Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1843-09-02
MISCELLANEOUS READING.
Correspondence Of the New York Tribune.
VISIT TO POMPEII.
NAPLES Nav, 1915.


tho stranpest city promenade ! ever made. We
first entered the house Of Doomed, one OF the ar5-
,t,crais Of the city. We descended into tho damp
dlfk wine cellar, where the bones of his family
we're found viii her they had He'd for sal cty from
The storm Of ashes and fire that overwhelmed
tbem Thore amid the earthcn vine irs that
still stood they did on the last day OF that Wild
tempest, was the shape of the outstretched arms
and the breast aud head Of her who had fallen
against it in her agony. Nothing remained but
the boues and jewels 10 tell Of her torture and
fuiIocation in tina, dread hour. Bat cnnnot 60
into details: they have been written over hun.
drcd times.
There were baths, and dressing and dining
rooms, and work shops, aud wheol-wo streets
where The lIviog multitude had moved nnt Iu&u-
rated ani toiied. We t0mbs that were
themselves eutomhed. We saw tho room for
washing tho dead where the living were sudden
~ buried unyyashcd and uncotlin ed; the beer
shops with the marks of the tunhlers still fresh
IN the smooth marble; the Mills zones that still
tufned To The hand IN tho seit-same way they
lGrncd nearly two thousand years ago. There
TOO, tho brothel, the theatre, and dancing
han. The secret orlfice through which The priest
sent his voice the statue, TO deludo the credu
lous people into the betief that God had spoken,
WAS now disclosed. I Walked through the house
IT a poet, into his garnishod sleeping apartment,
forming in their silence II part IN greater drn.
ma than he hid over conceived. stood before
tho tavern, with the rings yet entire, 10 which
the horses were fastened, aud whore tho hones
of a mother and her ihreo children found,
locked in each others arms.
Temples were overthrow with their alars-
The inches in which stood the gods were left
empty, and the affairs before them which
aroat ed the sacrifice, were silent and lonely.--
Columns fallen across each other IN tho courts.
I=t as that wIli harrIcaue had lett them. pieces
al the architrave blocking up the entrance they
had surmounte ted toll how fierce the shock and
overthrow bad bee n. One house evidently
that of n remarkably rich man. Mosaic floors
representing battle scenes, precious stones still
iabedjed in the pavements OF his corridors, long
coonnades, and all The appur:enances OF luxury,
atlrs,od the unaounded wealth of the owner. But
bodies iornd in it. The rich man fled
with bis portable wealth before tho storm came.
We passed through the temple OF Jupiter. the
court of ils,icc, the market place, the forum, and
emerged into the country.
mounted old wall covered with earth, and
looked bA c< The d:sentOmbed c;ty, and beyond
Vesuviua. There 1t stood, solemn grand and
lonely. sending up its steady column OF smoke,
perpetual and living tombstone over the dead at
feet. | could SEQ tho track of the lava its
" ilu and fiery march for the sea, and could ina
ginc just how the cloud of ashes and cinders
from the summit and came flying towards The de-
snrt"d c.." voi alter foo, 1t piled itself in tho
streets, over the thresholds, above the windows,
md so on, till II reached twonty or thirty feet
sea where tho younger Pnny came, and impelIed
by n fatal curiosity would land, till. blinded md
sunocated, he too fell with the victims that per-
ished
From this went 10 the amPhiheatre, where
the cladlatoriai shows wero held. 1t is n magni.
fisent area of an oval form and sufficiently capa-
cious to hold fifteen or twenty thousand specta-
tors. There the dens where the hons were
kept, aud there tho very arena where the mon
fought and tell. stood at one end and shouted,
and the answering echo came back clear and dis
tinct as second voice. Ii enhanced the solitude
Some have INA gined that spectators were assem-
bled here al The time of The overthrow OF the CITY,
and they felt The first step of the mighty earth
quaGe that heralded .ts doom they rushed IN dis
may from their seats. But this could not be, for
Pompe did not fall by cart quake, and the
mountain long before the eruption gave omiuous
sounds of the coming blow. Do relates that
spectres lined tho summit of the mountain, ana
unearthly shapes fitted around its trembling sides.
This was doubtless the mist boiling up from its
confinement through the cracks, and shooting IN
10 the upper air
Pliuv himself says in his epistle that he saw
from Misenus, fifteen or twenty miles distant
from Naples. the other side, cloud rising from
tho mountain the shape of pine tree, and short.
ly after embarked for tho city. The groanIng
noun tain was Keeling above the sea of fire that
botad under her and struggled for freedom. II
was not time for amusement. Terrified men
auu women ran tor tho sea, INIT also LED BACK
nhrighted from its shores, that even Pliny
could not land before the city, but was forced to
proceed to SABINE. Tho believing mountain. the
sulphureous air, the quiverng earth, would not
let city even dssolute Pompeli gather 10
places of public amusement. CONSERVATION
reigned in every street, and drove the frightened
Inhabitants away from their dwellings. This is
doubtless the why few bodies were
found Those that persisted we're slaves those
who tarred till some falling column or wall block
cd up their path, and the descending cinders
blinded their sight, as they CROPPED abou, for a
way OF egress Fear and darkness for 6av was tur-
ned INTO mighty might have CENTRALIZED others be.
yond the power of moving. And l was stan
ding on the same pavement those terror-s,rcken
c'iizens stood on two thousand years ago. and wos
looking on the same mountain they gazad on with