Among The Bohemians.

Among the Bohemians .

I > ro . Will" Chapman has produced his promised paper , and London made its first appearance on Saturday , the 23 rd ult ., with a number which was full of interesting social and dramatic chat The paper which contains the " latest Society , Musical , Theatrical , Sporting , Financial , and other Topical News " is very much after the Topical Times , upon which Mr . Chapman was engaged for some years . "Itliuriel" has a peculiar manner of depicting his " interviews , " which he imbues with a lot of interest for the general reader ,

who may not otherwise be strongly interested with theatrical matters . There is certainly a surfeit of weekly dramatic journals , but this one may fairly hold its own in the market . Mr . Haddon Chambers , the clever young author of " Captain Swift , " who first gained attention to his works in the pages of the Saturday Journal , contributes an interesting trifle to the paper , and helps materially to make it one of the best of its class in the market . "Will '' Chapman is , as I have said elsewhere , a most upright man and an exemplary Mason , and London deserves the success it will , no doubt , achieve .

* * * Bro . James D . Beveridge , the W . M . of the Asaph Lodge , is the converted villain of the Adelphi . Very little is known about his conversion but that it is complete , and he seems to have entered upon a series of characters which will not show us the excellent actor that he is . He lives at Ravenscourt Park , a domesticated and happy man , and forms one of that small party of Bohemians

who " catch " the last Ealing train at Charing Cross as regularly as the nights follow eacli other . Tlie Asaph is his mother-Lodge . He was initiated in iS ; i , has served all the offices , and was installed into the chrir on the 4 th ult ., when one of the most successful meetings of the Lodge ever held took place . The Grand Treasurer was present , and rendered a recitation in his inimitable style .

* * * A most ludicrous libel on the reputation of a fellow-actor at the Adelphi has resulted out of the " reporting" of this meeting . Several papers have it that in one of the speeches by the W . M ., in which he " introduced a refreshing deviation from the stereotyped form " ( Worshipful Masters please l'"fy ) , be remarked that " a friend of his , Mr . Adams , of the Adelphi Theatre ,

who was not an actor , presented him with a book , & c , & o . " The gentleman spoken of , in reality , was Mr . Abingdon—who is so cleverly playing the part of Lawyer Marks in " London Day by Day" —and what Mr . Beveridge really remarked was that his friend Mr . Abingdon , of the Adelphi Theatre , was not a Mason . Needless to say , the dressing-room joke for the next few months will be in addressing Mr . Abingdon as Mr . Adams who is not an actor . One of the journals which fell into the trap was our dear friend " The Error . "

* * * Picture exhibiting- is a very fine & ame when the picture itself excites our curiosity . A naked woman lying on a couch has been on view at a house at Charing Cross for some months , and I am told that several thousands of pounds have been made out of the venture . The picture—for seeing which a charge of one shilling is made—is of a woman life-size , and depicts her

reclining on her left side , with all the beauties of womanly form cleverly portrayed . The painting is a fine one , no doubt ; but I have seen hundreds truer in anatomy and flesh tints , and this one has been specially prepared for its present purpose , as was " The White Slave , " exhibited in Piccadilly last year . The picture is hung in a perfectly dark room , and is cunningly lighted by gas-jets concealed from the spectator . The whole thing is a quack imposition on art , for if the woman had been drawn with her clothes on , or in a more virtuous attitude , the brazen youth of the town would not have given two straws to look at her .

* * * Lord Mayor Isaacs , who has devoted a considerable slice of thirty years to an interest in Masonry , is to be installed the Worshipful Master of the Drury Lane Lodge at the forthcoming meeting , which takes place at the Mansion House early in February . His lordship will , I am told , be the " Eminent Mason " in our issue for that month .

* * Sir Edward Guinness , whose present of a quarter of a million ot money for the housing of the poor at London and Dublin has called forth so many tributes of admiration , is one of our very rich men . The entertainments given at his house in Grosvenor-place are those at which preachers have been wont to point as marking the height of luxury . It was at one of his balls that

