First published in New York newspapers between 1914 and 1916 these fourteen incisive tales wonderfully evoke Greenwich Village Bohemia of that time. Sketched with an exquisite and decadent pen are lovers and loners, schemers and dreamers, terrorists and cowards, and many, many more. There's the terrible 'Peacock', a 'slinky female with electrifying eyes and red hair' whom all men pursue but cannot entice; Paprika Johnson softly playing her pawnshop banjo above Swingerhoger's Beer Garden and Mamie Saloam the dancer who 'became fire and felt hell'. There's Clochetter Brin who 'knew that love and lottery went together', the silent Lena whose stolid appearance disguised her animal spirit and the cunning Madeleonette whose lovers enact the most dramatic rite of all.