Among The Bohemians.

Among the Bohemians .

Poor Wilkie Collins ! The lies that have been told about him and his belongings since he was dead are very aptly remarked upon by Bro . Edmund Yates , who knew him well . I went to see the last of the great novelist , and was much pleased to see many of his personal friends congregated round the grave . In my opinion , he was the strongest man at plots who ever lived . * * *

Bro . Clement Scott , who has just celebrated his forty-eighth birthday , looks as young as he did ten years ago . Perhaps it is because the world has dealt lightly with him . As far as his D . T . criticisms go , three-fourths is verbosity , and the remainder criticism ; but who can say they are not better than the interminable rubbish and crass ignorance of nine-tenths—to put it carefully—of the criticisms in the weekly papers . No wonder the profession of mummerism is the fourth estate of man .

* * * " One who Knows , " says this : —An amusing story is told at the expense of the present Charles Dickens . A short time since , Mr . Dickens gave a reading in connection with a mutual improvement society in a small town in Sussex . At the close of the reading the entertainer desired to be paid for his services . It was explained to him that the usual practice of the Society was to pay at

the end of the session . This plan would not suit the editor of Household Words . Subsequently it was agreed that the money should be forwarded to him the next day . Some difficulty , however , was experienced by the Secretary in getting the cheque , and he was unable to forward it at the time specified . A telegram was sent from Mr . Dickens demanding the money at once . The cheque was sent , with a polite note from the secretary regretting the fact that the son of so popular a novelist as Charles Dickens should be greatly in need of money ! Not so bad for " silly Sussex . "

* * * Bro . Sir Henry A . Isaacs , who has been chosen as the Lord Mayor for the succeeding year , is the third Jewish Alderman who has been elected to that position . The last was Sir Benjamin Phillips who sat in 1865 . It seems that Lord Mayors are invariably members of the Craft . * * *

The Pall Mall Gazette says : — "Alderman Sir Henry Isaacs will make both a useful and ornamental Lord Mayor , for has he not pledged himself to create a dock trust for the Port during his year of office , and he possesses a good presence and easy manner . A Jew by lineage and religion , he has the finer features of his race , softened by a brilliant complexion . He hardly looks his sixty years with his vigorous appearance and sturdy middle-sized figure .

* * * " Sir Henry has been an Alderman since 1883 , and was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1 SS 6-7 . In the Jubilee year he received his knighthood . He is a thoroughly good business man , and knows as much of the fruit trade as any one in London . His headquarters are under the shadow of the Monument , where the smell of fish is toned by the pleasanter odour of oranges .

The Lord Mayor elect is on good terms with newspaper men , and has been present at their club dinners . " * * * Bro . Major George Cockle , whose "Castle of Coino" was produced on Tuesday night at the Opera Comique , is a brother of the well-known Sir James Cocklewho was formerly Chief Justice of Queensland . Sir James

, was a high wrangler at Cambridge in his day , and is now a revered Fellow of the Royal Society . The musical Major has a villa near Milan , a country house in Essex , and a mansion in South Kensington , so he is doubtless well able to run the risks of an operatic venture . * * *

Lord Tennyson ' s latest poem is about as idiotic as anything that has ever been written . A man must be a natural-bom poet , or something worse , to understand the words—as for meaning , there is none . Fancy such a thing being paid for at the rate of two pounds a line ! I know many men who would be glad to produce such " poems" at so much a mile ; in fact , 1 believe there is a machine in America which turns them out by weight .

* * * I met the other day a youthful individual who was introduced to me as the theatrical critic of a certain paper . That certain paper has a decent circulation , and this vapid young man laughingly assured n . e that theatrical criticitm was the easiest thing in the world . He took the Sunday papers and the daily papers , and went with a clean collar and shining boots to the Gaiety bar , where he matured his inspiration for the benefit of the public . I have suggested to the proprietor of that paper that the sooner he discharges this member of his staff the better , and I believe that it is an actual fact that the engagement is already at an end . # #

* A . G . MacCulloch , better known as " Young Mac " anywhere between the Burlington and Lombard-street , has gone mad on the Maybrick affair , and has assured me that the photographs of that unfortunate woman were not taken from the model at Tussaud ' s , but from one that was exhibited by Reynolds , at Liverpool . I am glad to make the correction for Messrs . Tussaud ' s sake .

