The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1868-03-19
Mark Twain at Pompeii.


But no, the sun shines as brightly
down on old Pompeii to-day as II
did when Christ was boru iu Bethle
hem, and its streets are cleaner
hundred times than ever Pompeiiau
saw them in her prime l know
whereof | speak--for in the great
thoroughfare (Merehant street and
the Street of Fortune) have not
seen with my own eyes how for two
hundred gears at least the pavements
were not repairedp--how ruts Eve and
seven inches deep were worn into
the thick flag stones by the chariot
wheels of generations ofswindlcd tax
payers2 Aud don't know by these
signs that the Street Commissioners
of Pompeii never attended to their
business, and that if they never
mended tue pavemouts, they never
cleaned them2 And, besideo, isn't
it the Unborn nature Of Street Com
missioncrs to shrink their duty when.
ever they get a chance? | only wish
that | knew the name of the last one
that held that office in Pompeii so
that could give him blast. |
speak with feeling on this subject
because | caught my foot in one of
ihose ruts, and the sadness that came
over mo when saw the first skee.
ton, with ashes aud lava sticking to
it, was tempered by the reflection
/ that may be that party was the
Street Commissioner.
No-Pompeii is nd longer a buried
city. 1t is city of hundreds of
roohess houses, aud tangled maze
of streets, where Que could easily get
lost, without guide, aud have to
sleep in some ghostly place that had
known no living tenant since that
awful November night of eighteen
centuries ago.
Everywhere you see things that
make you wonder how old these old
houses were before the night Of de
struction came--things, too, which
bring back those long dead inhabi.
tants aud place tho living before your
eyes. For Instance: The steps, (lava
blocks) that lead up out of the
school, and the same kind of steps
that lead up into the dress circle of
the principal theatre, are almost worn
through ! For ages the boys hurried
out of that school, aud for ages their
parents hurried into the theatre,
aud the nervous feet that have been
dust and ashes for eighteen centuries
have left their record for US to day
[ imagined / could see crowds of
gentlemen aud ladies throngiug into
the theatre, with tickets for secured
seats in their hands, and on the wall,
as plainly as ever | read anything in
my life, read the imaginary placard,
in infamous grammar, "Positi ely No
Free Lists except Members of the
Pressl" And hanging about the
doorway were slouchy Pompoiian
street boys, uttering slang and pro-
family, and keeping an eye out for
checks. l entered the theatre aud
sat down in one of the long rows Of
stone benches in the dress circle and
looked at the place for the orchestra
and the ruined stage, and round at
the wide sweep of empty boxes,
and thought to myself "This house
won't pay" l tried to imagine
music in full blast, the leader of the
orchestra beating time, and the "ver-
attic" so and so, who had Just re.
turned from most successful tour in
the provinces, to play his last and
farewell engagement of positively six
nights only, in Pompeii previous to
his departure for Horculoaneum, T"
cavorting around the stage and pling
the agony mountains high-but |
couldn't do it with such "house as
that; those empty benches tied my
fancy down to dull reality. 1 said,
those people that ought to he here,
have been dead, and moulderiug to
dust for ages and ages, and will never
care for the triaes aud follies Of life
any more forever-"0wing to circum
stances, etc, there will not be any
performance tonight"