-MOJAinirirv
ANGELA
m
i'.RARYO/
^OdllVJ-JO*
^OFCAUFOty
yo-A«vaan-^
-VJGFlfJ
^vlOS ANGELfj
^OJIIVJJC
^.OPCALIFOff
1VQ
Qy'£lfLiHL<ri
° I
O
E
a) o
•8 ;
i 1
Id os
DC ^
o s
z
<
Ixl
X
O
m
u
i
i-
>
© >»
t- .a
O C3
^
^
(^
<OFCALIF(%
^OKALIFOR^
^AavaaiR^ y0Aavaan^
.^E-UNIVERS/a
^iUONV-SOl^
^lOS-ANGElfju
"%3AIM-3\W
£>
ri- DC
flrtE UNIVERS//,
'Jr
^LOS-ANGELFj^
*#133NV-S01^
%H3AINfl3\V
^UIBRARYfl^ <$HIBRARY0/r
^OJITVD-JO^
^aojuvj-jo^
^WE-UNIVERto
o
^l3DNYS0l*N
^lOS-ANGElfj^
o
^OF-CALIFOfy*
^0FCALIF(%,
"%3ainhmv y0AavnaiH^. ^AHvaan^
#
^•LIBRARYQ^ ^hibraryq^
^OJIIYHO^* ^OJITVD-JO^
^EUNIVERS/a
c
<TJi33NV-SOV^
^lOS-ANGElfr.*
"%3AINft-H\*
^OF-CALIFOfcfc
^OF-CAEIFORfc
^Aavaan-^ ^atoii-i^
<A\\E-UNIVER%
vjclOS-ANCEl^x
<Tii33NV-SOl^ "%I3AIN[V3WV
^
.\WE-UNIVER5//j
o
^lOS-ANGEL£j>
o
"%3AIM3\W
^•LIBRARY^
^•IIBRARY^
^/ojiivdjo^
t;
*\\E-UNIVER% . vWS ANCElfj>
^•OF-CALIFOfcfc
4?
^OFCAIIFO%
<$
THE BOHEMIAN JINKS
A Treatise
THE STAGE IN DAYTIME
The
BOHEMIAN
JINKS
A Treatise
By
PORTER GARNETT
BOHEMIAN CLUB
SAN FRANCISCO
MCMVIII
Copyright. I90&
By Porter Garnett
PRINTED BY THE HICKS-JUDD CO. S. F.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author expresses his grateful acknowl-
edgment for permission to write this treatise
granted on February 8, 1908, by the Board of
Directors of the Bohemian Club constituted as
follows :
Frederic W. Hall, President
William Ff. Smith, Jr., Vice-president
Paul Cowles, Secretary
Fred G. Sanborn, Treasurer
Laurie Bunten Francis P. McLennan
James McNab Wallace A. Sabin
Albert P. Redding
George W. Turner Thomas S. Wilson
and also his sincere appreciation of the assist-
ance and encouragement given him by the present
board :
J. Wilson Shiels, President
John Landers, Vice-President
John B. Leighton, Secretary
William Letts Oliver, Treasurer
E. Courtney Ford Philip Mills Jones
Louis Lisser James McNab
Francis P. McLennan
Albert P. Redding George W. Turner
July, 1908.
[vii]
800129
IN PREFACE
' M ^ HE grove-plays of the Bohemian
-* Club in their present type, which
they have reached only after a gradual
development of thirty years, present what
must be acknowledged to be a significant
phenomenon in art. That this growth
toward something distinctive should have
taken place here in California, where we
are sufficiently far away from the rest of
the world, and whither sophistication in
art reluctantly pervenes, is, in a way,
extraordinary ; and yet it is our very isola-
tion that is at the root of the creative im-
pulse displayed in these forest dramas.
The Midsummer High Jinks, as they arc
called, of the Bohemian Club have carried
the name of the organization over seas
until, among a certain class of persons in
every part of the world, it is as familiar as
[ix]
In Preface
that of the city in which it has its home.
Unfortunately the annual encampments of
the Bohemians are associated in some
persons' minds with the license of a
Dionysiac revel, and the woodland perfor-
mances with which they end hare been
given a facticious celebrity which militates
against their serious comsidcration as
works of art.
These grove-plays are known to many
who are unaware of their higher import-
ance, while, to many who would sense their
significance, they are unknown. The pur-
pose of this book, therefore, is to introduce
to the public a subject with which, in the
nature of things, it can have no intimate
acquaintance ; a subject, moreover, which
it is proper to bring to the attention of
students of dramatic literature.
I am indebted for valuable information
[x]
/ // Preface
concerning the early festivals of the club
to Mr. Hugh M. Burke, Mr. Peter Robert-
sou, Mr. Vanderlynn Stoic, Dr. H. J.
Stewart and Captain Robert Howe
Fletcher, the official historiographer and
author of The Annals of The Bohemian
Club. To these, and to many others who
have enlightened me on minor details, I
wish to express my sincere thanks.
P. G.
Berkeley, July 8, 1908.
[xi]
CONTENTS
T. The Setting
II. History and Development .
III. Origin and Analogies
IV. Synopses
The Man in the Forest
Montezuma
The Hamadryads .
The Quest of the Gorgon
The Owl and Care
The Triumph of Bohemia
The Sons of Baldur
Y. Conclusion
Appendix
Chronological hist of Jinks
i8j2- 1908
PAGK
1
17
33
46
?2
59
67
73
7*
92
104
115
[xiii]
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Stage in Daytime . . Frontispiece
Appearance of the Naiad —
"The Hamadryads" (1904) Facing page 4
In the Grove ... 8
The Bar, Barber-Shop, and
Writing-Tent . " 14
The Campfire Circle . 20
The Swimming-Hole . 24
The Club-House . . 30
The Studio ... " 36
Temple Bar ... " 40
An Impromptu in the Circle 44
dlxxer at the encampment 48
A Campfire Entertainment 54
A Hillside Camp . . 58
Oxe of the Larger Camps . 62
The Pleasaxt Isle of Ayes . 66
George Sterling, Jack Loxdox,
and the Author at Home 70
Dai Butsu — Buddha Jinks
(1892) . . . " . " "74
[xv]
1 1 lust r at i o n s
The Illumination — Faust
Jinks (1897) . . . Facing page 80
Woodmen — "The Triumph of
Bohemia" (1907) . . " 84
Behind the Scenes: Mechan-
ism for the Flight of
the Owl — "The Triumph
of Bohemia" (1907) . " " 88
The Cremation of Care (1907) 94
The Sunday Morning Concert
(1907) .... " 98
An Academic Group: Members
of the Faculties of Cali-
fornia and Stanford Uni-
versities ... "102
The Sire and His Assistants
— "The H a m a d r y a d s"
(1904) .... " 106
Chart of the Grovl .... Insert
[xvi]
THE BOHEMIAN JINKS
A Treatise
T — The Setting
On the Saturday night nearest the full of the
moon of August — sometimes in July and, in
former years, as early as June — a dramatic and
musical performance is given in a redwood forest
in California by members of the Bohemian Club
of San Francisco, an organization which, at one
time made up chiefly of artists and writers, still
has in its membership a fairly large representa-
tion of men who practice the arts.
These woodland productions are called the
Midsummer High Jinks, a title inherited from
early and less formal festivals of the club, but
which, with its frivolous connotations, is ill-suited
to the dignified performances of recent years.
The Bohemian Club owns the forest in which
its festivals take place, and it is known as "The
Grove ;" the title of Grove- Play, therefore, which
is not infrequently used by members in alluding
to the jinks, although imperfectly descriptive of
these performances, will be used in the present
[11
The Bohemian Jinks
treatise to indicate the type of woodland produc-
tions now given by the Bohemians in contradis-
tinction from the earlier and less complex type
for which the title of High Jinks will be retained.
The text of the grove-play is written by a
member of the club, usually a poet, and the
music which is of equal importance is also the
work of a member. Members, also, take the
parts and only members and visitors holding
cards of membership are permitted to witness
the performance. Women are rigidly excluded.
The play is the culmination of an encampment
lasting a fortnight, and the length of time that a
Bohemian may devote to this annual outing
varies from one day to the whole period of two
weeks.
The Performance
It is nine o'clock at night when the perform-
ance begins. Six hundred men are gathered in a
spacious glade of the redwood forest. Rows
of redwood logs are used for seats. All is dark-
ness save for a group of tiny shaded lights that
make the figures of the men and their surround-
ings dimly visible. They are the lights for the
musicians in the orchestra-pit. Beyond them is
a stage innocent of scenery except that supplied
[2]
The S etting
by Nature. On either side of this stage two
immense trees forming the proscenium stretch
upward into the greater darkness overhead,
where the black masses of their foliage, mingling
with the foliage of their fellows, are vaguely
outlined against an indigo sky. On all sides
great trunks — ten, fifteen feet in diameter, two
hundred, three hundred feet in height — tower
aloft. At the back of the stage is an abrupt hill-
side covered with a dense growth of shrubs and
small trees, picked out here and there with the
shafts of redwood. Amid the tangle of brake
and brush, the trail, which the eye can scarcely
see by day, winds its devious course.
But now all beyond the huge trees at the
front of the stage is dark and mysterious, like
the transept of some great cathedral, lighted only
by the candles that burn on the altar. All is in
readiness. For this moment the members of
the club have been waiting for a year ; that is,
since the performance of the last grove-play.
Toward this moment those actively engaged in
the preparation of the production — author, com-
poser, actor, singer, supernumerary — have been
laboring assiduously for months. For many of
the spectators this moment brings with it the
crowning pleasure of a fortnight of camp life ;
[3]
77/ c B oh e in i a n Jinks
for others, less fortunate, it is the diversion of
the week-end.
Everything is tuned to the occasion — the hush
and the darkness, the majesty of the ancient trees,
the subtle perfumes of the forest in the soft night
air. It is the atmosphere of poetry ; it is beauty,
peace. The psychical key of the time and place
is thus charmingly suggested by Will Irwin in
the prologue of The Hamadryads, the grove-play
of 1904:'
Gather, ye forest-folk, and cast your spells
Over these mortals. Touch their world-blind eyes
With fairy unguents. Open their eyes of fancy.
Lull all their memories of yesterday
And seal the gates of sorrow. Waken brothers !
Waken, ye gentle spirits of hill and stream !
The magic hour arrives. Begins the dream.
Now, far above the crests of the lofty trees,
the moon glides into view, making lacework of
their leafage, and dappling the forest floor with
jagged patches of soft light amid shadows denser
than before. Suddenly out of the stillness the
rippling of viols is heard; the celli drone and
with
Braying of arrogant brass ; whimper of quer-
ulous reeds,
the orchestra throbs its harmonies through the
[4]
APPEARANCE UK THE NAIAD— "THE HAMADRYADS" (1904)
The Setting
aisles of the free forest ; they mount the hillside
and are flung hack again, echoing among the
trees, and the night is filled with music.
Slowly, mysteriously, the only curtain — which
is one of darkness — is lifted, and the stage is
lighted by artificial means, cunningly disguised,
augmenting the placid rays of the moon. The
action of the play begins. Now the voice of an
actor rises rhythmically in a passage of poetry ;
now a troup of choristers sing a mighty chant
while the orchestra leaps to their aid with a great
volume of sound that fills every recess of the
grove. Splendid figures, in auras of light that
seem to emanate from their persons, appear at
various points on the hillside and take part in
the action ; a band of dancers run upon the stage
and perform a sylvan dance with gracile wavings
of branches or the clinking of cymbals. Again
and again, through this fabric of poetry, music,
and spectacle, the maleficent Spirit of Care ob-
trudes his hideous presence uttering threats and
vituperation only to be discomfited in the end by
some god or hero who personifies the spirit of
goodness and right, and who is the savior of the
grove and its denizens. This denouement,
achieved in allegory or by symbolism, is finally
resolved by the death of Care.
[5]
77/ e B oh e m i a n J in ks
There is something' in the spiritual content of
this composite art — poetry, music, mise-en-scene,
aided by the ministry of Nature, the spell of the
forest and of the night — that subjugates the soul.
It exerts a subtle hypnotism over the emotions ;
it leads one gently through its mysteries, only
to whelm the visual sense at the end with a spec-
tacle which sophistication cannot rob of its sur-
passing wonder. This is the illumination of the
hillside which is coincident with the end of the
performance. Gradual, at first — a rosy glow on
the far hill-top — it grows in unison with the
music until, with the chorus and orchestra on the
last triumphal chord, the hillside is swept with
an avalanche of light and the grove-play is over.
The ceremony known as the Cremation of Care
follows, after which there is a midnight supper
and, still later, the low jinks.
In the Beginning
It was on Saturday, June 29, 1878, that some-
thing less than a hundred members of the Bo-
hemian Club, which had been in existence for
six years, conducted in the woods near Taylor-
ville, Sonoma County, California, the first
midsummer high jinks. This festivity was hardly
[6]
The Setting
more than a nocturnal picnic arranged for the
purpose of bidding farewell to Mr. Henry Ed-
wards, better known as Harry Edwards, actor,
entomologist, and sometime president of the
club. The camp was without many comforts,
but the campers were well supplied with the
traditional Bohemian spirit the factors of which
are intellect, taste, conviviality, self-indulgence,
and the joy of life. They were also provided
with blankets to keep them warm and a generous
supply of liquor for the same purpose. The dec-
orations consisted of a modest quantity of Japan-
ese lanterns. Although extremely unpretentious,
the affair, according to the testimony of the "Old
Guard," was none the less enjoyable.
From this small beginning has grown, in the
course of thirty-one years, the impressive cere-
mony which now takes place every summer in
the club's own grove near Guerneville, on the
Russian River. This grove consists of two
hundred and forty acres of forest land which
became the property of the club by purchase in
1899. It is situated seventy-five miles from San
Francisco and is reached by two railroads, one
of which has its terminus four miles from the
grove, to which, on the occasion of the Bohemian
encampment, a special train is run, and the other
[7]
T he B oil c m i a n J i n k s
passes a station that is less than one mile distant
from the club property.
The Grove
The grove itself is a spot that one calls beauti-
ful with a sense that the word is inadequate. To
see it for the first time is to be filled with a
wonder that is never lost though one returns to
it again and again. To quote Mr. Irwin once
more :
You come upon it suddenly. One step and its glory
is over you. There is no perspective ; you cannot get
far enough away from one of these trees to see it as a
whole. There they stand, a world of height above you,
their pinnacles hidden by their topmost fringes of
branches or lost in the sky.
It is, moreover, singularly well adapted to the
purposes to which it is dedicated. Lying at the
meeting point of two canons, it is begirt with
sudden hills that wear a perennial garment of
laurel, huckleberry, and fern, from which rise
the great shafts of redwoods. One gets an in-
stant sense of seclusion upon entering the grove.
The circumvallating hills and the towering trees
with their heavy foliage shut out not only the
careful world but the expanse of sky. Many of
the largest and tallest of these trees spring from
the level floor of the grove, and have been so
[8]
IN THE GROVE
The Setting
arranged by Nature as to form a series of circu-
lar glades. In one of the largest of these are the
dining tables in concentric circles, and here on the
night of the grove-play some six hundred mem-
bers of the club and their guests sit down to a
dinner very nearly as good in point of menu and
service as they enjoy in their city club-house.
The tables are lighted by means of acetylene gas.
In the centre of the circle a fountain plays.
In another part of the grove is the campfire,
placed in the centre of a well of great trees.
Around it in a circle sixty feet in diameter are
set a number of seats hewn from enormous logs
five feet from bark to bark. At one point in the
circumference of this circle is a low platform,
rudely built, on which stands a piano masked by
a rustic screen. Here the singers and musicians
of the club may be heard in impromptu solos
during the sunny lounging hours of the clay. At
such times the seats in the circle are occupied by
groups of men chatting or reading newspapers, or
merely basking in the sun, grateful for the boon
of existence in such surroundings. At night
when, from the flames of a roaring campfire a
swarm of sparks like tiny quivering leonids
stream upward and vanish, the circle is the
general gathering-place, and there informal con-
[9]
77/ c Boh em i a n J in ks
certs are conducted. On the Friday night im-
mediately preceding the climacteric event, the
performance in the campfire circle is a formal
affair in which not only the members take part.
but also such entertaining guests as may be
present.
Not far from the circle is a rustic building
which contains the bar, and in the immediate
vicinity are the writing-tent, the barber-shop, and
the bath-house. In this last are tubs and showers
provided with hot water. On the river, reached
by a beautiful walk of half a mile, which does not
take one outside of the grove, is another bath-
house on the bank of the swimming-hole, and
here a great many members take a daily dip.
Hanging on the hillside that overlooks the river
is the club-house, a picturesque building with
wide verandas and equipped with everything
needful for the house-parties that go to the grove
for week-ends during the year. Three cabins
near by provide sleeping quarters. Here, also,
the members who go to the grove prior to the
regular encampment for the purpose of preparing
the jinks are housed.
The club-house which, as we have seen, is
near the river and consequently some distance
from the campfire circle — the center of camp-
[10J
The Setting
life — is not used during the encampment when
everyone sleeps in tents. These tents are
scattered along winding avenues which, for
the most part, radiate from the campfire circle.
A number, however, are pitched on one of the
hillsides. The tents vary in color, arrangement,
and size, from the smallest, accommodating two
persons, to large pavilions with sleeping com-
partments and a central lounging space. They
are generally erected on portable platforms,
though in some cases the foundation structure
is permanent. Of such are the hillside camps.
Many of the tents are decorated with Japanese
lanterns, and in some of them grill suppers and
other entertainments are held. Most of the
members who attend the encampments
regularly own their tents, but, to those who do
not, tents are rented by the club, as well as
cots, mattresses, pillows, tables, chairs,
lanterns, pails, basins, and dippers. All mem-
bers are obliged to supply their own bed-
clothes and towels. The minimum cost to a
member is $10 which purchases transportation,
lodging, and subsistence from Saturday even-
ing until Sunday afternoon, a regular per diem
charge of $2.50 for subsistence is levied for
additional days spent in camp. The same
[11
T h c B oh c m i a n J i n k s
arrangements apply to non-members holding'
visitors' cards, except that the initial charge
is $25 instead of $10.
The Encampment
On the first day of the encampment, twenty
or thirty clubmen may go to the grove to spend
the full fortnight. This number increases from
day to day until on the Friday preceding the
performance the camp will number three or
four hundred souls. On Saturday, a special
train brings those who can spare but a single
day, and the population is swelled to six
hundred or over. The organization and equip-
ment of such a camp has, in late years,
assumed colossal proportions and involves the
expense of many thousands of dollars. An
army of servants is employed and the housing,
or rather the tenting, of this large number of
members, who expect from their club perfect
service and every comfort, is a task that calls
for the greatest diligence and a high order
of efficiency. The office of Captain of the
Camp, which carries with it not only the duties
of quartermaster but of general superintendent
as well, has fallen, for some years and during
a period when the work has been most severe,
[I-7]
The Setting
upon the shoulders of Mr. William Letts
Oliver, for whose resourcefulness, capacity,
and patience there can be no adequate praise.
