The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-01-07
Misrellanp.



readable and richly illustrated number that has
been issued from the periodical press. 1t opens
With a rare old Christmas Carol, printed in the
old English text This is followed by " Folk
Life in Sweden" finely illustrated; "The
Christmas Shear is an illustrated poem, by
Casey: and the "Voice of Christmas Past" is a
reasonable memorial to Charles Dickens, also
snlendidly illustrated. The "Dolliver Fami-
w." The Passion Play of Oberammergau," and
ore or tive other illustrated articles, with the
usual variety. monthly summary. &c, make up
perbaps the finest number of Harper, or any
other magazine ever issued in this country.
We make few random extracts
THE PASSION PLAY OF OBERAMERG AU.-The
little village OF Oberammergau is prettily situa-
ted lust inside the Bavsrian Tyrol, in sort of
meadow land. with bold high hills on the south
and lower relling country north. The inhabl-
tants, numbering some twelve hundred, are pea.
SAINTS. and. with few exceptions, carvers in wood
an occupation which seems to raise them quite
above the ordinary bauer, or famer Many OF
their carvings are really art works, and bear the
marks of careful study. Rubens' descent" and
Da Vinci's Last Supper" have been most beau
tifuly cut in apple-wood.
In the centre of the village is the church, an
object of veneration, love- and tender care as the
well-preserved frescos fresh blooming flowers on
the altar, and exquisite neatness of the interior
amply testify. The church-yard and exterior
show the same loving hands which rear delicate
" climbing vines and plant towering shrubs
near each little hillock There is something
particularly touching in this simple bat constant
remembrance of the dear departed ones. Sleep
ing around their church in the heart OF the busy
village, every mass brings some kind TREND to
sprinkle their graves with holy water which,
Il raJ ElI, have
virtue or not is, at least, proof that they are
not forgotten.
The cottages, built OF stone covered with pas-
ter, with the low, broad Swiss roof weighted with
stones 10 hold down the shingles, lave each its lit
tie garden of vegetables, fruit and rose trees !;
and on approaching the village, the entire alb
sence of large cultivated fields shows plainly the
indoor occupation OF the peasants. An atmos-
phere of general peace and good will seems to
pervade the place, and, pursuing the even tenor
of their way, the villagers come and co. making
their faith their life. and SO gently gathered
to their fathers, This being the character OF
these peasants, one can understand with what a
sense of reverence and pioUs care they undertake
the performance Of so sacred drama as the
passion of Christ" considering it a bounden
duty, which, If not conceived IN devotional
spirit would be to them an everlasting stain.
Two years previous to the performance the
principal characters are chosen as the individual
personating Christ must allow his hair to grow
for that length of time, as also Joseph of Arima-
thea, st. John md many of the disciples, and the
boards trained to initiate AS nearly as posi-
BILE the best existing pictures of the various
- characters IN the preceding January rehearsals
are held four times weekly, continuing up to the
time of performance; and after every Sunday
vespers, i'll the church, costumes and stage APP
pointments are arranged. The selection of colors
is wonderful. st. John has the real Albrecht
Durer green and red st. feter, the blue and
yellow, expressing doubt; Judas, orange and
yellow; the Maria, crimson and blue; the Christ,
crimson and purple; and on. The robes of
the Jewish priests and jewellers in Jerusalem are
all symbolical colors and so exactly like the pic
lures with which are all familiar that one
soon regards every character as an old friend.
The theatre. capable of seating SAX thousand
people, is, with the exception of the first and
second rows of boxes, entirely uncovered, ex-
posed to wind rain, or sun, as the case may De-
Tho stage, also uncovered, and representing the
streets of Jerusalem, has in its centre q small
rooted thsatre, on one side of which Is the house
OF Aanas and on the other side that of PLATE.
This theatre, Of course, is provided with drop
curtain, flies, traps and the necessary theatrical
accessories. Here all the action takes place, and
here arranged all the Old Testament tableaux,
always preceding each scene for instance, "The
Lords Supper follows Miraculous Mauna in
of being used with the large stage to good effect
when pageant or procession OF any sort oecurs
THE LAST DECADE-With the 3lst of Deem
ber $780, closes decade of years that can be
said without eIGggeration, to STE nd Unrvaled lin
the known account of time" with respect to the
Importance of the events that make up tbs sum
of its history. There is q tendency ia the human
mind that leads men to consider their own time
to be the most important of all time and though
they are right in holding such time to be the
greatest OF all days and years to them, inasmuch
as they constitute their lives, yet it is certain
that the real interest of history is concentrated
around some few periods, during which events
take place that forever after color and control
the worlds course. Such periods were the de-
Csde of years that began with the crossing of the
Rublcon by Cesar [B. c. 50400 the decade in
which occurred the fall OF the kingdom of Gra-
NADIA, the discovery Of America, the first voyage
to India by the Cape of Good Hope, the inter.
marriage uf tir. royal house of Austria and Spain,
and the invasion OF Italy by the French ll490-
1902 the decade that began with the meeting
OF the Long Parliament llG40- lGj0 the decade
that followed the passage Of the Stamp Act l7G5
l.15 y and that which followed the last meet.
ing of the States General of France ll1S9.l.99)
All these periods were full of events great in
themselves, out much greater in their conse-
quences; and yet the most strkng of them all
that with which the fifteenth century closed
was not 80 rich III GvrHts the decade that is
inst being added to the sum ct departed time
There - hardly anything thai can move the ~ IN
pithlco OF men, or excite their WONDER that has
not occurred since the Sea, SCI Mighty en-