Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1914 — Hoard of Charities Reports Splendid Work Accomplished. [ARTICLE]

Hoard of Charities Reports Splendid Work Accomplished.

A well attended meeting of the Board of Charities was\ held at the home of Geo. F. Meyers Monday evening. The board has been organized ju«t one year and a review of the\Work accomplished is proof of the excellent work made possible by organized charities. The membership consists of a representative from each of the churches of the city, a member appointed by the city council, a member of the civic association, and the following sons by right of office: superintendent of city schools, superintendent and matron of county farm, city health officer, township trustee, truant officers and members of a relief committee. If each member would attend and furnish tlhe information that his position enables him to obtain, still greater help could be rendered the community at less expense. The objects of the association are,

International Production of “Ben Hnr’’ to Be Staged in Lafayette, April 20 and 21.

since the original presentation of this noble drama-—its owners have not only kept it up to its original grandeur, but have elaborated and developed the possibilities of the production each season, until today it stands unrivaled in beauty of establishment, unsurpassed in dramatic significance and power. It was the “last word” of the stage craft of the nineteenth century and into the new age it brought a bigness and perfection which will remain the standard for decades to come.

Dealing with the earth life of Jesus, the most important period in history, “Ben Hur” shows the world at its most wonderful point in magnificence and wealth, for Rome ruled the world and Caesar Augustus was Emperor of the mightiest realm the earth had known. Into this time of display and pomp came the lowly Nazarene, the Obristos for whom

the nation had longed, and it is this personality of Jesus that, permeating the fabric of the Wallace-Young drama, makes it a sermon as well as a drama of tremendous significance. The reverence with which the imminence of Christ Is indicated has made “Ben Hur" a religious pageant, while the sweep of the story of Ben Hur and Messala, Esther and iras, carries audiences off their set, the culmination of the dramatic plot ting the chariot race, wherein Ben hur conquers and degrades his enemy. 1 Nothing mpre realistic than this scene in the arena of the Circus of Antioch with Ben Hur and Messala drfying quadruple teams of equine premacy has ever been imagined by a dramatist or executed by a producer. The race enthralls because On its outcome depends life, love, honor, riches to the victor, and when Ben Hur receives the victor’s crown of wild olive, audiences applaud with the greatest enthusiasm.