Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1909 — “Moses, Prince of Egypt" [ARTICLE]

“Moses, Prince of Egypt"

Moses, the great law-giver, and one of the most tremendous figures of ancient history, at the age of forty years, killed an Egyptian, who was oppressing a Hebrew, and was forced to flee from Egypt and hid,e away in the desert of Midian to escape the vengeance of the Egyptians. He fled by bight, and finally came to the desert and sat down by the well of Jethro’s to rest. While he was sitting there the seven daughters of Jethro came to the well to draw water for the flocks. Some rough men, arriving at the time, drove the damsels away with curses and evil speech, and the girls wept and fled. Then Moses aroused himself and drove the men away, and, calling the damsels back, saw that they were protected. Jethro, when he heard what had happened, invited Moses to his home, and in due time gave his daughter, Zipporah, to him in marriage. For forty years he lived in the land of Midian, and tended the flocks of Jethro. Finally at the expiration of the two score years he was called 'back to Egypt to free his countrymen. At the age of eighty years. Moses appeared before Pharaoh and demanded that the Hebrews be freed. Pharaoh refused. Then Moses, with the aid of the supernatural powers, brought to pass a series of disasters that finally catised the king to allow the people to depart, and, in fact insisted that they leave his kingdom. First, the river Nile became discolored, and the fish died in it, thus making the water foul and unhealthful; next followed a plague of frogs, which was almost intolerable; vast swarms of flies darkened the skies in due course of time, and even the dust in the streets turned in vermin to vex hnd harass the Egyptians. A mirrain broke out among the cattle, and skin diseases and boils visited the people. A terrible tempest came near obliterating the city; darkness covered the earth for three days, and finally the first born of man and beast died. The Hebrews, by sprinkling blood on their doorposts, escaped this last terrible calamity. Even after the Hebrews had started on their vyay, the .Egyptians pursued them, and the Red Sea, divid-

ing at the approach of the Hebrews, closed over the hosts of Pharaoh, and the vast army was annihilated. It is with Moses, this tremendous character, and with the acts of his long life that the biblical romance, “Moses, Prince of Egypt” deals. It is a play founded on the facts in the early life of Moses, tinged with romance of his early years in Egypt and in Midian, that this new play by Henry Thorn Hum deals. The resourceful young actor, William Lemle, enacts the part of Moses, and this absorbing play will be seen at the opera house, Saturday, September 11th.