The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-06-21

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roof of the vast building was selected
for the work and fitted for its purpose
by carpenters under Mr.. Dorfuille's
personal direction. Then the artists,
guided by the master mind, made n
scenic model of the Inferno, occupying
two-thirds of the space, leaving the re-
mainder for audience room to specta-
tors. This portion was separated from
the 'Infernal Regions" by lattice work
of iron, on which were inscribed those
words: Punishment for touching
these bars will BE- instantaneous and
shocking" And the ''shock" was ar
ranged to come from n charged Ley
den battery, which should discharge
its electricity on any spectator who
should forget the warning.
When completed the whole scene,
under the influence of colored lights
and intervals of partial or total dark
ness, was intensely horrible.
Outside across the front of the whole
building and above the highest
windows, was a vast sign which read:
INTERNAL BEGIoNs.'
Mr.. Dorfuille no doubt saw the in
aptitude of fixing the Internal regions
in the place of the supernal above all
else; but there they were, and there
people crowded to see the antique of
that after-death hell where each feared
his neighbor might finally be doomed
| to go.
On visiting these upper internal re-
gions the stranger found himself in al
most total darkness and heard groans
unutterable. IL is said to spoil the
zest of the stage TO be admitted behind
the scenes and shown their secrets;
but at this late day it will do no harm
to say that those groans came from
vast hidden Chinese gong, on which
the lugubrious groanings were pro-
duced by the operators thumb in the
manner of tambourine players.
In the foreground, just within the
bars, was shown the Dark Plain, on
vestibule of hell, with wandering out
casts whom neither heaven nor hell
would receive; and flowing round the
brink of the great inverted cone of hell
was the river Acheron-the 'Stream of
Sorrow''-with Charon ferrying the
| sinners over.
The concentrix circles of the internal
depth fell into faint prospective to-
ward the bottom, each dimly revealed
by fitful darkness and colored lights
In the first circle were the poor heather
men. women and children, who had
"died without baptism"
In the second circle sat Minos, the
internal judge, presiding over his in
eXorable court.
In the third were the gluttons, the
sordid epicures and the great multi
tude of sinners by sensual excuses.
In the fourth was Plutus, disciplin-
ing the avaricious and the prohigate, a
woeful company.
In the fifth circle was the Stygean
Marsh, through which hopclessly
struggled the wrathful, the cruel, and
the violent, with agonies inexpressible;
and in the distance the City of Satan,
the burning sepulchres filled with souls
of arch-heretics aud them who deny
! immortality.
And so to the lowest depths the hor-
rors increased, amid wrangling devils
and souls tortured in ineXtinguishable
fires.
Over the main gateway was the in
scription in Italian and English: LAS
ciate ogni speranza vol CHI entrate:"
Leave all hope behind, we that enter. {"
Muttering thunders and dim light
nings in the distance came
at intervals, and amidst the
storm was heard the hoarse barking of
Infatuated Cerberus Plutus the
Great Enemy, was near the iron par.
tition, of gigantic size and horrid
mien; though he acted in manner not
set down in the bills, or he poem.
He grinned and frowned by turns,
snapped his huge jaws, and even
laughed derisively at the audience.
Beside him and close to the spectators
was Ewes Tempter, a huge anaconda
serpent in constant motion, writhing
in undulating folds and lifting its head
in threatening manner. This skin
of an anaconda expanded by spiral
wire within, so connected with hidden
wires as to be moved like living ser.
pent, was the device of Powers, the
young sculptor.
Then were seen the Furies, threaten.
ing, with Medusa head and usnalxy
hair; the monster Minotaur, the
Harpies, Virgil amid the shower Of
fire, the monster Gorgon, the fiery
beast with forked tail, with Dante and
his guide upon the knotted back;
tyrants and assassins stepped in boil
ing blood!
In another region was seen Mata-
coda, chief of the fiends, and their
great marshal, Barbaricia; the Great
Horn and the Giants, and numerous
other Internal personages-creation Of
the poets brain.
(To BE CoNTISUED.)