Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-04-25
Whole Number 1868.

I
les, and pictures of every kind, male
and female figures in all fanciful at
titudes and attires, chiefly nude; an
imals, fishes, serpents, birds, flowers,
landscapes, fruit-pieces, classical and
gladiatorial scenes, and NEUROLOGICAL
scenes and grOups-many of them of
great beauty and exquisite
FINISH AND DESIGN.
shall not attempt to describe the
temples, pantheons, theatres, circus
amphitheatre, courts of Justice and
| jail, City-COuncil Chamber, with the
Forum and market-places. The
guide-books are full of them, and
people who have not seen them have
either read all about them, or may
do so at their leisure. The amphi
theatre, however, was a huge build
ing, 400 feet by 800, and would seat
$4,000 spectators. 1t was in full
blast on the day of the destruction of
Pompeii; and when the great black
cloud rolled its darkness over the
doomed city, amid fierce flashes of
lightning, loud bursts of thunder and
convulsiye shocks of earthquake, the
$4,000 spectators of the combats in
the arena between the gladiators and
the lions and tigers, fed in terror
from the city, half suffocated with
noxiOus fumes, pelted by downfall
of mud, and deluged by a torrent of
rain. From the knowledge gained
by the excavations, it is believed
that
NOT MORT THAN ONE THOUSAND PER-
SONS
were caught in the volcanic storm in
the city and perished there. How
many lost their lives wandering in
the thick darkness beyond the walls,
can never be known. Thousands es-
capped by the vessels in the harbors,
and other thousands, undoubtedly by
roads along the bay.
After the catastrophe was over,
and the mountain had resumed its
repose, the survivors ventured back |
to look for their pleasant homes, now
buried out of sight, with only here |
and there the top of pillar or the
arch over high walls projecting above
the surrounding embankmeDts of
gray ashes and pumice-mud. They
tarried to search for buried treasures
-statuary and other valuables. 1t
is observed by the excavators that
hundreds of pits had been dug down
into the atria of houses, and trenches
therefrom were cut into the cham
bers, in search of personal effects.
Comparatively little of the precious
metals have been found in cleaning
away the debris and ashes from
houses and shops, and it is thus ac-
counted for, that so little has been
discovered. The owners would nat
urally prolong the search while there
was a prospect of recovering any of |
their valuables. The work was not
difficult, as the materials to work
were light and easily handled, and
the inhabitants of course knew where
to look for property worth the trou
BILE of the search; for nothing was
burned, but only crushed or buried
down under the weight of 25 feet of
wet, sticky ashes and gravelly pumice.
Yet, after they had finished their
search and abandoned the site of the
city forever,
AN ENORMOUS QUANTITY
/ of THINGS have been eXhumed during
the last 100 years. The Royal Mu-
scum of Naples contains fully 10000
articles, of every imaginable descrip-
ton, taken from the ruins. 1t re-
quires whole days to go through the
rooms of the Museum, merely glanc-
ing at the things found in POmpeii;
and these are-but a small part of what
were recovered. Every museum in
Europe is more or less stocked with
curiosities from Pompeii; and hun
dreds and thousands of private per-
sons have secured many valuable and
beautiful articles. A score or two
of painters may be seen continually
making copies of the Pompeiian fres-
Goes, and pictures, and baS-reliefs, in
the galleries of the Royal Museum.
The walls of the houses Of the
wealthy classes were prepared with
a stucco of great excellence, equally
ADAPTED to receive pictorial embel-
lisbments, or to be modelled into bas-
reliefs. This stucco seems to have
| been made of caIcined gypsum mixed
with pulverized stone or powdered
marble. On walls and ceilings Il US
prepared, the best Grecian artists
displayed their skill in designs of
landscapes, NEUROLOGICAL figures, pro-
cessions, tTiumphs, battles by land
and sea, gods and gOddesses, ami
mails, gardens and ideal subjects.
Some of these fresco-paintings are
of the most exquisite beauty and
grace, and may be seen initiated IN
all the palaces of Europe, &nd COPIED
in engravings and reproduced ID
statuary or bronze, in which LAYER
arts the Pompeiians also exeelled
The collection of statuary IN marble
and bronze in the Naples Museum is
hardly eoualed in vAriety of excel
iance bv the vast collection of the
Vatica5 IN Rome, and many of those
in the vatican, in the Louvre of Pa
r;s and the British Museum of Lon
don came from POmpeii.
Pompeii was
| FAVoRITE WATERING-PLACE
for wealthy Roman families several
hundred of whom had residences
there, and spent portions of the year
in it. This accounts for the exquisite
statuary, broSzes, frescoes, mosaics,
and other works of art found there.
The Greek artists furnished the skill,
and the patrioiau Romans the money,
for their produetiOA
But | was greatly interested IN IN
specting the domestic articles III
the Museum, taken from the dead
city, whereby the daily life and hao-
lis, and degree of civilization OF the
Romans of that age may be asSel-
taiAed and compared with the PlSs-
ent times. 1t is astonishing 10"
many things in common use now no , were
Ii in use tken. Here you VIII see a.