Among The Bohemians.

even lose sight of Mr . Murray and his ridiculous platititudes upon modern morality , and then think what we have in the performance of the part of Dunstan Renshaw . He is a man true—and down to the very shreds of truism—to nature . He stands upon the stage in the flesh of Forbes Robertson , without any accompanying effects to aid him . He has his splendid voice and a perfect knowledge of its compass , and we listen to so superb a piece of pure

acting—a flame of genius to put it stronger—that Irving , nor Vczin , nor Fernandez , nor Tree , nor Willard , nor any other ten men of the present generation have ever risen to . But this is a peculiar world . If the line of demarcation between business and art requires another instance to show its stability it may be obtained from the fact that thousands will go to witness the artistic rubbish of a modern melodrama and will pass " The Profligate " by on the other side . And perhaps there are no men living more certain of this than George R . Sims and Pinero .

* * * The music-halls have obtained their licences , and it is wisdom . What man who knows what manhood is , and is prepared unblushingly to speak truthfully upon the matter , could point out one music-hall in London , and say , to his knowledge , it was not a breeding-house of immorality and licentiousness ? The man who argues this into anything pertaining to a contradiction is both a

knave and a fool—a knave because he tempts your conviction by a fraud , and a fool because the second state would be infinitely worse than the first . Let us admit the necessity of immorality , if we can find no better word to express it . Let us try to confine its influences within limits as narrow as is possible , and let us not destroy evils which we can measure for the evils which we cannot .

# -if * Miss Braddon's new novel , "The Day Will Come , " is quite up to her standard of mysteriousness ; but I like her descriptive touches . She can bring you up the country lane , through the gates of the " Grange , " round by the stables , and over by the private gardens at the back of the house , through the mulberry walk , and past the empty cottage with a murderous history , without

once hurting your feet over the flinty roads of repetition . Her plants are always blooming , and sweet scents are wafting over the lawns unceasing , but you never tire ; and , of course , Miss Braddon is no older now than when she awoke the day " Lady Audley's Secret" was published . Among the thousands of novelists who write novels , and the hundreds who ever get the chance to publish them , there are perhaps no more than six persons who command respect . It is evidence that in all branches of life work , from peeling potatoes to painting pictures , there are many unlet residences in the upper regions of success for which no tenants can be found .

* "Are the professions played out ? " asks a writer in the St . fawes ' s Gazette , while another born humorist wants to obtain seven suggestions what he should do with his seven sons . Had he asked the question before he took such pains to increase the scanty population of this enormous island , he would have shown greater humor , for the inability of his personal friends and fifty thousand

readers of a daily paper to answer the question might have diverted his procurative energies towards spinach and brussels sprouts , the destination of which , in physical life , there is no doubt . A man who cleverly brings seven sons into the world must experience the bounden duty of helping them out of it , and if he can't accomplish it without the aid of fifty thousand of his fellowcreatures , he ought—for the benefit of the struggling public—to label himself as an incorrigible rogue and vagabond .

Young Scott , of Bond-street , familiarly known as " Scoltie , " has been initiated in the Mount Moriah Lodge meeting at Freemasons' Hall . He is one of the very best-dressed men in London , and does not wear braces ! # # # THE NEW J OURNALISM ! Host B , of the Railway Inn , is getting up a billiard handicap in which several well-known local amateurs have already entered their names . The event is lo celebrate ihe new cloth .

This Railway Inn is situated twelve miles from London , and the village contains a Conservative Club and a Choral Society . There are three churches and eight mission-halls in the immediate neighborhood , but the nearest lunatic asylum is at Hanwell—four miles off ! # * * One of the astutest men living is W . S . Gilbert , the dramatist , and he is

very good-looking , as many people know . He lives in the neighborhood of Collingham-gardens , in a charming house built for him by Ernest George and Peto , in that quaint half Dutch , half Early English style that Mr . George has made peculiarly his own . It has a beautiful hall and carved oak staircase , dog-grate fireplaces , and delicious decorations . Fot a considerable period nothing could be found to cure the smoky chimneys in the house , until , at great expense , the flues were pulled down from top to bottom and reconstructed on a double system suggested , I believe , by Sir Arthur Sullivan .

