American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1877-12-15
Rome and Pompeii.

Rome and POmpeii.
The following is an extract from
lecture by Rev. Brooke Herford in Chi
cago:
One of the hardest things for US mod
erns was to conceive the real life of the
ancient world. We thought only of it.
We could not picture it in real life.
We compared our own triumphs, our
comfortable houses, and our occasion
ally paved streets. But when we tried
to realize the ancient world we failed
We only thought of them as semi-bar-
barous. We acknowledged that they
did some things wonderful, but nothing
more. But yet we wondered how they
did these wonderful things when there
were so many things that they did not
| do. Modern Rome was a magnificent
city. But in it arose monuments of
what Rome once was. Let him go
through modern Rome with them.
Here they had to turn around to get
around the lofty walls of an ancient
amphitheater. There was one spot
where these works of the past crowded ,
around one with power almost of in
tense awe. One after another loomed
up before the gaze the temple of Saturn,
the Forum, the Triumphal Arch of Seve-
rus, the great Forum of Rome, the vast
assembling place of its citizens, here the
pOrtico of a temple turned into mod
ern church, there the Basilica, or great
justice hall of Constantine; here a hill
looking like a terraced garden; the
great palace of the Caesars, then the
great triumphal arch of Titus. Then,
rising above all, the massive colonnades
of.the Coliseum, where $4,000 citizens
of ancient Rome had watched at one
time the fights of the gladiators.
There was the Causeway along
which Cicero had passed to the
forum, and along which walked
the victims-the immortal heroes of the
spiritual victories before whose glories
Rome's greatest victories paled. There
was the Basilica, in which the GRANDPA
cifc Hotel could be placed, together
with half dozen of our churches in its
corners to keep it steady. Then there
were the public baths, the baths of Car
acalla-a building covering space up
on which we could place the Court
house Square II times over and wherein
5000 bathers could be accommodated at
one time; all free and open to the citi-
zens on the payment of the smallest
Roman coin, worth less than cent.
This subject led him to Rome's great
aqueducts, which made our water-works
seem so insignificant. One of these was
62 miles in length, and there were eight
of them, most of which were supported
on vast arches stretching away mile af-
ter mile, and whose ruins still remain
objects of wonder and astonishment to
the traveller. Only three of them were
now working, but even with these left,
Rome of to-day was one of the best wa
cities of the world. Along
one of them loaded hay-cart
could be driven. We talked boastingly
now of our railroads. Old Rome had
none of these, but it had tunnels here
and there. Just out of Naples there was
a tunnel 20 feet high. Seventy-nine
years after the birth of Christ came n
terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius and
buried it. For LOO years the buried
city remained unknown. There had
fingered through the centuries tradition
of the event, but it was regarded only
as an old woman's tale. The tradition
had been proven; the ancient city had
been opened to MS, not in moldering
ruins, but just as it was left by 10000
busy people. In its ovens had been
found the loaves as the baker had left
them, as he fled from the rain of ashes
and sulphurous air. The loaves looked
like the loaves of to-day, and bore the
bakers brand and trademark upon
them. This newly discovered city of the
past proved the saying that there was
nothing new in the world. To-day was
all foretold in that old Roman life as
pictured in that old Roman city. The
lecturer next spoke of the great and
bloody struggle between the heathenism
of ancient Rome and the rising Chris
tianity. The Catacombs told the story
of that struggle. In and through its
endless galleries, dug out of the solid
rock, the hunted Christians had found
resting places for their dead, and hiding
places for their living. In Nero's reign
the struggle of awakened Christianity
had commenced, and was carried on
during 500 years. From Nero the strug-
Gle had continued till Vespasian, who
had erected the great amphitheater,
called after him, and which had taken
fifteen years in building. The lecturer
concluded with painting the memories
of Christian heroism that clung around
the Coliseum, and which made it an OBJ
ject of veneration to the Christian world.