Bro . " Ithuriel" Chapman , a Savage , and a man of parts , is preparing a Dramatic Directory now that he has left the staff of the Topical . Times . It is to be fervently hoped that the threatened action in the Courts with his former editor will not take place . Neither can be the richer for the disclosures that will have to be made . Bro . Chapman has a passionate regard for Masonry , and Masonry is the richer by such a worthy man .

# # * Beerbohm Tree has made no mistake in doubling the parts of Laroquc and Luverson in the " Man ' s Shadow . " The play gains much that would have been lost had Brookficld taken the character originally intended . By an oversight of the property master , Luverson , on the first night of the production , had to enter in the last act , —just before his death , —with ten fingers instead of eight ; but the accident has been rectified by a duplicate bandage that conceals the two fingers of the " super" who falls in place of the villain at the finale .

* * # I see Bro . Tree has had the ceiling of his theatre altered in design , thereby carrying out the suggestion of " The Druid , " who got a very insulting remark some months ago for daring to honestly criticise the decorative qualities of the Haymarket . Another staircase has been added to the gallery , which was also my Editor ' s suggestion . How time does equalise these things , to be sure .

# * # Henry Irving is not invulnerable , after all , for he has taken exception to a burlesque of his mannerisms in woman ' s clothes , and has gone the distance of gttting his friend the Lord Chamberlain to order the immediate withdrawal of the objectionable caricature . Surely the great tragedian has flown beyond the influence of such childish things . Look at poor Mr . Gladstone and Lord

Salisbury , and the hosts of political people who get transformed into dogs and asses . A woman is better than an ass—at least , Fred Leslie thinks so , and so , I believe , does Irving . # * #

Nathan , of 6 , Coventry-street , Leicester-square , slocks a good cigar . They are not always to be found . # # * Mrs . Kendal is a great authoress . It is so easy to write books , you know ; almost as easy as making a respectable actress out of a stick . " When I know how hard actors and actresses have to work , and how often they have to change their dresses at night ; and when 1 see them , tired and jaded ,

tearing up to their dressing-room to put on another dress in order to go to some crush after the play , 1 must say I feel it is a pity that any artists should think it necessary to air themselves before the eyes of that public which has paid its 10 . 6 d . a few hours previously to see them . "

* * Lor' bless me , Mrs . Kendal , people don't pay half a guinea to see an actress when they can visit Madame Tussaud's by the payment of a shilling . The play —the play ' s the thing . I wonder where you would have been , my dear lady , without SOCIETY taking you by the hand and lifting you up into decent circles . Arthur Williams says something about "don ' t be virtuous , or you'U become eccentric . " At any ratedon ' t moralise , or you'll become a

, bore . Even Eliza Cook has done more for humanity and posterity than ten thousand actresses could ever accomplish . As an actress , my dear madam , you are almost perfect , but don't—pray don ' t —sicken common sense by your platitudes . Bro . Harry Nicholls is to collaborate with his lessee in the new pantomime

at Drury Lane . As a matter of history , H . N . has been collaborating with somebody there many pantomimes past , and no two men living should produce a better show than he and the future aspirant to the collar of Grand Treasurership . # #

* There is a very excellent letter from a very excellent man upon the subject of " Women and Tobacco , " and there is a passage in it that would commend itself more strongly to Bohemians than to any one else . I quote it , for I know that every decent man who values at all the sanctity of womanhood will echo every word . It is this : — " More important , it may be , than the opinion of men

on this new question is that of the women themselves . That a certain class will go in for the thing there is every reason to believe . The fast set of every rank have long made known to us that they dare do all that may become a man . Their delight is in stand-up collars , masculine neckties , shirt-fronts and jackets ; the lower garment will some day crown their bliss . They play masculine games ; talk masculine slang ; shoot the doves whose slaughter they were

once content to witness and applaud ; do not always refuse a B . and S . in the billiard-room ; and bid fair some day to get rid of the side-saddle and ridinghabit as marks of an invidious distinction . One must sincerely regret the existence of these unsexed persons-offspring of an age to some extent demoralised by wealth , luxury , and idleness—but after all they are only the scum floating on the surface of the nation ' s womanhood . " I have very little doubt that I detect "An Old Fogey , " although he addresses himself from

South Hampstead . * * * I dropped in at the Egyptian Hall the other afernoon , and found Bro . Maskelyne still spinning those plates of his , and very cleverly spinning them too . I believe there is a deputation which will wait upon the magician m