The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bohemian Society, by Lydia Leavitt

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Title: Bohemian Society

Author: Lydia Leavitt

Release Date: December 4, 2005 [EBook #17220]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BOHEMIAN SOCIETY.

BY

LYDIA LEAVITT.

BROCKVILLE:

TIMES PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY.

BOHEMIAN SOCIETY.

"She was not fair,
Nor beautiful,--those words express her not,
But, O, her looks had something excellent
That wants a name."

In a country house near the city of B---- lived a lady of cultivated
mind and manners, "a noble woman nobly planned." Well read and familiar
with such writers as Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer and other scientists, and
being rather cosmopolitan in tastes, liked to gather about her, people
who had--as she termed it--_ideas_. At times there was a strange medley
of artists, authors, religious enthusiasts, spiritualists,
philanthropists and even philosophers. On the evening of which I write
there was the usual peculiar gathering, and each one is expressing his
or her views freely and unrestrainedly.

* * * * *

The visionary and dreamer said: "Let me describe a modern Utopia of
which I have often dreamed and thought.

In a fertile valley, surrounded on all sides by high mountains, lived a
community or body of people who had never been outside the valley. To
them the mountains proved an impassible barrier and they had no wish or
desire to penetrate beyond. For generations they had lived in this
peaceful retreat happy and content. The ground yielded sufficient for
their wants and needs. No one in this little world was richer than his
neighbor and if one of the community fell ill each contributed something
from their own supply for his or her support. They knew nothing about
the value of money, for here i