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always succeeded in obtaining a dispensation in their 

 favor. The time for its last performance was 1870, but 

 the breaking out of the war between France and Prussia 

 compelled its postponement to the next year. To illus- 

 trate its hold on the hearts of the people, Judge Putnam 

 stated that the villager who personated Christ was drafted 

 into the army, but he was permitted to wear his long hair, 

 and so careful were the authorities and soldiers for his 

 safety, that he was never placed in an exposed position, 

 but was confined to garrison duty. 



The account of the performance was minute and impres- 

 sive. The stage occupies about twenty thousand square 

 feet, with a fine opportunity for grand scenic effects. 

 The performers number in all about six hundred ; and 

 although the services commenced at 8 A. M., and lasted 

 eight or nine hours, there was nothing from beginning to 

 end calculated to excite anything but feelings of profound 

 emotion and reverence. Some of the spectacles were of 

 exceeding beauty. The music was solemn and inspiring. 

 It is not allowed to be written and no one is permitted to 

 commit a note to pencil and paper. Two years previous 

 to the performance the principal characters are selected, 

 and the individual representing Christ must allow his hair 

 to grow that length of time, also those who represent 

 Joseph of Arimathea and many of the disciplefe. On the 

 January preceding, the rehearsals commence and continue 

 several times a week. 



The theatre is capable of seating some five or six thou- 

 sand people, and entirely uncovered excepting the first and 

 second row of boxes. The play is given on every Sunday 

 and festival day from May to September inclusive, upwards 

 of twenty times in all, so that during the course of the 

 summer one hundred thousand persons can see it. Every- 

 body seems to be inspired with the occasion the peasants 