Mr . Gilbert ' s satire is very crushing , and he is quite impervious to the suggestions and gratuitous advisings of " good-natured friends . " One of the funniest and smartest things he ever said was chronicled in " A Society Clown . " It may be remembered , in the " Mikado , " that when George Grossmith , Barrington , and Miss Bond were prostrated before the Emperor , listening to the doom of criminals who had encompassed the life of the heir-apparent ,

Miss Bond would push Koko , who immediately rolled over . Gilbert objectcil to this , and requested Grossmith not to continue it . " But , " said Grossmith , " I get a good laugh out of it . " " I daresay , " replied Gilbert ; " but so you would if you sat on a pork-pie . "

* * * I should like to record a sample of the courtesy that occasionally comes from that very successful advertising medium , the Era . The use of Press notices to a new journal is , of course , very valuable , and it has been the custom with newspapers of repute to notify with a deal of pleasure any little feature in a contemporary that may be interesting to their own readers , and cause no

harm to themselves . From the office of the MASONIC REVIEW a notification of but ten or twelve words was sent a few weeks back lo all the weekly dramatic papers that our next issue would contain as the " Eminent Mason at Home" Mr . Edward Terry at Priory Lodge , illustrated by a very successful portrait . The notification was inserted in fourteen of the journals mentioned , the Editors of which have received our thanks . The Era , however , did not

honor us as we hoped it would , but it returned our inoffensive sheet , scored over with blue lines , converting the matter into the form of an advertisement , and stated that thirteen , insertions would be accepted at so much . It was smart , no doubt , but it had no sting . It merely pained us to think that a successful newspaper , possessing the highest reputation in a certain branch of journalism , could so far lose its courtesy to one of the pillars of dramatic art and its dignity to the youngest of reputable magazines .

* * * The taking of the Bastille is a very fine picture at the Lyceum—perhaps the finest picture ever mounted under Mr . Irving ' s direction ; but there is really very little fine work in the " Dead Heart , " except it is in the propertymaster ' s department . The duel scene is effective—in short , all effect ; and the great tragedian has a passage dear to his heart when he says , " This man

attempted my life , and I killed him .... remove the body . " Of course , it is heresy to breathe one harmless sentence against Mr . Irving ' s productions , but we have gauged his capacities by such a standarel of perfection that mere paint and canvas begins to pall upon our palates . The meeting with Catherine at the caf ( 5 , where she has gone to protect her son , is as flat as to cause hardly a murmur of applause , and the last two scenes are pointless .

The only one that had to me the clear ring of Lyceum perfection was . the little front scene of the prison cells , where the jailor conducts Bancroft—the Abbe—to the presence of Citizen Irving . Some say that Bancroft is fussy . I think that his performance is the one redeeming point in the play , and his death in the prison very fine . Needless to remark , the house has been crowded each night ; but the acting-manager should immediately damp the ardor of the half-a-dozen attendants who slip in at the rear of the dress circle directly the curtain is lowered at each act , and set up a volley of clapping rather irritating to the visitors to the house .

* * * A rather funny story is told me by a Bohemian who visited a Lodge in the Midlands a few weeks back . It shows with what ease the gates of Freemasonry are sometimes opened . There had been an initiation , of which nothing need be said ; but at the " banquet" which followed , the gentleman who rose to reply to the toast of the initiation was a burly Brother whose work about the

farmyard for the past thirty years had expanded his chest and other parts of his body beyond the usual limits of the tailor ' s tape . However , this was his reply : — " Wa'll , Breveren ! O' course I never noo what Freemas ' nry waisc afore I cum up ' ere , but ( aha ' . ) my old 'oman 'U be awaiting up for me when I get ' ome , and she'll'ave the pultice redy . Ah ! ah ! ah ! " No wonder we are accused of being " a goose club . "

* * * Bro . Vogel will open the Hotel Splendide , which stands at the corner of Albemarle-street , in Piccadilly , almost immediately . He has expended large sums on decorating and furnishing , and the reputation he brings with him from the North will command support from the lovers of Piccadilly . The suites of rooms in the front of the hotel have a splendid view down St . James ' s-street

to the gates of St . James ' s Palace , and I hear several offers to take the principal suites for a term of years have been made and refused . The remains of a painted ceiling—attributed to Rubens—have been replaced with the cornice enrichments in one of the rooms on the ground floor .

* * * Robert Soutar , of " Doctor Faust " fame—a member of the Asaph Lodgehas a very smart three-act farcical comedy that wants a purchaser . Bro . Robert has for the past few years dropped somewhat out of the ranks of the pure Bohemians , though he intends never to grow old . He can tell some very