Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-06-01
AREnARKABLE RELIC.
[From tho London Telegraph. ]

able object. Such an event, OF course,
is no novelty at Pompeii and Hercula-
neum; and, indeed, of all the odd
things which might be expected to turn
up in the streets and houses of ancient
towns suddenly overwhelm by lava, the
major part has already come to hand.
Everybody knows what curious aud
interesting articles have been discov-
ered-the skeletons, the utensils, the
coins, implements, armor, pottery, and
so on. The Roman soldier found at
his post, from which the fiery shower
could not drive him; the miser, with
his money-bag, killed as he painfully
fled; and that most pathetic impress in
the lava, of a mother clasping the child
for which sue died-nothing left of all
her great love but its record on the mol
ten pumice and the little pile of min
gled bOnesl--eveTybOdy has heard of
these relics. And, to say nothing of
the museums that are stocked with OBJ
jects of archaeology from the buried
cities-the statues, the inscriptions, the
architectural remains, and what nOt-
souvenirs have also been found Of the
daily life of that soft Campanian peo-
pie, who We're caught in the great spasm
of nature, aud wrapped, along with
their habitatiOus, In a winding sheet of
burning ashes and liquid rock. On the
streets themselves paved with volcanic
blocks from still Older ernptions--are
yet seen the deep futs worn by the
wheels of charlOts and wains. The re-
fuse of the day marks the kennel; the
keys are in some of the front wickets;
on the walls there are iocose or ribald
inscriptions, scratched by The Pompeian
gamins; aud you enter dwelling after
dwelling, TO find the contents exactly
as the terrified owners left them-the
household gods in their places; the
lamp. the pae0rCe, the dmphOTB ready
for use; the tricliHitaR arranged for the
feast, which was never eaten. Nay,
seekers have found the cake of bread
half consumed, the bakers oven with a
batch half ready, the oil-fiask half emp
tied, and the masOn's chisel flung down
by the side of the half finished acanthus
leaf, upon which is plainly shown the
very last mark of the tool, when the
workman saw the mountain belch forth
its fire. and felt the earth shake, and
fed for life Thus it is nothing new
in these cities of the dead, to
come perpetually upon fresh to-
kens of the gay life which buZZed
aud glittered there until the
terrible eruption befell. But quite
lately the scdUdiOTi from Naples have
brought TO light an item oil this buried
people which is singular, even among
all these singular memorials. 1t is an
urn or vessel OF bronze, of the ordina-
ny classic shape, with two handles. The
vessel was covered with thick crust of
Oxidized metal and ScOride. When this
was Clipped away, a cover was seen fit
ting tightly to the mouth, s0ldered
down by the same composite crust
On opening the vase a quantity of pure,
soft, and peilucid water was fonnd.
sweet TO the taste and unaltered in qnaI-
ity. This water could not have pene-
trated through the metal sides or top
of the urn; moreover, no reservoirs of
filtered rain are found in the POmpeian
ruins The dry volcanic soil and the
nature Of the vessel make that theory
irrr,,-s..4iblA The wat1r was snreIy
drawn for some Campanian household
on the day OF awful visitation; and if
so. 1t il, as it was, the drinking water
of the dead. tasted by the living eigh-
teen centuries after that vessel of
bronze was filled.
Who will not pause a little, in the
fret and fever OF our restless present,
to let this vase of ancient water take
our thoughts back to the past. 20 set
the lips to it, as its discoveries did,
seems almost q sacrilege; it IS like
hchrymatory of natnre--the tears of
the fair country "kept in a bottle" for
all the bright life slain on that awful
dayl What was the fate, we wonder,
of the slave who filled the urn at the
fountain? For what merry banquet
was it charged, to mix with purple
Falernian. or TO pour, along with odOrs
upon the hands OF the guests when
they arose from meat to hear the flute
players pipe under the olives? Or was
1t brimmed for the toilet of some Os-
can beauty, and set, half used, ready
to bathe her dark eyes again, and wash
the dust from her hair, when, flushed
with lOve-makIng and the sign OF blood,
she came nj night from the GladiaiOrs?
Or, peTchance, it was an dnphOrd of
some little marble temple, and what is
wanting of IFS contents was poured out
To lave the victims blood away from
an altar of Artemis, or of Hercules,
who built the city. What tiT es and
recollections this bronze water Jar
brings back to usl When they drew
what it still holds, Titus, the "De-
light of Mankind" was Just
come to the purple; the great Coliseum
was just finished, and ready for those
five thousand savage beasts ordered
from African aud Asiatic iungles-and
for those Christian men and maidens,
too, kept in chains against the hour of
the lion and the torch. They were
talking. be sure, of the terrible siege,
Just over, at Jerusalem, where the Pre-
torians had trampled tie Holy of Ho-
lies with their iron sandles, and fire
had run along the lips of KedrOn, from
Gethsemane to Sloan. This water,
If it cOuid be conscious, has heard al
most the first talk about The One who
spoke in Cana, when water blushed
obedient into wine; 1T has heard the
sages and priests of the pretty, sinful
towns discuss together the strange
new doctrine that had come out of Gal
lice, which made common men Drawer
than Thraeea Pietus. killed "a score of
summers ago" by Nero-t1at P@tus
who poured the IibatiOn of his life
blood "to Jove the Deliyerer, and
died with a merry moral on his tongue;
which made even women drawer than
Paulina, Seneca's Wife-she who, ont
OF love and pride, mot twenty years
back" opened her veins along with
her husband, and, narrowly saved from
death, was still living. and known in all