OUTDOOR LIFE AND THE FINE ARTS 

 Guerneville, in Sonoma County. This "grove" is a 

 redwood forest of two hundred and eighty acres on 

 the Russian River and running back something more 

 than a mile of level valley floor between steep hills. 

 The heart of the grove is one of the finest of the 

 few remaining stands of virgin redwood timber. It 

 is open throughout the year for club members, but 

 the annual "Encampment" proper is for two weeks 

 previous to the Saturday night nearest the full of the 

 moon nearest the first of August. On that night the 

 "High Jinks" takes place. Since 1878 these celebra- 

 tions have been held annually in the open air, and 

 from comparatively simple and informal entertain- 

 ments have gradually developed into dramatic and 

 musical productions of a very high order. In 1902 

 the Jinks assumed for the first time the character 

 of an organic poetic drama, in the hands of three of 

 the members of the club who have most contributed 

 to the evolution of the tradition; the play was writ- 

 ten by Charles K. Field, the music was composed by 

 Joseph D. Redding, who was also musical director, 

 and the Sire was Richard M. Hotaling. The play is 

 presented on an exquisitely lovely sylvan hillside 

 "stage," which lends itself with singular charm and 

 impressiveness to such productions. The attend- 

 ance has been keeping pace, in point of numbers, 

 with the increasing beauty of the performance; last 

 year (1914) the Jinks was witnessed by some eight 

 hundred members and guests of the club. 



It is impossible to speak too highly of the artistic 

 character of these Grove Plays. Written, composed 

 and performed entirely by members of the club they 

 stimulate to vigorous activity and give an oppor- 

 tunity for expression to the best gifts of a large 

 group of artists in various lines, such as few organi- 

 zations afford. An occasion for the emergence of 

 talent is offered by the frequent informal camp-fire 

 entertainments, at which singing and instrumental 

 music, poetry, story-telling, recitations, etc., play a 

 prominent part. Some of these "camp-fires" have 

 shown a tendency of late years to assume a special 

 character of their own, in the same way as the High 

 Jinks, but with different color. Thus the Friday 

 night preceding the Jinks has established itself as 

 a definite type; lighter and less unified, but scarcely 

 less lofty in tone than the Jinks themselves. Sim- 

 ilarly the impressive ceremony of the "Burial of 

 Care," originally an epilogue to the High Jinks, has 

 set up for itself as a separate evening, being now 

 given usually on the Saturday night a week before 

 the play, appropriately ushering in the period of 

 abandon, instead of terminating it. Thus are the 



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