Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-03-11
POnpeii.

l thought 1 knew, says a writer, al
most how Pompeii looked, yet could not
understand how a city could be so COW
cred up as to be entirely forgotten, and
no description 1 ever read could give
me satisfactory idea. 1t was a small
city on plain, near the foot of Mount
Vesuvius; now, where they have dug
away the covering, it has Temperance
Of lying in a valley between two hills,
when, in leality, the hills are of the
same material as that which once COW
cred the whole city, the valley being
formed by removing the ashes to get
at the ruins. The more they excavate
the larger will be the valley, as more
than two-thirds of the city still lies un-
derneath the hills, the grass growing
over it as green as it once was over
Pompeii entire. No wonder it was for
gotten, hidden under a hill, with good
pasture land on top. The work of ex-
cavation is still going on. We started
for Pompeii early in the morning. A
guide accompanied US to explain the
ruins and watch US. Two francs and a
cigar closed his eyes while we kicked up
some of the mosaics.
We spent half day within the walls,
and walked nearly over the entire city
of rooAess houses. 1t was very inter
esting. Everything could be traced
the houses with dining and conversation
rooms and inner courts. They believed
in luxuries in those days, nearly every
house having bathroom and fountain.
The latter are still standing some with
curious figures of children holding the
pipes in their hands from which the
water came. The pipe is still fastened
in the ground. Stores, with marble
counters, are standing, some with holes
in them for jars of wine or oils. Bake
shops, with mills for grinding corn and
ovens for baking, are to be seen. In
them were found loaves of bread which
might, without irreverence, be marked
"B. c." A few stairs are left standing
to upper rooms. In some of the rooms
were found bodies, that are now in the
museum. The position of each denoted
that they died in great agony.
Some were lying with the faces upon
their arms, as if to shield them from
that fire of burning ashes; others are
clasped in each others arms in an en-
brace that knew no parting even in
death. On the finger of one woman is q
ring, while on another is necklace with
the name "Julie de Diomede en-
graved upon it. The streetsare narrow,
the sidewalks high, paved with large,
irregular-shaped stones, said to be the
lava. On the corners are stepping
stones to cross from one side of the
street to the other. The houses are gay
ly painted and frescoed. The painting
on the inside is still to be seen, and
palmer than some of the work of
the old masters. In one house Tin which
no woman is allowed to enter) are paint
ings few would care to look at, and none
have the hardihood to describe. They
show well the character of the house.
Many believe that Pompeii's destruction
was just retribution. Perhaps so ;
but 1 can't see why Naples was spared.
No sight in Europe has been SO in
teresting to us as Pompeii everything
is just as it was l, 300 years ago. The
ruins at Rome and many of the old
buildings show its former greatness and
many of the customs of thepeople. But
many of them have been altered, and
sometimes it is difficult to tell the old
from the new. More than one building
we have gazed at and admired as an
cient then wormed out of the guide
by degrees that this part was modern,
that the roof was new, and those
columns were placed there three hun
dred years ago, and SO on till it was
difficult to find anything but tho foun-
dation that was the same as when the
building was erected. But in Pompeii
everything is unchanged ; the style oi
architecture is not altered the streets
are not widened OF the houses rebuilt
by progressive people. No, there il
stands, city as old as Rome, without
any alteration.