Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-03-18


strange infatuation, for notwithstaRd-
ing the many thousand people that
have persisted within their vicinity,
the natives viii still live near enough
TO feel the earth surge beneath
their feet, to hear the tempest
uous uproar and riot within, and
to gaze upon the sublime column Of
fire and smoke as it ascends like in
cense to heaven. A tempest is in
vested with a frightful grandeur; the
freshet irresistibly sweeping over the
country, destroying life and property,
is fearful 10 behold; the ravages OF fire
inspire awe "a battle between two great
armies presents ascent ofindescribable
terror; but a volcanic earthquake is
more terrible than all these combined,
for the earth rocks to and fro; the lava
tide rolls down the mountain side,
pushing onward toward the sea;
bright spirals Of flame shoot up from
the crater; vast bodies of ealth are
hurled from the mountain side; lofty
precipices sink into the earth; gigan-
tic assures and ehasms billOW the
earth, the sun is obscured by the
thick, impenetrable cloud Of smoke,
while the burning cinders fall like
snOwhakes on fire. There is a tradi-
tiOnaI and historic grandeur connect
ed with the volcano, which we were
informed yesterday by dispatches from
London, has again desOlated the
try. Since the year A. d. 70, Mount
Vesuvius has had periodical erup-
tons. One Of great violence and
causing much damage occurred in
December, 1861. The eruptiOns in
1855, 1858, and in 1859 were equally as
destructive. That of 1894 was more
destructive than any that has occurred
for many centuries, as the lava
flowed over five thousand acres Of
rich vineyards and cultivated land.
From 1881 to 1853 many towns
and thousands Of people were de-
stroyed. But the greatest volcanic
earthquake recorded in history Oc-
Cured in a. D. 79, when the eruption
of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities
of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and
killed near three hundred thousand
people. Many Of the principal citi-
zens happened at that time to be
assembled at a theater where public
spectacIes were exhibited. The ashes
and the debris buried the whole sur
rounding country. Successive erup-
tions buried these two cities still
deeper, and all traces of them were
lost. But in 17I1 excavations were
commenced, and continued up to 1854,
during which time works of art,
monuments and memorials of civil
lied life, volumes OF manuscript, and
many antiquities having been
recovered, are,nOw TO be found in the
museums OF Europe. PIiny, the
younger, gives a graphic description
! Of this awful event, but the "Won-
ders Of POmpeiin translated from the
! French of Mare MOnneer and recent
Iy published by Charles Scribner Il
| Co, is full Of thrilling interest. Here
isa specimen:
The Imagination can add moth
ing to it; the picture is there before
| our eyes; we are present at the scene;
we behold il. Seated in the amphi-
/ theater, we take to flight at the first
| commissions, at the first lUrid flashes
which announce the cOniagration
1 and the crumbling Of the mountain.
The ground is shaken repeatedly;
/ and something like a whirlwind of
dust, that grows thicker and has
| gone rushing and spinning across
| the heavens. For some days
I past there has been talk of gigantic
! forms, which, sometimes on the
mountain and sometimes on the
| plain, swept through the air; they are
4 up again now and rear themselves to
/ their whole hight in the eddies of
| smoke, from amid which is heard a
| strange sound, a fearful moaning, fol-
| lowed by claps Of thunder, that crash
/ down, peal on peal. Night, too, has
| come On-an night of horror; enormous
/ flames kindle the darkness like the
/ blaze Of q furnace. People scream out
| in the streets, ''NesUvius is on fire."
On the instant the POmpeians, terri.
! fed, beWildered, rush from the amphi-
theater, happy in finding 50 many
! places of exit through which they can
pour forth without crushing each
other, and the open gates of the city,
only a short distance beyond. How
ever, after the first explosion, after the
deluge of ashes, comes the deluge Of
fire or light stones, all ablaze, driven
by the Wind-One might call it a burn.
ing Notwithstanding slowly, ineXOr,
ably, fatally, without cessation OF
intermission, with pitiless persist
ence. This solid frame blocks W
the streets, piles itself in heaps
on the roofs, and breaks through
into the houses with the crashing
tiles and blazing rafters. The
fire thus tumbles in from story
to story, upon the pavement Of the
courts, where, accommodating like
earth thrown in to ell a trench, it re-
ceives fresh fuel from the red and
fiery flakes that slowly, fatally, keep
shOWering down, falling, falling, with.
out respite. The inhabitants flee in
every direction; the strong, the
youthful, those who care only for their
lives, escape. The amphitheater is
emptied in the tWinkling of an eve,
and none remain in it but the dead
gladiatOrs. But woe to those who
have sought shelter in the shops,
under the arcades Of the theater, in
underground retreats. The ashes sur
round and stitie them. Woe, above
| all, to those whom avarice or cupidity
hold back; to the wife of PrOcalue; to
the favOrite Of Sallust, who have
They will all sutfOcate among those
triDkets, which, scattered around
them, will reveal their vanity and
the last trivial cares that beset them,
to after ages"
The ashes from this awful catastrO-
phe were waited in dense clouds to
Africa and Rome, where they filed
the atmosphere and hid the light Of
day, and Pliny represents the Romans
as saying" the world is overturned
the sun is falling on the earth to bury
itself in night, or the earth is rushing
up TO the sun to be consumed in bis
eternal fires" cat length" writes
Pliny, " the light returned gradually.
and the star that sheds it reappeared
but pauid, as in an eclipse. The
whole scene around US was transform.
Cd the aahna lie a hnauu annw GOV.