suspicion that the Black Cat is almost too good to be true; it is too
obviously and theatrically lurid with the glow of Montmartre; it is
Bohemianism just a shade too much conventionalised. Just the same, it
is fascinating. From the moment you pass the outer, polite portals and
intermediate anterooms and enter the big, smoke-filled, deafening room
at the back, you are enormously interested, excellently entertained.
The noise is the thing that impresses you first. In most Village
resorts you find quiet the order of the day--or rather night. Even
"Polly's," crowded as it is, is not noisy. In the Brevoort there is a
steady, low rumble of talk, but not actual noise. At the Black Cat it
is one continual and all-pervading roar--a joyous roar, too; these
people are having a simply gorgeous time and don't care who knows it.
It is a wonder that the high-set rafters do not fall--that the lofty,
whitewashed walls of brick do not tremble, and that the little black
cats set in a rigid conventional design around the whole room do not
come to life in horror, and fly spitting up the short stairway and out
of the door!

When you go to the Black Cat you would better check what prejudices
you have as to what is formal and fitting, and leave them with your
coat at the entrance. Not that it is disreputable--Luigi would pale
with the shock of such a thought! It is just--Bohemian! Everyone does
exactly what he wishes to do. Sometimes, one person's wishes conflict
with someone else's, and then there is a fight, and the police are
called, and the rest of the patrons have a beautiful time watching a
perfectly good and unexpected free show! As a rule, however, this
determination on the part of each one to do what he wants to has no
violent results. An incident will show something of the entire liberty
allowed in the Black Cat. A man came in with two girls, and, seeing a
jolly stag party at another table, decided to join them. He promptly
did so, with, as far as could be seen, no word of excuse to his
feminine companions. In a moment two young men strolled up to their
table and sat down.

"Your friend asked us to come over here and take his place,"
explained one nonchalantly. "You don't object, ladies?"

The girls received them amiably. Apparently no one thought of such a
formality as names or introductions. The original host stayed away for
the rest of the evening, but the four new acquaintances seemed to get
along quite satisfactorily withou