Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-03-20

Sunday through Easter there are many services each coiacident with the life of Christ. Thus, Palm SunEay commemorates the triumDhal ent' of Christ into Jerusalem Monday tells Of the healing in the temple; Tuesday suggests the giving of the parables, and Thursday brings it's sad assoca- tions of the Lords supper. When the sayings of Christ upon the cross are read and the bells toll on Good Fri day. the whole passion and death seem very real. It is relief when Easter morning comes and the tuneful trom. bone choir awakens the people t,.,t little church, and from that to the cemetery nearby. Here the people stand in hollow square, and as the dawn slowly redden5 the sky, and the rising sun touches the tree tops, the birds begin their morning anthems and seem to join in the chants of praise which go up from the devout congregation.
 There have been few such spec. tacles since the pope gave up bless ing the world on Easter morn from the loggia of St. Peters. To-day Rome lacks this ceremony, but the devout can go to the Church of the Passion ates, where are the holy staircase and chapel filled with relics of the Passion, among them the title of the cruct f1xion, which no one but the pope Is allowed to see. In France the arch. bishop has for years given his bene- diction on Easter morn from Mont martre, and in London there are rich parishes where there is still a sort of perfunctory aims giving among the people, relics of time when the Pas chal feast was celebrated in arts of grace and charity.
 The American Indians take kindly to any observance which can find ex- pression in forms and ceremonies, and for this reason Easter and Passion week appeal forcibly to those who have embraced Christianity. A re- markable Passion play has been en- acted for years at Amecameca, nea:
  ammergau in the new world. Shortly after the Conquest Pope Adrian VI. sent 12 missionaries to convert the Aztecs. One of them, Fra Martin, was a kind man, who lived in a cave on a mountain near Tenochititlan, or Mexico City. After his death his body was placed in chapel built over the cave, and the mountain became a sacred spot. Thousands of pilgrims come here in Lent and on Ash Wednesday the body of the priest is placed in the village church. For 300 years this ceremony has been enacted, and has been followed by Passion play on Good Friday, which is wit messed by people from all over the country. The performance, which is under the auspices of the priest, be- gins early in the morning and ends at midnight when the peasant who is selected to impersonate Jesus is taken from the cross and the peoEes who have been in attendance escort the body of 1fa Martin back to the chapel over the grave. Thousands of Mexican peones attend these cere. monies and 1t Is this class of people who take the various parts.
 These Passion play celebrations can, of course, be traced to the in- fluence of Christianity, but it is a singular fact that just as the cross was found in Mexico, long before the advent of Cortez, when the country possessed the cultivation of ancient Thebes and Egypt, so the Indians in North America have always held dances and religious rites to com memorate the coming of spring. No one knows whether this was natural instinct that led them to rejoice over the awakening of earth or the survival of some religion that prevailed among them before the coming of Christian. ity. We can only guess at the past of our North American Indians and deduct conclusions from their cere- monies and occasional folklore. The fact remains that heathendom as well as Christianity rejoices when Easter comes, and all nature lifts up it's voice at the glad acclaim that spring is here, bringing with 1t. promises sdf eternal life.