The present writer has no intention of going into a detailed sketch of this fragment of Bohemia for the reason that Anna Alice Chapin discussed it so well, so buoyantly, and so sympathetically in her book on "Greenwich Village" published a year or so ago.

A few lines from her description of the Pirate's Den will give the flavour of any one of the enterprises that line the Lane of the Mad Eccentrics and are to be found, here and there, in the neighbouring streets.
"It is a very real pirate's den, lighted only by candles.

A coffin casts a shadow, and there is a regulation 'Jolly Roger,' a black flag ornamented with skull and crossbones.

Grim?
Surely, but even a healthy-minded child will play at gruesome and ghoulish games once in a while.
"There is a Dead Man's Chest, too--and if you open it you will find a ladder leading down into the mysterious depths unknown.

If you are very adventurous you will climb down and bump your head against the cellar ceiling and inspect what is going to be a subterranean grotto as soon as it can be fitted up.