One who has seen the consummate Passion Play at Oberammergau must have had the thought impressed on him that there is much latent talent among the country folk, and also that it is much worth the while of a community to develop this talent. Aside from its transcendent theme, this stupendous play appeals to the world because of its simplicity and directness and because of its reality, for these are the very kind of folk that might have taken part in the mighty drama had the Great Master lived in Oberammergau.
The nativeness of the play impresses one. The very absence of so much that we associate with the ordinary drama gives the play an appeal,—the absence of the studied stride and strut, of the exaggerated make-ups, and of the over-doing of the parts. The play is grounded in the lives of the people in the community.
We cannot expect another place to become an Oberammergau, but it is possible for something good to come out of any spot. This thought is vividly expressed by W. T. Stead in his account of the Passion Play:
"As I write, it is now two days after the Passion Play. The crowd has departed, the village is once more quiet and still. The swallows are twittering in the eaves, the blue and cloudless sky over-arches the amphitheater of hills. All is peace, and the whole dramatic troupe pursue with equanimity the even tenor of their ordinary life. Most of the best players are woodcarvers; the others are peasants or local tradesmen. Their royal robes or their rabbinical costumes laid aside, they go about their ordinary work in the ordinary way as ordinary mortals. But what a revelation it is of the mine of latent capacity, musical, dramatic, intellectual, in the human race, that a single mountain village can furnish, under a capable guidance, and with adequate inspiration, such a host competent to set forth such a play from its tinkers, tailors, plowmen, bakers, and the like! It is not native capacity that is lacking to mankind. It is the guiding brain, the patient love, the careful education, and the stimulus and inspiration of a great idea. But, given these, every village of country yokels from Dorset to Caithness might develop artists as noble and as devoted as those of Oberammergau."
The business of farming.
After all is said and done, the first question still remains,—the opportunity to make a good living on a farm, and the possibility of leading a life that will be personally satisfactory.
There has never been a time when farming as a whole has been so prosperous as now, notwithstanding the fact that there are hardships in many regions. The whole occupation is undergoing a process of readjustment, and it is natural that the readjustment has become more complete and perfect in some places and in some kinds of farming than in others. We have but recently passed through a time in which the farming business, except in special regions or special cases, could not be really profitable and attractive.
To make a good and satisfactory living on the farm is a matter both of temperament and of first-class training. There are great series of city vocations in which any person with fair ability can succeed; but farming is a personal business and each man is his own manager. No one should ever go into farming impersonally.
Many persons are making a comfortable living on farms, a better living in fact than persons of similar ability and expending similar energy are making in town. Other persons are failing.
I am not advising anybody to establish himself in the open country; but I am saying that the time has now come when good talent need not avoid the open country.