Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-03

vote, nor clamor for the privilege, but they eX-
! crcised their unquestioned right OF influencing
! voters. "Marcella prays success for Proculus,
is still petition to he read upon Il pillar. The
/ house of Proculus is upon the same plan upon
| which most of the stylish Pompean mansions
| were built. Picture dwelling running back
from the street. the front, suit OF small recep-
ton rooms, the middle, two open, roohess courts,
atrum and pcrstyle, divided by drawing
room, against the windows-for there were glass
windows in POmpcii--of which, when privacy
was required, curtains could be let down--an
arcade beneath with doors opening to the offices
and cubicula OF the house, and a hall leading to
the street door, and you have rough outline of
Il rich mans town house in Pompei. The inner
court was sacred to the family. There are re-
mains of little garden and two small marble
fountains that once sent a cascade over di.
minutive rockery into fowerbcds. Double rows
OF columns mapped out q mellow gloom in the
periumed retreat where the ladies spent their
elegant leisure. The pavement of alternate
brick aud marble diamond shapes is still per-
feet. Paintings of colors that would harmonic
with the flowers and Shrubbery adorned the
doors opening out of the boudoir bedrooms, and
are still fresh and beautiful. Everything is de-
signed with reference to elegant privacy, for
little intercourse of families was known in Ro-
man life. In the peristyle of this house there
was found the skeleton of hen only. All other
living creatures had left it. In the atrium, how
ever, a woman endeavOring to escape had fallen
and was fast escaping, when death arrested her
in the outer court. She never rose again.
OF the inhabitants Of Pompeii, thousands,
doubtless, persisted, though many were saved.
Hand in hand large crowds CROPPED their way
through the streets, and escaped to the open
country. AT the chief gate there stood seuti-
mel, who sternly kept his post, and died in har
ness Planted in his sentry-boX, he covered his
mouth with his tunic, and held on against the
choking and sulphurOus shower But the ashes
fnil and fell 6lluu fbp Stpppts bpVppI pogeibiIit
of being passed, and buried the soldier, holding
his weapon with one hand and Yailng his
mouth with the other. He was found there-a
standing skeleton grasping a rusted sword. Sad
discoveries are being constantly made. The
week previous to our visit two skeletons had
been uncovered in street. They were young
ii lad OF twenty, perhaps, and Il girl OF sixteen
and were locked in each others embrace. In
their flight they had fallen together. and death
had welded them. There was mother, with
her three children, hand in hand, who yainly
tried to escape the destroyer. The mother
singly might have done so, but she would not
leave her children. Plenty of food for thought
is furnished by the fact that more than six hun
dred skeletons have been eXhumld Many of
these tell their own story. OF the family Of
Diomed seventeen were stned in a well-stockcd
wine cellar. In their agony of fear the fugitiyes
were huddled together in a corner One Swoon-
ing fell forward on the bed of ashes that had
d. lifted in. She left the impress of her bosom in
the drift, like seal in softened wax. The tell
tale cast shows the breast to have been beautiful
as iIebe's.
have spoken of the Jewels found in the atri-
um of the house of Proculus. There was no
money. Those bearing it had capped. Perhaps
not far. A woman was unearhed in a street
hard by who had fallen, clutching bag Of geld
1t was in connection with this body that one of
the most interesting of Fiorellis discoveries
came about. The hardened ashes became a
mold of all the victims. In this case the coriae
did not break. Into the cavity plaster-of-paris
was poured. The result was a perfect cast of
the woman. After eighteen centuries here was
a counterpart of the poor creature as she died,
gripping her bag of ninety pieces of gold, two
silver vases, some jewels and keys Hurrying
along the street, she had tripped and;fallen on
her left side. Her arm is raised and twisted.
Her hand, beautifully formed, is clutched in de
spair, the nails entering the skin. Head-dress,
face, tissue of garments and rings on her fin
gers, are reproduced exactly. Succeeding in
this, Foreli has since made casts of more than
thirty victims. They are to be seen at his house
in the suburbs. There are brawny gladiators,
little children, porters who staggered and fell
under their loads, and men of business who
fingered too long at their desks. In nearly all
an expression of suffering is manifest. One
young girl, however, in the flush of health,
her form modelled free from rgidness, appears
to have died without a struggle. One of
her hands is half open, as if holding
her vail There are the sleeves to her
wrists, the needle work on her san
dals, the rents in her clothing the barred
shoul Ter and half naked bosom, as she lay in
her last swoon. She had covered her mouth
with her tunic to keep out the choking ashes,
and she fell in running-her face to the ground.
No strength was left to arise In her effort for
recovery she put out her arm, her head dropped
upon it, and she died. The fatal storm came on
a festival day in the city, or many would doubt
less have persisted. The holiday makers escaped.
Looking up from the games in the arena, they
must have seen the awful portent when Vesu-
yius began to vomit its ashes Taking the
warning, they fled Placards announcing the
theatrical performances of that day are still 10
be read on the walls The Pompeans were thea
ter going. They were given up to pleasure, sit
uated in an Eden of natural beauty, where
green uplands, lofty mountains, soft infections of
rivers and valleys, and shifting spendors of sun
light and moonlight on tideleSS sea tempted to
Incidence, theirs was life of the senses. Even
now, when the city has been dead, buried egh-
teen hundred years, and reSurectonized, one is
startled by an air of gayety that cings to it,
Doubtless it had its philosophers, but they do
not appear. No yestge of Christianity has vet
been discovered What may be revealed is be-
yond conjecture. Ii is satisfactory to know,
however, that the work of excavation goes on
more thoroughly than ever before, and that the
city, which Vesuvius by burying has preserved
to the world when its shroud of ashes is torn
away, will present a Roman town as 1t was in
the days of Vespasiau.