The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-08-05
From the Cincinnati Gazette. /.
PoMpEII AND HERCULANEUM.

POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM.
am inclined TO believe with Solomon,
that there is nothing new under the sun.
spent half a day in The Museum at Ma
pies, poring over the relics dug from the
above mentioned cities. Arranged in
glass cases, and on the floor of four or
five rooms, are the implements and uten-
sls OF brass, copper, bronze, and iron,
disinterred from those two ancient PLACES.
| smiled, as ] saw their familiar faces
Being an ex-hardware man, could bet
ter appreciate the sight than some others.
Standing before me were the articles
used IN cities buried two thousand years
ago, in many cases of the precise shape
and pattern of the present day. | saw
the same sleelyards and scales, the same
COW and sheep bells; the same fish hooks.
buckles, bride bits, pots, kettles, sauce
pans, porrngers, claw hammers, adzes,
mattocks, and picks; the identical old
Dutch lamp and German compass, twee,
zers, pincers, keys, backAap, strap and
hook and eye hinges. In short, a thou>
sand things as we now make them. |
could set up a hardware store, again,
from this museum, and its catalogue wo'd
read very much like one from a jobber
in New York. | confess was astonish
ed a, the similarity of SO many articles
in my old trade.
The Pompeiins knew thing or two
and if they could only poke their noses
through The ciuders and lava, that hns
entombed them for twenty centulies, they
could obtain good journeyman's wages,
in any blacksmith shop. foundry, or tin
shop of the present day. They would
get the hang of,bings in fourandtwenty
hours, notwithstanding they had been
sleeping in the ashes nearly the same
number of centuries, and feel quite al
home in their old vocations. Inlaid cen
ire tables, folding stools, door handles,
&C., &c, &C.. down even to the modern
case turner, that | thought, ten years ago,
was a new invention, can here be seen.
So much for the progress of the present
day.
revisited the burying place of the
poor al Naples, not from any morbid Gu
riosity, but because, on all the earth, ii
is in this city alone TINT such sight can
he seen. was more Mortified the Sec
ond time than the fist. | saw eleven
dead naked children taken from single
bor, where they were promiscuously
packed, and sen, into the pit as fast as
the man could drop them, he keeping
tally, with loud voice, as lie chncked
them in. Then followed man and wo-
man-you could hear them fall with a
dull squashy sound on the dead below.
After that, three more children, of differ
ent ages and as | came away, other
budes we're entering the gate. They
throw, at this season of the year, some
forty persons in daily. The Priest a.
waits until dozen or so are collected
about the mouth Of the vault; he then
sprinkles them all rourd, at the same
time, blosses them in lump. and down
they 90. The whole matter is conduct-
ed withou, the least cfeetation Of solem.
nifty, and amidst common femark and
jrsts, with a brutality and indifference
lha, passes belief-and yet the Pries'
seemed clever old chap, and the men
civil fellows. They gave me every cp'
por'unity of seeing what was going on
md were very courteous. My descHp
lions are far short of the nulh-l saw
more than it is proper TO publish. and
have only wr;t,en enough 10 give some
idea of this disgusting spectacle, that oc
ours every evening in the year. l take
final leave fthe revolving subject, anc
trust my readers will excuse me for hav
ing REQUIRED TO it--but, as new phase
Of humanity, and disgrace 10 the nine.
teenth century, | thought il worth no
tce. 'a8 G. NEANE.
NaDles. June. 1853. H. .a