"Thanking you in advance for your kind apprecia­

tion, the Sire shakes you all by the hand, and assures you

that he considers this the proudest moment of his life;

and with arrogance subscribes himself,"Your Sire,

"E. L. G. STEELE."

"P. S.-My coadjutors in this night's entertainment

have, through a natural modesty, requested me to avoid

mentioning their names, but 'an initial' is as good as a

nod, etc."

Mr. Alfred Bouvier sired the Low Jinks and Mr. Lee

Lash painted the cartoon. Following this

event the Club gave a reception and banquet

to Kalakaua, last of the Kings of the Ha­

waiian Islands. Many members of the

Club had visited "The Islands," as they are

intimately called in San Francisco, and

had been very hospitably treated by theirmonarch. Mr. Steele, as has been said,

THE ANNALS OF

After this regal function came the Christmas Jinks.

Says the President:

Aloha! Kalakaua, King!Lo! Here no courtly banners are nor brazen ringOf trumpets. This, only, is Bohemia's offering­Hearts brimming o'er with honest joy we bringA wealth of friendship fitting for a king.

and Mr. Heyman had been knighted by the King; Mr.

Gillig had always received the warmest of welcomes

under the royal palms, likewise Frank Unger, Donald

Graham, and others; Harry Dimond had been brought

up within the shadow of Pe1e, had eaten poi and

ridden a surf board at a tender age; Colonel Mac­

Farlane, brother of that old and valued member, Edward

C. MacFarlane, was a member of the court, and

Paul Neumann, one of the early members of the Club,

was the Attorney-General. And so this reception and

banquet was, in a way, a family affair. A very pretty

menu card was devised with a map of the Islands as a

background, surmounted by a crown on a sofa pillow,

and the following acrostic on the Hawaiian word Aloha,

which we may explain for the benefit of the uninitiated

means, Greeting! Welcome! which acrostic was made

especially for the occasion:

THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

"My Children :-"The hour is at hand when Christendom celebrates

the natal day of Him, who came to bring peace and goodwill to mankind.

"I bid you come, Saturday evening, the 27th of De­

cember, to join in the wonted festivities.

"A carboniferous yule log from Vancouver's Island

will glow upon the hearth, and a tusked boar's head willcrown the festive board.

"California's mightiest brew will be broached, and

Santa Claus himself will preside at the

CHRISTMAS TREE,

while Bohemian minstrels will render Christmas carols.

"Remember that the generous wassail never fails to

bring tumultuous joy.

"We'll scout all care, we'll scout all fear,And we'll be merry, merry here,

For who can know where we shall go,To be merry another year."

"J. M. McDoNALD, Sire."

Mr. Solly H. Walter appears with the next High

Jinks document. As this is Mr. Walter's first introduc­

tion, it may be as well to state for the information of

those who had not the happiness of this gentleman's

friendship, that he was a sunny-tempered bohemian,

who had been an officer in the Austrian army and who

ChristmasJinks.

189<J.

Mr. SollyWalter.

High Jinks:"Art."

THE ANNALS OF

was familiar with the cities of Europe. An artist by

disposition, he drew cleverly and with facility and em­

ployed his talent as an illustrator on one of the daily

papers. Nearly all of the initial and marginal sketches

in the first volume of these Annals are from his pencil.

Highly educated, well informed, and an entertaining

conversationalist, his studio was one of the most delight­

ful resorts for an idle hour, the latch string being always

hospitably outside the door; at every five o'clock of a

winter's afternoon there was always sure to be a little

gathering there, when music, or talk, or friendly

silence with a cigarette in the depths of an easy chair be­fore the fire came as a solace and a benediction on the

day's work.

"Bohemians," says Mr. Walter.

"You are bidden to gather in the temple of Bohemia,

on the evening of February 28th, to participate in the

worship of the beautiful.

"The Divinity of Art will be invoked.

"The fires will be lighted upon the Altar by the

priests selected, and the solemn chants of the ceremonywill be heard.

"Bohemian Foote will burn the incense to propitiatethe Muses.

"Bohemian Center will interpret the secrets of the

Delphian Oracle.

"SOLLYH. WALTER, Sire."

The cartoon is done in pastel by Mr. Carl Kahler.

It was in this year that a monument was placed overthe grave of Jules Tavernier, the artist, a member of the

Club who had died in the Hawaiian Islands, the funds

being subscribed by the Bohemians; E. B. Pomroy,

Major Bender and Frank Unger having charge of thematter.

On the heels of which comes the following:

"Yea-verily, much enduring brethren!"Your battered remains shan be received at the base

of Parnassus, and made whole again by our kindly min­

istrations. Ye shall be softly wafted back to the serene

summit of the Mountain of Poesie, whence ye were sorudely hurled by the above-mentioned Philistines.

"F. D. ARNOLD,Sire-Low Jinks."

TheMonument toJulesTavernier.

Low Jinks.

I43THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

"Bohemian Wiggin will promulgate the messages

which Mercury brings from Olympus."Bohemian Rosenstirn with the sacrificial knife will

lay bare the beating heart of the victim.

"Bohemian Rosewald, with his Acolytes striking the

chords of harmony, will swell the diapason of this wor­ship.

"Bohemian Arnold will then receive you at the baseof Parnassus.

An important change in the internal economy of the

Club was made during the past year, whereby the serv­ices of Nicolls, who had conducted the restaurant and

wine room under a lease, were dispensed with and the

Club took the entire management of these apartments

upon itself. The immediate effect of this change was

the development of an athletic, not to say sporting ten­

dency in the Club, which found partial expression in the

formation of another baseball nine, which went to Los

Angeles to play the California Club of that town. The

game, as usual, was played in the cause of charity and

the Bohemians were defeated, at least it is presumed

they were defeated, since beyond an entry in the minutes

to the effect that "a stuffed owl and a cartoon, by Hampe,

were presented to the Los Angeles Club," the records

are silent on the subject.

Among the gifts to the Club this year was Benoni

Irwin's portrait of Charles Warren Stoddard, presented

by the artist, and Bancroft's History of the Pacific

States, in twenty-nine volumes, presented by Mr. W. T.Coleman.

TheClub playsbaseball.

I44 THE ANNALS OF