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no Knight of the Rueful Countenance had ever fought more windmills in a given time. Juanita-she who had impressed me by an impassioned appeal for a fool's liberty was a wanton! About a mile from home, out of the tropic blackness a hand grasped my stirrup. The stallion threw himself back on his haunches. My gun was out and cocked quicker than I can tell it, and I leaned down to the small figure at my side. Juanita's face out of the night! A single word-" Paciencia!" -and she was gone. I raised myself in the saddle, I breathed free, the ylangylang was in the air, there was a cool breeze from over Ermita way. I felt allured by a sense of ease. I raised my hands to the false first morning glow in the east and I called out aloud, "O Brahma, give us wisdom and let us not judge!"

Two days later I was sitting under the dais with Judge Jewett, when there came the sound of a scuffle in the street and a little later a noise in the great hall below. Presently the impassible orderly came in and went through his invariable calisthenics.

"Man and woman fighting before the Palace, sir. Captain Case placed them under arrest. Do you want them now, sir?"

"Trot them in, Sergeant!"

When the guard appeared with the prisoners, the woman was still clinging to the man's clothes, and a soldier was on either side of the couple. I recognized them at once-Juanita and the Mestizo.

The interpreter began, "Your name?" "Alfredo Gonzales y Murieta, retired merchant; residence, the Baradero, San Roqué, Province of Kavite."

"And you, woman?"

Before she could reply the judge broke in: "Hold on there! That's that counterfeiter's wife, and that must be the accomplice. Search him!"

The Señor Alfredo Gonzales y Murieta was a walking mint. He was literally stuffed with yellow bills of the Bank of Spain, and his pockets were weighted down with counterfeit Mexican dollars.

The little woman looked at the Judge appealingly.

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Here, Sergeant," he said, "present my compliments to Lieutenant Wolf at Bilibid prison and give him this order of release. That woman wants her husband. Take this fellow with you and watch him carefully. Here's his commitment-fourteen years. Court now stands adjourned."

Magellan and Columbus stared wildeyed at each other, and as I went out with the Spanish interpreter he said, "What liars these people are!"

(All rights reserved.)

TUR

USURY OF LOVE

URN not the temple of thine heart
Into a money-changer's mart;

Nor seek the usury of love:

But lend, lend, lend!

Without a thought of love's return.

When lo! its sacrifice shall earn

The greater gain, and thus shall prove A blessed end.

Isaac Jenkinson-Frazee.

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HE most remarkable dramatic pro

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duction in many respects known to theatrical history is "Ben-Hur," the dramatization by William Young of General Lee Wallace's novel of that title. The play has been running in New York City since last autumn. The production cost $71,000 before the opening night. It employs 350 people. Very nearly 250,000 people had seen the play at the time of its hundredth performance, in February last. The receipts have averaged over $18,500 a week from the start. The advance sale, covering six weeks ahead, has been $40,000 right along. The management has received daily an average of $500 in express orders and postal orders from people outside the city. Nothing like this has ever been previously known in theatrical business.

Very many people who had enjoyed the book feared that the play would be but a melodramatic spectacle, with emphasis laid upon a claptrap chariot-race scene; but it is no exaggeration to say that the production at every point has surprised and delighted the most fastidious taste and most reverent mind. The play is essentially a spectacle, but with a deep dramatic significance, and its pictures of the life of the times it depicts are both impressive and thrilling.

The usual overture by the orchestra is omitted and in its stead what is really a pictorial overture is presented. In this prelude to the play, "The Wise Men in the Desert," is sounded the key-note of the drama. The curtain rises, disclosing a symbolic drop, which depicts the opulent power of Rome in contradistinction to the spiritual peace of Jerusalem. A choir

chants the prophecies of Isaiah of the coming of the Messiah as the symbolic drop fades away, disclosing the tableau of "The Wise Men in the Desert" standing beside their kneeling camels, looking camels, looking across the arid waste of sand and watching with wonder and awe the apparition of the Star of Bethlehem. Mysteriously it flitters, at first a mere luminous point, increasing rapidly in size and brilliancy, shooting forth rays of light till the entire horizon is illuminated. The impressiveThe impressive

ness of this scene is greatly enhanced by the characteristic music composed by Professor Kelly, the dominating theme of the Star of Bethlehem recurring at intervals throughout the play.

This beautiful picture fades and the music changes to a strain which suggests the tread of the camel in the desert sand, and in imagination the auditor follows the Wise Men in their journey to Jerusalem, where the play opens in a scene which shows the roof-terrace of the Palace of Hur, from which a view of the Holy City is presented. The youthful Ben-Hur, his mother and sister Amrah, the faithful nurse, and Simonides, the merchant of Antioch, are introduced. Messala, a type of the insolence and arrogance of Rome, returning to Jerusalem after long absence, visits Ben-Hur, the friend of his boyhood, and is warmly greeted. He repays his welcome with an insult, which is resented, and takes his leave in anger. A tender domestic scene is interrupted by the blare of trumpets announcing the approach of the Procurator Gratus. Far and near the people of Jerusalem swarm to their housetops to witness the entry of their new master. Then follows the catastrophe of the falling tiles described in the novel. Ben-Hur, to see the legion as it passes, leans upon the parapet. It crumbles and falls outward. A cry arises from the street: "Help! Treason! The Procurator hath been murdered." The palace-roof is invaded by the soldiery. Ben-Hur, accused by Messala, is seized and bound. The shrieking women are dragged away to the Tower of Antonia, and the curtain falls upon Ben-Hur struggling in the grasp of his captors.

