The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1853-09-08
Pompeii and Herculsneum.

4 Pompeu ana 6erculc1eum,
/ am inclined to believe with Solomon
that there is nothing new under the sun.
spent half day in the Museum at Naples
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 utensils of brass, cop.
per, bronze and iron, disinterred from those
two ancient places. | smiled as saw their
familiar faces. Being an ex-hardware man
could better 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 COW and sheep bells; the same
fish hooks, buckles, bride bits, pots, kettles.
sauce pans, porringers, claw hammers, adzes,
mattocks and picks; the identical old Dutch
lamp and German compass, tweezers. pin
GERS, keys, backhap strap and hook and eye
hinges. In short, thousand things as we
now make them. could set up hardware
store again, from this museum, and its cat
alogue would read very much like one from
jobber in New Yoak. I confess | was
astonished at the similarity Of so many arti-
cles in my old trade.
The Pompeiians knew thing or two, and
! if they could only poke their noses through
the cinders lava that has entombed them
for twenty centuries, 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 things in four
and-twenty hours notwithstanding they
had been sleeping in the ashes nearly the
same number Of centuries, and feel quite at
home in their old vocations. Inlaid centre
tables, folding stools, door handles, &C., g.,
down even to the modern case turner, that
| thought, ten years ago. was new inven-
| ton, can here be seen. So much for the
progress of the present day.
revisited the burying place OF the poor
at Naples, not from any morbid curiosity,
but because on all the earth, it is in this
city alone that such sight can be seen. /
was more Mortified the second time than
the first. saw eleven dead naked children
taken from a single bor, where they were
promiscuously packed, and sent into the
pit as fast as the man could drop them, he
keeping tally, with a loud voice, as he chuck
ed them in. Then followed man and a.
woman-you could hear them fall with a
dull squashy sound on the dead below After
that three more children of different ages
and as came away, other bodies were en-
tering the gate. They throw, at this sea-
son Of the year, some forty persons in daily.
The Priest waits until dozen or so are
collected about the mouth he then sprinkles
them all round. blesses them in lump,
and down they go. The whole matter is
conducted without the least affectation Of
solemnity, and amidst common remarks and
jests, with brutality and indifference that
passes beief-and yet the Priest seemed a
clever old chap, and the men civil fellows.
They gave me every opportunity of seeing
what was going on: and were very courteous.
My descriptions are far short of the truth
saw more than it is proper to publish, and
had only written enough to give some idea
of this disgusting spectacle that occurs
every evening in the yard take a final
leave Of the revolving subject. and trust my
readers will excuse me for having required
to it-but, as new phase Of humanity, and
a disgrace to the nineteenth century,
thought it worth notice.
c. NEANE.
l.