£ 1 , 200 or more was said to have been paid for flowers . The younger brother of Lord Ardilaun , he married a lady of his own family and name , and they are socially popular to a very high degree in both London and Dublin , though politically Sir Edward was unable to win St . Stephen's Green for the Conservative Party . He is forty-two years of age , and has hitherto made his benefactions in a quiet and unostentatious way . The " ransom " he now offers is certainly a magnificent one ; but he is so wealthy that he will hardly know when he has paid over the money that he has divested himself of—a sum which in any European country would have been regarded as suff .-ient for the

founding of five families . Probably , Sir Edward will , like his brother , be made a peer before the present Government goes out of office . * * * I was of the opinion that we English would not rise to the Barnum boom in anything like the strength the Yanks anticipated , and that opinion is still with me . " Nero" is a spectacle the like of which we have not seen before ;

but as for the circus business , is it not chronicled in the chronicles of the Philistines that every music-hall in the Kingdom and circus in the villages have , one time or another , given us the same performances ? The trapeze business we have seen at the Palaces , Pavilion , Aquarium , and Alhambra . The chariot-racing does not equal that refined and magnificent performance of the Paris Hippodrome two years ago ; whilst the two-headed being and the gentleman who sends his entrails up into his chest are on view in the Cityroad and Essex-street North , for the modest fee of one penny .

* * •* Bro . David James , the popular low comedian , who will be chiefly known to posterity as the originator of the immortal Middlewick in " Our Boys , " is just fifty years of years , having been born in 1839 . His real name is Belasco , James being but a noin de thcdlre , and he commenced his professional career as a member of a ballet corps at the old Princess' Theatre , then under the

management of Charles Kean . From there he went into the provinces , returning to town to join Miss Ada Cavendish—now Mrs . Frank Marshall—at the Royalty , where he opened as Mercury in the burlesque of " Ixion . " A year or so later he became a member of the best burlesque company that has ever been seen on the boards , name ) )' , that of the Strand , which numbered amongst the company the inimitable Marie Wilton , and for which Burnand and Byron produced some of their happiest and most brilliant work .

* # * It was in 1870 that Mr . James , in conjunction with Thomas Thorne and handsome Harry Montague , opened the New Vaudeville Theatre ; the three young lessees being for a long time spoken of as the " Boys , " a title which was destined , with regard to the two first named , to be merged into that of "Our Boys . " Mr . J ames severed his connection with the Vaudeville in 18 S 1 .

After which he joined the Bancrofts , at the Haymarket , where he first played the part of Eccles in " Caste , " in which he is nightly to be seen at the Criterion . Like many a droll , whose quips and cranks set the house in a roar , David James in private life is—outwardly—the personification of woe . This is , of course , but skin-deep , and conceals a mine of humor and quaint conceit , which is all the more humorous , coming as it does from one with so melancholy a visage .

* * * By the death of Bro . William AHingham a poet of genuine gifts is removed from our midst , though he did not enjoy the fame of a Tennyson or a Browning , or even of a Swinburne or a Morris . But all that he touched lie adorned , and his genius , if not great , was sweet and pleasant . Mr . AHingham was a native of Ballyshannon , on the picturesque river Erne , in the north-west

of Ireland , and many of his lyrics bear the impress of this charming scenery . In his youth he 3 'ielded to the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood , and all through life his work manifested more or less of the spirit which animated that remarkable band of artists and writers . There is a certain spirituality , and yet a humorous realism in Mr . Allingham's poems , and his b illads well reflect the changing emotions of the Irish character . Fairy lore and old Irish history were also chosen themes of his muse .

* * His volumes of verse included "Poems , " published in 1850 ; "Day and Night Songs , " and "Songs , Poems , and Ballads "; but his best title to remembrance is his important narrative poem , " Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland , " which furnishes many vivid pictures of Irish life . He was also the author of two plays— "Ashby Manor" and "Evil May Day , " and for some

years he edited Frasei s Magazine , after the retirement of Mr . Froude . Mr . Allingham's anthology of English poems , entitled " Nightingale Valley , " is one of the best collections in the language . In 1874 the poet married Miss Helen Paterson , the distinguished water-colour artist , and the best female representative of the school of Walker and Pinwell . She will receive in her bereavement the deep sympathy of many eminent men , friends of her deceased husband , as well as that of the public at large .

* * * The Rev . Baring Gould , that brilliant sciioLa ar . d literary figure , is coming to London with his company of artistes to give some of the novel entertainments which have been a great success in Devonshire and Cornwall—old songs and ballads of the West of England , illustrated by tableaux vivants . The clerical manager is said to have secured capital artistes , scenery , and accessories , and the show is sure to be a success in London , owing partly to its novelty , and partly to the literary fame of the manager .

* * Bro . Harris is going to eclipse himself in "Jack and the Beanstalk" at Drury Lane this year , and the company he has got together will be the strongest ever seen in a pantomime . The Great Man docs not lose many chances of doing good , whether for himself or for others , but he certainly missed an opportunity when he let the Boucicault plays slip from his grasp . Such pieces as " London Assurance" arc yet , and will be until the copyright