It is not an uncommon thing for travellers to
so arrange their itineraries that they will be in
California at the time of the Bohemian outing
which, if they come with letters to a member of
the club, they may be privileged to see. The
members themselves who reside in the Eastern
states sometimes cross the continent to attend
the encampment, and occasionally one hears of
a wanderer in Europe bending his course
homeward in order to reach California in time
for the annual festival.
Camp Art
Some of the artists in the club play an im-
portant part, not only in the staging of the
plays but in the activities of the camp. In a
clump of redwoods near the campfire circle is
an open-air studio where the artists who
volunteer their services for the encampment
produce a variety of cartoons and posters —
usually in distemper — with which the camp is
decorated. Many of these are caricatures and
are used by members as personal signs and
[13]
T h c Bohemia n J i n k s
exposed at their lodgings. In 1903, when
Montezuma, an Aztec play, was produced, the
camp signs, to be in keeping with the
character of the drama, were in the the form
of fantastic glyphographs. The following year,
a Greek play. The Hamadryads, gave an
Hellenic tone to the decorations ; the roads
took the names of the Muses — 'OAOS
KAAAEIOIIH, <OA02 EY<I>P02YXH ; the circle
was <H ArOPA; the dining place 'O TPIKAINOS.
A particularly elaborate decoration was executed
for the bar— TO KAHHAEION.
For many days two Bohemians labored in
secret in a warehouse on the outskirts of the
grove painting an enormous canvas in the
form of a Greek pediment. On this were a
number of life-size figures, caricatures of
members of the club who, classically nude,
rendered reverence to Bacchus. Early in the
morning of the last and most eventful day of
the encampment, the perpetrators of this con-
ceit erected it with supporting Doric columns
over the bar. The amazement of the other
members when they appeared for breakfast
a little later was fully as great as that of the
good Chinamen who beheld the wonderful
palace of Aladdin built in a single night.
[14]
THE BAR. BARBER SHOP, AND WRITING TENT
The Setting
The best cartoons painted in the grove are
framed and put on the walls of the city club-
house. A more serious and important com-
memorative cartoon is also painted for all
jinks by an artist selected by the sire and
added to the club's collection which, prior to
the disaster in 1908, was a large and interest-
ing one.
The Stage
We come now to the grove's most important
and most distinctive feature, the stage. It is
situated at the foot of a wooded hillside and, as
has been already said, is framed by the trunks of
enormous trees that form a natural proscenium.
In front is an orchestra-pit large enough to
accommodate the fifty or more musicians em-
ployed in the production. These are the best
professionals that can be engaged in San Fran-
cisco. The hillside rises abruptly from the back
of the stage, and on it is a series of platforms,
completely masked by foliage, where parts of
the action take place. This stage or set of stages
which calls for, and admits of, different treatment
from all others, has its chiefest dissimilarity in
what may be called its vertical character. The
action may take place here, not at one, two, or
[15]
T he Bo h e in i a n J i // k s
three elevations, but at ten, or even more if
necessary. It is possible, of course, to compass
on such a stage effects that cannot be produced in
the ordinary theatre, and the productions invented
for it are usually shaped to its magnificent possi-
bilities.
A rugged trail, concealed by underbrush, as-
cends the inclined portion of the stage in a zig-
zag course to a point over a hundred feet in a
straight line from the lowest platform and at an
elevation above it of some sixty feet. But these
figures are deceptive, for both of the distances
seem to be much greater, particularly at night.
The hillside is a natural sounding-board, and the
acoustics of the place are so good that words
spoken in a normal tone from the highest point
on the trail by a person whose voice has ordinary
carrying power, can be distinctly heard at the
back of the auditorium gdade.
[16]
II — History and Development
Before essaying anything in the way of a
specific description of the grove-plays, it is
necessary to go back to the beginning, not of the
midsummer jinks which, as we have seen, began
in 1878, but to those earlier entertainments of the
club which began almost as soon as it was organ-
ized. These are known as house-jinks to dis-
tinguish them from the forest festivals. The
Christmas Jinks of to-day is modelled closely
upon the old affairs. The Sire (a title bestowed
upon the master of ceremonies) who, at Christ-
mas time, is always the president of the club,
appoints a subject upon which he invites members
of his own selecting to read papers or poems,
and summons the club by proclamation to attend
the jinks over which, when the time comes, it is
his duty to preside. The early jinks of this
character, which were supposed to take place on
the last Saturday of each month, were usually
devoted to the exposition of the work of a given
author as, for example, the Shakespeare Jinks,
the Dickens Jinks. The first of which any record
has been kept was the Tom Moore and Offenbach
[17]
The B ohe m i a n Jink s
Jinks, Daniel O'Connell, Sire, held November 30,
1872. A number of jinks and receptions had been
held before this time by the Bohemian Club, but
Mr. O'Connell's literary and musical entertain-
ment seems to have been the first one for which
an announcement was issued. In these early days
the term "high jinks" was almost invariably
used ; it was not long, however, before the intro-
duction of what was called the low jinks. This
took place after the supper that followed the
high jinks and was, for many years, entirely
impromptu, the sire being appointed on the spot,
and the contributors being called upon without
warning. The evolution from this type of en-
tertainment to a more or less formal affair such
as the Christmas jinks of today — burlesque, or
pantomime, with rehearsals, costumes, scenery,
and all the accessories of a regular theatrical
performance — was an inevitable development.
At an early date in its history the club
selected the owl as its Patron, and the bird
of wisdom has always been the motive of
Bohemian art and song. It often plays an
important part in the jinks as will be seen.
Early Jinks
It was Mr. Hugh M. Burke who made the
[18]
History and Development
suggestion that led the Bohemians into the
woods for their first midsummer jinks in 1878.
At this encampment the ceremony, such as it was,
resembled in its general characteristics the older
house-jinks, save for the added freedom and
zest imparted by the surroundings. There were
addresses and songs and such merrymaking as
the impulse of the moment suggested. The out-
ing was so thoroughly enjoyed that it was re-
solved to repeat the experience and on June 28th
of the next year, the second forest jinks and the
first to take place in the redwoods, was held, Mr.
Burke being the sire. The extreme simplicity
of this affair is interesting in view of the elabor-
ate and complex productions of which it was the
genesis. It consisted of an address of welcome
by the sire, some casual singing, and two
speeches. After this everybody was advised to
take a walk up the canon to inspect the illumina-
tion of a waterfall which some of the artists had
decked with Japanese lanterns.
With the midsummer jinks of 1881, James F.
Bowman, Sire, the ceremony of the Cremation of
Care was conducted for the first time. Of this
and its important bearing on the grove-plays of
the present day more will be said.
[19]
The Bohemian Jinks
The midsummer jinks of 1884 is described
in a contemporary account as follows :
The Bohemians grouped themselves about the amphi-
theatre [this was before the hillside was used] in readi-
ness for the exercises. These latter were opened with a
forest hymn by the band, which marched in twenty-five
strong, with flaming torches in their caps. Then fol-
lowed the address of welcome, and after that came
prepared addresses, original poems, and recitations,
interspersed with instrumental music and a number of
glees by a well-balanced chorus. This part of the pro-
gramme lasted nearly two hours. It was then announced
by the sire that the ceremonial of the Cremation of
Care was about to commence.
Growth
The next step in the development of the mid-
summer jinks may be thus described: the sire,
having devised a plan or framework, would
invite some of his fellow members to clothe the
skeleton which they would do by contributing
original papers or poems, by singing songs or
furnishing a musical interlude. All of these vari-
ous elements were woven together as parts of
a performance given in costume and with the
aid of various spectacular effects. The most
noteworthy of this type of jinks were : The
Festival of the Leaves, known as the Buddha
[20]
History and Develop m c n t
Jinks, in 1892 ( for which a colossal Dai Butsu,
modelled after the original in Japan, was erected
by Mr. Marion Wells, a sculptor and a member
of the clnb ) ; The Sacrifice in the Forest, or
Druid Jinks, in 1893, Mr. Joseph D. Redding,
Sire; and the Gypsy Jinks, in 1894, Mr. Peter
Robertson, Sire. The following extract is from
a contemporary account of the Druid Jinks:
Mr. Redding's plot dates back to the beginning of the
Christian era and embodies the birth of brotherly love,
the conversion of the Druids from their practice of
bloody sacrifice and the cremation of the Bohemian
enemy, Care, in the face of the protest of the Devil.
The conception was worked out in its entirety by the
sire, save for the main speeches of the principals, who
were requested to furnish their own papers in the parts
of the theme assigned them.
Thus the form of the midsummer jinks be-
came to a certain degree established as a com-
posite production of several men. As such it
approached nearer and nearer to the play type.
This is exemplified by The Sacrifice in the Forest,
by Mr. Redding and the Gipsy Jinks, by Mr.
Robertson, for many years dramatic critic of
the San Francisco Chronicle.
A little later, Captain Robert Howe Fletcher
presented a jinks that had a libretto devised
chiefly as a vehicle for a series of tableaux, and
[21]
77/ c B o h e 111 i a n J in ks
the Faust Jinks, Dr. II. J. Stewart, Sire, given
in 1897, was built upon Gounod's opera.
The New Form
These early attempts toward dramatic form
were really symtomatic of the significant step
that was taken in 1902 when The Man in the
Forest, by Mr. Charles K. Field, with music by
Mr. Joseph D. Redding, was given. Here we
have for the first time a jinks, or, in reality, a
play or masque, the libretto of which was entirely
the work of one man, accompanied by specially
composed music by another member of the club.
In this we see the first Bohemian grove-play as a
distinct genre of stage art.
This important departure came about in the
following manner: The usual composite jinks
was contemplated; it was to be Indian in char-
acter ; a number of conferences were held ; and
the question of using the music of a certain light
opera was entertained. The sire, Mr. Richard
M. Hotaling, asked Mr. Field to do the writing
of the jinks, but there was no concrete scheme
evolved until Mr. Amedee Joullin, one of the
artist members, suggested to Mr. Field a certain
Indian legend. This crystallized in Mr. Field's
History and D evelopment
mind instantly, and Mr. Redding, caught in the
stream of enthusiasm, volunteered to write the
music. The result of this collaboration was The
Man in the Forest, the first grove-play.
This play was at once a revolution and a
revelation. It not only established a precedent
for Bohemian Club productions, but (and this
is a matter of far greater importance) it
marked the point of divergence of a new form
of stage art which subsequent sires and
authors have developed into a genre of real
literary significance. Since then the book of
the grove-play has been written entirely by one
member, and original music has been com-
posed for it by one of the club musicians.
The sires and musical sires are selected by
the Jinks Committee acting with the Board of
Directors of which it is a part. Upon the
chairman of this committee falls important
duties connected with the organization of the
various jinks during his term of office. His
functions resemble in many ways those of the
Master of the Revels who was an officer of the
crown in England in the sixteenth century.
In the early days of the Bohemian Club,
the Sire of the Midsummer High Jinks had
complete control of the encampment and its
[23]
The B ohe m ian J i n k s
manifold and multiform activities. His pre-
rogatives were higher than those of the
president of the club; he presided at the jinks
dinner and, in fact, ruled the camp for a
period of two weeks. With the increasing
complexity of the forest festivals, the duties
that once belonged to the sire have been as-
signed to various functionaries each of whom
has a number of assistants. The Captain of
the Camp, the Chairman of the Jinks Commit-
tee, and the Stage Director now have the
burden of most of the work and worry.
In form, the grove-play differs in some
essential particulars from all other theatric
forms. It is restricted in length as well as by
the Aristotelian unities. It must have a forest
setting for no scenery is used, and it is not
divided into acts. All of these hypothetical
regulations are the conclusions drawn from the
practices of recent years ; they have been
ignored in some cases and will doubtless be
ignored again. The component parts of the
presentation are dialogue, songs, choruses,
dances, and orchestral interludes, and the rela-
tion between the spoken word and the musical
factor is adjusted as in no other form. The
Bohemian grove-play is, therefore, distinct in
[24]
History and Development
shape from the various types of drama, from
opera, and from music-drama.
A restriction that helps to mark these plays
as unique lies in the fact that, traditionally,
the malign character Care, is introduced in all
of them. This is a heritage from the old jinks,
and was brought about by a desire to furnish a
raison d'etre for the ceremony of cremation.
In the grove-plays of the present, Care stalks
through the plot bringing woe in his train
until vanquished and slain at last by the aveng-
ing power of goodness and right. An underly-
ing intention is to present symbolically the
salvation of the trees by the club and its pur-
pose to preserve the grove for all time.
These features — Care and his destroyer —
are held by some to be an ill-advised adherence
to tradition, restrictive in its effect upon crea-
tive impulse, and inimical to artistic expansion
and progress. On the other hand it is urged
that these restrictions are a challenge to the
ingenuity and artistry of the poet. There is
abundant precedent for the imposing of re-
strictions upon artists. Artists, in fact, are dis-
posed to impose restrictions upon themselves.
Poets in all periods have lent their highest powers
to the glorification of some princely patron. Were
[25]
The B ohe m i an J i n k s
all such cannina votiva destroyed the world
would lose some of the greatest works of litera-
ture. Be this as it may, the motives of Care and his
destroyer remain integral parts of the grove-
play. How long they will continue to give
character to these Californian productions it
is impossible to say. It may be asserted, how-
ever, that, to the commentator of the future,
writing of the twentieth century stage, nothing
in the Bohemian grove-plays will claim his
attention as a distinct expression of type so
much as these two elements, restrictions
though they be.
Upon the death of Care in whatsoever guise
or character he may appear, the orchestra
plays a march and a procession of cowled
figures down the hillside is usually contrived.
The march merges into the final chorus which
is sung while the whole face of the hillside is
illuminated with red and green fire, ignited
behind the trees by electricity. This illumina-
tion of the forest has been gradually perfected
in the course of years until the placing of the
stations and the timing of the fires have been
worked out to produce an effect that is at
once stupendous and beautiful.
The first time that red fire was used in a
[26]
H ist o r y and Develop m c n t
jinks was in 1885. It was suggested by Mr.
Peter Robertson and the ten pounds that were
then burned as an incident of the witches'
scene from Macbeth produced such an effect
that its use thenceforward became a regular
practice. It was employed to advantage in one
of the early jinks when the casting of the
bullets from Der Freischutz was given. The
present effectiveness of the illumination has
been accomplished very largely through the
efforts of Mr. Edward J. Duffey who has
devoted his knowledge and skill to the solution
of many difficult problems involved in the
lighting of the grove stage.
When the cessation of the final musical
number marks the end of the play, the body of
Care is carried off the stage followed by the
participants. The lights die down. The curtain
of darkness falls again.
The Cremation of Care
Begins here the Cremation of Care. From
among the trees behind which the corpse of Care
has been carried the lugubrious strains of
Chopin's Marche funebre are heard. A cluster
of wavering lights appears among the trees
and a band of musicians, clad in long gowns,
[27]
Th c B <> h e m ia n J in ks
is seen approaching in solemn procession, fol-
lowed by the bearers with the body of (are and
all the participants in the play. Those who
a moment before bad been merely spectators
don gowns of red and of black and join the
cortege. In this wise they all proceed to a
little hollow a few hundred yards distant.
Here the burden of dead Care is placed on the
funeral pyre, and the High Priest of Bohemia
ascends a rustic rostrum whence he delivers
the exequial oration. He recalls all the injuries
that have been inflicted upon the world and
particularly upon the Bohemian Club and its
members by the foul and pestilential demon,
carking Care, and gives thanks to the gods of
Bohemia for deliverance from his malign in-
fluence. Exultingly, Care is consigned to the
flames, the pyre is ignited, the band strikes up
a quick-step; simultaneously, the forest on all
sides is illuminated with red and green fire,
the coffin of Care belches pyrotechnics in a
column of light, and the chorus in their trap-
pings dance wildly around it with shouts of
joy. The return to cam]) is without order, the
band playing popular airs therewhile. It is
midnight when the throng sits down to a hot
supper.
[28]
History and Development
The ceremony of the Cremation of Care which,
as we have seen, dates back to the year 1881,
and which at times constituted the principal
feature of the early jinks, is sometimes varied
with dialogue, action, dances, singing, and
spectacle, and, like the stage performances, is
being gradually developed into a more and
more elaborate affair. In a sense, it may be
said to have a basis of form which might give
it claim to be considered as a type of entertain-
ment in itself.
Into the Cremation of 1906, which took place
shortly after the great disaster in San Fran-
cisco, Mr. Charles K. Field, its author, im-
ported a literary quality and scenic scheme
that gave the ceremony a new significance,
and special music was composed for this
ceremony by Dr. Stewart. The Cremation of
Care of 1907, conducted by Air. A. R. Hardin,
was even more elaborate. The music was com-
posed by Mr. Theodor Vogt, and a formal
dance and brilliant spectacular effects were
undertaken.
The office of High Priest at the Cremation of
Care has, for a great many years, been assumed
by Mr. George T. Bromley, who was eighty-
nine years of age when he discharged thi'-
[29]
The Bohemian J inks
function in 1907. Mr. Bromley appeared
before the club for the first time in September
1873 in a house-jinks of which he was the
sire, since which time he has been the most
notable figure in the personnel of the Bohemian
Club. He is known to all the members as
"Uncle George."
The Low Jinks
After the midnight supper that follows the
Cremation of Care, comes another feature of the
woodland festival. This is the low jinks which
takes place frequently as late as one o'clock
in the morning. Care is dead and burned to
ashes. The spirit of Bohemia is liberated and
must, perforce, find expression — a vent for
feelings already in reaction. The low jinks
was omitted in 1906 and 1907, and it has no
place in the order of events in 1908. For this
function the members gather before the low-
jinks stage; a small orchestra plays popular
airs incessantly during the wait for a tardy
curtain ; the audience naturally takes to sing-
ing, and what might have been impatience is
averted by good nature, and a spirit of levity
prevails, perfectly in keeping with the character
of the performance about to be revealed.
[30]
THE CI.L'B-HOL'SE
Hist or y a n d Develop m c u t
In the earlier days the midsummer low jinks
was invariably an impromptu affair such, for
example, as a mock trial, when the judge, the
jury, the opposing counsels, the accused, and
the witnesses were elected on the spot. As
far as can he ascertained the first low jinks in
the grove, that was in any sense prearranged
was a circus jinks sired by Mr. Clay M. Greene.
Precisely as the low jinks held in the city have
become more and more elaborate, so have those
held in the woods increased in complexity. They
may he anything', from a more or less symmetri-
cal farce with specially composed music, to a
vaudeville with impromptu interpolations. Not
infrequently they burlesque the grove-play.
With this farce the entertainment of the night
comes to an end save for such voluntary contri-
butions as may be offered around the campfire,
and which sometimes last until long after dawn.
At 10 o'clock on Sunday morning following
the jinks night, an orchestral concert takes place
on the stage. Excerpts from the score of the
previous night are given, the performance being
conducted by the composer of the music. ( )ther
musicians of the club direct compositions of their
own, and the programme also provides several
orchestral number's not too severe in character,
[31]
The Bohemian Jinks
as, for example, a movement from one of the
more popular symphonies of a selection from a
Wagnerian music-drama.
