The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-14
DESTRUCTION or POMPEII.
BY HON. JAMES W. WALL.

The partially exhumed city of Pompeii is
located about twelve miles from Naples, on
the railway to Castellamare, Just where it
branches off to Nocera. A hillock, partly
formed by the shower of ashes which buried
the city, now heaped still higher by the dirt
thrown out from the excav vations at the south
ern declivity of Vesuvius, and five miles from
its base, marks the interesting locality, whose
antiquity was, as it were, caught alive. There
the progress of time and decay has been ar
rested, and we are admitted to the temples
and theatres, and the domestic privacy of
people who lived nearly two thousand years
ago.
Pompeii was little Greek town of tolerable
commerce in its early day. The Mediterra-
mean sea, which once washed its walls, subse-
quently, from the effects of an earthquake or
some local cOnvulsion, left it mile and more
away in one of these delicious plains made by
nature for the complete extinguishment of all
industry in the Italian dweller and for the
comm monplaces Of poetry and prose in all the
northern abusers of the pen II was ravaged
by every barbarian who in turn was called
conquerer, and was successfully the pillage of
Carthagenan and Roman, until at last the
Augustan age, which cast such radiance over
Rome, saw it quieted into an effeminate and
luxurious Roman colony, and man, fearing to
rob, ceased to rob any more.
When man had ceased his molestations,
nature commenced hers; and this unfortunate
little city was by curious fate to be extin-
guished, yet preserved-to perish suddenly
from the face of the astonshed Roman En-
pire; and to live again when Rome was but
nest of sandalled monks and superstitous
mummers-her empire torn to fragments by
Turk, Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and whole
host of barbarie names, that once were as dust
beneath her feet.
In the year GO of the Christian era, an earth
quake manifested to the affrighted POmpeiians
on what frail tenure they held their leases.
WhOls streets were thrown down; columns
started from their bases; statues fell from their
~pedestals; and to this day the traveller is
shown the evidences Of hasty repair, marking
the first calamity. 1t was the first warning
to that depraved and dissolute city "of the
bolt red with uncommon wrath soon to be
launched, with all its force amid fiery whirl-
wind of stones, lava, and ashes.
On the 23d of August, in the year 79, Vesu-
yius poured out his accumulation of terrors at
Once-and in the clearing away of the storm of
fiery dust which covered Campania for four
days, Pompeii, with all its living multitude,
its magnificent temples, theatres, palaces, and
baths, its walls of arabesque and columns
clustering in patriarchal splendor, had disap-
peared from the earthly surface-and a
smoking heap was the grave OF that buried city.
The ancient Romans seem to have been as
fond of villas as If every soul of them had
made fortunes in Wall street; and the whole
southern coast of Italy, like Staten Island,
although far surprising it in architectural
ragnfcence, was studded with the summer
palaces the iris-hued gardens of these masters
of the world. The site of Vesuvius would
now be rather formidable foundation for a
villa, S%saose owner might any morning be
found with his villa done to turn in bed Ol
hoy ashes. But before the eruption that
covered Pompeii with ashes and Herculaneum
4 with lava, the mountain was asleep, and had
A never, within the memory of the oldest inhabi-
7 tant, rumbled, or flung up spark or stone. Its
VeTdant slopes were then covered with elegant
villas and gardens. Martial has pretty epi
gram, in which he gives us view OF Vesu
Vius, as he appeared before this terrible erup
"Here verdant vines o'erspread Vesuvius
sides,
The generous grape here poured her purple
tides.
This Bacchus loved beyond his native scene,
Here dancing satyrs joy'd to trip the green"
To those who look upon Vesuvius now
grim, blasted, and lifting up his sooty forehead
among clouds OF perpetual smoke, the very
throne Of Pluto and Vulcan tOgether-nC
force OF fancy can picture what il must have
been, when the Romans built their summer
palaces and paviliOns on its verdant slOpes-t
pyramid OF more than three thousand feet il
height, painted over with forest, garden, vine
yard, and OrchaTd-zoned with colonnades
turrets, golden roofs, and marble porticos
with the deep azure of the Campanian sky
for its canopy, the classic Mediterranean
washing its base, and the whole glittering
IN the oolOrs of sunrise, noon, and evening
hke "the rich and high piled woof from Per
sla's looms, let down from the steps of som'
heaVen-lifted and resplendent throne. AL
THIS magnihcence was turned into cinders
laVa, and hot water in the year OF the Chris
han era, 70. The kissing streams Of lava