Kansas University Weekly.
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rains and frosts of so many seasons, generations of villagers have lived and died, yet the town is little, if any, larger, cleaner, or more attractive now than then. But it can no longer be called secluded and unknown. It has been discussed in many climes and described in many languages. In 1890 thousands of tourists visited the village, and went away with no shade of disappointment on their faces. How has this marvelous change been brought about? Surely not through the death of that miserable Casper Schuchler, only one of the many thousands stricken down with the awful plague that devastated the Tyrol after the Thirty Years' War? Ah! we are apt to forget
"What mighty contests spring from trivial things,"
He was not a malefactor, this Casper Schuchler, although he wrought so much harm. He was a native of Ober Ammergau and the humblest of day-laborers. Feeling the hand of death heavy upon him while at work in a neighboring village, and longing for one more glimpse of wife and little ones, he eluded the vigorous quarantine, and brought the plague to Ober Ammergau. He paid dearly for it, and not he only, but his wife, his children, and all the village. For the curse fell not lightly upon them. When remedies and all human efforts failed to check the scourge in its deadly work, the terrified Ober Ammergauers assembled in the church to pray for divine interference. And to secure recognition and answer from the Father of all, these simple-hearted folks made a vow—a vow to perform, every ten years, the story of the passion of Christ, provided this evil thing which was darkening every home and blighting so many lives might be taken from them. And it was so. After that moment, says the chronicler, there was not one stricken with the plague, even the sick recovering as though by a miracle. From that time dates the Passion Play of today, "the Gospel according to St. Daisenberger." Thus its performance is—or at any rate, was—to these humble villagers a sacred, a holy thing. Whether this spirit of worship has been somewhat modified since the first production of the play, whether the decennial influx of
the great world has in any measure spoiled the simple nature of the Ober Ammergauer, whether a desire for gain has becomes mixed with his ambition to "win fame, please his priest, and honor his God, by playing well some worthy part," these questions will not be discussed here. One day in Ober Ammergau is not sufficient for the study of them.
We spoke, a few lines back, of Daisenberger, the beloved parish priest of Ober Ammergau, who assumed the duties of that office about the middle of this century. He had spent his youth at the monastery of Ettal, only a short distance away, and was known and loved by the people who asked that he might be made their spiritual leader. He had a decided talent for dramatization, he was a zealous, untiring worker, and he possessed that rare gift of inspiring and animating others with his own fervor. He dramatized many biblical stories and trained the Ober Ammergauers to give them well. He "made over" their Passion Play, eliminating every farcical scene, every feature that savored in the least of sacrilege. For the old Passion Play—like the Miracle plays of early fame—was objectionable in many of its aspects. The Devil, for example, played an important part, and often aroused uproarous amusement by his antics. But these things were no more after Daisenberger came to Ober Ammergau. He changed the play in other ways, and added to it largely, introducing throughout tableaux, each one representing some prophecy in the Old Testament, of which the act following was the fulfillment. The chorus also we owe to him, the link, which, curiously enough, connects the play of Ober Ammergau with the old Greek dramas. Led by the choragus, they sing between the acts, explain the tableaux, and rejoice or lament over what is to follow. The music, written by Rochus Dedler, the village schoolmaster, contains much of beauty, and is said at times to resemble in movement Mozart's Masses. The schoolmaster at Ober Ammergau must be a musician, it is a requirement of the position, and it is upon him that devolves the duty of not only of training the chorus, but of drilling