bestowed $25,000 upon Iowa College, though numbering less than four hundred souls. Northfield citizens showed equal self-sacrifice in their gifts to Carleton College.* The offerings made to these institutions have about them the aroma of selfdenial and faith, and evince the love for, and belief in them, cherished by the early Christian settlers of the West. Patrons of learning at the East, wrong the latter and their successors, if they deem them lacking in benevolence. Dr. Bartlett is authority for the statement, "that active Christians of the West give for benevolent and religious purposes, in proportion to property and income, from two to four times as much as Eastern men." It is within bounds to affirm, that Connecticut and Massachusetts colonists never sacrificed more, nor have their citizens in the years since, to found and foster their Christian colleges, than have the Christian people of Iowa and Minnesota for Iowa and Carleton Colleges. If Dartmouth and Yale go out of their respective States for endowment funds, why should not Washburn and Drury do the same? Nor is it correct that Western colleges must acquire strength and ample equipment slowly and after long periods of time. The experience of some of the noted universities of the old world refutes this idea. Three of perhaps the best and greatest in Germany, viz: the universities of Berlin, Munich, and Bonn, have all been founded within the present century. Their average age is but sixty-eight years. In this country we are tempted to despise the day of small things; to deride these infant institutions of the New North and West. They undoubtedly look small beside Yale and Harvard, but the latter were small once. When Joshua Leavitt studied at New Haven, Dr. Baldwin tells us the college had but three professors. The growth of Western States, numerically and materially, indicates somewhat as to the rapidity with which their Christian colleges must be built up, and it will require large-hearted benefactions to make the latter in endowment and educational advantages the peers of the strongest in the East.

It is in view of what these institutions in the West are doing for the cause of Christian learning in that section of our coun

*These have raised $53,000 for Carleton, and friends in the State outside of Northfield have contributed $60,000.

try and of their worth to the American republic, that this plea in their behalf, is offered. If public attention can anew be called to their pressing necessities; if a juster and more general appreciation of what Western educators are doing in connection, especially, with the Christian colleges for which they labor, can be awakened, then may we hope to see gifts made to them sufficient in amount and frequency to equip them at once for their invaluable and extending work. Till that longed-for result come, we hopefully record our conviction in words spoken in 1872 by Dr. Magoun: "The man who shall bestow a half-million dollars on one of the young colleges of the West, will inaugurate a grander era of Christian beneficence than has yet shone upon us, and I do not despair of living to do him honor, as an exceptionally noble, broad-minded, and far-seeing philanthropist of the nineteenth century."

ARTICLE IV.-THE LAST REPRESENTATION OF THE OBER-AMMERGAU PLAY-IN THE SUMMER OF

1880.

A LITTLE Village lies hidden among the mountains of Bavaria. The dark red roofs of the houses are relieved against the vivid green of the valley, the walls are covered with frescoes, and from the windows gleams the bright scarlet of geraniums. Into it upon this Saturday afternoon throng countless numbers of people; peasant mothers, their black silk handkerchiefs bound tightly round their heads, their scarlet petticoats and red umbrellas a bright spot of color far down the street, their shoulders bowed with constant labor in the field; buxom daughters, too proud to adopt the peasant garb of their mothers and very vain of their fancied acquisition of city fashions. Peasants, lean and brown as the mother-earth they till, accompany them, and mingled with them are black-robed priests, German students fresh from the University, American lads eager for their vacation, and sturdy Englishmen with their air of condescension to nature and humanity.

Through the narrow stone-paved street pours the constant line of vehicles, white canvas-topped country wagons filled with peasants, well worn droschkes with the crowd from Munich, while all through the village rings a murmur as of the tower of Babel, at which the shadows seem to laugh as they steal quietly over their accustomed path up the mountains. What means it all, and whence comes it, that thus the nineteenth century pours its active life into this hidden valley?

Upon the edge of the village there stands a theatre. It is built of pine unpainted, and has for its ceiling the blue sky above it. At one end of the theatre is a stage, open over onehalf of its surface, and covered over the other with buildings representing the streets and temple of Jerusalem.

In this theatre, upon the morrow will be played the PassionSpiel, or the Holy Tragedy of the Saviour's suffering and crucifixion, and it is to witness this that this vast concourse is gath

ered here. Shall we mingle with them as they fill the bare benches, and witness the story of eighteen hundred years ago, as told by simple peasants of the nineteenth century?

Yet as we mingle with them we are not of them, for while we witness this play with minds filled with the prejudices and theories of the present age, the peasant nature has changed as little in all these years as the mountains which form so grand a back-ground to their simple scenery; and it is only by a knowledge of the early history of such dramas that we can understand the spirit in which they are given by these peasants of Ober-Ammergau.

The germ of these plays lay far back in an Easter custom of the early church. Upon Good Friday in the early Christian era, a crucifix was laid in a grave beneath the altar, and upon Easter morning it was raised with much rejoicing and song. A superstition arose among the people that whoever looked upon this crucifix would live until the following year, and in consequence the throng in the churches became so great, that in 1316 an edict was issued by a Council at Worms, forbidding the presence of the parish at such a service.

Occasionally the women who came to anoint the Holy Dead and the angel who announced to them the resurrection, were personated. In a manuscript of the twelfth century these directions exist for the observance of this rite. "Two priests bearing crosses, and with veiled heads, enter the choir: soon they turn toward the sepulchre singing in a low tone, 'Who has rolled away the stone? Whom the deacon, who should be behind the sepulchre, also singing, answers 'Whom seek ye? They answer, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' The deacon replies, 'He is not here.' They descend into the sepulchre and the deacon saying, 'Go announce it,' they turn towards the choir, and intone, Our Lord is risen from the grave.' The chant finished, the abbot begins the 'Te Deum Laudamus,' while the bells ring in all the church towers." Such was the simple and beautiful service, which in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ushered in Easter morning and was the germ of the Passion plays which were afterward to form so important a part in the ceremonies of the church.

It was not long before the apostles Peter and John were introduced, and soon the whole story of Christ's life was given. The number of actors and spectators rendered a larger stage necessary, and instead of the churches, the church-yards and soon the public squares were used, while the work of representation often interested a whole village.

France, which can claim precedence of Germany, both in the origin of these Passion plays, and in the skill with which they were produced, established in 1402 the "Confrères de la Passion," which society devoted itself to the worthy representation of Christ's suffering and death, while in many cities of Belgium two societies existed, which every year disputed a prize offered for the best Mystery Play. There was no price for entrance, but as a guild of Passion-playing brothers say in their prologues

"Wir wollen halten ein Oster spiel,

Das ist frölich, und kost nicht viel."

The expenses were defrayed by the tax which was levied upon each player as he received his part, the most important rôles demanding the highest tax. There were also fines for negligence at rehearsals.

In the earlier mystery plays the scenery was most simple, the different localities being simply indicated by cards, and much mention is made of an overturned cask which did duty as the Mount of Olives.

The part of the Precursor or Teacher was one of great im portance. In the play at Ober-Ammergau, this place is supplied by the leader of the chorus. It was he who recited the prologue, introduced the actors, and between the acts announced the meaning and subject of the next scene. Before the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries he personated an angel or the Saint Augustine, but after that time he appeared on horseback with horse and man in full armor.

These plays became afterward so national in character, that the life of the people effervesced and sparkled in them, and it is to this that we owe the burlesque elements, which have been entirely pruned from the play at Ober-Ammergau. The devil of the Middle Ages occupied the same place in these as the clown in the Elizabethan drama, and his pranks were the