The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-08-28
The Passion Play at obsr Amh,.rpau.

correspondent of the London Wee1z,
Register, writing on the 18th ult. thus refer.
to this celebrated dramatic representation
The villagers of Ober Ammergau an.
nounces the repetition of their Passion Spiel
lot each successive Sunday up to the end
OF september, the last day being Michael
mas, after which the weather becomes in
these mountains too precarious to venture
10 continue 1t any longer. was present at
IL yesterday, and can strongly recommend
all who intend q tour ON the continent to
make 1t fall into their plans. What is going
on between the belligerents, France and
RUSSIA, we do not know in these noun
tains, put as Ammergau is only few
miles distant from the Tylole froreier,
and is approachable from three different
stations sufficiently removed from the thea
ire OF war ON the Bavarian line of rail from
Lindau on the Lake of Constance, single
travellers, particularly if they are pedes-
TRANS, can find no difficulty in reaching it,
should the events of the war interrupt the
communication from Munich.
iaere Is now an excellently managed
Quarter Bureau, where any party arriving,
no mstter from what route, will be able to
lind lodgings in one or other of the private
houses of the village, and in the event of
the influx OF strangers being such that the
number of places in the theatre does not
suffice, the play is to be repeated on Mon
day.
1t is difficult to convey any adequate
iadea of the play by a description, but the
scale on which it is carried on may be Judged
by the fact that upwards of five hundred of
the villagers take part in it, and that the
structure, which is of wood, seats $500
spectators, the stage being partly under
cover and partly in the open air, allowing
ample space to admit of the movements Of
a great crowd of persons enacting the
scenes of the drama
Yesterday the rain occasionally fell in
torrents and caused an interruption of two
hours, from about eleven to one. After
wards the rain returned about three, and
continued to the end of the play, at six P. M.
SUCH, however, was the interest of the
spectators, and such the courage of the per-
formers, that they went through every
thing. ihose OF the spectators, about 5000,
VINO were IN the open seats, were wet
through, no umbrellas, as a rule, being
and the actors, in the same man. |
ner, We're all but wet through.
II the play did not exert very powerful |
charm over the multitude, the rain must
have dispersed both spectators and actors,
for we have heard it confidently said thai
heavy rain will suppress revolu.
lion. There cannot, therefore, be a more
complete testimony that the play has the
~ mpathles of the immense multitude in
the highest degree. There was a consider
able number of English travellers of various
kinds present, and, as far as 1 had oppor-
5unities of conversing with them, thew
we're both surprised and edited The vast
body of the audience are the farmers and
heir families from the Tyrol and the Ba-
Varlan mountains; there must also have
oeen upwards of q hundred priests from
iifferent parts of Germany, including
Jesuit Fathers, Franciscans and Benedic.
lines. Ofer Ammergau has, plainly, the
general voice loudly in it's favor, and this
nay be more than ever inferred from the
circumstance that, while it is natural to
PRIESTS to suspect that the continual FAM.
iarity of body of villagers with scenes of
o very religious and ecclesiastical q nature.
which they are stage actors, the admired
great multitude, must lead to great
adecorum, if not to profanity, the report
the priests, who are spectators, induces
theirs to come in great numbers