“I AM NOT A BOHEMIAN!”

I remember, one day a good many years ago, there were, as per visual, a goodly number of Bohemian friends in my office, and the stories were not of the most serious kind; in fact, the fun was running very fast and furious, which was very likely, for I seem to remember that Gus Mayhew, James Hannay, Doctor Strausse, Lionel Brough, and some others of the merry Bohemians were there, and in their best moods. And just at the time Mr., now Sir, Arthur Arnold called on me, but withdrew in a moment into the outer office. In spite of my pressing invitation to join us, he would not do so, so of course I went out to him. I well remember his first remark to me was, “Excuse me, Mr. Tinsley, I am not a Bohemian.” I was a little taken back, for his business was not of a private nature—I think only to leave some proofs of a book I was about to publish for him, or for Mrs. Arnold; for I was publisher for Mr. and Mrs. Arnold at about the same time. I said, “You know them all”; but of course I did not press him again, and our interview soon ended. Mr. Arnold was then editor of The Echo, having migrated from The Daily Telegraph, for which he had done some capital journalistic work, especially some most impressive articles about the then distressing Lancashire cotton famine. His emphatic declaration that he was not a Bohemian surprised me the more, because I thought he was rather Radical in his politics; but in that notion I may have been wrong.