The Democratic Whig. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1842-1843, 1843-08-24
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
Foreign Correspondence cfthe ". Y. Tribune
THE BEAUTY OF NAPLES--vTSs
1T TO POMPEH--RUINs, EFT
CETERA.
NAPLES, MAY, 1913.

NAPLES, MAY, 1913.
The NeapoIitan maxim. aVerdi
Napoli poi mon''-sSee Naples and then
de- IS not so egotistical. The man who dies
without seeing it. that Is in one Of it's most IA.
vorable aspects, loses no ordinary pleasure
1here Is a combination of scenery here to be
found no where else--particular portions of it
may De seen IN every country. But here is
beautiful bay, islands, cities, villages, palaces,
vineyards. plains, mountains and volcanoes
gathered into one "coup d'eil'' There is the
grandeur of the past and the beauty of the pre-
sent; ruined temples, and perfect ones; living
cities and buried; an over them all d sky that
would make any country lovely, however rug.
ged. Day before yesterday rode out to Pom
pen. AT o'clock l landed from the steam
Doat-at III was on my way for the city of
the dead. 1t lies twelve miles distant, and in
the clear air and new objects that surrounded
me, forgot the object that bad burned me a.
way. Now an old looking vehicle would pass
US whose shape could hardly be made out, from
the number of ragged, dirty beings that cover.
ed lt-standlng, sitting, lying, and indeed piled
up IN every direction, SO as to occupy the least
possible SPACE. ] counted on several of these
two wheeled horse vehicles ten PERSONS
There would sit row of miserable looking
women outside of their houses all engaged in
the same occupation. Often a little urchin
would be sitting on the ground with his head
between the knees of woman who vas busy
with his head, while behind her stood a third
performing the same kind of service end all
forming a group both ludicrous and revolving.
In another direction would stand a man in the
streets with plate in one hand while from the
other lifted over his head which was thrown
back to horizontal position hung in lempting
ST. of
disappeared around his neck like young snakes
in the throat of their mother. A little girl
would pass along leading pig by a string
which gamboled around her like playful dog.
Thus we passed along the poetic Tore del
Greco and the ancient Oplonii, land then emerg-
ed into the open country where the piled up
lava and the barren hill sides reminded US that
we were approaching the scene of volcanic
fury. Yet here and there were green patches
from which the balmy bean sent forth its fra
GRANGE, contrasting strangely with the lava
walls that enclosed them.
We at length reached the gate OF The an
Gent city, where we left our carriages, and
commenced the strangest city promenade |
ever made. We first entered the house of
Doomed, one of the aristocrats of the city. We
descended into the damp, dark wine cellar.
where the bones of his family were fonnd,
whittier they fled for safety from the storm of
ashes and fire that overwhelmed them. There
against the side of the wall. amid the earthen
wine-ars that still stood as they, did on the last
dav of that dreadful tempest, was the out
stretched arms and the head Of her who had
fallen against in her death agony. Nothing re-
NAMED but the bones and jewels to tell the
sad story Of her torture and suffocation in that
dreadful hour But cannot go into details.
They have been written over hundred times
There were baths, and dressing and dining
rooms, and workshops, and wheel-worn streets
where the living multitude had had moved,
and luxuriated and toiled. We saw tombs
that were themselves entombed. We saw the
room for washing the dead, where the living
were suddenly buried unwashed and uncot-
fined; the .beer-shops, with the marks OF the
tumblers still fresh in the smooth marble; the
mIlIstones that still turned to the hand IN the
self same way they turned nearly two thousand
years ago. There too was the brothel and
theatre and dancing hall. The secret orIflce
through which the priest sent his voice 70 the
statute to delude the people into the belief that
God had spoken was now disclosed walked,
through the house Of poet, into his garnlshed
sleeping apartments, forming, n their silence,
a part In a greater drama than he ever con-
ceived / sood before the tavern with the
rings vet entire to which the horses were las
tened. and where the bones of a mother and
her three children were found locked IN each
others arms. Temples were overthrown with
their affairs. The inches IN which stood the
gods were left empty, and the affairs before
them. on which smoked the sacrIflce, were 81
lent and lonely. Columns fallen across each
other in the courts just as that wild hurricane
had left them. pieces ofthe architrave blocking
nm the entrances they had surmounted, told
how fierce the shock and overthrow had been.
One house was evidently that of remarkably
rich man, Mosaic floors representing Dattle
scenes. precious stones still embedded IN tue
Movements of his corridors, long colonnades,
and II the appurtenances of luxury, aItested
the unbounded wealth of the owner. But no
bodies were found in it. The rich man nao
fed with his portable wealth before the storm
came. We passed through the temple OF Ju-
inter. the court of justice, the forum, the mar
ket-place, and emerged into the country
mounted an old wall, covered with earth,
and looked back on the disentombed city, ana
beyond the Vesuvius. There 1t Stood solemn
grand and lonely, sending up its steady column
of smoke, perpetual and living iomo stone
over the dead at his feet. l could seq tne
track of the lava on its wild and merry marc1 loI
the sea. and could imagine just now the cloud
IF osbes and cinders rose from the summit and
cane fivinp towards the deserted city. Foot
after foot t piled itself in the Streets over the
windows, and SO on till it re ached 20 or ~ ieel
above the tops of the house. | could behold
the sea where the younger Phny came ana ,.
innneTled bv a fatal curiosity, would land till
minded and suffocated, he too fell with the vic,
Tins that persisted.
From this we went to the amphltheatre,
where the gadatorial shows were held. D. . Il =
cientIy capacious to. hold ID or twenty tnou-
sand sand spectators. There were the dens where
ne lions were kept, and there the very erea l9
which men fought and fell stood at one end .,a
and shouted, and the answering echo came !.
an1I, ci,s- nj distinct as second voice. It
enhanced the solitude. Some have imagined
that spectators were assembled here at tl1e
time Of the overthrow cfthe city, and as . .as
felt the first step Of the mighty earthquake tnal
ha s its doom, they rushed in dismay ron
their he n, seats. But this could not be, for Pom.
p rs did not fall by an earthquake, and Ine
mountain. long before the eruption; eass p,l.s
r,ous sound Of the coming blow Do relates
az .r,sctres lined the summit Of the noun.