At Ojai

The Ojai valley (pronounced O-hy) of California swarms every afternoon with outlandish & desperate-looking bandits wearing fuzzy chaps, huge spurs, violently colored silk shirts, ten and sometimes only five-gallon hats. These desperadoes swoop down on a drugstore--and ask for an ice cream soda. After they have mangled the straws and paid the soda-jerker, they climb on their horses and ride back to Thacher School, where they prepare for college.

Last fortnight, there was furious activity on the Thacher campus. Boys and girls, women and William Tatem Tilden II were playing and watching tennis from seven in the morning until seven in the evening. It was an annual affair; in previous years Maurice E. ("Red Comet'') McLaughlin, William ("Little Bill") Johnston, Mary K. Browne, May Sutton Bundy (who won the women's singles for the eleventh time), and many another little Sutton and Bundy had battled for the Ojai challenge cups.

Wrote Mr. Tilden last week: "I have never played more tennis in three days in my life ... a new sensation . . . real amateur sport ... for the game's sake . . . personality ... a lesson."