At about half-past two in the afternoon a
special train takes all (save a few who are lured
by the enchantments of the grove to linger in
its grateful shade) back to the city with its
turmoil and cares, better spiritually and physi-
cally for having experienced the contact of
Nature and the influence of Art.
[32]
Ill — Origin and Analogies
By far the most curious, and, from the com-
mentator's point of view, the most interesting,
quality of these grove-plays is in their relation
with other phases of dramatic art — their re-
semblances to, and divergences from, other
forms. It is particularly interesting to note in
these plays the strong tendency, observable in all
branches of art, to be merely imitative ; to pro-
duce nothing more vital than some form of
modified drama ; and how, at the same time,
certain purely physical difficulties have operated
to bring about results that are significant chiefly
because they are the fruit of creative skill rather
than mimetic impulse. To a certain degree the
men who, through the years, have contributed
each his part toward the formulation of the
present type of grove-play, have been forced into
originality by the peculiar conditions and limita-
tions of their setting.
Although the drama and the opera were the
progenitors of the Bohemian grove-play, in its
ultimate form it bears a greater resemblance to
the masque than to either. This is all the more
[33]
77/ e B o he m ia n J in ks
curious because it may be safely said that no
constructor of a midsummer high jinks, no writer
of a grove-play, ever used the masque for his
model. We find, therefore, in California, in the
first years of the twentieth century, an inde-
pendent occurrence of the masque type brought
about by an entirely different set of conditions
from those that produced the original examples
of this genre nearly four hundred years earlier.
The Elizabethan Masque
The masque flourished in England, whither
it was introduced from Italy, during the reigns
of Elizabeth and James I — that is, in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It
reached its highest state in the work of lien
Jonson. Between it and the Bohemian grove-
play there are fundamental differences, as will
be shown, but in spirit, in their relations with
the drama and in their general form they are
strikingly similar.
Gifford says in his Life of Bat Jonson:
The masque admitted of dialogue, singing, and danc-
ing— these were not independent of one another, a- in
the "entertainments" of the old court, but combined by
the introduction of some ingenious fable into an har-
monious whole.
I.UI
O r i g i n a n d A nalo g i c s
H. A. Evans in The English Masque gives the
following definition :
The masque, then, is a combination, in variable pro-
portions, of speech, dance, and song, but its essential
and invariable feature is the presence of a group of
dancers, varying in number, but commonly eight, twelve,
or sixteen, called Masquers.
In a passage describing the dances of the
Masquers the same author says :
The dances are of two kinds — stately figure dances
performed by the Masquers alone and carefully re-
hearsed beforehand, and commonly distinguished as the
Entry, the Main, and the Going Out; the Revels, livelier
dances such as galliards, corantos, and levaltos, danced
by the Masquers with partners of the opposite sex,
chosen from the audience.
In this will be seen at once the chief difference
between the masque and the Bohemian grove-
play. In the latter the dance, if it occurs at all,
is of less importance than the other elements.
Similarities and Differences
A curious analog)' between the two forms may
be found in the fact that both have been invented
and performed for audiences limited by privilege.
The Elizabethan and Jacobean masques were
written for the diversion of the court, or to
[35 |
The Bohemian Jinks
celebrate a noble marriage. This being the case,
they were, in the main, viewed only by the nobil-
ity, although there are instances of the admission
of plebeians. Attendance at the Bohemian enter-
tainments is not regulated by social restrictions,
but membership in the club, either regular or
transient, is, theoretically at least, an essential
qualification, and it is for this limited body that
the plays are produced. In A History of Theatri-
cal Entertainments at the English Court, by J.
K. Chapman, may be found the following pas-
sage which not only sets forth the restriction
of the masque to the court, but points out the
effect that this condition had upon its content :
Dramatic representations were open to all the world
at the theatres, but the masque was essentially courtly
and regal in its character. It was produced at great
expense and was, like the Italian Opera, conceived in
that artistic spirit which makes its own laws and
boundaries.
This common character of the two forms is
undoubtedly accountable for certain qualities in
each — such as artistic sincerity — which are the
fruit only of a labor of love or a labor of pride —
a masque for one's king or a play for one's club.
The resemblance, however, carries with it an
intrinsic difference. This relates to the question
[36]
0 r i g i n a it d A n al o g i c s
of scenery. Says one commentator on the Eliza-
bethan stage :
The essence of the masque was pomp and glory and
it could only breathe in the atmosphere of the court.
Thus, while the stage [the public theatres] was in a state
of absolute nudity, movable scenery of the most costly
and splendid kind was lavished in the masque.
To-day, however, when mechanical devices and
sumptuous setting's have been brought, in the
commercial theatre, to a high state of perfection,
scenery is entirely dispensed with in the Bohemi-
an grove-plays.
Splendor of the Masque
Some idea of the splendor of a seventeenth
century masque may be gleaned from Jonson's
directions for his Hymenm. At the beginning
of this masque, the masquers appear in gorgeous
costumes embellished with gold and silver and
jewels, from a microcosm or globe. This, in the
poet's own words was
filled with countries and these gilded; where the sea was
expressed heightened with silver waves. This stood or
rather hung for no axle was seen to support it. . . .
On the sides of this, which began the other part, were
placed two great statues, feigned in gold, one of Atlas
the other of Hercules, in varied postures bearing up the
[37 ]
The Bohemia n J i n k s
clouds, which were of relievo, embossed and tralucent
as naturals; to these a cortine of painted clouds joined,
which reached to the utmost roof of the hall; and,
suddenly opening, revealed the three regions of air : in
the highest of which sat Juno, in a glorious throne of
gold, circled with comets, and fiery meteors, engendered
in that hot and dry region ; her feet reaching to the
lowest ; where was made a rainbow, and within it
musicians seated, figuring airy spirits, their habits
various, and resembling the several colours caused in
that part of the air by reflection. The midst was all
dark and condensed clouds, as being the proper place
where rain, hail, and other watery meteors are made ;
out of which two concave clouds from the rest thrust
forth themselves (in nature of those Nimbi, wherein,
by Homer, Virgil, &c, the gods are feigned to descend)
and these carried the eight ladies over the heads of the
two terms [Atlas and Hercules] ; who, as the engine
moved, seemed also to bow themselves (by virtue of
their shadows) and discharged their shoulders of their
glorious burden ; when having set them on the earth,
both they and the clouds gather themselves up again,
with some rapture of the beholders.
But that which (as above in place, so in the beauty)
was most taking in the spectacle, was the sphere of
fire, in the top of all, incompassing the air. and imitated
with such art and industry, as the spectators might dis-
cern the motion (all the time the shews lasted) without
any mover ; and that so swift, as no eye could dis-
tinguish any colour of the light, but form to itself five
hundred several hues out of the tralucent body of the
air, objected betwixt it and them.
[38]
O r i g i n a n d Analo g i c s
And this was crowned with a statue of Jupiter the
Thunderer.
The mise-en-scene for this (and many other
masques of the period) was devised by Inigo
Jones, the architect, a considerable part of
whose fame rests upon his splendid and ingen-
ious settings for the masques of Jonson and
other poets. So important was the work of the
architect and stage-master in these courtly
masques that Jones at one time had a serious
quarrel with Jonson because the poet's name
was placed before his on the title page of one
of the masques. This drew from Jonson a
withering retort in verse worthy in point of
ferocity of the giant that he was. The expense
that attached to the production of these royal
recreations was enormous. The presentation
of Jonson's Masque of Blackness is said to have
cost fifteen thousand dollars. A number of
other masques were only slightly less expen-
sive. When it is remembered that these per-
formances were given, at most, only a few
times and, in some cases only once, the out-
lay seems prodigious. Plutarch, however, tells
us that, in the fourth century, the cost of
presenting a play of Sophocles in Athens repre-
[39]
77/ c B o h e m ia ii J in ks
sented a sum equal to five hundred thousand
dollars.
We have seen that the masque was so con-
trived as to provide for the entrance of the
masquers who, in the earlier entertainments of
this kind called "maskings" or "disguisings,"
invariably wore visors over their faces. It was
the dancing- of these masquers that "consti-
tuted,"' says Evans, "the distinctive character-
istic of the masque, dialogue and singing being
subsidiary adjuncts." Mr. Will Irwin, the
author of The Hamadryads, the grove-play of
1904, gave to it the sub-title . / Masque of . I polio.
Judged rigidly, however, The Hamadryads was
not a masque. As it left its author's hands, it
did not provide for a dance of any kind.
although, as we have seen, the dance is the
conditio sine qua non of the masque. Mr. Irwin
was called away from California before The
Hamadryads was staged; it being thought ex-
pedient, a dance was introduced, thus making
it a true masque or, at least, a form more
nearly resembling the old type than any other
grove play with the possible exception of
The Triumph of Bohemia, by Mr. George Sterl-
ing, produced in 1(X)8.
The masque, even at the highest point of
[40]
TEMPLE HAR
0 r i g i n and Analogies
its development, displayed little dramatic
verisimilitude, which again marks a distinc-
tion from the grove-play. Except in some of
the later masques of Johnson who, toward the
end of his career as a writer of masques, held
that the auditors should be expected to exercise
their intellegence, the scheme of the masque
was set forth by a "presenter." The grove-play,
on the contrary, has always a homogeneous
plot. Again we find a striking similarity
between the two forms in the "personified
virtues and vices which combined with the
gods and goddesses of classical mythology to
form its [the masque's] dramatis persona:."
Allegory is intimately associated with the
masque, as may be shown by the classification of
masques as given by Brotenek in his exhaustive
treatise Die Englischen Maskenspiele. He casts
them into the following classes : Mythological,
astronomical, mythological-allegorical, allegori-
cal-romantic, allegorical-historical, and fantasti-
cal. In the same admirable work is to be found
analyses of all the important Elizabethan and
Jacobean masques which form a practical basis
for comparison with the grove-plays. For ex-
ample, the episodic sequence of Jonson's Masque
[41
The Boh e in i a n J i n k s
of Queens, which Swinburne calls "the most
splendid of all masques," is as follows :
(Dance — Dialogue — Dance) — Appearance of
the masquers — Dialogue — Entrance of the mas-
quers— Song — Dance and Song — Final Song.
The scheme of episodes in The Hamadryads
is in the following sequence :
Orchestral prelude — Prologue — Speech with
Music — Chorus — Solo — Speeches — Dance —
Speech with Music — Song — Speeches — Dialog ue
— Speech — Speech with Music — Song — Solo and
Chorus — Speech — March and Chorus.
It will be seen from these typical synopses
that the grove-play is considerably longer than
the masque ; that it contained less dancing and
more music. In the masque, however, music was
an important element. Thomas Campion, a
writer of masques, was, also, a composer. The
music that accompanied Jonson's masques was
made by a number of different men, but chiefly
by Alfonso Ferrabosco.
Evans draws from Collier's Annals of the
Stage the following account of a sixteenth cen-
tury court orchestra :
In 1571 Elizabeth had eighteen trumpeters, seven
violins, six flutes, six sackhuts. and ten musicians i. e.
singers or "musicians for the voice."
[42]
O r i g i n a n d A nolo g i c s
From Bullen's Campion, quoted by Schelling
in his Elizabethan Drama, we learn that for the
performance of Phoebus' Knights, by Campion in
1607, the following arrangement of musicians
was made :
On the right hand of the skreene were consorted ten
musicians with base and mean lutes, a bandora, a
double sack -bote, and an harpsichord, with two treble
violins; on the other side, somewhat nearer the skreene
were- placed nine violins and three lutes, and to answer
both consorts (as it were in a triangle) six cornets and
six chapel voices in a place raised higher in respect to
the piercing sound of these instruments.
Survivals of the Masque
Although the old masque is an outmoded form
of art, in certain masque-like plays, notably The
Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream, it
has survived the centuries since it flourished. In
France it has persisted in the form of the ballet
d' action, and ever now and then some masque is
revived by an organization such as the Eliza-
bethan Stage Society or by a university or school.
In October 1907, The Hue and Cry After Cupid
was given by students of the University of Cali-
fornia in the Greek Theatre at Berkeley. Many
of the pageants that have been given recently in
[43]
The B ohemian Jinks
England, notably that held at Oxford, contained
masques. A few original masques on the Jon-
sonian model have been written in late years.
The first of these was Beauty's Awakening, .1
Masque of Winter and of Spring, presented in
the Guildhall, London, in 1899, by the Art
Workers.
The authorship of this masque is usually
attributed to Mr. A. Ashbee, but it was really
the work of a number of men who not only
wrote parts of the text but also designed
costumes and properties. The most notable
of these were Mr. Walter Crane and Mr. Selwyn
Image.
Charles Hastings, in his useful work, The
Theatre, also mentions a masque given in Febru-
ary 1900 and entitled Peace and I Tar, which he
says was
especially got up by the elite of London society in aid
of the soldiers wounded in the Transvaal. In this the
different parts were undertaken by well-known mem-
bers of society, and the performance in every way re-
sembled the splendid shows of the seventeenth century.
The Bohemian grove-play produced in the
redwood forest of California is not a revival
of the masque but rather a curious parallelism
and, as such, presents an extremely interest-
[44]
Origin and Analo gies
ing literary phenomenon. These two similar
but unrelated types of stage presentation con-
sist of an almost arbitrary arrangement of the
same factors, the constancy rather than the
order of which constitute the form. The grove-
play is a combination, year after year, of the
same elements in varying sequence with the
personifications of virtue and care as constant
factors. We have seen how it evolved from the
midsummer high jinks which, curiously
enough, bore a certain resemblance to trie
"entertainment" that antedated the masque.
In this as in the jinks the nucleus was an
address of welcome.
The Cremation of Care with its more or less
fixed ritual is, also, an expression of the crea-
tive spirit which has its analogue in the anti-
masque. The low jinks alone is without dis-
distinction as a genre. Originality may be and
often is displayed in its component parts, but.
as a whole, it has neither form nor feature that
marks it as other than a type derived directly
from the commercial theatre.
[45 J
IV — Synopses
THE MAN IN THE FOREST, A LEGEND
OF THE TRIBE
(1902)
by Charles K. Field
Music by Joseph D. Redding"
Richard M. Hotaling, Sire
The Sire's Announcement
"Ye who love the nation's legends.
Love the hallads of a people.
That like voices from afar off
Call to ns to pause and listen.
Speak in tones so plain and childlike
Scarcely can the ear distinguish
Whether they are sung or spoken, —
Listen to this Indian legend."
Brother Bohemians :
Under the perpetual green of our mystic woods, in the
glow of our annual camptire, assemble for the great
Midsummer Peace-pipe, on the sixteenth day of the
Moon of August. Then shall he told you a story, in the
music of Redding, the poetry of Field and the faithful
[46]
S y nop s c s — M a n i n the Forest
coloring of Joullin — the tale of The Man in the Forest.
A Legend of the Tribe, and as once, in the Indian's
tradition, the Evil Spirit was banished from the wig-
wams, so shall Care be slain in the forest and his ash.es
flung to the winds of Heaven.
Hotaling, Sire.
"I will send a prophet to you.
A deliverer of the nations,
Who shall guide you and shall teach you
Bathe now in the stream before you.
Wash the war paint from your faces.
Wash the blood stains from your fingers.
Take the reeds that grow beside you.
Deck them with your brightest feathers,
Smoke the calumet together.
And as brothers dwell henceforward !"
The Chief
The Owl
A Runner
An Aged Indian
A Young Brave
The Historian
The Medicine Man
The Musician
A Hag
The Bohemian
Care
The Cast
Mr. J. C. Wilson
Mr. Frank P. Deering
Mr. Rohert I. Aitken
Mr. Edgar D. Peixotto
Mr. William Thomas
Mr. Richard M. Hotaling
Amedee Joullin
Mr. Denis O'Sullivan
Mr. William H. Smith. Jr.
Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Mr. Charles K. Field
47
T h e B o h e in i a n J i n k s
The argument of the play in the words of the
author is as follows :
The Chief, alone among the silent wigwams, laments
the threatened destruction of his tribe. An owl is
heard hooting through the dark forest, and the Chief
invokes the mysterious bird. The Owl prophesies that
a deliverer shall come to the tribe and warns him
against unwittingly destroying him. The Chief sum-
mons his people and repeats to them the oracle of the
Owl. The Indian's lament is broken by the arrival of
a runner who announces the capture of a pale-face.
the braves gather in the council-ring. An aged Indian
advises peace; a young brave urges fight; then the His-
torian recites the legend of The Man in the Forest, and
exhorts the people to prayer. The tribe dances the
sacred Prayer Dance. It is interrupted by the return
of the foraging party bringing the captive. The Indians
threaten him. Suddenly upon the hillside appears the
ghastly skeleton of Care. The Indians fall before the
advancing spectre, but the bound captive faces the
Apparition and before his calm gaze Care vanishes.
Then the warning hoot of the Owl is heard and the
Chief, mindful of the oracle, unbinds the captive. The
white man announces himself as from the country <>i
Bohemia, and he promises protection to the forest.
Lifting his hand to the hillside he calls through the
trees and the forest becomes illuminated while down the
hill pour- a company of garlanded harvesters laden with
corn and fuit and bearing deliverance to the tribe.
Undoubtedly the most striking episode in
this play was when a sudden light on the hill-
[48]
Synopses — Man in the Forest
side disclosed the Indian runner rapidly de-
scending the slope. He was stark naked save
for a breech-clout and moccasins and his
bronzed skin, under which his muscles were
seen to play, shone in the light as he darted
down the winding trail. Once or twice he
ignored the path and dashed down the
declivity, crashing through the underbrush and
leaping, at the risk of serious injury, over
bramble and brake, over stones, logs, and
gullies, until, bleeding and breathless, he stood
before the Chief and delivered his message.
This introduced the naked actor in the grove-
play. It will be shown later how this feature
was used to advantage in subsequent per-
formances.
Unfortunately, every existing copy of The Man
in the Forest was destroyed in the San Francisco
fire. The Legend recited by the Historian alone
survives. It is, in part, as follows :
Long ago the woods were blighted
By the breath of evil spirits,
By the presence of the Dark One ;
In the river-mist lurked evil,
In the leaves a terror whispered ;
All the happy hunting-places
Were deserted, bare and barren
As the prairie desolated
[49]
77/ c I) o Ii c m ia n J i u k
By the curse of fire and ashes ;
No more came the deer at evening
To the quiet water-courses,
No more drummed the hidden partridge
Or the grouse among the shadows,
Gone the great hear from the mountains.
Gone the hison from the prairies;
And the tender corn, the comfort.
Dried and shriveled ere its blooming,
Drooped and faded into yellow
Like a girl that dies of fever
In the Moon of Evil Vapors.
Then came Famine through the forest.
Gaunt and gray, with mocking laughter.
Gloated by the cheerless wigwams.
While through all the dismal forest
Nothing hroke the awful stillness
Save the ghastly laugh of Hunger
That from far the gaunt coyote
Like a mocking echo answered.
From the shadow of his wigwam
Struggled Mee-das, the magician.
Waited by the touch of Famine
And the fires of his long vigil ;
In the strength of his death-anguish
Danced he there among the dying.
In the sacred snake-dance moved he
Round and round in prayer unceasing.
;so]
Synapse s — M a n i n t li c Forest
But alas, he failed and faltered
And at length his strength went from him
And he fell among his people
And his hope burned out in darkness.
