own Abstemlous in his personal habits, be never grudged to the community 4 its legitimate share of rational recreation. Natural innocent joyousness he held to be .the safety-valve of a hundred ill-hutnours in the human mind, also as a great 1 force by which an individual and a nation might be raised to the most pfialted ideals. To all these motives was added the •intense sympathyhe felt with,the cause of the remarriage of Hindu Widows. Since the Inauguration of the widow mar- riage refornr.in 1856, Kfeshub though then a very young man, wished well c what he could to Contribute to its success. ,He therefore cheerfully accepted the manage- ment of the to the cause, and did Widow MftrriageDrama.rFour institutions now ran abreast each other under Kesl^ub s supervision. There was the Colntola JJyening school, the Goodwill fraternity, the Brahmo School and the Theatre at Chit,pore Road. As nearly the same individuals comprised the staff of them all, it was sometimes amusing and perplexing to hear the several bells ring almost simultaneously for the classes of the first, the services of the" second, the lectures of the third, and ther. rehearsals of the fourth f
- * The
plot of the drama was the jniserable life of a Hindu widow shut up in the Zenana, who in her solitary friendless condition, formed an attachment to a young neigh- bour, by whom she Was led to a course of sin. The concluding scenes dejfieted her sufferings, her suicide, her confessions, with appep,ls fc to all patriotic »men to put an end to the forced celibacy of Hin^lu Widows. The performance was first opened to the public in the beginning of 1856,and produced a sensation in Calcutta, which those who witnessed it cq.n never forget. The representatives * < of the highest classes of Hindu scciety were present. 'The pionefcr and father "of the widow-marriage movement Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasffger came more than once; fc and tender-hearted as h# js,was moved to floods of tears. In fact there was scarcely a dry eye in the great audience un- doubtedly £he ( m 03 t ( wholesome* effect wai produced, Keshuh
