ABSTRACT
Charlie Pfaff appreciated the support he got from [Henry] Clapp's crowd, especially as his place, recently started with limited means, had nothing showy to recommend it. The basement in which he had set up business was unusually large, and opened out to a cavelike space directly under Broadway's sidewalk, where stood the long table occupied every evening by the Bohemians. Pfaff's waiters and waitresses served food and drink late into the night, and the provisions were good, but those who wanted plushy surroundings did better at Delmonico's at the corner of Chambers and Broadway—and paid much more. Among the regulars of the Bohemians, or the Cave Dwellers as they also called themselves, were Edmund Clarence Stedman, George Arnold, William Winter and Edward G. F. Wilkins. Occasional visitors included Bayard Taylor, Fitz-James O'Brien and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. “Artemus Ward” dropped in, but his visit has been mentioned with such bated breath by many chroniclers that it is obvious he made only one appearance.