But the mocking laugh of Famine
Rang no more through all the forest ;
There among the silent wigwams
Stood the figure of a stranger !
In his hair the gold of morning,
In his eyes the azure heavens,
Tn his voice the tender music
Of the south wind in the woodland.
Breathing through the maize at day-break.
Dying eyes looked up and saw him.
And a dreamy strength came thrilling
Through the twisted limbs of anguish
Till the people rose about him.
Caught and kissed the stranger's garment.
Then with waving hands the savior
Called afar through all the forest,
And behold a wonder happened !
Through the forest came the red deer.
And the partridge and the squirrel.
Came the heavy bear and bison.
And the corn grew tall and heavy
Tn the magic of his music
And the water wet the mosses,
Turning green the blighted woodland.
Gratefully the rescued people
Turned to bless their strange deliverer;
He had vanished from among them
[51]
T he Bo h c m i a n J i n k s
As the noiseless water-serpents
Vanish in the pools at twilight,
But the beauty of his presence
There remained to bless the forest
And the Indian ever after.
MONTEZUMA
(1903)
by Louis A. Robertson
Music by Humphrey J. Stewart
Louis A. Robertson, Sire
Bohemians :
When Cynthia, garbed in all her silvern splendor,
climbs through the cloudless August night over our
classic grove,
Beneath the Titan trees we hope to show
How mighty Montezuma faced the fate
That left him throneless, thralled, and desolate
In Cortez' clutch four hundred years ago.
Upon a victim's breast a fire shall glow —
A war god's favor to propitiate ;
And you shall hear the priests and prophets prate
The princely Aztec's doom and overthrow.
[52]
S y n apse s — M onte z it m a
There Aitken's able genius shall unfold
A gorgeous spectacle and ghastly rite;
While Stewart's matchless minstrelsy is rolled
To where the star-bedizened dome of night
Sends back an echoing chorus ; while your sire
Lends to the scene and song an answering lyre.
Louis Robertson, Sire.
The Cast
Montezuma Mr. J. C. Wilson
The Astrologer Mr. Richard M. Hotaling
Malric, the Victim Mr. Robert I. Aitken
The High Priest Mr. Donald deV. Graham
Charac, a Chief Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Dragonda, a Chief Mr. H. McD. Spencer
A Crier Mr. James B. Smith
A Messenger Mr. William H. Smith, Jr.
In this play the hillside was not used, but
instead an elaborate arrangement of canvas
scenery was employed with a sky-drop and,
in place of the natural proscenium, there were
canvas "tormentors" on which were painted
Aztec idols and glyphographs. The abandon-
ment of natural scenery for artificial was not
considered a success ; it was too great a con-
cession to the conventions of the commercial
theatre, and since that time the unembellished
stage only has been used.
[53]
77/ c B o h e m i a n J i n k
The synopsis of the play, written by Mr. Rob-
ertson, is as follows :
This dramatic episode lias been built upon the history
of the conquest of Montezuma by Cortez, and upon the
accepted accounts of the sacrificial rites which prevailed
at that period in the land of the Aztecs. With these
lias been interwoven the tradition that foretold the
coming of a conqueror from beyond the Eastern seas.
The entire play is pregnant with this portent. Priests
chant it. and the Astrologer tells it. Montezuma, finally
convinced of its truth, calls to his captains and chiefs
for a suitable sacrifice to appease the wrath and pro-
pitiate the favor of the God of War. the mighty Mexitli.
Two chiefs offer, but are refused. Then a youth, glo ■■. -
ing with patriotic ardor, steps forward and offers not
only bis life, but shows that bis sacrifice will break with
grief the heart of a young girl, to whom be has
wedded for a month, and "whose faith-filled eyes behold
in him a god." He is accepted; stretched upon the
jasper stone: bis heart cut out and given to the god.
and the New Light kindled upon his bleeding brea-t.
Just as the sacrifice has been completed, the unfamiliar
thunder of Cortez' cannon is heard, followed by bis ap-
pearance on the scene.
Arbitrary reasons have made it necessary to con-
dense within the narrow compass of one day events
that were months in happening.
The play opens with a hymn to the rising sun,
sung by priests, a summons by a crier, and a
chorus hailing the approach of Montezuma. The
54]
vS y n o p s c s — M ontezuma
scene is laid on the top of a teocalli or Aztec
pyramid, and to this enters the king and his
retinue dazzlingly accoutered ; some of the chiefs
and warriors are naked save for necklaces,
girdles, and other ornaments of barbaric design.
They wear splendid feather head-dresses. Monte-
zuma gives audience to an astrologer who voices
a warning in the following words :
King, I have come from where the mighty loom
Of midnight weaves the starry silver strands
Into the fabric of a fate that few
Have knowledge to unravel or reveal.
A hundred times and more hath yonder sun
Soared from the sombre midnight to the morn
And blotted from the jeweled page of night
The starry charactry wherein are writ
The secrets fate doth in the future hide.
A hundred times my straining eyes have seen
The stars flash forth a hint of hidden things,
But ere I grasped the secret, it was dead
Within the dawning of another day.
Last night I saw the belted giant climb
Into the blazing canopy above
And with his sword touch Teocalli's towers ;
Then, in the mystic moment, I became
As one, half blind, feels from his clouded eyes
The scales that veiled his vision fall away,
And reads aright at last the tale of truth.
As from the glamouring gloom I turned my gaze
To scan the charted records of the skies,
[55]
77/ c B oh c in ia n J in ks
My finger fell upon the fateful spot
And there I read great Montezuma's doom.
Montezuma replies to this, interpreting the
"belted giant" to be Ouitzacoatl, the traditional
chief of old whose return had been prophesied
for centuries. The astrologer convinces him of
his error, and impresses him with the importance
of conciliating the War God instantly with a
sacrifice. The king appeals to his chieftains ;
two of them offer themselves as sacrifices, but
are refused ; then the youth, Malric. offers him-
self in the following address :
! was an acolyte when thou wast priest
In proud Cholula's temple long ago.
My prayers have mingled in the past with thine.
And by their memory now in mercy lend
A listening ear to my imperfect plea.
King, I am one on whom a woman's lips
Were never laid until they came to bless
Me in the sacred bridal bed of love.
One month hath barely passed since 1 was wed
Unto a virgin bride, and earth became
To us a garden where the gods bestowed
Their best to bless ami crown us with content.
Still in the springtide of our love we live ;
No cloud has cast a shadow o'er the shrine
Wherein we kneel, and where her faith-filled eyes
Behold in me a god. Still her white soul
Glows in the censer of a loyal heart
[56j
vS y nop se s — M ontezu m a
And woos me with its fragrant altar flame.
Ah, it were nothing now to lay aside
Honor and life, glory and gold and all
Men prize the most, if it conld build for thee
A bulwark 'gainst the swelling surge that sweeps
Hither to send us with thee to our doom.
The sacrifice Mexitli calls for now,
Must be the purest and most precious gem
Of all the hoarded treasures man loves best.
If to the flaying Toplitzin to-day
My flesh is flung, then over it will roll
The requiem of a young wife's breaking heart ;
And it may be the god will deem mine own
A richer gift, since — like a chalice filled
With priceless wine — I break it at his feet,
And with the shattered offering to him pour
The pure libation of a woman's love.
Malric is accepted; the High Priest gives him
a benediction, after which all retire. A musical
interlude occurs here followed by the entrance of
a procession conducting Malric to the sacrifice.
He takes leave of life and of his bride in a lyrical
passage. When his final moment is at hand,
Malric dashes from him the garlands in which he
had been wreathed, shatters his lyre, and, tearing
his tunic from his shoulders, stands naked before
the priests. He is stretched upon the sacrificial
stone ; the toplitzin performs his blood)- office ;
the victim's heart is placed in the gaping jaws
[57]
T he B oli c m i a n J i n k s
of a colossal statue of Mexitli; a fire is kindled
upon his breast; and the choral hymn to the New
Light is sung by priests and people. This is fol-
lowed by the appearance of a breathless messen-
ger who announces the coming of the foe.
Montezuma, realizing his destruction is imminent,
utters the cry of the vanquished in his last words.
As he is speaking, Cortez and his soldiers, pre-
ceded by a Spanish priest who holds aloft a
cross, enter upon the scene. The final lines of
the play, spoken by Montezuma, are as follows :
What flag is that which flouts me from the height
Of yonder mountain side? What flames are these
That cloud with crimson the unsullied sky
Till clear Tezcoco seems to turn to blood?
What shriek is that? Say, does the Eagle feel
The Serpent's fangs at last? Then must I fall.
The sacred symbol now confirms the stars
And power and pride must yield to destiny.
It will be noted that the play of Montezuma is
in no way related to the grove. In this respect
it differs from the other grove-plays with which
it has less in common than with the dramas that
we are accustomed to see in city theatres. The
Care motive is vaguely suggested in the person
of the pagan king.
[58]
S y nop s c s — T he Hamad r y a d s
THE HAMADRYADS
A Masque of Apollo
(1904)
by Will Irwin
Music by W. J. McCoy
T. Wilson Shiels, Sire
The Sire's Announcement
Kind, lenient lover of Bohemia : on one sweet night
our feathered friend and Master demands your pres-
ence. Obey for your heart's sake. Yet, the appeasable
bird requests your good fellowship for the full period
wherein we live and commune with his mighty trees.
Grant this for his heart's sake. On this .summer night
you shall witness the second coming of Apollo, aeons
ago the god of streaming sunlight, the repeller of ills,
and the Lord Protector of our Grove, now the willing
servant of a higher power, at whose command he will
slay foul Meledon, the God of Care, bringing joy to the
Spirits of the Trees, the gentle Hamadryads, and to us
content. Great Cronos gave a mighty strength to every
trunk of our Titan Grove, and to become that strength
he endowed each with a man's masterful soul to better
battle with the winds and Care. Yet were they gentle
All this in the poesy of Trwin and the music of McCoy.
With due solemnity shall hurtful Care to ashes be re-
duced, and you shall listen with profound reverence to
[59]
T h c B o li c in i a n J i n k s
the benediction of your most beloved High Priest, who
in turn will honor John McNaught by laying on him
his command to tell us of our future happy time.
Shiels, Sire.
The Cast
The Poet Mr. IT. McD. Spencer
First Hamadryad Mr. Charles K. Field
Second Hamadryad Mr. Henry A. Melvin
Third Hamadryad Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Fourth Hamadryad Mr. C. K. Bonestell
Fifth Hamadryad Mr. H. J. Maginnity
Sixth Hamadryad Mr. Charles S. Aiken
Herald of the Hamadryads Mr. Clarence Wendell
Meledon, God of Care Mr. Richard H. Hotaling
A Naiad Mr. William H. Smith. Jr.
Apollo Mr. H. McD. Spencer
First Angel Mr. T. Vail Bakewell
Second Angel Mr. Frank P. Deering
Young Hamadryads, Dancers, the Hosts
of Apollo, Chorus of Angels.
The argument in Mr. Irwin's foreword to The
Hamadryads follows :
The scene is laid in this grove, and the time is mid-
summer night of that year when the Greater Bear stood
by the constellation Bootes ; or, as mortals measure time,
about the season when a people of white countenance
and tawny hair first came over the great mountains.
[60]
^ y n apse s — T he Ha m a d r y a d s
In that time the grove stood unsullied and unshorn.
Not yet had mortals begun the war in which so many
a mighty trunk that had conquered the winds a cycle
long fell to ruin and gave back its soul, its* gentle
hamadryad, to the Essence of Things. Since then,
through patronage of Lord Apollo and mercy of the
New Power, mortals of kinder sort have stayed the
slaughter and restored these vales to their unseen
ministers.
Here tell we how it came that Cronos set men spirits
to this grove ; how Lord Apollo loves these glades, and
how he was driven therefrom, leaving the gentle wood-
folk in imprisonment and hard distress ; how Meledon,
spirit of Care, vilest of the old divinities, being refused
dwelling in Limbo, cheerless home of the conquered
gods, and in Hell, came to plague the fairest vale of
earth ; how the New Power, being supplicated, sent
deliverance ; and how Apollo, the far-darter, slew Care,
bringing joy to the woodfolk and beauty to the sons of
men.
And to him who, filled with the later lore of righteous-
ness, knows not the ancient lore of beauty, here tell we
of hamadryads. Spirits they were of brightness and
joy, dwelling in the trees. Of like substance to the
immortals, yet were they mortal, for each was born and
died with the tree its habitation. All the gods they
reverenced, but especially Apollo, who held tutelage of
groves, and the wild wood-god, Pan. In Hellas and
Ausonian land they were woman-spirits, but in these
groves men ; and of these shall our tale relate.
[61]
The Bohemian Jinks
At the beginning of Mr. Irwin's masque
occured the awakening of the trees. On a stage
shrouded in darkness whence the foul Meledon
had just vanished, a single tree is seen to glow-
faintly with a pale greenish light. This grows
in intensity while the orchestra plays the
Illumination Music, until, after the space of
two minutes or so, the trunk of the tree seems
to give forth light. Now from its bole the
hand slowly followed by the arm, and, finally,
by the leaf-clad figure of a wood-spirit,
emerges. The orchestra announces the
Hamadryad motive which the spirit echoes
with the cry, "Hola-to-ho !" A second tree has
been slowly illumined and from it comes the
Second Hamadryad followed by the Third and
Fourth, each from his own tree, and all cry
in unison to their fellows in the forest. The
trees on the hillside come to life until, finally,
the whole slope is as brilliant as day, and the
hamadryads that seem to spring from the earth
come leaping down the trails, pausing now and
then to beckon and call to their companions.
Their green garments, slashed to resemble
foliage, tremble with their every movement as
they gather in the center of the stage and lift
[62]
S v nopse s — T he Ha m a d r y a d s
a great chorus based on the Hamadryad
motive.
One of the hamadryads presently relates how
men-spirits came to inhabit this grove. His
narrative follows :
In the beginning Cronos made the earth,
Poured out the lordly seas and lit the heavens;
And unto every creature of his hand
He set a guardian god ; the silent stars,
Forever swinging in their luminous curves,
Harbored men-spirits, terrible in war
And kingly in their councils ; and the winds —
The warrior-winds that battle with the stars —
They, too, were men, shaggy and hoar and fierce.
All these he made ; then looked upon the groves.
He saw the linden and the sceptral pine ;
He saw the willow dancing with a breeze
That tossed her tumbled leaves in wantonness.
"Now loose the nymphs," he cried, "the merry nymphs!''
And into every burgher of the wood
There came a woman-spirit ; white their breasts,
Wanton their snowy thighs and soft their lips
With amorous murmurs to a summer moon.
It was a winter night when he beheld
This grove inanimate ; the winds were mad,
The rain was wild for battle, and the trees
Fought as the Titans fought with angry Zeus,
Bent all their mighty thews in unison
And hurtled back the javelins of the blast.
77/ c B oli e in ici n 3 in ks
Yea, all that angry night th' embittered gales
Threw their grim frontlets upon hough and branch,
And staggered hack in muttering retreat.
But, lo ! when shepherd Morning leashed the winds,
Gathered his star-Hocks from the heavens and "glanced
His jeweled crook upon the dripping ferns,
The Titan grove stood straight and unafraid.
\\'ear_\', but all victorious, bare of leaf,
But not one trunk lay fallen. Then the god
Laughed loud; his mighty laughter shook the hills,
"Women for these?" he cried, and then again.
"Women for these? Nay, godlings, these be men!
Give me men-spirits, stalwart, masterful.
Let women animate the laughing linden,
The careless willow and the slender pine;
But these be men !"
And at the g< id's c< immand,
Out of the dark, primordial soul of things.
Where sleeps the essence of the little gods
And mortals unconceived, our fathers came.
Stalwart, but gentle: foemen to the winds.
But lovers of the bracken and the fern
And every living thing that in this grove
Drinks sustenance from the brown breasts of earth.
The nmst ancient spirit of the trees then
tells how Lord Apollo made of this grove his
favorite resting place. This is followed by a
dance of young hamadryads after which still
[64]
S v n o p s c s — T h c H a m a d r y ads
another spirit tells how fell the gods and how the
Xew Power triumphed. He ends thus :
Xo more, no more
Shall ocean break to jewels on the feet
Of foam-born Aphrodite. Ah, no more
Shall herald Hermes bend his sea-bright wings.
Stilled is Apollo's lay. The gods are gone.
And where the meadows blossomed at their tread.
And Lesbic maidens, robed with innocence.
Their garlands on the living marble twined,
Men lift a broken form upon a cross.
For Hellas hath forgot, and only we
Keep their sweet semblance in loved memory.
Meledon, whose baleful presence is ever hover-
ing near, appears to taunt and harass the hama-
dryads and unwittingly tells them that Apollo,
whom they thought dead, dwells in Limbo. The
Xaiad, issuing from a stream that suddenly flows
from the hillside, comes as a messenger from
the nether world to announce that Apollo has
submitted to the Xew Power. The oldest hama-
dryad supplicates the hidden God, whereupon an
angel appears and sings :
He hath heard ! He hath heard ! Our God shall bring
deliverance !
For the seas are glad with His countenance,
And the hills in His might rejoice,
And the flowers in their beauty do His will,
[65]
The Bohemian Jinks
And the rivers sing at His voice,
And the forests gladden the wilderness
By the grace of His glorious word,
Who hath answered the prayer of the simple folk
That called in praise of their Lord —
He hath answered the prayer of the simple folk
That called on their mighty Lord.
Deliverance! Deliverance! He grants deliverance !
A chorus of angels is now heard singing:
For He is mighty! For He is gracious! For He is
merciful !
The Lord, Our God is merciful !
Meledon enters and defies the angels when
at the highest point on the hillside, Apollo sud-
denly appears. His body is nude; front his
shoulders hang a chlamys of cloth-of-gold ; on his
head is a crown of golden rays ; and in his hand
a golden bow. Far below him stands Meledon
hurling defiance at heaven. Apollo plucks a dart
from his shining quiver : he twangs his bow and
a bolt of light flashes down the hillside, felling
Meledon among the hamadryads freed and joy-
ful. The forest is illumined by the presence of
the God of Day, and Apollo descends the hill
majestically while the hamadryads sing a chorus
of welcome and of triumph which brings the play
to a close.
[66]
S ynopse s — Q uest of the G or go n
THE QUEST OF THE GORGON
A Musical Drama
(1905)
by Newton J. Tharp
Music by Theodor Vogt
Newton J. Tharp, Sire
The Sire's Announcement
Bohemians :
For your brief respite from the ways of toil
At tasks depressing to your better selves ;
Old Nature hath, these twelve moons past, devised
Her woodland forms in splendor and profusion.
With hands of wondrous cunning she hath wrought
Within the hallowed precincts of our grove,
Till now the ferns and new-sprung quiv'ring leaves.
Do laugh enticements sweet as ne'er before.
The forest harps, so deften smote by wafts
Of scented air, await to lure thee — dreamwise —
By their matchless strains to isles of fairy form.
Where Care dwells not, and the hour-glass needs no
turning.
