The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1856-04-17
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EVANSVILLE IND THURSDAY MoIsNINes APRIL L. 1886
Oh, E. 1aiIlp,!. syQurnaL
MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC.

rlcal entertainment and stage exhibition In
Ecredible as it may seem, in compliance with q
special invitation from the management of that
establishment, we witnessed in common with
quite a crowd Of persons the rehearsal" J" ol
this dreadful blasphemyt No intmation was
conveyed in our card of invitation as to the
! nature of the promised exhibition, other than
that it was to be a private day rehearsalp BY
the Model Artistes there, of certain Great
fScnptural Tabeaux.' Our astonishment may
be imagined then when programme was put
in our hauds within the theatre, giving the
| following order OF rehearsal, which was accor-
dinghy duly enacted, First camea certain or
figlnal group of Famine in which livid and
starved representation of a man is exhibited in
the act and procedure of numbering an old
man for crust Of bread It was executed
with the most horrible supufation Of gestures.
After this shocking and morbid monstrosity
| OF modern French stage art came the astound-
ing atrocity of personating the agonies of the
lcrueifixion --oi. = -7}''@ 7-f5i -'-'i.
When tie curtain rose, Mons Keller a
trenchman we believe, who has made fortune
IN Poplsh countries by this Dissertation, was
discovered suspended upon cross in the CEN
tire of Il grouping of figures, after the manner
of Sir Peter Paul Ruben's picture of the "EIe-
yation of the Cross" The actor was apparent
fy attached by the lions to large wooden
cross, held at an oblique angle by cords, &C.,
as If IN the act of being elevated. His knees,
teet and extended hands were stained, as it
were with blood, the body appearing naked,
except the hons, the arInpits, even exhibiting
the appearance of the natural hair although
the actor was, in reality, covered with a silken
or other close fitting fabric of flesh color. The
head was dressed with wig and beard and
crown of thornss the blood appearing to reck
upon the brows and the face of the wretch
painted and knit into mockery Of the agonis-
ed expression of Jesus on the Cross. The
thing IN its motionlessness and audacty struck
chill of terror through the astounded specta-
tors, but when it gradually moved, turning
upon mechanism for exhibiting the back
side OF it, burst of applause was volunteered
by a etaqtte OF those present in the pit. The
clapplng and applause was renewed with moi Q
confidence upon its completing the circuit and
again when the proseenium arrangement closed
upon it, and still more Yehemently renewed
for an encore" and so through its repetition.
The next unspeakable outrage on the "bill, .
was the personation Of "I'he Last Monlerat,n
and, accordingly, the last dying gasp of Jesus
on the Cross, the sacred mystery by which
the Godhead, according to all Christian faith, |
accomplished the redemption of man, was |
mmiced and grimaced in all its living horrors
by The frightful actor. The scene disclosed
the cross with the figure suspended on it, and
with a 'cast" of the holy persons of the gos-
pei scene,' the executioners, &c, grouped at
its foot in the manner of another of Reubens
pictures. 1t was greeted with a round of APP
plause. revolyed as in the previous instance, /
the features and muscles of the figure enacting i
the agony of Christ, so as to conclude by final
and gradual dropping of the head upon its
breast. The nlmcry was terribly effective,
and the figure accurate in its detail to the most
shocking vivlfication of the terrible scene. The
hair, the beard, the thorns, the trickling blood
the eye of the man in its expression until it
seemed to glaze in death, and his whole figure,
until it seemed to yield to annihilation, all re-
alised the most thrilling horrors conceivable
in the diabolical blasphemy.
The final tableau, the :. Descent from the
Cross. personated the body of Christ held
by drapcries, and a grou ping of fig
ures, in the process of taking him down from
the Gross, after the manner of tie celebrated
picture of the above tile, by Rubens. The
figure had the appearance, OF the streaming
blood from the side, as also from other wounds,
whilst the draperies were stained with gouts
Of blood. The horror of this scene even did
not awe the cla9Ue, though all who were not
pre-enbarked in the resolve to make the
frightful exhibition 7i succeed, y must have
lest the just and sudden wrath of /,
Heaven should cause the earth to open and
swallow up the entire assemblage. -- n
We left the house with such feeling as the !
day of judgment may again beget for US, but
nothing short of Il
% How shall we speak of this desecration of d
the sacred mysteries of the Christian faith?-lc
How will Christians--Pro Protestants-Am mericans 7
the project of exposing in the mock L
cry of a French posture-dances, a mimicryl off
Christ's holy agonies upon the cross-for the .
diversion of the third tier at Broadway? Will Ia
our people endure this? Will they gather, L
like another ruffian rabble of Judea, and shout,
and clap, and encore it too? Will they ap-
plaud, and cry hi! hi! to see enacted over
again the horrible tortures at which the earth
shook, and the sun grew dark-at the sight of
which the rocks were rent, and the dead start
ed from their graves in terror? ?-Will- they
have the crucifixion Of the Living God again.
and look upon it with the eyes of Atheists, as
lift were some damned mythology?
q The atrocity is con the bills' for public ex-
hibition tonight! Americans are called upon
to see it-Protestants-th clergy especially
arc invited to witness it!-Nct single :
spark of the glorious spirit of the Lutheran
Ieonoclasts, whose fierce arm rescued the I
beauty of art from its prostitution to ldolatry
and priestcraft, is reckoned on there! The
so1,ls of our fathers the Puritans and the Wall
looms the pilgrims and the warriors of the
true crusade, who rescued@the- -supulchre of
Cbrist,s spirit-the purity of his gospel trnth
from pagan desecration and bore it to the un-
nollted wilderness ofa new continent--they, 3
in their representatives, are expected there. y
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