Three years pass and Ben-Hur, in ignorance of the fate of his mother and sister, is a slave a rower on the war-galley Astrea of Arrius, the Roman tribune, who commands a fleet sent to exterminate the Ægean pirates. The rise of the curtain discloses the "between-decks" of the trireme dimly lighted by battle lanterns. The slaves, "caitiffs and cut-throats of all the earth," toil at the creaking oars, BenHur among them. Here again Mr. Kelly's music lends aid to the imagination, sig

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SCENE IN "BEN-HUR"- BETWEEN DECKS ON THE WAR-GALLEY OF ARRIUS, THE ROMAN TRIBUNE Ben-Hur, now a galley slave, a rower on the trireme, is telling his story to Arrius, who is so much interested he gives orders that this slave shall not be chained when the galley goes into action, as was the awful custom, dooming the rowers to certain death if the galley went down

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nificative of the swash of the sea, the sighing of the wind through the unseen cordage, and the mysterious murmurs of the mighty deep. Arrius looks over his rowers before going into battle. Ben-Hur attracts his attention. He orders the Hortator to send Hur to him. Arrius learns from Hur his story, and discovers that he is the son of an old friend, Ithamar, Prince of Jerusalem. He orders Ben-Hur back to his post. Hur thanks Arrius for his kindness, and tells him that it is the first shown him since three years before, when on his way to the galleys, in Bethlehem, a curly-haired boy, the son of a carpenter, gave him a cup of water. This is the first of the reverent allusions to the Nazarene in the drama, which is made most touching by a strain of the musical theme, "The Star of Bethlehem," which is always introduced when the Saviour is mentioned.

The galley is boarded and sunk. BenHur, who, by the Tribune's order, has not been ironed to his thwart like the rest of the slaves, saves the life of Arrius in the fight. The shock of the trireme in its collision with the pirates, the rowers being hurled from their benches, and the clash of the sea-battle, are most realistically presented. As the trireme sinks, the stage is plunged in darkness. An instant later the open sea is revealed, and Ben-Hur, supporting the wounded and helpless Arrius, clings to a fragment of the floating wreck in the darkness. The sun rises, a great ball of fire on the horizon. BenHur discovers the approach of a Roman trireme to the rescue. (Curtain.)

The first scene of the third act shows the interior of a room in the home of Simonides, the merchant prince of Antioch. In the first act Simonides is a strong man in the full vigor of life; in this scene he is a cripple, distorted by the tortures of Gratus, who sought to force him to give up the fortune of the Hurs which is in his hands, as the slave, steward, and confident of the dead Prince of Hur. Great is the wealth of the crafty merchant, but of all his treasures his daughter Esther is the dearest. Sheik Ilderim tells Simonides of the coming of Balthasar, one of the three Wise Men whom he rescued from the fury of Herod

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thirty years before, when they came to Jerusalem asking for "Him who was born King of the Jews." This interview is interrupted by Ben-Hur, who comes to Simonides in quest of information of the fate of his mother and sister. He discloses his real identity as Ben-Hur, though dressed as a Roman soldier. relates his adoption by Arrius, the duumvir's jealousy of his love, and prevention of search for Hur's mother and sister. Arrius is dead. Simonides refuses to acknowledge Hur, yet secretly suspects his identity. Messala, the Roman who will compete in the chariot-races in the circus as the champion of Rome, is mentioned to test Hur. He would find Messala, and is told that he is training his horses in the Grove of Daphne. He goes there followed by Malluch, an agent of Simondes. After Hur's departure, Simondes reveals to Esther that if the young Roman who has just departed be the real Ben-Hur, they are both his slaves and all they possess is his.

The scene instantly changes to the Grove of Daphne, the most noted pleasure-ground of antiquity. The Temple of Apollo is displayed, and before it troops of young girls cross the stage tripping to a song of Anacreon. Damsels of mature years, bearing garlands and hymning in praise of Daphne, smile on Hur and beckon to him enticingly. He turns in aversion but to face a fancifully bedecked throng enacting the. Masque of Eros, symbolizing the dedication of a youth and maiden to a life of pleasure. In this scene a chorus of seventy voices is heard. Ben-Hur turns away. He is in search of the racecourse and finds a guide in Malluch.

The scene changes, the Temple of Apollo passes and the fountain of Castelia is revealed. The revelers reappear and are re-enforced by the devadasi who whirl in their voluptuous dances. More than two hundred people take part in this spectacle. The merry-makers disperse and the horses of Sheik Ilderim attract Ben-Hur. Following these comes a herald who offers reward for a driver in the coming chariotraces. Then a camel richly caparisoned. and led by an Ethiop approaches. In the houdah on its back are seated Iras and

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