The deep, star-studded sky — seen through weird
And quaintly fashioned lace of limb and leaf —
Invites thee to enjoy the quiet mood,
[671
T h c B o h c m i a n J i n k s
Or hours replete with contemplation mild.
And Nature doth avow from out the vast,
Wherein do lie her moods in mighty keep, that: —
To those with cars she will sing —
To those with hearts she will speak —
For those wdth eyes she'll paint the sky
With purest azure tone, the trees
With softest green ; and hill-tops golden smite
With magic brush at morn and eve.
In tune with all this lavish forest spread, a play has
been devised upon an olden tale, and on the night of
August twelfth, among the towering trees will be un-
folded "The Quest of the Gorgon." A theme, around
which our good Bohemian Vogt has wreathed be-
witching, soul-ensnaring music, quite as Care-destroy-
ing as wall be the arm of the mighty Perseus when he
has tracked the demon to her noisome lair.
Tharp, Sire.
The Cast
Perseus Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Sibyl Mr. Richard M. Hotaling
Dionysus Mr. L. A. Larsen
Silenus Mr. William B. Hopkins
Pan Mr. William H. Smith. Jr.
Hades Mr. Amedee Joullin
Hermes Mr. George De Long
Athene Mr. Edgar D. Peixotto
Gsea Mr. Frank P. Deering
A Mortal Mr. Thomas Rickard
[68]
S v 11 o psc s — Q uest of the Gorgon
Choruses
Sileni Mortals
Satyrs Musae
Sylvans Priests
Maenads Victims
A synopsis of The Quest of the Gorgon which
appeared in the programme and was written by
Mr. Tharp runs thus :
The drama is based upon the mythological con-
ception of Gaea (the Earth) and Phoebus- Apollo
( Light ) being the agencies through which all the
visible manifestations of Nature are carried on ;
Dionysus in his broader significance as God of
Moisture, growing vegetation, flowers and vines, bring-
ing good to mankind ; and the Gorgon as a personifica-
tion of evil and corroding Care, ever present, ever
watchful, eager to snatch away from mortals the
morsels of joy given them by Dionysus and other
gods.
A free use is also made of the myths of Perseus and
the Sibyls, and other mythological lore.
The time is in the dim Homeric past. The action is
divided into five episodes, during the first four of which
the scene is in Delphi. Apollo's oracle, where opens
the cavern with its prophetic-dealing vapors, and where
stood the omphalos — Earth's navel — the sacred stone
that marked her exact center. The fifth episode occurs
before the cave of the Gorgon.
Episode 1 — The ancient Delphian sibyl tells how she
[69]
77/ e B o h e m ia n J in ks
acquired her long life and the gift of prophecy. She
Ik ilds converse with Gsea regarding the slaying of the
Gorgon.
Episode 2 — Dionysus appears in his Autumn festival
to render homage to Gaea and Phcebus, with propitiatory
ceremony.
Episode 3 — Perseus appears, tells Dionysus .and his
throng that his reason for visiting the oracle is to be
advised of the way to the Gorgon and how to slay
her. Dionysus tries to turn him from his task by point-
ing out its seeming hopelessness, asks him to join on
his march to the lands of the mortals, and assist him
in his work of teaching them the growing of fruits
and vines as being the surest way of giving them
happiness. Perseus refuses, saying that there can he
no real happiness while the Gorgon lives.
Episode 4 — -The sibyl being assured of the fitness of
Perseus to attempt the death of the Gorgon, agrees to
use her power and call the gods to his assistance. This
she does with the result that Perseus is sent on his
way with the helmet of Hades, which will render him
invisible at will, the winged sandals of Hermes, and
the shield of Athene.
Between the above episode and the last, there is a
choral number in the form of the Greek parabasis.
This gives an opportunity to change the indications of
the scene without the use of a curtain.
Episode 5 — The slaying of the Gorgon by Perseus.
The musical numbers composed by Mr. Vbgt
for The Quest of the Gorgon comprised:
1. Introduction ; 2. Dionysian Revel, Scene and
[70]
GEORGE STERLING, JACK LONDON, AND THE AUTHOR AT IKi.MI
#
S y nop s c s — Q ues t of the Gorgon
ensemble, Dionysus, Silenus, and Chorus ; 3. Dance
of the Sylvans, Satyrs, Maenads, and Sileni ; 4. Scene
and ensemble, Entrance of Perseus ; 5. Orizon to the
Sibyl, Solo and Chorus ; 6. Invocation to Hades,
Melodramatic, scenes and ensemble ; 7. Invocation to
Hermes, Melodramatic, scenes and ensemble ; 8. In-
vocation to Athene, Scenes and ensemble ; 9. Scene and
ensemble, Athene, Perseus, and Chorus; 10. Parabasis.
Greek Hymn; 11. Chorus of Victims; 12. Death of
Gorgon and Finale.
The first scene opens with a colloquy between
the sibyl and Ga?a which is in part as follows :
SIBYL.
This day, my last!
Now Thanatos around me locks his chains,
And Charon beckons from the Stygian shore.
A thousand years have gone since I, cast forth
On Life's capacious lap, lay waiting for
The thread the Fates had spun to guide me on
Through mortal way. A thousand years !
So many dawns have passed before my ken.
That as I see them each from Memory's book
Unfold, they seem as all the leaves of Autumn
In endless stream from here to chaos' realm.
Of near all burdens have I found men surcease,
Save one, weightiest and darkest of them all.
Rut e'en this day, though well my last,
Shall I the foul corroding thing encompass.
Gsa ! Gsea ! (Strikes the Omphalos.)
[711
The B oil c in i a n Jinks
GjEA.
Who calls?
Who dares arouse me from my mighty dreams?
SIBYL.
Gaea ! Gaea !
Not once before, in all my years,
Hath she my summons answered.
'Tis I, Pythoness, eldest of thy children —
Save these tall and mighty trees that stood,
As now in solemn majesty, when first
I walked these groves —
Gaea ! Gaea ! Primal prophetess !
( Strikes the Omphalos again.)
From out the wisdom, horded in thy vast
Mysterious depths, spell me the secret way
By which I may all men the Gorgon rid
Before my hours are numbered.
GMK.
All things I give but all to me return ;
Some would mount the clouds, and ride
The azure fields of Heaven ;
Some, me defy, and plant themselves as rock —
But e'en as thou this day shalt surely do,
They all to me return ! return ! return !
The Dionysian Revel in the Second Episode
of 77/ e Quest of the Gorgon was sumptuously
costumed and rich in picturesque qualities. The
play as a whole was in the spirit of the satyric
drama, Silenus and his ribald followers intro-
[72]
Synopses — The Owl and Care
during a not unwelcome touch of humor which
the authors of other grove-plays have not ven-
tured.
THE OWL AXD CARE
( 1906 )
A Spectacle
by Charles K. Field
Music by Humphrey J. Stewart
Charles K. Field, Sire.
In 1906 the Bohemian encampment took place
three months after the great disaster in San
Francisco. The club had suffered severe losses
as had many of the members. The club-house
in San Francisco had been destroyed together
with the greater part of its contents, including
a library said to have been the finest club library
in America. The Bohemians were also very
much scattered. Nevertheless, undaunted by re-
verses, the club held its encampment, although
not in its usual lavish manner, and instead of a
grove-play, the ceremony of the Cremation of
Care was expanded and was preceded by a short
scene on the hillside stage. The whole affair
was in the nature of a defiance of Care who had
[73]
The Bohemian Jinks
so recently and so heavily laid his hand on the
whole of this Western community. The text was
written by Mr. Charles K. Field who called the
production The Owl and Care, A Spectacle. For
the first time in many years an orchestra was
omitted, the music for the occasion being fur-
nished by a band. Part of the music was
especially composed by Dr. H. J. Stewart.
Hill-man
Tree-man
River-man
First Bohemian
Second Bohemian
Third Bohemian
Care
Voice of Care
High Priest
x\ssistant Priest
The Dead Tree
The Living Tree
Love
The Cast
Mr. C. K. Bonestell
Mr. Charles K. Field
Mr. William H. Smith, Jr.
Mr. Charles J. Dickman
Mr. Robert C. Berkeley
Mr. Frank P. Deering
Mr. Chester B. Fernald
Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Mr. George T. Bromley
Mr. Frederic W. Hall
Dr. J. Wilson Shiels
Mr. Richard M. Hotaling
Master Ramond White
In the first part, which took place on the hill-
side, a Tree-man, a Hill-man, and a River-man,
stricken with fear, are shown flying from a fell
monster whose terrible voice is heard through the
[74]
DAI BUTSU— BUDDHA JINKS (1892)
Synopses — The Owl and Care
forest while the earth trembles with his approach-
ing" footsteps. Three Bohemians appear who
have come from their ruined city to seek rest
and solace in the woods. They are in colloquy
with the three nature spirits when the voice of
Care ( for such the monster is ) is heard again.
The Bohemians bid him begone, but the voice
thunders from the hill :
What power shall banish me? Back with me then
to your city of dust and ashes, ye men of a hopeless
task, for be ye sure that wheresoever men gather there
am I among them always !
Care enters in the form of a giant on the upper
hill. "I am disease and death," he cries. The
Bohemians invoke the Owl, which appears from
the darkness on the hill. Care wails again, "I am
disease and death;" a flame bursts from the owl,
and the monster falls dead. A march is played
which the chorus sings, and a procession of
figures wearing black robes with the hoods drawn
and carrying torches march down the hillside
which is illuminated while the Hill-man, Tree-
man, and River-man dance around the effigy of
the Owl.
The procession leaves the theatre, led by the
band, and followed by the members. All proceed
to the place of cremation. Here the Assisting
[75]
T h c B o Ji c in i a n J i n k s
Priest addresses his followers, but he is inter-
rupted by the terrihle laugh of Care coming from
a dead tree nearby. The priest pauses and the
voice is heard from the dead tree, an enormous
gaunt and gray shaft rising to the height of over
a hundred feet. Leafless branches from which
hang tattered moss project from the upper trunk.
It is bathed in light turning its gray barkless sur-
face into a ghastly whiteness. The voice is now
heard in ominous intonation issuing from the
tree. It says :
Bohemians ! Children of sorrow, foolishly gay,
Hearken to me ;
Yesterday, now and to-morrow, I am the sign of decay,
I am the Dead Tree ;
Token and symbol of grief,
Tendril I have not nor leaf,
I am the form of despair,
And through my voice speaks the immortal spirit
of Care.
When the Voice of the Dead Tree ceases a red
light is seen illuminating a singularly beautiful
living tree a little distance away. It is plumed
with masses of green foliage. From it the voice
of the Living Tree is heard. It says that the
Dead Tree had lied and adds :
Lo, they may burn me with fire,
They may blacken and scar me with flame,
[76]
Synopses — The Ozul and Care
Yet in the magical Spring I put forth my unconquer-
able green !
you have chosen Love, and all you have lost
shall return !
Blessed are ye, Bohemians, for among you the spirit
of Brotherhood bideth,
Call on his name through the forest !
He will kindle the pyre from your altar.
He will gladden your feast with his beauty,
And Care shall be banished forever !
I am the Living Tree,
Love speaks through me.
And Love is supreme !
The chorus sings an invocation to Love. Love
appears near the Living Tree and sings :
High Priest of Bohemia.
Brothers all, behold me.
I am Love !
Out from the deepest dark of the wood,
See me rosily springing,
So out of evil comes good.
Out of men's burdens brotherhood.
And out of sorrow singing :
So from the blackest hour
Blossoms the morn ;
Up from the ashes of Care,
Wet with the tears of despair,
Up out of gloom like a flower,
Lo, I am born !
Though Care may burn to embers
The dress of vain desires,
[77]
77/ c />' oh c in ia n J in ks
The heart that Love remembers
[s proof against his fires;
Behold, his power I destroy;
Love lights the way to joy.
The chorus follows with:
True hearts together meeting.
Love hears our call,
Care's empery is fleeting.
Love conquers all.
While the chorus is singing. Love runs with
his torch to the High Priest who lights it ; Love
then applies the flame to the pyre. When the
chorus ends Love blows upon his horn : the
forest is illuminated with red and figures in gay
robes run in and join in the dance around the
blazing funeral pile.
THE TRIUMPH OF BOHEMIA
A Forest Play
( 190/ )
by George Sterling
Music by Edward F. Schneider
George Sterling. Sire
The Sire's Announcement
THE OWL
Hoo Hoo! Hoo Hoo ! ! Hoo Hoo!!!
[78]
Synopses — Triumph of Bohemia
TRUE BOHEMIAN
Majestic Bird,
My reverential ears await thy word.
THE OWL
Hear then ! I bear from forest aisles untrod
The summer message of the Laughter-God.
TRUE BOHEMIAN
A moment — till mine empty glass I fill
Now, Bird, declare his autocratic will.
THE OWL
Mark well : when thou hast seen, in calm July,
Its twenty-seventh morning light the sky.
To his eternal Grove thy way must wend.
That all his forest rites thou mayst attend.
For glad, he hath bespoken, as of yore,
A sylvan parable to teach his lore — ■
Telling his joy in care-forsaking men
And their triumphal minstrelsy. So when
The jealous and usurping moon that night
Shall dim or drown the southern stars in light.
He will come forth in greeting, and his voice
Will counsel thee when reeds and chords rejoice;
For Music, early to his service won,
Grants him that night her well-beloved son.
Our Edward Schneider, whose consummate art
Hath found the exalting secrets of her heart.
Then, when his love permitted: thee to share
His ancient victory o'er ancient Care,
His pontiff, Riley Hardin, shall arise
And spread conclusive pageants for thine eyes —
[79]
The B ohe m i a n J i n k s
A jovial man, whose very words have weight
In crematory Mysteries, of late.
Wherefore, O True Bohemian, attend,
Lest ahsence or forgetfulness offend.
E'en now Bohemia plans (O joyful task!)
The light and music of his woodland masque.
George Sterling, Sire.
The Cast
First Tree-Spirit Mr. Chas. von Neumayer
Second Tree-Spirit Dr. Philip M. Jones
Third Tree-Spirit Mr. Mackenzie Gordon
First Woodman Mr. Frank Mathien
Second Woodman Mr. Courtney Ford
Spirit of the North-Wind Mr. Allan Dunn
Spirit of the South-Wind Mr. Porter Garnett
Spirit of the West-Wind Mr. Emerson Warfield
Spirit of the East-Wind Mr. Jesse Olney
Spirit of Time Mr. Edgar D. Peixotto
Spirit of Fire Mr. Win. H. Smith, Jr.
Spirit of Bohemia Mr. TT. McD. Spencer
Mammon, Spirit of Care Dr. J. Wilson Shieis
Gnomes: Masters Gordon Thurston, Robert
Starett, Leroy Browne, Virgil Lyon.
Wood-Spirits, Saplings, Woodmen, and Bo-
hemians.
Time: A Midsummer Night.
Place : A Virgin Forest of Redwoods.
[80]
THE ILLUMINATION— FAUST JINKS (1897)
S v nop s e s — T r i n in pJi of B oh c m i a
The Chorus
Messrs. E. D. Crandall (Chorus Master)
G. Purlenky, J. P. Jones, Frecl Chase, M. L. R.
Oksen, Geo. S. Johnson, R. I. Lynas, T. V.
Bakewell, Frank Onslow, P. J. Mohr, W. A.
Mitchell, Carl E. Anderson, T. L. Bolton. G. S.
Mariner, E. H. McCandlish, C. W. Brock,
R. I. Bentley Jr., T. G. Elliot, Walter Burck-
halter, E. L. Taylor, P. D. Gaskill. G. D. Rey-
nolds. E. W. Roland. Chas. Oliver. A. G. D.
Kerrell. J. de P. Teller, C. E. Engvick, J. R.
Hamilton, H. L. Perry, John McEwing, Chas.
Dukes, W. F. Keene, C. J. Evans. B. M. Stich,
C. Ff. Van Orden, M. McCurrie, E. E. Jones.
The action and incidents of The Triumph of
Bohemia were unfolded in this wise:
The scene is a forest glade at the foot of a
wooded hillside in moonlight. The tree-spirits
are discovered sleeping. They toss in their
slumber and appear perturbed. In the orches-
tra, music suggestive of the woodland calm
is played by way of prelude. During the
closing measures of this overture the First
Tree-Spirit awakes slowly and half arises, lie
is obsessed with a sense of impending danger
and, going about among the sleeping spirits,
he rouses them with words expressive of alarm.
[81]
The B ohe m i a n J i n k s
Inspirited by their leaders they sing a chorus
of defiance to the powers of earth and air.
This ended, the First Tree-Spirit speaks :
Brothers, your souls arc wise, your hearts are strong —
Too strong to fear this menace of the night,
This formless peril of the traitorous dark.
Tho' such appear, we straight with baffling mirth
Shall drive it hence, with arrowy laughter pierce
Its futile mail. Let happiness be arms,
And merriment our refuge and our shield —
The merriment of leaves that shake for joy,
The merriment of brooks and rippling grass.
Ye Saplings, dance in maddest mockery
Of any hostile power that haunts the night !
Dance! for the winds compel your boughs in life!
Dance ! for the fallen leaf must dance in death !
Here follows the Dance of the Saplings which
lasts for several minutes. It is suddenly in-
terrupted by the North-YVind motive in the
orchestra (indicative of the cruel, cold, and
rugged nature of the north-wind) followed by
the appearance of the Spirit of the North-
Wind. He is clad in garments of white fash-
ioned to resemble icicles as are his hair and
beard. On his head he wears a five-pointed
crown, and on his breast shines a silver star.
He carries a two-handed white sword and as
he dashes at full speed down the inclined trail.
[82]
S y 11 o ps c s — T r i u in p Ji of B o he m i a
his silken drapery floats out behind him like
a great white cloud. He threatens the tree-
spirits with death, but, encouraged by their
leaders, they defy him, and the Saplings mo-
mentarily abashed, resume their dance. Once
more the North-Wind hurls his threats but,
as the spirits are still defiant, he calls his allies
to his aid. The first to appear is the Spirit of
the South-Wind, preceded by his motive in
the orchestra, rather morbid and malignant.
The spirit of the South-Wind is garbed in
yellow, on his breast a green snake, and he
carries a golden sword with a wavy blade, his
burnoose and cloak of yellow silk stream be-
hind him as he flashes on the upper stage. He
adds his threats to those of the North-Wind,
but the tree-spirits still stand firm. The
North-Wind now summons successively the
Spirit of the West-Wind — who is bare-
breasted, with wind-tossed locks and beard,
and wears a blue cloak and carries a cutlass —
the gray-clad figure of the Spirit of the East-
Wind, and the Spirit of Time. Bearing his
scythe this spirit enters slowly while the or-
chestra plays Time motive which portrays
him as sombre in character with a tinge of the
grotesque as though he were aware of his
[83]
T Ii c B o Ji c in i a n J i n k s
ultimate victory over all things. The tree-
spirits remain unawed and the North-Wind
finally cries :
Then, foolish Trees, one whom ye know too well
Shall war with you. Wherefore do thou appear,
O spirit and essential soul of Fire !
