The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1874-05-23


appear to have been only one ortwo Per-
haps il was not so of all other cities.
Pompeii is rooaess city not dozen
buildings are covered, and the roofs of
these are brick arches-the most notable
one being the Therme, or public bath
house, which had frontage Of three
streets, its principal entrance being from
the street of Fortune The weight of the
mud-ashes crushed in all the roofs not
made Of arches, and tumbled down more
or less the partition walls, which gives the
city ragged, ruinous aspect when viewed
from the streets. But there is no mark
Of fire. The walls are not cracked and
blackened, or calcined, but look as new
and natural as they did the day before the
eruption. The stucco walls and the fresco
pictures appear as fresh as those of mod
cru Italian towns.
The city evidently has been overtaken
by some great misfortune, as is attested
by its roohess, doorlcss, windowless, empty
houses, and silent, deserted streets, But
the disaster which has bofallcn it seems to
be the work of yesterday, or last month at
longest, and it is simply impossible to be-
lieyc that eighteen hundred years have
passed since the calamity On thousands
of chamber-walls may be seen ornamental
frescoes and mosaics, and pictures Of every
kind, male and female figures in all fanci.
full attitudes and attires, chiefly nude an
imals, fishes, serpents, birds, flowers, land
scapes, fruit-pieces, classical and gladiato-
rial scenes, and NEUROLOGICAL scenes and
groups-many of them of great beauty
and exquisite finish and design.
/ shall not attempt to describe the tenn
pies, pantheons, theatres, circus, amphi-
theatre, courts Of justice and Jail, city
council chamber, with the Forum and mar
ket-places. The guide.books are full of
these, and people who have not seen them
have either read all about them, or may do
so at their leisure. The amphithcatre,
however, was huge building, four hun
dred feet by three hundred, and would
seat twelve thousand spectators. 1t was
in full blast on the day of the destruction
of Pompeii; and when the great black
cloud rolled In darkness over the doomed
city, amid fierce flashes Of lightning, loud
bursts of thunder, and eonvulsive shocks
Of earthquake, the twelve thousand spec
tators of the combats in the arena between
the gladiators and the lions and tigers fed
i terror from the city, half suffocated
with noxious fumes, pclted by downfall
Of mud, and deluged by torrent of rain.
From the knowledge gained by the exca-
vations, 1t is believed that not more than
one thousand persons were caught in the
volcanic storm in the city and persisted
there. How many lost their lives wander
ing in the thick darkness beyond the walls
can never be known. Thousands escaped
by the vessels in the harbors, and other
thousands, undoubtedly, by the roads along
the bay.
After the catastrophe was over, and the
mountain had resumed its repose, the sur
vivors ventured back to look for their
pleasant homes, now buried out of sight,
with only here and there the top of pill
lar, or the arch over high walls projecting
above the surrounding embankments of
gray ashes and pumice mud. They tarried
to search for buried treasures, statuary,
and other yaluables. II is observed by
the excavators that hundreds of pits had
been dug down into the atrid Of houses,
and trenches therefrom were cut into the
chambers In search of personal effects.
Comparatively little of the precious met
ais have been found in cleaning away the
debris and ashes from houses and shops,
and it is thus accounted for that SO little
has been discovered. The owners would
naturally prolong the search while there
was a prospect of recovering any of their
valuables. The work was not difficult AS
the materials to excayate were light and
easily handled, and the inhabitants, of
course, knew where to look for property
worth the trouble of search; for nothing
was burned, but only crushed or buried
down under the weight of twenty FIVE feet
of wet, sticky ashes, aud 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 one hundred
years. The Royal Museum of Naples con-
tains fully ten thousand articles of every
imaginable description, taken from the ru-
ms, 1t requires whole days to go through
the rooms of the Museum, merely glanc-
ing at the things found in Pompeii; and
these are but small part of what were
recovered. Every museum in Europe is
more or less stocked with curiosities from
Pompeii; and hundreds and thousands of
private persons have secured many valua-
bic and beautiful articles. A score or two
of painters may be seen continually max
ing copies of the Pompeiian frescoes, and
pictures, and bas-reliefs, in the galleries
of tho Royal Museum. The walls of the
houses of wealthy classes we're prepared
with stucco of great excellence, equally
adapted to receive pictorial establishments
or to be modelled into bas-reliefs. This
stucco seems to have been made Of calcin-
ed gypsum, mixed with pulvcrized stone or
powdered marble On walls and ceilings
thus prepared the best Grecian artists dis.
played their skin in designs of landscapes,