THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

I25

CHAPTER VIII.
1890-1891.

~r(f1 APT ident

AINofJames
the Club
M. McDonald
this year, was
withelected
JamesPres-
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 ex-
cept 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 by
robbers 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 in
America 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
 I26 THE ANNALS OF

1890 was sired by E. B. Pomroy, and this is what he has to

say about it:

"The' groves were God's first temples, ere man learned

To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave
And spread the roof above them-ere he formed
The lofty vault to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication." A FOREST HYMN-

"Brother Bohemians:-
"Let us once more gather together for our Annual
Midsummer Festival, as we have been wont to do, in the
primeval forest, beneath the trees that were old when
modern life was young, that already stood as the gate
posts of the western portal when the march of mankind
from East to West had only just begun-and there, in
the presence of the invisible spirits-Pan-the satyrs--
the wood nymphs-and all the denizens of the grove-
let us celebrate the rites, and perpetuate the mysteries of
Bohemia; let us revel in the contact with nature; release
ourselves for a brief span from the chains of daily occu-
pations, and light again the funeral pyre that resolves to
their elements the burdens of care which a cycle accu-
mulates.
"There is reason for the presence at this-the great-
est 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 retreat
will 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 be
for 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 the
annual
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 a
SCHotar presents
Lynch great success. B ut t h e next event IS . more l'aVlSh 0 f' Its
the 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 a
princess . Ph arao h . Whol1 e It
.. IS true t h at as m. t h e case 0 f a 11
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-
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. IJI

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
 132 THE ANNALS OF

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
The identity of the Pharaohs. In fact, without stopping even to
of the
mummy is decipher the hieroglyphics on the outside, or the papyrus
triumphantly
established. 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 BOHEMIAN CLUB. 133

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 impressive
ceremonies 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
The Clt~b
High Priest Bromley, and after them paced the distin- gives a
g'uished scholars who were to discuss the facts of the reception for
the mummy.
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-
 I34 THE ANNALS OF

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 was
then 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 the
assembled multitude.
"From the banks of the Nile
From that historic water
Lo, hither approaches
Proud Pharaoh's daughter,
Who little Mose saved.
From that ill-advised slaughter
It was well for that girl
That her papa ne'er caught her!

Chorus: It was well, 'twas well,

'Twas well, 'twas well,
For the girl, that her papa
Ne'er caught her!

Good Bohemians flock to meet her,

Age has made her all the sweeter,
Like good wine she has improved
Welcome, Princess, best beloved!

Chorus: "Pious priests your censers swing,

Greet this daughter of a king,
Fruit and rare wine offering!"
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. 135

These awe-inspiring stanzas were followed by ten or

twelve more of a similar character. The debate was
then begun. It was conducted throughout with dignity
and wisdom. The participants were Dr. Behr, Mr. Red-
ding, General Barnes, Judge Boalt, Mr. Phelan and Mr.
Thornton, judgment, as already foreshadowed, being
finally given that the fair occupant of the casket was in
very truth the Pharaonic Lady of the Bull Rushes. This
historic fact having been thus incontrovertibly and
pleasantly 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 Mr. Charles
Warren
residing in Quincy, Massachusetts, wrote the following Stoddard
acts as
verses, which were then read: amanuensis
for the
THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH TO BOHEMIA Mummy.

Wherefore these revels that my dull eyes greet?

These dancers, dancing at my fleshless feet;
These harpers, harping vainly at my ears
Deaf to the world, lo! thrice a thousand years?
Time was when even I was blithe: I knew
The murmur of the flowing wave, where grew
The lean, lithe rushes; I have heard the moan
Of Nilus in prophetic undertone.
My sire was monarch of a mighty race:
Daughter of Pharaoh, I; before my face
Myriads of groveling creatures crawled, to thrust
Their fearful foreheads in the desert dust.

Charles Warr", Stoddard

 THE ANNALS OF

Above me gleamed and glowed my palace walls:

There bloomed my bowers; and there, my waterfalls
Lulled me in languors; slaves with feather flails
Fretted the tranquil air to gentle gales.

0, my proud palms! my royal palms, that stood

In 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 rest
In 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
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. I37

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 Dinner to
Harry
Club in 1873, 1874, 1876 and 1877, and in honor of Edwards.

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 La
Mancha,
DON QUIXOTE)
High Jinks:
"Dotl
and Quixotisms in general and particular. That you Quixote."
 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 the
hands of an aurist. After your minds have had time to
absorb the great truths which your Sire will exhibit to
you in all the luminosity which he habitually sheds
around him, stars of greater or less magnitude will ap-
pear in Perihelion, within the Bohemian Forum, and
there continue to refulgate upon the works so ably com-
menced 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 you
will 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 his
maiden effort. Let the old bachelors draw up their
chairs.
"D. O'C--ll will sing to you in words which shall
make you weep; yea, though your tear ducts have been
dry for years,-and our dear Bohemian L. H. F--te,
will with winning metaphor and aptful simile, twine the
tendrils of Poetical Bohemia, so tight and fast around
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. I39

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 will
leave 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 their
monarch. Mr. Steele, as has been said,

Mr. 0' Connell and j1yfr. Peters.

as Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza
--From a newspaper cut
 THE ANNALS OF

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:

Aloha! Kalakaua, King!

Lo! Here no courtly banners are nor brazen ring
Of trumpets. This, only, is Bohemia's offering-
Hearts brimming o'er with honest joy we bring
A wealth of friendship fitting for a king.

After this regal function came the Christmas Jinks.

Says the President:
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB.

"My Children :-
"The hour is at hand when Christendom celebrates
the natal day of Him, who came to bring peace and good
will 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 will
crown the festive board.
"California's mightiest brew will be broached, and Christmas
Jinks.
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
 THE ANNALS OF

189<J.
was familiar with the cities of Europe. An artist by
disposition, he drew cleverly and with facility and em-
Mr. Solly ployed his talent as an illustrator on one of the daily
Walter.
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 be-
fore the fire came as a solace and a benediction on the
day's work.
"Bohemians," says Mr. Walter.
High Jinks: "You are bidden to gather in the temple of Bohemia,
"Art."
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 ceremony
will be heard.
"Bohemian Foote will burn the incense to propitiate
the Muses.
"Bohemian Center will interpret the secrets of the
Delphian Oracle.
 THE BOHEMIAN CLUB. I43

"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 wor-
ship.
"Bohemian Arnold will then receive you at the base
of Parnassus.
"SOLLY H. WALTER, Sire."

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- Low Jinks.
istrations. Ye shall be softly wafted back to the serene
summit of the Mountain of Poesie, whence ye were so
rudely hurled by the above-mentioned Philistines.
"F. D. ARNOLD,Sire-Low Jinks."

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

It was in this year that a monument was placed over The
Monument to
the grave of Jules Tavernier, the artist, a member of the Jules
Tavernier.
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 the
matter.
 I44 THE ANNALS OF

An important change in the internal economy of the

Club was made during the past year, whereby the serv-
ices 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
The upon itself. The immediate effect of this change was
Club plays
baseball. 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.