Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-07-03
A Visit to Herculaneum and Pomp eii.-
Harriet Beeoher Stowe's Impressions
of the Buried Cities.

Harriet Beeohcr Stoves Impressions
of the Buried Cities.
In the last number of the New York
Independent, Harriet Beecher Stowe
writes thus of her visit to Hercu1aneum
and Pompeii:
About an hours drive brought tis to
the village of Portici, which. is built
over Herculaneum. We alighted and
went into a common-l looking house,
where an old man provided US all with
candles, and then opened door which
appeared to go down into a cellar, and
we all began to descend.
On our right and left we could see
the marks of the pickaxes which had cut
the passage down which we were tread
ing, through bank of solid lava, hard
and CLASSY. Down lower, the damps
dripped and oozed along the walls, and
the rum BILE of carriages overhead sounded
strangely in contrast to the ghostly dark
ness and stiffness into which we were
descending. 1t was the old theater of
Herculaneum we were coming into
a building as large as the San Carlos,
which is said to be the largest in the
world We heard the bats tapping
overhead, squeaking and gibbering as
the unwonted light disturbed them. We
passed through long galleries to the
stage, to the green-rooni-saw here and
there traces Of vermilion ceiling or partly
efaced fr@co-saw the places of the or
chestra, and stepped on the moss grown
stage. The very fact that it had once
been place of amusement added to the
heavy, ghostly chill-the sense of death
and desolation. We saw the bases, with
inscriptions, from which had been taken
the equestrian statues of the "Two
Balbi," father and son, which we had
seen in the museum the day before
Every space thus made must be carefully
bricked up again because of the living
town above. The first discovery of the
town, it is well known, was from the
sinking of we'll for the convenience Of
a family above, which we'll came into this
theater.
p Beside the two equestrian statues Of
Balbus," are several marble ones,
called the ''Mother, Wife, and Daugh-
ters." The statue called the Mother, y
) is most striking one. 1t is of an ell
derly woman of majestic presence, and
impressed with such deep lines of tragic
prescience, that one might fancy it the
statue Of one who foresaw the desolation
that was about to entomb her city
Most singular in its force Of character
and strength of expression is that statue
= one of these portraits that so evidently
suggest a history that one longs to
know the original. This family, distin-
guished for personal dignity and pres
) ence, and holding so high place in
public esteem, reveals itself to us after
a silence of centuries How impressive
and awful it must have been to have
found them in these subterranean recess
ses, standing silent, awful! I fancied
how that pale, strong, fateful face of the
mother of Balbus must have looked
when down in these oozy damps the
light of the discovering torch first fared
upon it. The history of pride, passion
and sorrow, which have written them
selves on that strange face, must have
!, had startling power, looking on out
in their stony stiffness from the silence
of so deep night of SO long and stony
an entombment!
Our party was large one-many Of
them young and full of spirits, and trod
the desolated way with many gay
word and light laugh-yet even the fai,
young faces and the thoughtless laughs
had ghostly, unnatural look and
sound in that depressing Stiffness
When we emerged to the daylight, one
young maiden appeared TO veiw bearing
beautiful full-blown rose, which she
, said she had picked up oh the damp
floor below.
The blooming child of upper all
seemed to us an incredible marvel te
) emerge from SO death-like shades, and
we wondered and speculated how it got
there. Such, doubtless, once grew ii
the gardens of that subterranean city
and lying back in the carraige: and shut
ting ones eyes, one might have fancied
it the ghost Of rose from some of those
buried gardens-a rose that should look
) Just like another, but should gradually
dissolve and fade from view in upper re-
gions.
POMPE11.
We arrived at Pompeii at about twelve
, o'clock, and went into little caravan
, serai to get lunch, before entering OF
, our explorations.
f In an upper chamber, all hung rounc
, with French Autographs, we took oul
, lunch. A man with guitar soon founc
! his way to the balcony, on to which oul
room opened, and began playing anc
: singing airs, the very sound Of which
seemed to say: "Be easy, have gooc
+ time, dance and sing while the sur
o shines.
, The character Of these Neapolitan airs
r strongly reminds me of the gayer class
of negro melodies-the same strongly
accentuated rhymetical character ano
sharp expression of time-the same care
less abandon of gayety. He sang, ane
e we laughed-he mtimated carltni, and
s we paid them-and then off he wen
/ singing again, till we laughed more and
: paid more carlini-he improvised sly
compliments, and had suggestions o.
e bella and enore which led to more car,
a Eiui-but we were to good -natured to de
d mur, and altogether he made gooc
e thing of ats doubtless, careless, jocula'
n dog that he was, full to his throat with
n the sunshine of this bright day.
: Pompeii is a much more airy anc
r sunny expedition than Herculaneuna.-
f 1t seems to have been buried by drifting
o ashes, much as our fences, in New Eng
5 land are sometimes hid under snow drift
. n a
have become green and gay. The un
lozzaazza4ol ,.a.t lool-c Lilo hill