The Fire motive is played in the orchestra,
intended in its opening measures to express the
flickering of flames. At the highest point on
the hillside, which hitherto has been shrouded
in darkness, the Spirit of Fire appears in a
burst of flame; the music changes to a rapid
succession of interwoven scales ; a jet of flames
is seen to issue from the helmet of the Spirit
of Fire ; and the next instant he is bounding
down the hillside. In his hand he carries a
torch in the form of a scourge from which in-
termittent flames fly upward. Flames issue
from his helmet again and again and leap from
the earth along his path. His course lies in an
almost straight line down the steep hillside.
and in eight seconds he has reached a station
just above the point where the Spirits of the
Winds and Time are gathered. Flis costume is
a mingling of orange and red tongues of flame.
a gorget and short corslet of golden scale
[84]
WOODMEN— "THE TRH'MI'II OF BOHEMIA" (1907)
Synopses — Triumph of B oh e mi a
armor, golden sandals, and a helmet-like crown
of polished metal fashioned in spicated rays re-
sembling flames. With fierce flames pouring
from his helmet and from his torch, he cries:
I come, whose hunger never yet had glut !
SPIRIT OF THE NORTH-WIND
Greeting, thou changeless terror that dost walk
By noon-day and by night ! Behold thy prey !
SPIRIT OF FIRE
(Coining down to the Spirits of the Winds and Time.)
Madness and furious blood untamable
Do mix in me, till merciless I rage.
Before the vision of astonished men
I rear my flaming throne, and glare thereon,
Waking their tears, that cannot quench mine ire.
Hearing their groans, that soon my laughters fierce
Do drown; till, rushing onward from their fields
I grasp all swords of elemental pow'r
And drive my harnessed whirlwinds o'er the world —
Resistless tempests quickened by my wrath.
The Spirit of the North-Wind then calls
upon the cloudy panoplies of heaven and dark-
ness falls. The Spirits of the Winds, Time,
and Fire advance upon the tree-spirits, Fire
leading the way, fanned into violence by the
cloaks of the Winds. The tree-spirits make
ready to repel the assault, armed with
[85]
77/ c B oil e m ia n J in ks
branches. The stage is darkened as they rush
upon one another, and the conflict is repre-
sented chiefly by the music, augmented by
thunder and lightning and the howling of the
wind. As this comes to a close the stage gradu-
ally becomes bright with moonlight and the tree-
spirits are seen grouped in the centre, their
enemies having disappeared. The music that
accompanies the conflict merges into the Victory
Chorus, which the tree-spirits sing. Their re-
joicing is hardly over when the sound of a dis-
tant horn is heard from the direction of the
hill. The orchestra plays a slow march and a
band of woodmen appears in the distance on
the hillside. They are rudely clad in furs and
carry broadaxes, mauls and torches. As they
approach they begin to sing the Care Song and
the tree-spirits, frightened by a peril more real
than any that has yet threatened them,
stealthily withdraw. The woodmen, being of
a mind to camp in the glade and, therein, to
pursue their vocation, make ready to build a
shelter. They grasp their axes and turn
toward a tree, but are arrested by the hooting
of an owl. They gaze up the hillside where a
great white owl may be seen flying in a spiral
course toward them. It finally alights on the
[86]
Synopses — Triumph of Bohemia
lower hillside at the back of the stage and
vanishes. At the point where the owl disap-
peared the Spirit of Bohemia, a naked youth, is
seen. He carries in his hand a wand of gold
surmounted by the figure of an owl. The
woodmen fall back in astonishment. Bohemia
calls for his forest children and the tree-spirits
appear. One of them sings in recitative an
aria invoking the aid of Bohemia against the
threatened depredations of the woodmen.
Bohemia arraigns the foresters for their lust to
destroy, and bids them leave the grove. They
repent their purposed sacrilege and yield alle-
giance to Bohemia whereupon he summons
the Spirit of Fire. Once more Fire appears on
the high hillside in a glow of colored light.
Slowly and majestically he descends, still sur-
rounded by the colored glow. His approach
this time occupies two full minutes instead of
eight seconds as in the first instance. During
this time no word is spoken; the orchestra
plays the first and slower part of the Fire
motive. Fire declares his service to Bohemia
in a speech beginning :
O Master, I shall light the ritual
And, splendid-robed, make bright the temple aisles.
[87]
The Bohemia n J in k s
The Spirits of the Winds and Time also
swear fealty to Bohemia who prophesies years
of happiness for his new priests and for their
sons to be,
Heirs to the light and love of future years,
when a prolonged and terrible laugh is heard
issuing from the earth. The Care motive is
heard in the orchestra ; the doors of a cavern
in the hillside open ; a golden light streams
forth and Mammon appears. He commands
the woodmen to return to his service, but,
faithful to their vows and secure in the protec-
tion of Bohemia and his allies, they scorn the
words of the God of Gold. He then seeks to
tempt them with promises of power, opulence,
and bliss. They demand surety, whereupon
Mammon strikes the earth with his sceptre,
and the door of the cave from which he entered
opens again, disclosing the interior bathed in a
golden light. From the cave come four grey-
bearded gnomes, bearing heavy bags, from
which they scatter handfuls of gold at the feet
of the woodmen.
MAMMON
Take these as tokens of the bliss to be
And hasten with me to my city lights.
[88]
BEHIND THE SCENES: MECHANISM EUR THE FLIGHT OF THE OWL-
TRIUMPH OF BOHEMIA" C 1907)
Synopses — Triumph of Bohemia
The woodmen stand uncertain, and gaze
alternately upon Mammon and the Spirit of
Bohemia.
MAMMON
Imagine now the pleasures that await!
The wild wine singing madly in your veins!
The white, permissive breasts ! My splendid domes !
And ease unbroken in my marble courts !
That heavy ore shall make my livery light.
And purchase for you each his dearest wish.
SPIRIT OF BOHEMIA
Nay, Mammon ! for one thing it cannot buy.
MAMMON
What, then,' cannot it buy?
SPIRIT OF BOHEMIA
A happy heart !
FIRST WOODMAN
Is that the secret of thy worship, then,
Bohemia? Is happiness thy gift?
SPIRIT OF BOHEMIA
For lasting happiness we turn our eyes
To one alone, and she surrounds you now —
Great Nature, refuge of the weary heart,
And only balm to breasts that have been bruised !
She hath cool hands for every fevered brow,
And gentlest silence for the troubled soul.
[89]
The Bohemian Jinks
Her counsels are most wise. She healeth well,
I laving such ministry as calm and sleep,
She is most faithful. Other friends may fail,
But seek ye her in any quiet place,
And smiling, she will rise and give to you
Her kiss, nor tell you any woeful tale.
Entreat her, and she will deny you not ;
Abandon her, and she will not pursue.
By gold ye shall not win her, nor by toil,
Nor ever at her side beholding walk
Save in that old simplicity of heart
Her primal lovers brought. So must ye come
As children, little children that believe,
Nor ever doubt her beauty and her faith,
Nor deem her tenderness can change or die
And I, my forest priests, am kin to her :
More happiness hath any day of mine
Than Mammon holds in heavy-hearted years.
I do not proffer lives of craven ease,
Nor tempt your hearts with vampire luxuries
And scarlet-cinctured sins. The gifts I grant
Are man's high heritage — clean toil and sleep,
Beauty, and all her voices in your souls,
And loving friends, and honorable days.
The woodmen kneel before Bohemia ami
their leader says :
O glad Bohemia,
Be thou the master of our happy hearts !
Mammon rushes down the hillside and chal-
lenges Bohemia to mortal combat. Bohemia
[90]
Synopse s — T r i u m ph of B o hernia
calls upon the unseen power and the great owl
that heralded the coming of Bohemia sweeps
down the hill. Mammon hears the rush of its
wings, turns, and dies at its touch, the owl
simultaneously disappearing. The Spirit of
Bohemia, together with the leaders of the
wood-spirits and woodmen and the Spirits of
Fire, Time, and the Winds mount the lower
hillside and gather about the body of Mam-
mon. Bohemia stands with his foot on the
prostrate form and speaks :
See, betraying Death
Hath changed that visage, and proclaims to all
That where high Mammon stood and shook his mace,
There, masked in undisclosing gold, stood Care !
But come, O friends, and hale his body hence.
Thou, Fire, shalt have thine utmost will of him,
Till ye, O Winds, make merry with his dust
Now, two white-robed figures appear at the
highest point on the hill, and, with a blast
from golden trumpets, sound the Bohemian
motive. This begins the triumphal march and
a procession of Bohemians in robes of red,
white and black, carrying torches and led by
two trumpeters, descend the hillside. Two
bearers carry a bier covered with a pall. As
the procession reaches the point where the
[91]
77/r Bohemian Jinks
body of Mammon lies, the march merges into
the final chorus, which is sung by the tree-
spirits and woodmen. During the closing
measures the hillside is brilliantly illuminated
and the procession forms for the Cremation of
Care.
THE SONS OF BALDUR
A Forest Music-Drama
(1908)
by Herman Scheffauer
Music by Arthur Weiss
Herman Scheffauer, Sire
The Sire's Announcement
From ruts and rounds of brazen-footed toil
Where souls flag heavily in howling marts
And peace is price of time, from counters gilt
As much with blood as sweat of bartering
And shocks endured when bruising Traffic binds
Your bodies to his maddened chariot-spokes,
From launching of new ships of enterprise
And arduous travail fixed in many spheres.
Unto the pure, thrice-sainted Grove your Sire
[92]
Synopses — Triumph of Bohemia
Now calls you straightly. Hearken and attend.
There gifted mimes shall show how Loki's hate,
Part of the web of fate the Norns had spun,
Wrought woe in Baldur's holy forest-fanes
Whither with all his sore-spent men of battle
Halmar the Stalwart to the wassail's cheer
And worship of the god had marched from war.
What fear and clamor falls upon the feast,
What terrors light the heavens with doom when crawls
The horrent Nidhugg o'er the burning world,
And how by mighty Baldur's lance the Scourge
Falls slaughtered in the moment of his power,
All this shall you behold. The magic wand
Of Weiss hath spelt a potent harmony
Of stormy tubes of thunder and soft reeds;
The Skald of our Norse fathers shall you hear
Chant nobly in these new-won, Western glades,
And glimpse the frail, white beauty of the Elves.
Yet lost were all the striving of our song
And the sweet passion of the strings, unless
In this our play the image you behold
Of our own selves, our rare, high brotherhood,
Our fealty to the worthy and the fair
And the old quest for healing grace that dwells
In Nature solely. We are Baldur's Sons.
Men of the Westland, come ! but seek not here
Bare ribaldry nor clownish mummer-tricks,
For not by these are freed the thralls of Time.
Come with such singing in your souls as draws
Some holy pilgrimage to ancient shrines, —
[93]
The Bohemian Jinks
So may your hearts be holpen is our prayer
And lessoned in the truth that brighter grows
Brother to brother binding, year to year.
Scheffauer, Sire.
The Cast
Urd, Norn of the Past Mr. Edgar I). Peixotto
Verdandi, Norn of the Present
Mr. Newton J. Thar])
Skuld, Norn of the Future Dr. Philip M. Jones
Baldur, the God of Summer and of Good
Mr. Charles J. Dickman
Loki. the God of Evil Mr. Charles K. Field
Plalmar, Chief of the Men of the Westland
Mr. FT. McDonald Spencer
Hilding, a Scald Mr. Mackenzie Gordon
Soothsayer Mr. Roy Folger
A Wounded Warrior Mr. T. Vail Bakewell
First Warrior
Second Warrior
Third Warrior
Fourth Warrior
Fifth Warrior
Sixth Warrior
Seventh Warrior
A Peasant
Hilding's boy
Mr. Allan Dunn
Mr. Henry A. Melvin
Mr. E. H. McCandlish
Dr. H. B. Carlton
Mr. Frank P. Deering
Mr. Emerson Warfield
Mr. Robert Newell
Mr. Charles G. Norris
[94]
Synopses — The Sons of Baldur
Warriors, Thralls, White Elves, Black Elves,
Voices of Valkyries.
The Chorus
Messrs. E. D. Crandall ( Chorus Master), C. E.
Anderson, T. L. Bolton, F. L. Button, Dr. H. P.
Carlton, P. S. Carlton, G. E. Engvick, P. D.
Gaskill, G. S. Johnson, J. P. Jones, E. II.
McCandlish, Paul J. Mohr, N. L. R. Oksen, C. H.
Oliver, Dr. P. M. Wuillemin, Harris Allen, R. L.
Countryman, G. W. Ellis, E. C. Little, A. M.
Smith, Austin W. Sperry, W. H. Ham, F. E.
Wilkins, Paul Otey, W. A. Mitchell, Robt. I.
Lynas, R. B. Heath, John de P. Teller, Chas. A.
Smith, R. E. Fisher, E. L. Taylor, Roy Smith,
F. S. Chase, T. G. Elliott. C. J. Evans, W. F.
Keene, A. G. D. Kerrell, Wm. Knowles, L. A.
Larsen, A. F. Lawton, Matthew McCurrie, John
McEwing, F. S. Mitchell, W. P. Neilson, Geo.
Purlenky, Guy D. Reynolds, Eugene W. Roland,
Benj. Romaine, Dr. B. M. Stich, J. R. Harry.
E. M. Moore, W. H. Walkinshaw, E. E. Jones,
( )scar Franck, Mark White.
Mr. Scheffauer, the author and sire of the
grove-play for 1908, has furnished a synopsis of
his drama which is here given in a slightly
condensed form.
[95]
The Bohemia n J i n k s
The scene opens mystically upon a region in
the Land of Midgard. It is night, the moon
faintly reveals the giant trees, the three Norns,
or Norse Fates, are descried seated atop three
great boulders whose faces are graven with
runes. Preparations have been made for a feast,
a rude table and great chair are visible. The
trunks of the trees are decorated with skulls of
horses and oxen, spears, shields, and skins. The
Norns, in slow and fatalistic utterance, discourse
of the past, present, and future, and the fate of
men. The lines of Urd are as follows :
From the bourne of mist and gloom,
I come who command the Past.
Life and the Fruit of the Womb
Of Woman is mine at last.
Nor ever the gods shall mend
The mould in which Fate is cast ;
I devour Beginning and End —
I am Urd, old Urd, the Past.
Verdandi, the Present, and Skuld, the Future,
likewise speak and all three disappear in a flash
of lightning which heralds the approach of Loki,
the crafty Spirit of Evil, inflamed with wrath
against men and their devotion to Baldur. Loki
typifies, in some degree the spirit of Mammon,
the arch enemy of Bohemian tradition. He is
[96]
Synopses — The Sons of Baldur
red and naked with a huge serpent about his
neck, and emerges from a rock which splits
asunder. After a speech full of malignity, he
throws the seed and instrument of evil in the
shape of gold against the base of a tree and
vanishes.
The First Warrior enters. He bids the thralls
light the fires and prepare the feast. His horn
blasts are answered from afar, and the March of
the Warriors is heard as they approach chanting
their battle hymn :
We come from the gory
Deathfield of the battle!
Glory to Odin Valfadur on high !
To red Thor be glory,
Whose hammer blows rattle
Breaking the helms when he storms
through the sky.
Valhalla ! Valhalla !
To red Thor be glory.
Whose hammer blows rattle
Breaking the helms when he storms
through the sky.
The warriors returning from battle are to
typify the Bohemians themselves come from the
struggles and cares of every-day life. Halmar.
the Stalwart, is their chieftain. He welcomes
[97]
77/ c I! o h c in id n J i n ks
them, embodying in his words the ideals of the
Bohemians :
Now the golden gage is ours
Since we have wrested from the snare- of Death
Life and the right to life. Wherefore may Peace
Sheathe our worn brands and Plenty hide with us.
Plenty and Joy and brotherly content.
Here, ever when the twelve-month's pageants pass
And Summer and the midnight Summer moon
Gleam goldenmost, haste we from fields of strife,
From the red service of the thunderous Thor,
Homage to yield to Odin's gentler son —
Bright Baldur, God of Good and Happiness.
A venerable soothsayer speaks of the Ashtree
of Life, of the Norns and of Xidhugg, the enemy
of man, the horrid dragon in league with Loki,
and invokes the blessing of Baldur.
The feast begins and a picturesque scene is
made by the wassailing warriors. One of their
number, slightly intoxicated, sings musingly of
wine and drinking, the chorus supporting him.
He is followed by one who expresses the desire
for Woman and sings in a softer, more sensuous
strain. During the singing a wounded warrior
attracts the attention of Halmar who bids the
carousing cease and the warriors to drink — "not
unto the living, drink unto the dead, and to the
[98]
THE SUNDAY Ml IRNING CONCERT (1907
Synopse s — T he So n s of Bald u r
dying!" The wounded warrior, draining his
horn, sings the Death Song, two stanzas of which
follow :
Mid brands that were flashing.
Mid helms that were cleft,
My red blade went crashing —
Behold what is left!
By Thor and his thunder,
His battle-car's roll —
O, sword sprung asunder,
Skoal to thee ! Skoal !
The flesh and the fishes,
The mead and the wine
Give you joy! but the dishes
Of gods shall be mine.
The battle did break me,
So Earth hath her dole,
O, death-maids, come take me !
Skoal to you ! Skoal !
He falls dead. Flashes are seen in the heavens
and the calls of the Valkyries are heard. The
warriors mourn over their comrade, and Halmar
and the soothsayer speak movingly of death.
Soon after this episode the warriors find Loki's
gold, a quarrel ensues, and a spectacular combat
with swords takes place. Halmar parts the
fighters and mourns that the sanctity of the
[99]
77/(7 Bohemian Jinks
grove should have been disturbed. The convivial
warrior, deep in his cups, sings mockingly to the
fighters — "good wine is more than gold."
Enters presently a boy announcing I Hiding,
the skald, and the soothsayer points out to the
warriors the value and significance of the skald
to the tribe, after which Hilding enters. He is
given greeting and drink and sings.
A strange trouble as of some impending
danger soon after makes itself felt, and a few
of the leading warriors peer anxiously into the
depths of the woods. The finer soul of Hilding
is keenly conscious of this boding sense of peril,
and he voices his alarm in the line :
Hark! all Alfheim runs and screams.
Faint twinkling lights and the fluttering robes
of the White Elves in flight are seen in the
foliage. Their wails are heard as they flee. The
Might of these gentle spirits, the guardians of the
grove, portends ill for all. Immediately after
the Black Elves and trolls are heard pursuing
the White Elves. The trolls are spirits subject
to Loki. A warrior calls attention to the dull red
glow which becomes visible in the Western skies.
All are in doubt as to the meaning of this, but
the soothsayer confounds them by declaring it to
[100]
Synopses — The Sons of Baldur
be Ragnaroc, the Twilight of the Gods. The men
groan and the glare glows brighter. Halmar
exclaims in accents of resignation :
On the hoar mountain-side by thunder carved,
Slope to the fjord black where seadiawks nest,
I read in youth the runes that cannot lie —
And true it is that Ragnaroc hath come.
After a colloquy between Halmar and the
First Warrior, the glow constantly growing
more vivid and fierce, the voice of a peasant is
heard crying from the woods and a few moments
later he rushes in, terror-stricken, and announces
the approach of some dread monster. Halmar
asks him which monster and the peasant replies :
Nidhugg ! From out the smoking sea he rose
And lay upon the strand and shook his scales,
And bellowed like a bull. Three leagues his length
Rolled armed with claw and crest. Then heard I call
The voice of Loki from the burning sward
That redly flamed, while all the sea burned green —
"Nidhugg, art here?" and thrice the dragon groaned —
"Aye, father, at thy call thy son hath come."
