Connecticut western news., 1920-10-07

once, and then for moment, put over all that happens in the intervening years hovers the gentle spirit; thrilling as the episodes are in themselves, strongly as the characters are por- trayed, they are but a preparation for what is to follow, a mere worldly set ting for him who was too great for all save a few to understand at that time.
 Some twenty-one years after the scenes at the manager, young 9eW, Ben-Hur, a prince of Jerusalem, rich, happy, ambitious, was standing by parapet of his palace, watching the progress of Valerius Gratus, imperial governor of Judea. AS the Roman passed beneath the wall amid the jeers and insults of the Jews the young prince leaned far out to see the new governor; a tile was displaced and, as bitter fate would have it, fell full upon the governor. The accident was not fatal; but it was an opportunity for. exemplary justice, especially as the es- tates of the Jew were very desirable to the governor and his friend Messala, hitherto almost brother to Ben-Hur though the latter had been. The un- happy Jew was sent as a rover to the galleys, where the limit of life was at most but year. His mother and sis ter were immured in secret cell in the Tower of Antonia where they were doomed to the fate of the lep- CTS. The only act of kindness Ben Hur could remember during the years that followed was on the day he was dragged to the galleys. ''The hand laid kindly upon his shoulder awoke the unfortunate man, and looking up, he saw a face he never forgot-the face of a boy about his own age, shaded by locks of yellowish bright chestnut hair; face lighted by dark pealing, so full of love and holy pur- pose, that they had all the power of command and will" That was tn Nazareth. z
 How Ben-Hur in time became a rover on the flagship of Airrus, duum- vir and admiral, how the flagship was destroyed in a great sea fight, how
  his adopted son and heir, learned at Rome the manner of Roman war and Roman sports, returned to the East a Roman officer in the train of a con- sul setting forth on a great campaign against the Parthians; how he dis covered that his fathers old steward Simonides had succeeded in saving from confscaton the vast intangible wealth of the Hurs and had multiplied 1t many times, till the young Roman Jew was the richest private citizen in the world; the discovery that Mes sala was entered for the highest stake in the great sporting event of the orient; how Ben-Hur won the affection of Ilderim, the Arab sheik, who had entered his steeds of the desert for the great event-all this leads up to the dramatic encounter of the famous chariot race. The author drew k5 description of the race from one writ ten over twenty-three hundred years ago by the tragic pee< soDh0cles. It is one of the cur1os1rles ss uteTstu1- that the great scene, through She pages of Lew WalIace's novel, has become as famous on our stage as it was so long ago on that of Greece.
 By his victory in the arena Ben Hur exacted ancient Jewish justice crushed in body and impoverished in fortune, he had wagered on his sue cess all the wealth he had stolen from his former friend. The victor almost fell prey, however, to the vampire daughter of Egypt who was rival for his love with the gentle Jewish Esther. But henceforth his thoughts were con- centrated on him who was attrdcting all eyes. Was he Messiah or king? Ben-Hur, in his hatred of Rome, in his pride of race, dreamed only of king of this world, who should right an- cient wrongs and exalt his chosen peo- pie. And so he threw himself with all his force, with all his wealth, with all the knowledge gained at Rome, into making secure and strong the way of the king whom he would follow. But it was for one supreme in things spiritual rather than material that the way was being made ready. And Ben-Rur's mother, rescued with her daughter from her long imprisonment by chance change of jailers, but hopeless lepers both, saw the truth sooner than her son.
 "'Oh Master, Masterr she cried as he passed upon the road, Thou seest our need; thou canst make us clean. Have mercy upon us-mercy! "sBelievest thou I am able to do thisTr he. asked. A't s+a.
 "Thou art he of whom the prophets spake-thou art the Messiah she re- piled. His eyes grew radiant, his man. ner confident.
 "'Woman,' he said. great is thy faith; be 1t unto thee even as thou | wilt"
 And so, in the end, Ben-Hur recog- | nized what Balthazar had known from