Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/79

tion of an elaborate and exceptionally worthy pictorial history. A comparison of this history with that of other countries will serve to demonstrate the marked superiority of plastic treatment which Bohemia’s story has been given. In America we have only a few great masterpieces like the St. Gauden’s Lincoln in Chicago to off-set a host of jingoistically conceived, bombastically posed pictures like the well known “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” The paintings in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, supposed to represent various dramatic incidents of United States history, include a number of historically inaccurate pictures, the subject matter having been warped out of all semblance to what originally took place by a determination to express more mere sentiment.

The student of church history in general will also find that Bohemian Christian painting is exceptionally rich in fine realistic portrayals of the many details of Christ’s story.

And a comparison of the best illustrated periodicals published throughout the nineteenth century by the Czechs, with those published during the same period by the English, the German, and the Americans, will reveal a wealth of interesting and tasteful pictures in Bohemian magazines practically unrivaled by the publications of the other races.

The student of Bohemian culture in general need never feel that it is childish to turn to picture books. He could hardly do better!

At Horlice, South Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, a picturesque village of about 1,500 inhabitants, eight hours by railway from Prague, there was given every Sunday this summer a remarkable and interesting Passion Play which compares favorably with the earlier one at Oberammergau. Thousands from all parts of the world—many from America but naturally more from the neighboring Austria and Germany—were flocking to Horlice this season to see it.

Three hundred plain country folk of various occupations play the leading roles in the great religious drama of history. John Cipin, a dark-haired school teacher, with a wonderful, tender and modulated voice, appeared in the part of Jesus Christ. Mary is represented by Anna Ehrhart, daughter of a prominent Horlice citizen; Peter is a mason by trade, St. John a hotel keeper and mayor of the village, James the elder is a miner, James the younger a tailor, Philip is a factory worker, Thomas a wheelwright, Pilate a roofer, Herod a carpenter.

Frank Pihala, the Judas, is the sexton of the local Catholic Church. He is a good actor and compares favorably with Johann Zwink, who for several years impersonated the archtraitor at O-