Halmar cries out in joy that it is not Ragnaroc,
and bids his men, "arouse and arm 'gainst Loki
and his son." At this moment, the figure of Loki
appears half way up the hill, surrounded by the
[1011
The B oh c m i a n J ink s
hellish glare of red. He exults over the wretched
men and curses them in fiercest accents. Halmar
defies him, and he and his comrades seek to re-
assure them. The men, cowed by Loki, still call
011 Baldur. At Halmar's behest, Hilding, the
skald, sings a prayer to the god.
Now, amidst the increasing glare of the fire,
the crash cf toppling trees is heard as the dragon
makes his way through the woods. As the prayer
ends, and the flames leap up among the trees,
the monster is seen crawling down the hillside,
belching white mist and fire. He appears and
disappears on the winding path in his descent.
When the dragon has almost reached the level
ground the shining form of Baldur. armed with
two long silver spears, appears on a crag. The
dragon spouting fire at the god, is slain. Baldur
smiles upon his sons. The red glow dies down as
the dragon perishes and a great golden glow
begins to break about Baldur. Now a mighty
paean of praise is lifted by the chorus. As the
music and the light mount in a spectacular
climax, the lights of the Y\ bite Elves are seen
returning in joyous dance. As the final hymn
ends, Baldur vanishes. The head of Xidhugg,
which had been severed by the swords of
warriors, is placed in a litter and borne in a
[102]
•»*!SF. 1H
Synopses — The Sons of Bald it r
triumphal procession to be cremated as Care
which is supposed to have been embodied in him.
Here Mr. Scheffauer's synopsis of his play
ends.
Mr. Frank Mathieu, the stage master for The
Sons of Balditr and the conductor of its rehear-
sals, is a man of considerable experience both in
amateur and professional theatricals who has,
also, a fine sense of the subtleties of the poetic
drama and of interpretive reading which are
matters of the greatest aesthetic importance in
the grove-plays.
103
V — Conclusion
While on the literary side of these grove-
plays there is an interesting quality of fresh-
ness curiously associated with classical tradi-
tion, the originality of treatment displayed in
the text is matched with an equal originality
in other phases of the entertainment. This i.->
brought about, as has been pointed out before,
largely by the physical characteristics of the
setting. In this theatre, for which "God
Almighty was our stage carpenter," as a cer-
tain member of the club once said, expediency
as well as experience has been a great teacher.
For example, the Bohemians have learned
much about light effects. In some of the pro-
ductions footlights have been omitted by men
who never heard of Mr. Gordon Craig. With
a background of natural foliage that drinks
light, the effect of diffused light from open
reflectors and of concentrated light from lenses
differs wholly from their effect upon the or-
dinary objective planes. This applies, also, to
the effect of colored lights one with another
and upon the vegetation. The light plot, care-
[104]
Conclusion
fully devised in advance, is carried out with a
single rehearsal on Friday night.
The Mechanical Factor
In the matter of properties, commercial
methods, after being thoroughly tested, have
been found inadequate to the peculiar condi-
tions. In the Bohemian grove, the frankness
of Xature undefiled demands frankness in such
accessories as it may be necessary to introduce
on the stage. Papier mache, tinsel, and other
materials of the professional property men are
used sparingly or not at all. It is by artists in
the club that the properties for the grove-plays
are usually designed and sometimes executed as
well. Mr. George Lyon has displayed a rare-
faculty in such matters. The costumes are, also
frequently designed by artist members, and
mechanical devices to meet particular require-
ments are contrived by the men who direct the
productions. Of these may be mentioned such
appliances as the arrangement of canvas and
bark that enabled the wood-spirits in The Hama-
dryads to emerge from the cores of what ap-
peared to be solid trees ; the luminous shaft of
Apollo in the same production ; or those by means
of which in The TriumpJi of Bohemia the Spirit
[1051
77/ c B oh c 111 ia n J in ks
of Fire emitted from his helmet and from his
torch, at will, a hurst of flame ; those by which
flames were made to leap from the ground at his
footfalls; and, finally, those by which an owl was
made to fly three times across the stage and,
swooping down in a half circle, to alight at a
particular spot, all with a semblance of life that
was beyond criticism.
The tactics of the professional stage man-
ager, unless he be of an adaptable nature, are
more of a hinderance than a help in the
Bohemian grove. In fact traditions of every
kind are overthrown in this unique forest
theatre which demands a new stage craft, a
new technic and throws the old methods — from
"cross stage to right" to "exit L. U. E." — out
of court.
Acting and Interpretation
It is proper to class among the remarkable
things that have been brought about by these
essays of the Bohemian Club an admirable inter-
pretive quality in the acting of some of the prin-
cipals in the grove-plays. Amateurs who,
through lack of experience or on account of tem-
peramental tendencies, are disposed to ignore the
advice of Hamlet in his instructions to the players
as much as the majority of Hamlets, are subdued
[106]
Conclusion
into commendable repression by the influence of
poetry realized in its setting. Methods that ap-
peal little to the average spectator and which, for
that reason, are the more to be extolled, are
gradually finding expression in the acting of
Bohemian players who wot not of "cantalation"
nor of Mr. Yeats's experiments, and to whom
Nietzsche's canons of the stage are as foreign as
pfaffians. In rendering some of the verse that
has been written for the Bohemian grove thev
have displayed a simplicity, a verecundia that has
helped the poetry and the play to be remembered
as can never be the case when the over-emphasis
of the moment stirs the superficial emotions leav-
ing the deeper ones untouched.
At the time when the creative impulses that
stir in the soil of this far Western country with
its smiling Italian skies and with the atmosphere
of the youth of the world ; a land hospitable to
the seeds vof art which, even amid the weeds of
provincialism and the worms of bourgeois
bigotry and ignorance, give promise of blossoms
with something of the fineness and rarity of old-
world flowers — one cannot but speculate upon
the destiny of this interesting exotic, the Bo-
hemian Club grove-play. Has it said all that it
has to say? Is the spell of The Hamadryads, the
[1071
77/ c Boh c m ia n J in ks
sustained charm of The Triumph of Bohemia to
be reached again or surpassed? Will the balance-
between the various factors — the dramatic, the
musical, and the spectacular — be maintained, or
will the zeal of the actor, of the musician, or of
the artist — tend, by forcing an over-emphasis
upon one of these factors, to formulate a new
type or cause a reversion to an old one? Should
either of these things occur the grove-plays will
undoubtedly lose the distinction that they now
have and become mere reflections of other forms
of stage presentation.
As yet neither professionalism nor publicity
has contaminated the grove performances. The
only persons that see the productions are the
members and the holders of visitors' cards | to
which only non-residents of California are en-
titled). Other than these, a few special guests,
and the employees of the club, no one has ever
seen the performance of a grove-play except, of
course, the inevitable intruder who comes usually
under the cover of darkness. This is mentioned
because of the fact that a performance given for
the benefit of a limited number, and for which
tickets cannot be purchased at any price, has a
direct psychological bearing upon the character
of the thing produced. Thus the man who writes
[108]
C o ii c I u s i o n
a play, or who composes music for the Bohemian
Club, does it first for the club and second for the
pleasure of his own group of friends in the club.
It is performed and, although the text is printed
in the programme, it is not published ; the world
never sees it.
Plays put forth in this way, with no thought of
the world's praise, may truthfully be said to be
produced in the amateur spirit ; it may, indeed,
be called the amateur spirit in its highest
expression excepting, perhaps, certain forms of
anonymity. It was this amateur spirit that gave
birth to the early jinks; it was in the amateur
spirit that they have developed through the years
to their present scope and importance ; and it is in
the amateur spirit only that they can be held up
to their highest standards.
Since 1903 it has been the practice of the
club to give a single public concert in the citv
each year shortly after the midsummer en-
campment. At these affairs excerpts from the
score of the grove-play are performed and
certain illustrative passages from the book are
read.
Tendencies
Various tendencies have from time to time
shown themselves. For example, repetitions of
[109]
The B oh c in ian J i n k s
the plays both in the grove and in the city have
been urged ; the admission of women to the club
festivals has been discussed as has their partici-
pation in the performances ; special presentations
to which women might be invited have been pro-
posed. It is this complex condition, together
with the necessarily limited number of poets and
musicians capable of upholding the best tradi-
tions of the club, that makes the future of these
festivals so much a matter of uncertainty.
The greatest danger, as before suggested, is
that they will degenerate into more or less com-
monplace drama or opera. Like water that has
been carried to a height it will sink to its own
level the moment the force that has driven it
upward is withdrawn. So with the grove-play :
having its origin in the drama it has been swept,
one might say, by "the supreme interference of
beauty," in a series of concatenated creative im-
pulses into what is as much entitled to the name
of a new art form as the Wagnerian music-
drama. It remains to be seen whether or not it
will revert to the parent stock and be lost as a
distinct genre.
Ideally it should be poetic not only in treat-
ment but in conception ; the musical element
should not be melodramatic, but conceived in the
[110]
C o n c 1 it s i o 11
same poetic spirit ; and the whole interpreted dis-
creetly by action and spectacle.
With these qualities the Bohemian grove-play
gives to those who react to its spirit, who sense
it in its relation to its environment, and who
register its implications, — an impression of what
can be likened to nothing so fitly as to a mys-
terious, inspiring, and unforgettable dream.
Ill
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Chronological List of Jinks (1872-1908)
The following list has been compiled chiefly
from the club records which are by no means
complete. Care has been taken to verify doubt-
ful points by personal interviews with members
and by correspondence. It is hoped that, by
these precautions, errors and omissions have
been reduced to a minimum. It is too much to
expect, however, that no mistake has crept in.
and should any member detect such he will
confer a favor upon the writer by communicat-
ing with him.
The title, "Musical Sire," used in this
table, was selected because the more specific
title. "Musical Director," might be misleading.
Members in charge of the music at the various
entertainments of the club may do no more
than arrange a programme and play accom-
paniments, or they may compose the music for
a grove-plav and conduct tbe orchestra.
Only jinks, or entertainments presided over by
a sire are here listed. Such affairs as the dinner
[1151
A p p c 11 di x
to Tomasso Salvini, the reception to Sir I lenry
Irving, etc., although partaking of the character
of jinks are omitted. Accounts of these enter-
tainments will he found in The Annals of The
Bohemian Club, by Captain Robert Howe
Fletcher. The list follows :
1872
Nov. 30 — Tom Moore and Offenbach — Sire, Daniel
O'Connell.
Dec. 28 — Christinas Jinks — Sire. James F. Bowman.
1873
Feb. 22 — Tom Hood — Sire, Frank G. Xewlands.
March 29 — William Makepeace Thakeray — Sire, Thomas
Newcomb.
April 27 — William Shakespeare — Sire, Harry Edwards.
May 31 — Hebrew and German Poets — Sire, Paul
Neumann.
June 28 — A Tennyson Night — Sire, James F. Bowman.
july 26— The Wits of the State— Sire. W. H. Rhodes.
Aug. 25 — Charles Dickens — Sire, Joseph C. Ford.
Sept. 27 — The Poets That Have Sung of the Sea —
Sire, George T. Bromley.
Oct. 25 — In Memoriam of Byron — Sire, R. Beverly
Cole.
Nov. 29— The Poets That Have Sung of the Battle-
field—Sire, W. H. L. Barnes.
Dec. 27— Christmas Jinks: Dr. Watts— Sire. J. G.
Eastman.
1874
Jan. 31 — Walter Scott — Sire, E. D. Wheeler.
[116]
Chr o nolo g ical L ist o f J i n k s
Feb. 28— Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes— Sire, C. T.
Deane.
March 28 — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — Sire, James
F. Bowman.
May 30 — Unknown Authors — Sire, A. S. Bender.
June 27 — Social Low Jinks — Low Jinks Committee :
George T. Bromley, D. P. Belknap,
Joseph C. Ford.
July 25— The Ballad Writers— Sire, Samuel C. Os-
bourne.
Aug. 29 — The Minnesongs of Germany — Sire, Barton
Hill.
Sept. 26 — James Fennimore Cooper — Sire, John Clare
Cremony.
Oct. 28 — Ladies' High Jinks — Jinks Committee.
Nov. 28 — Epigrams — Sire, John W. Dwinell.
Dec. 30 — Santa Ulula — Sire, Thomas Newcomb;
Musical Sire, Harry O. Hunt.
1875
Jan. 30 — Robert Burns — Sire, Smyth Clark.
Feb 27 — Poets, Orators, and Wits of Old Ireland —
Sire, Stuart M. Taylor ; Musical Sire,
Joseph Maguire.
April 3 — A Bowl of Punch — Sire, Harry Edwards.
May 5 — Ladies' Reception — Sire, Joseph C. Ford ;
Musical Sire, John Trehane.
May 29 — Songs of the Bacchanals and Buccaneers —
Sire, Daniel O'Connell.
June 26 — Women Poets — Sire, William Harney ; Mu-
sical Sire, J. E. Tippett.
[117]
Appendix
July 31— The World Which We Inhabit From a Bo-
hemian Point of View — Sires, George
T. Bromley and C. W. Lightner; Musi-
cal Sire, E. Louis Goold, Jr.
Aug. 28 — Music — Sire, Stephen W. Leach ; Musical
Sire, Alfred Kelleher.
Oct. 26 — Ladies' Music Reception — Sire, Stephen W.
Leach.
Nov. 27— Dean Swift— Sire, R. K. Nuttall.
Dec. 22 — "A Merry Christmas," a Farce — Sire, Virgil
Williams.
1876
Jan. 29 — A Bohemian Lobscouse — Sire, George T.
Bromley; Musical Sire, Joseph Magiiire.
Feb. 26 — Unknown Subjects — Unknown Sires.
April 1— Oliver Goldsmith— Sire, D. P. Belknap.
April 26 — Ladies' High Jinks: Women Who Have
Written — Sire. Lauren E. Crane; Musi-
cal Sire, Henry C. Ruhl.
May 27 — Representative Men of the Period — Sire, H.
H. Behr; Musical Sire, William P.
Edwards.
June 24 — Trish Wit and Humor — Sire. Jennings S.
Cox ; Musical Sire, George T. Evans.
July 29 — Doctors — Sire, Benjamin R. Swan ; Musical
Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
Aug. 26 — Pastimes and Merrymakings — Sire. Andrew
McFarland Davis ; Musical Sire. E.
Louis Goold. Jr.
[118]
Chronological List of Jinks
Oct. 1 — Nathaniel Hawthorn and William Vincent
Wallace — Sire, Charles A. Low; Musical
Sire, George J. Gee.
Oct. 28— Old Jokes, etc.— Sire, Daniel O'Connell ;
Musical Sire, Harry O. Hunt.
Nov. 25 — George D. Prentice's Poetry and Para-
graphs— Sire, Hugh M. Burke; Musical
Sire, Samuel D. Mayer.
Dec. 2-1 — Christmas Jinks : Something Different —
Sires, H. H. Behr and George T.
Bromley ; Musical Sire, Harry O. Hunt.
Feb. 24 — Xo subject — Sire, George T. Bromley.
1877
April 4— William W. Story— Sire, E. D. Wheeler;
Sires, Stephen W. Leach and George J.
Gee.
April 29 — William Shakespeare — Sire, Harry Edward- ;
Musical Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
May 12 — Judicial Jinks — Sire, Frank M. Pixley.
May 26 — English Music — Sire, Stephen W. Leach ;
Musical Sire, George J. Gee.
June 30 — An Ideal Bohemia — Fred M. Somers; Musi-
cal Sire, George J. Gee.
Sept. 1 — Heroism — Sire, George T. Bromley; Musi-
cal Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
Sept. 29 — Commercial High Jinks — Sire, E. L. G.
Steele ; Musical Sire, H. M. Bosworth.
Oct. 27 — Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller —
Sire, Stuart M. Taylor ; Musical Sire,
Stephen W. Leach.
[119]
A ppen dix
Dec. 1 — Dreams — Sire, Barbour T. Lathrop ; Musical
Sires, Stephen W. Leach and George J.
Gee.
Dec. 29 — Christmas Jinks : Feast of Reason and Flow
of Soul — Sire, Harry Edwards.
1878
Jan. 26 — London Literary Celebrities — Sire, Franklin
Philp ; Musical Sire, George J. Gee.
Feb. 23 — Charles Lamb — Sire, Caspar Schenck ; Musi-
cal Sire, George J. Gee.
March 30— Nothing— Sire, Walter G Holmes.
April 27— Artemus Ward— Sire, A. D. Bradley; Musi-
cal Sire, George J. Gee.
May 31 — Ladies' High Jinks : Sweethearts and Wives
— Sire, Charles Warren Stoddard ; Musi-
cal Sire, George J. Gee.
June 29— FIRST MIDSUMMER J INKS
Harry Edwards, Sire
July 27 — Free and Easy, or Pipe and Tobacco Har-
monic Meeting — Jinks Committee.
Aug. 31 — The Pyramids — Sire, J. C. Williamson.
Oct. 5 — Socrates — Sire, Henry X. Clement; Musical
Sire, Henry Heyman.
Nov. 2 — Gourmandise — Sire, Alexander G. Hawes ;
Musical Sire, J. E. Tippett.
Nov. 30 — Thanksgiving Jinks — Sire, William W. Mor-
row.
Dec. 28 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, R. C. Rogers ; Musi-
cal Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
[120]
Chronolo g ical L ist o f J i 11 k s
1879
March 1 — Fine Arts — Sire, John H. Boalt ; Musical
Sire, J. E. Tippett.
March 29 — Wit, Wisdom, and Wickedness — Sire, Lucius
H. Foote ; Musical Sire, E. Louis Goold,
Jr.
May 3 — Nursery Rhymes — Sire, J. King Goodrich ;
Musical Sire, Oscar Herold.
May 28 — Ladies' High Jinks: Bric-a-Brac — Sire,
Frank L. Unger ; Musical Sire, George
J. Gee.
June 28— SECOND MIDSUMMER JINKS
As You Like It
Hugh M. Burke, Sire
Walter G. Holmes, Musical Sire
Sept. 6 — Spirits — Sire, Clay M. Greene ; Musical Sire,
Charles M. Dungan.
Nov. 1 — Go-as-you-please High Jinks — Sire, Charles
A. Low : Musical Sire, Henry Heyman.
Nov. 29 — Thanksgiving Jinks — Sire, A. M. Wilder ;
Musical Sire, David W. Loring.
Dec. 27 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, R. C. Rogers ; Musi-
cal Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
1880
Feb. 7— On the Flying Jib-Boom — Sire, Robert 1 1 ewe
Fletcher ; Musical Sire, George J. Gee.
March 27 — The Army and Navy — Sire, T. H. F. Rob-
ertson ; Musical Sire, Henry Heyman.
121]
A ppen dix
May 29— The World, the Flesh, and the Devil— Sire.
Edward Field; Musical Sire, David W.
C. Nesfield.
June 26 — Bahies' High Jinks — Sire, Paid Neumann.
