The Portland daily press., 1866-11-07
startling Discovery,

The New York Tribune processes to give its
readers an account of a startling discovery
made by SignOr Nessuno OF the University at
Bologna,-Nessunow we are told. means Nobody;
Who found among the papyri of Pompsii, which
ne mas been many years engaged in investiga'-
ing, a complete report of a tour taken by herou
the Great Immediately after the massacre Vi
the Innocents Herod it appears, was acconi-
panied by his old, wary minister, oerVius var
d;us tho genarol who commanded his armies, the
contain Of his feet. and crowd of parasites
The cause of the Journey does not appear, but
something is said about ia monument possibly
that of Julius Caesar, who appointed Herod gov
arnor. although after the assassination of Caesar,
pHerod Immediately went over to Brutus and
Cassius.
We copy portion of the Tribune's article ON
this great discovery:
Herod had his speech prepared beforehand,
and If Professor Nessuuo has translated it lit
orally 1T must have been really comic in its eff
feet. He is reckoned to have stopped in all at
some sixty or a hundred places before he got
back to Jerusalem, and at every one OF these
places he delivered the same speech, the only
exception being the one we are about to mem
ton. 1t happened that Herod came TO GER
tain large town, whose name is not as clear IN
the manuscript as it might be, and after din
| ner a large crowd came about the caravansary
where he was stopping and called for speech,
| and he had just begun to peg away at the old
cut-and-dried affair that had served his turn so
| far when he was interrupted by an ill-manner-
/ ed fellow who cried out, How about them Da-
| bies?" HerOd Immediately grew red In the
| face, made grab at his CROWN and was about
| to hurl it at the saucy fellow, when his wary
old adviser, Servius Vardius, adroitly caught
i itand toput it out of harms way, clapped it on
| his own head Herod was in such state OF
rage that for few minutes he was quite inco-
herent but at length he managed to speak.
| Here we quote Prof NessunOs delightfully."-
| free and naive rendering as literally as we
| can into corresponding English ideas. 1t must
be remembered that Herod was not Roman
by birth, but was barbarian, and had no adj
| vantages of education ofsociety until his ac-
| cidental elevation to the Hierarchy, which will
account for certain rOwdy air his speeches
| have: YOU'D better ask about them babies!-
If yer knew more about babies in general, and
| these yer babies in particular, you'd never ask
such questions reckon. Who, should like
| to know, has suffered more for babies than
hev? / didn't kill those yer babies; they killed
themselves; and if did kill 'em, had to do it,
else they uns would have killed we uns. As for
me hev sounded all the depths of honor, and
my ambition is gratifed to repletion. have
been everything by turns and nothing long l
began life in small, low way but honors and
dignities climbed onto my brow, and filled
first one office, then another until had sat in
the gubernatorial cheer, and at length became
tetrarch, which fills the cup of my ambition and
leaves me satiated with glory. 1t makes me
mad to hear demoralized and subsidized mob
hollerin out wherever 60: How about them
babies? How about them babies6' Let me tell
you that them innocents, as you call EN- was
a poor, feeble, insigfcant, contemplate band of
fanatics who was engaged in gigantic scheme
to rend my tetrarchy in pieces and blot out the
stars from the imperial banner: They was
utterly powerless band of Infatuated madmen.
and the fact that they was only two years and
under, made their crimes more heinOus and
abominable. 1t was well known that had for
bid playing in the market place, and yet these
innocents came into the market place with
penny whistles and flags flying, and with
such defyin airs, that it could not be stood and
| their mothurs actually had the brass to laugh
| at EN- and cheer 'em on. Who, my friends,
| has suffered more from these babies than l
hev? I have sounded all the depths of honor,
| have set in the CUB
At this moment, continues the Manuscript, a
| scene of terrible confusion occurred. The peo-
pie refused to hear the tetrarch any more, and
began to curse him up and down without cere-
mony, to jeer him and insult him in every way,
The air was darkened with shower of sticks
and stones, eggs of every degree of staleness
added their perfume to the violet of his impe-
rial robes, while the dead bodies of the smaller
animals and vermin of the district were hurl-
ed without cessation, and with the most uner-
ring aim at his venerable head. One young
jew hurled a dead duck at him, another made
missile of coney, creature which, though.
it is expressly stated in the Bible to belong to
feeble folk, proved on this occasion unpleasant
| ly strong. 1t is not recorded that tetrarch
was ever so abused before. Herod seems to
| have been utterly unable to defend himself
against the storm, and at last gave it up, re-
treating from the platform amid whirlwind
of jeers threats, derisive cries and voices that
repeated increasingly "How about the babies~
until the wretched tetrarch was nearly mad
with rage and terror. Not long after his re-
turn to Jerusalem-and his friends hustled
him back to the capitol without ceremonyAhe
was SO weighed upon with remorse and morti-
fication that he is actually said to have held
been remarkable for the profuseness of his
speech, and never been known to go more than
twenty -four hours without talking about him
self But the sequel was, that the Innocents
were well avenged.