THE LAW OF BOHEMIA

Society is in process of evolution. Man is yet primitive. All that has gone before is a preparation for better things to come, but we are moving rapidly, and, I believe, securely, toward nobler things.

No man is to be pitied except the one whose Future
lies behind

HE Bohemian Club of San Francisco has a record of which its members are justly proud.

The Bohemian Club does things. On its roster are

the names of some of the

biggest and best men on the Continent. It seems to have qualities, peculiar, unique, individual, that differentiate it from all other clubs in America.

It is histrionic, operatic, vaudevillian, educational, economic, financial, altruistic and philanthropic-also, gustatory and conviv

ial

Occasionally a grabheimer creeps in under the canvas, but he is not apt to remain for the concert. In some way the atmosphere does not agree with him.

All of which is by way of preface.

In the Bohemian discipline, there is an unwritten law that everybody shall do what the governing board shall invite him to do, and do it at once, quietly, surely and as well as he can

Book of And so it happens that whenever a member Business is invited to do a certain thing, to fill a

certain function, to carry a certain message, no matter whether it be economic, altruistic, or purely jinkstide, if he declines, refuses, excuses himself, begs off, then he is never again invited or asked or ordered to do a single thing for the Bohemian Club.

He is a Piker from Pikersville, Pike County. No one says so, and the matter is never referred to by word of mouth or typewriter. He has simply branded himself as such

If any member, on being invited to do a certain thing, tries and fails, then he is forgiven to fifty-seven times seven.

Ignominy lies in having not tried. It is trying, not crying. Do the thing you are told to do. Get hold and lift. Obey orders.

An invitation is only the polite and gentle way of issuing the order; but woe betide the man who hems, haws, coughs, sneezes, and says, "Now, really, old man, you know-" and so forth. No good Bohemian ever starts a line of back-talk; nor does he counter with an objection when a suggestion is handed to him.

Any man can always fish up reasons for not doing the thing he does not want to do. But in the Bohemian Club personal

preference is never considered. The good Book of Bohemian thinks first of the Club-never Business of himself. The interests of all are the

things that are supreme. The individual himself is only a pawn on the Bohemian chessboard.

So there it is. The man who is asked to do a thing and declines just once is never asked to take part in anything. He is out of the game ⇓

And this is exactly as it should be.

Get in the game; play the part in the cast
that is assigned to you. We can't all play
Hamlet; and before any one plays Hamlet,
he must be able to play Horatio well.
The leader of the orchestra is always the
man who has played second fiddle.

Little parts are just as necessary as big
ones, and the man who feels too big to
play an insignificant part or to do the
menial thing, lacks the stuff of which brave
Bohemians are made

Life is one big Bohemian Club.