Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1840-06-24

been found on the table, and the skeletons a
Of the guests round it, and then you enter >
every where on the same floor; and as :
the ashes, which lie but a few metres thick S
upon the ancient buildings, are cleared, i
the town appears, as ours come to light S
again when the snow melts in mountain I
Gus countries. You arrive by a suburb
wholly lined with Roman tombs, and
walk over a Roman pavement, worn out
by Roman vehicles /; you may enter the
inn ; there are the stables, with the rings
to fasten the horses; close by is the far
rier, with his sign over his door. If you
penetrate into one of those tombs, you will
find urns, containing ashes, hair, and frag-
ments of calcined bones, Every where
are displayed inscriptions, unaffected, Dig
niied and touching, such as the epitaph |
dedicated by a woman to her husband =
: Serbia, to the friend Of her SOUL Let
us advance; we are in town.. To the
right of the gate you behold the guardians
sen!ry-box cut into the stone. Take the
foetway. for there are footways at Pom
peii, Roman footways, with posts at inter-
walls on both sides. footways wherein one
ceases not to gaze on wheel-ruls, made
eighteen hundred years ago.
Whom do you wish to be taken to p
You have but to speak-the names are
written on the door of every house, in
large red letters. Here is an apothecary's
shop, with his drugs in phials, with sur
gical instruments snd balsams still yield
ing a smell. Here are far different things,
by nay faith enter, you have nothing to
fear; but dare not tell you where you
are, unless you have perceived the sign
over the door. What think you of it p
and yet facing one of those houses stands
a temple of Vesta
Let US, then, pay a few visits we are
in a bakers shop, and here is the flower
grindstone suppose a stone sugarloaf,
covered with an extinguisher also of stone
rub the one against the other, after
throwing some corn between them. and
you have a Roman Mill. This wretched
piece Of machinery was entrusted to the
hands Of slaves. But | have reserved a
surprise for you; here is some bread-do
You read the bakers name followed out
of that carbonised pancake; take and
1ASUA h' QpCu tndI CupOOdIu, you Will
find there preserved olives, dried figs, lin
tells, and eatables of all descriptions. A
saucepan has been carried to the Naples
Museum, containing a piece of meat, as
we'll preserved as by Mr.. Appert's pro-
cess. What a number of meals Vesuvius
interrupted on that woful day
I, nevertheless, do not think that the
Romans were great eaters. I have care
fully explored a number of kitchens and
dining rooms at Pompeii, and l have
found. even in the richest houses, but very
trlfilng cooking apparatus, and miniature
table utensils. Their plates were real
saucers, and the tables upon which the
dinner was served up, but little stands, in
general OF stone or marble, which could
hold but one dish at a time. The guests
lay down around their mess. What is
admirable, delightful, charming, and over
Whelmlng to us barbarians of the nine
teenth century, is the exquisite pureness
and delicacy of shape of all the utensils
which served in Roman domestic life
One must see those c%andelabras, lamps,
vases, of all sizes, those charming little
bronze calefactors (for everything was of
b%ronze) those tripods. scales, beds, chairs,
those graceful and so ingeniously wrought
shields, which fill up whole rooms at the
Naples Museum. One must, above all.
see the toilet arsenal of the Roman ladies.
their combs, toothpicks, curling irons, and
the pots Of vegetable or mineral rouge
found in q boudoir. Thus the Roman Ia
dies used rouge and deceived people, just
as is practised nowadays; they wore,
like our ladies, those necklaces, rings, and
ridiculous earrings which add nothing to
beauty, and diminish not ugliness. How
times resemble one another, in spite of the
space that separates them.
Above thirty streets of Pompeii are
now restored to light; it is a third part of
the town. The walls which formed its
ancient enclosures have been recognized
a magnificent amphitheatre, a theatre. a
forum, the temple of Isis, that of Venus,
and a number ofother buildings have been
cleared. The secret stairs Dy which the
priests OF those times slyly crept to prompt
the oracles have been detected. On be-
holding so many monuments which dis
play 10 so lively a manner the importance
of public and the independence of private
life among the Romans, it is impossible to
resist a feeling of sadness and melancholy.
Behold, along that fall of earth, the vest.
lge OF the breast of a woman who was bn-
RED alive, and stifened by death-behold
the stones of that we'll, worn by the rub.
blng OF the ropes-examine the guard
house, covered with caricatures of soldiers
one might suppose the Roman peonle
still existed. and hat we were but srran-
gers IN one OF their towns. Who knows
what future discoveries may be made in
those august ruins Mura. emnlouod