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

1 1uG VI lliAo 4 Ill NAN WV
brated naturalist of the same name
lost his life in attempting to rescue
some of his friends who lived on the
opposite shore of the bay, near Pom
pei. When the cloud and eruption
commenced, he took a galley and
rowed swiftly across the bay, and
landed at Stable; but the mephitie
vapor, blowing in that direction,
caused his death. The sailors with
him fed back to the boat and escaped
with their lives, leaving him where
he fell, and where his body was af-
forwards found by his nephew.
1t is no wonder that PIiny thought
the Day of Judgment had come. The
eyes of mortal never beheld a more
frightful convulsion of nature. Fire,
smoke, lightning, rain, mud, ashes,
falling stones, thick, black darkness,
dreadful explosions, louder than
claps of thunder, together with hun
dreds of fearful shocks of earthquake,
were enough to appall the heart
even of Roman, who was supposed
to be impervious to the sensation of
fear
After refreshing my memory of
that eventful eruption by reading
Pliny's and other accounts of it,
VISITED THE BURIED CITY
with feelings somewhat akin to those
which an eyewitness of the dreadful
occurrence might have, who returned
to Pompeii some years afterwards to
see how it looked. In the first place,
something more than half the origi-
nal limits of the city within the walls
are exhumed, say 100 acres of the
16O which it covered. Pompeii was
a Greco-Roman city of the third
class, and contained perhaps $4,000
inhabitants at the date of its destruc-
tion. Herculaneum was not more
than half so large. POmpeii was in
no danger of destruction from an
eruption of lava, as it was built on
an oblong-shaped piece of rising
ground, which was considerably
higher than the plain between it and
the mountain, distant several miles
to the northwest. 1t was submerg-
ed at the time to about the depth of
% feet, as l observed by the excava-
tions still going on; and subsequent
ly, in A. D. 472, there was another
fall of ashes of about foot. Sever
al lighter falls of ashes can be traced,
in all to the depth of 2 or 8 feet, in
addition to the great deluge; and the
whole is now covered by foot deep
of rich vegetable mold.
The reason that Pompeii was bur-
led out of sight is, that the houses
were nearly all
ONLY ONE STORY HIGH;
few were two stories, and some of
the temples and public buildings a
little higher, but none to exceed
three stories. The general height
Of the walls as they stand is Is to 20
feet; l saw none to exceed 35 feet;
but they are exceedingly thick, and
bound with a cement as strong as the
lava-rock itself of which they are
built. wish some of our Chicago
builders could inspect the sort of
mortar used in those days. They
would feel reproaches of conscience,
if they have any, for the weak and
dangerous stuff they use in their
work.
The general appearance of Pom
peii bears a striking similarity to the
cities and towns of Southern Italy of
the present day. One sees every
where the same narrow, crooked
streets,-6 to u feet wide there are
only two streets in Pompeii wider
than that); the same very thick walls
of stone and brick, covered with
stucco outside as well as in; the same
kind of irregular or Octagonal-shaPed
fiag-pavement; the same little, plazas,
or public squares, mere widenings
of the street; the same style of court
wards, or areas in the middle OF
houses, connected by an arehway
with the street. These courts, of
which hundreds may be seen in Pom
peii, were called dtriltn1s; and in the
centre of each was an inspI,t0iat,a, OF
square aperture for catching and
holding water. This i0apIas0istuo is
not in use in modern Italian towns
Often there was fountain in the
atriuna, with water-gods and other
statuary. The same may be seen
still in the cities of Italy.
The favorite and prevailing colors
of the stuccO walls were red and yell
low, or rather orange and lemon
the former for dining-rooms, and the
latter for the parlors. Pictures OF
NEUROLOGICAL subjects of every con-
ceiveable kind, were painted on these
stucco walls; and exactly the same
thing and the same designs may be
seen all over Italy. There has been
little change in the taste of the peo-
pie in respect to the architecture of
their towns; for stuccos and freScoes,
for colors and designs-the Greek
models-have been perpetuated in
almost every respect for these
eighteen centuries. The chief differ
ence observable is in the height of
the houses. The modern Italian
houses are three to six stories; those
of the days of POmpeii appear to
have been only one or two. Perhaps
it was not So in other cities.
Pompeii is
A ROOFLESS CITh5
not dozen buildings are covered,
and the roofs of these are brick arch
es-the most notable one being the
Tberme. or public bath-hOuse, which
had a frontage of three streets, its
nrincipaI 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 a rag
ged, 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
stucoo walls and the fresco pictures.