July 24— THIRD MIDSUMMER JINKS
W. H. L. Barnes, Sire
Aug. 28 — Ladies' High Jinks : Home, Sweet Home —
Sire, Raoul Martinez.
Nov. 6 — Truth — Sire. H. K. Moore; Musical Sire. II.
M. Bosworth.
Dec. 4 — The Devil — Sire. Harry J. Brady; Musical
Sire, Stephen W. Leach : Low Jinks — ■
Sire. Samuel C. Osbourne.
Dec. 30 — Christmas Jinks: Illusions — Sire. John H.
Boalt; Musical Sire, Harry O. Hunt.
1881
Jan. 29 — Ignorance — Sire, Maxmilian Taubles.
Feb. 26— Old and New— Sire. Irving M. Scott: Mu-
sical Sire, Louis Schmidt.
April 1 — Water — Sire, D. P. Belknap; Musical Sire.
Stephen W. Leach.
May 28 — Waltonian Jinks — Sire. Charles Josselyn ;
Musical Sire, J. E. Tippett.
June [?]— FOURTH MIDSUMMER JIXKS
James F. Bowman, Sire
Frank L. Unger. Musical Sire
Oct. 1 — Journalistic High Jinks — Sire. M. G. Upton,
Musical Sire, Henry C. Ruhl.
[122] .
Chronological List of J i n k s
Oct. 29 — Frauds — Sire, Walter Turnbull ; Musical
Sire. J. E. Tippett.
Nov. 26 — The Elysian Fields — Sire, Peter Robertson ;
Musical Sire, E. W. Reuling.
Dec. 28 — Christmas Jinks : The Absent — Sire, Alex-
ander G. Hawes ; Musical Sires, Stephen
W. Leach and Raoul Martinez.
1882
Feb. 1 — Ladies' High Jinks: That Club — Sire, Hugh
M. Burke ; Musical Sire, E. Louis Goold,
Jr.
Fel). 25 — Auld Lang Syne — Sire. Clay M. Greene ;
Musical Sire, H. M. Bosworth.
April 1 — Bachelors — Sire, Leonard Chenery; Musical
Sire, Charles B. Stone.
May 6 — A Jinks Without a Name — Sire, John How-
son.
May 27 — Gossip — Sire, Crittenden Thornton ; Musical
Sire, Charles A. Low.
June 24 — Night — Sire, Horace G. Piatt ; Musical Sire,
David W. Loring.
July 29— FIFTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Joys That Wf.'ye Tasted
George T. Bromley, Sire
Stephen W. Leach, Musical Sire
Sept 30 — Dogs — Sire, George Chismore ;. Musical Sire.
Charles A. Low.
Nov. 25 — Our Old Mistresses — Sire. Daniel O'Connell ;
Musical Sire, Joseph D. Redding.
[123]
Append ix
Dec. 30 — Christmas Jinks: Love — Sire, Paul Neu-
mann ; Musical Sire, E. Louis Goold, Jr.
1883
March 3 — Clubs — Sire. Clarence R. Greathouse; Musi-
cal Sire, Benjamin Clark.
April 4— Ladies' High Jinks: What Shall We Do
Willi Our Wives?— Sire. Harry J. YV.
Dam ; Musical Sire, J. A. Darling.
May 5 — Anniversary Jinks : The Old Curiosity Shop
— Sire, George T. Bromley: Musical
Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
June 23— SIXTH MIDSUMMER JIXKS
Paul Neumann, Sire
Sept. 1 — Newspaper Jinks — Sire, Barbour T. La-
throp ; Musical Sire. Charles B. Stone.
Low Jinks : Journalism in Its True
Aspects — Sire, Joseph D. Redding.
Sept. 29 — Sleep — Sire, W. E. Brown : Musical Sire,
Samuel D. Mayer.
Dec. 29 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, W. H. L. Barnes;
Musical Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
1884
March 1 — Truth — Sire, Hugh M. Burke ; Musical Sire,
Harry O. Hunt.
June 28 — Cranks — Sire, Andrew McEarland Davis:
Musical Sire. David W. Loring.
[124]
Chronological List o f J i n k s
Aug. 9— SEVENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Stuart M. Taylor, Sire
Nov. 29 — Thanksgiving Jinks — Sire, Stephen W.
Leach.
Dec. 27 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Stuart M. Taylor ;
Musical Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
1885
Feh. 28 — Notoriety — Sire, E. G. Peters ; Musical Sire,
S. Freidenrich.
April 7 — Ladies' High Jinks: The Muses — Sire,
Joseph D. Redding; Musical Sire, Ste-
phen W. Leach.
July 25— EIGHTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Andrew McFarland Davis, Sire
Stephen W. Leach, Musical Sire
Nov. 28 — Thanksgiving Jinks : Memories — Sire, E. F.
Preston ; Musical Sire. Samuel D.
Mayer.
Dec. 26 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Benjamin R. Swan;
Musical Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
1886
May 22— Utopia— Sire. James D. Phelan; Musical
Sire. Henry Heyman.
July 17— XIXTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
George Chi smoke. Sire
Stephen- W. Leach, Musical Sire
LOW J INKS
Clay M. Greene, Sire
[125]
Appendix
Aug. 28 — The Drama — Sire-, Clay M. Greene; Musical
Sire, Stephen W. Leach.
Nov. 27 — Thanksgiving Jinks: Is Life Worth Living?
— Sire, Robert Howe Fletcher.
Dec. 31 — Christinas Jinks — Sire, George Chismore.
1887
March 19 — Musical Jinks — Sire, Henry Ilcyman. Low
Jinks — Sire, Joseph D. Redding.
July 23— TENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Peter Robertson, Sire.
Oct. 8 — Vanity Fair — Sire, George W. Nagle.
Dec. 30 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Benjamin R. Swan;
Musical Sires, Henry Heyman, H. J.
Stewart, and Stephen W. Leach.
1888
Aug. 18— ELEVENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
The Convention
James D. Phelan, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Dec. 29 — Christmas Jinks: Castles in the Clouds —
Sire, George T. Bromley ; Musical Sire,
J. H. Rosewald.
1889
May 18— First Born Jinks— Sire. W. 1 1. L. Barnes;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low Jinks:
The Influence of Fun on the Unman
Family — Sire. George T. Bromley.
[126]
Chronological List of J i n k s
July 27— TWELFTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
The Praises of Pan
Daniel O'Connell, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Nov. 2 — The Wooing of the Muses — Sire, John La-
throp.
Dec. 28 — Christmas Jinks : Our Ancestors — Sire,
Peter Robertson; Musical Sire, H. J.
Stewart.
1890
March 29— Things We Do Not Understand— Sire, M.
H. Myrick. Low Jinks : Things in
General — Sire, George T. Bromley.
July 26— THIRTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
E. B. Pomroy, Sire
H. S. Stewart, Musical Sire
Nov. 1 — Don Quixote — Sire, E. L. G. Steele ; Musical
Sire, J. H. Rosewald. Low Jinks — Sire,
Alfred Bouvier.
Dec. 27 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, J. M. McDonald.
1891
Feb. 28— High Jinks— Sire, Solly H. Walter. Low
Jinks — Sire, J. Denis Arnold.
July 18— FOURTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
J. Denis Arnold, Sire
Low Jinks
George T. Bromley, Sire
[127]
Appendi x
Oct. 10— Ins and Outs— Sire, Horace G. Piatt; Musi-
cal Sire, J. K. Rosewald.
Dec. 26 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, James D. Phelatl.
Low Jinks: Shy Shy, or the Emperor's
Sister ( farce I.
1892
Sept. 3— FIFTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
The Festival of the Leaves
(Buddha Jinks)
Fred M. Somers, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Dec. 31 — Christmas Jinks: The Discovery of Bohemia
— Sire, Albert Gerberding; Musical Sire.
J. H. Rosewald. Low Jinks — Snj,
George E. P. Hall.
1893
March 25 — Clients vs. Lawyers — Sire, Jere Lynch ; Mu-
sical Sire, Henry Heyman. Low Jinks —
Sire, Gaston M. Ashe.
Aug. 5— SIXTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
The Sacrifice in the Forest
(Druid Jinks)
Joseph D. Redding, Sire
Low Jinks
Donald de V. Graham and Louis Sloss, Sires.
Dec. 30 — Christmas Jinks : St. Nicholas — Sire. Albert
Gerberding; Musical Sire, J. H. Rose-
wald. Low Jinks — Sire, Willard Barton.
[128]
Chronologi c a I L i s t of Jin k s
1894
May 12 — Ye Olden Colonial Days — Sire, William
Greer Harrison; Musical Sire, H. J.
Stewart. Low Jinks : Ye Fakirs Faked
— Sire, William G. Stafford.
Aug. 18— SEVENTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
A Gypsy Camp
Peter Robertson, Sire
H. J. Stewakt, Musical Sire
Low Jinks
Picnic of the Tralaloo Club
James M. Hamilton, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Dec. 29 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Horace G. Piatt.
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low
Jinks — Sire, Charles Josselyn.
1895
Feb. 28— The Divinity of Art— Sire, Solly H. Walter;
Musical Sire, J. H. Rosewald.
May 30— Misfits— Sire, William Center.
Aug. 3— EIGHTEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Vanderlynn Stow, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Low Jinks
Albert Gerberding, Sire
Joseph D. Redding, Musical Sire
Nov. 2— Trilby Jinks— Sire, Donald de V. Graham ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
[129]
Appendix
Dec. 28 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, George T. Bromley;
Musical Sire, Henry Heyman. Low-
Jinks — Sire, Henry W. Dimond.
1896
May 23 — Problems — Sire, Julius Rosenstirn. Low
Jinks : The Devil Up to Date — Sire,
Hugo Toland.
Aug. 22— NINETEENTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Shakespeare Jinks
Albert Gerberding, Sire
Low Jinks
A. C. Hellman, Sire
Theodor Vogt, Musical Sire
Oct. 31 — United Service Jinks — Sire, Sydney A. Clo-
man; Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low
Jinks — Sire, Thomas F. Ruhm; Musical
Sire, H. J. Stewart.
Dec. 20 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, George Chismore ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low Jinks :
"The Christmas Nightmare," by Gelett
Burgess — Sire, H. J. Stewart.
1897
May 29— The Staff of Life— Sire, George H. Powers ;
.Musical Sire. Samuel D. Mayer. Low-
Jinks — Sire, George T. Bromley.
julv 24— TWENTIETH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Faust Jinks
H. J. Stewart, Sire
[130]
Chronological List of J i n k s
Low Jinks
Charles J. Dickman, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Dec. 18 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, William Sproule ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low Jinks :
The Second Born — Sire, M. A. Newell ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
1898
July 23— TWENTY-FIRST MIDSUMMER JINKS
Days of Long Ago
Donald de V. Graham, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Sire
Low Jinks
Fun in the Asylum
Henry Dimond, Sire
Oct. 22— The Weather— Sire, Josiah R. Howell ; Mu-
sical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low Jinks :
Minstrelsy — Sire.Thomas Rickard ; Mu-
sical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
Dec. 17 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, James A. Thompson;
Musical Sire, Wallace A. Sabin. Low
Jinks : "A Bunch of Bananas" — Sire, J.
C. Wilson.
1899
April 1 — The True Bohemia — Sire, Clay M. Greene;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low
Jinks : Fools — Sire, Louis Sloss.
[1311
Appendix
July 22— TWENTY-SECOND MIDSUMMER
J INKS
Rip Van Winkle Jinks
Robert Howe Fletcher, Sire
James Graham, Musical Sire
Low Jinks
La Vie de Boheme
James H. Graham, Sire
Dec. 23 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Vanderlynn Stow ;
Musical Sire, Wallace A. Sabin. Low
Jinks— Sire, A. M. Newell.
1900
Aug. 11— TWENTY-THIRD MIDSUMMER JINKS
Albert Gerberding, Sire
Low Jinks
J. C. Wilson, Sire
Oct. 13 — The Grape : Its Juices, Uses, and Ahuses —
Sire, William Sproule.
Dec. 23 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Vanderlynn Stow ;
Musical Sire, Wallace A. Sabin.
1901
May 15 — Others — Sire, Frank P. Deering.
Aug. 3— TWENTY-FOURTH MIDSUMMER
JINKS
The Enigma of Life
J. Denis Arnold, Sire
[132]
Chronological List of Jin k s
Low Jinks
Charles B. Sloan, Sire
Nov. 2 — Ships That Pass in the Night — Sire, Edgar
D. Peixotto.
Dec. 28 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Frank P. Deering.
Low Jinks : On the Klondyke — Sire,
Edgar Mizner.
1902
Aug. 16— TWENTY-FIFTH MIDSUMMER JINKS
First Grove- Play
The Max ix the Forest
by Charles K. Field
Music by Joseph D. Redding
Richard M. Hotalixg, Sire
Joseph D. Redding, Musical Director
Low Jixks
Orrin Peck, Sire
H. J. Stewart. Musical Sire
Dec. 27 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Frank P. Deering.
Low Jinks : "Christmas in Hell", by
Gelett Burgess — Sire, Gelett Burgess;
Musical Sire, W. J. McCoy.
1903
Aug. 3— TWENTY-SIXTH MIDSUMMER JIXKS
Second Grove-Play
Montezuma
by Louis Robertson
H331
A p pen d i x
Music by 1 1. J. Stewart
Louis Robertson, Sire
H. J. Stewart, .Musical Director
Low Jinks
Mazuma
by Porter Garnctt
Music by W. J. McCoy
Porter Garnett, Sire
W. J. McCoy. Musical Director
Oct. 21 — Bret Harte Jinks — Sire. C. S. Aiken; Musical
Sire, H. J. Stewart.
Dec. 19 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, James D. Phelan ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart. Low Jinks :
Abe Hur. by Will Irwin— Sire, Will
Irwin; Musical Director, Wallace A
Sabin.
1904
May 7 — High Jinks : Faculty Night — Sire, Benjamin
Ide Wheeler; Musical Sire, Burhank
Somers. Low Jinks : "Ralph Roister
Doister" (circa 1534-41) by Nicholas
Udall.
Aug. 20— TWENTY-SEVENTH MIDSUMMER
JINKS
Third Grove-Play
The Hamadryads; A Masque of Apollo
by Will Irwin
Music by W. J. McCoy
J. Wilson Shiels. Sire
[134]
Chronological List of J i n k s
W*. J. McCoy, Musical Director
Low Jinks
The Inimitable Itinerants
by Ernest Simpson
Ernest Simpson, Sire
Paul Steindorff, Musical Director.
Oct. 29 — Wanderers in Bohemia — Jinks Committee ;
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
Dec. 11 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, James D. Phelan ;
Musical Sire, Edward F. Schneider.
Low Jinks : "Who'll Buy My Lavender"
(Pantomime), by Chester Bailey Fern-
aid, music by Theodor Vogt — Sire,
Chester Bailey Fernald ; Musical Direc-
tor, Theodor Vogt.
1905
Aug. 12— TWENTY-EIGHTH MIDSUMMER
J INKS
Fourth Grove-Play
The Quest of the Gorgon
by Newton J. Tharp
Music by Theodor Vogt
Newton J. Tharp, Sire
Theodor Vogt, Musical Director
Low Jinks
Sybil and the Gorgonzola
Russell J. Cool, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Director
[135]
Appendix
Dec. 23 — Christmas Jinks — Sire, Willard Barton; Mu-
sical Sire, Wallace A. Sabin. Low Jinks.
"Seventeen Years After" (Pantomime),
by Chester Bailey Fernald ; Music by 11.
J. Stewart — Sire, Chester Bailey Fern-
ald; Musical Director, H. J. Stewart.
1906
Aug. 4— TWENTY-NINTH MIDSUMMER
JINKS
Fifth Grove-Play
By Charles K. Field
Music by H. J. Stewart
Charles K. Field, Sire
H. J. Stewart, Musical Director
Dec. 22 — Christmas Jinks — "The Conquest of the
Philistines," by Porter Garnett. Music
by Wallace A. Sabin — Sire, Frederic
W. Hall. Musical Director, Wallace A.
Sabin.
1907
April 27 — Redivivus Jinks— "Hartmann & Son," by J.
Wilson Shiels, and "Salome," a Travesty.
by Allan Dunn — Sire, Allan Dunn.
Musical Sire, Emil Bruguiere.
July 27~ THIRTIETH MIDSUMMER JINKS
Sixth Grove-Play
The Triumph of Bohemia
By George Sterling
[136]
Chronolo g ical L ist of J i n k s
Music by Edward F. Schneider
George Sterling, Sire
Edward F. Schneider, Musical Director
Cremation of Care
By A. R. Hardin
Music by Theodor Vogt
Nov. 23 — Neophyte Jinks : "The Triumph of Booze,"
by Charles G. Xorris — Sire, Charles G.
Xorris. Musical Sire, Arthur Weiss.
1908
Jan. 4 — Christmas Jinks : Sire, Frederic W. Hall.
Musical Sire, W. J. McCoy. Low
Jinks : Juvenile Jinks — Sire, Charles B.
Sloan. Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
May 13— Days of '49 Jinks— Sire, Charles S. Aiken.
Musical Sire, H. J. Stewart.
Aug. 8— THIRTY-FIRST MIDSUMMER JINKS
Seventh Grove-Play
The Sons of Baldur
By Herman Scheffauer
Musk: by Arthur Weiss
Herman Scheffauer, Sire
Arthur Weiss, Musical Director
137
r
£?
<£
3\W
~r o
-<
3WV
■^
<5?
-<
3UV
MEl£j>
■3WV
UNIVERSITY' OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
etc mm,
REC'D
REC'D C.L
Of C 2, -95
*WK IAN 2 5 1996
JO '96
■■A.
<\\\E-UNIVER%
^ 1
vvlOS-ANCftfj>
o
^•IIBRARYQ^
CO
UBKAKY-0/-
^2.
F-CALIFOfcfc
-MtilBKAKYP/
A.0FCAIIF0%
4?
^AavaaiH^
^YUUNIVtKV/y,
3 1158 00985 7938
3
>-
or
"**.
.\WE-UNIVERS"//>
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
000 947 261
£SV
E-liNIVERS//.
oslOS AS'CELfj>
©
13DNV-S01^
^HIBRARYtf/ ^UIBRARYQ^
v/^MINniWv ^»0JnV3-JO>" ^OJIIVJJO^
tsME-l
EMIVERS//,
^lOS-ANGElfj>
lJDNV-SOl^
%il3AINfHl\V
^0FCALIF(% ^0FCALIF(%
^Auvaain^
^WEi
•LIBRARY^
1J
OJITVD-JO^
^•tlBRARYQ^
^OJIIVO-JO*
\WEUNIVERS//, ^lOS-ANGElfj>
"^JTO-SOl^
%H3AINIH^
^0FCA1IFC%
amir^
y<?Aavaan-#
,\VlE-UNIVERS//>.
o
<Tii2DNV-S01^
^lOS-ANGElfj^
"%3AINU3\\V
S>
3,
iE-UNIVERS^
5$
vvlOS-AMCElfj>
T O
-Tt <— '
0 l^_
^•IIBRARY^ ^IIBRARYQa
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11