New York Times
July 9, 1899
An Entertainment in a Forest Grove
The holding of a fantastical pantomime out of doors at night is always an interesting affair, but when the scene is laid in the heart of a forest, in a grove of giant California redwood trees, a more weird or fascinating entertainment could hardly be imagined.
Each year the Bohemian Club of San Francisco gives such an affair in its redwood grove on the banks of the Russian River, California.
At one of its "midsummer jinks," as the club calls them, there was given a spectacle called "The Cremation of Care." Druid priests were prominent characters, dressed in the regulation vestments, with all the insignia of their order. There were over 500 persons in the spectacle, and electric and calcium lights were used in the tableaux.
One of the scenes represented a Druids' altar and sacrificial stone, served by the High Priest of Bohemia, a part taken by Joseph D. Redding of New York. A procession of Druid priests, with their captives before the assembly, were features that were carried off with fine effect.
In the closing scene of the spectable Mephisto and a number of devils rushed in to rescue Care from the catafalque. The Druid High Priest drove them into the wood, however, with his lighted torch, and then turned and set fire to the funeral pyre.
The spectacle was followed by the low jinks, consisting of amateur theatricals.