San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1877-12-22
Rome and POmpeii.

lecture by Rev. Brooke Herferd in Chi
cago:
One of the hardest things for us mod
ems 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 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 doomed
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 temple turned into mod
ern church, there the Basilica, or great
A Justice hall of Constantine; here a hill
u looking like a terraced garden; the
n great palace of the Caesars, then the
IA great triumphal arch of Titus. Then,
+ rising above all, the massive colonnades
& of the Coliseum, where $4,000 citizens
n of ancient Rome had watched at one
4 time the fights of the gladiators.
a There was the Causeway along
which Cicero had passed to the
\ forum, and along which walked
b the victims-the immortal heroes of the
Fl spiritual victories before whose glories
4 Rome's greatest victories paled. There
Il was the Basilica, in which the Grand Pa
cific 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
4 on which we could place the Court
house Square - times over and wherein
N ZOO bathers could be accommodated at
n one time; all free and open to the cltl-
4 zens on the payment of the smallest
4 Roman coin, worth less than cent.
q This subject led him to Rome's great
auueducts, which made our water-works
seem so insignificant. One OF these was
So miles in length, and there were eight
of them, most of which were supported
on vast arches stretching away mile al
ter mile, and whose ruins still remain
objects of wonder and establishment 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
ter-supplied cities of the world. Along
a Through one of them loaded hay-cart
1could be driven. We talked boastingly
now of our railroads. Old Rome had
hone of these, but it had tunnels here
Ind there. Just out of Naples there was
D tunnel 70 feet high. Seventy-nine
wears after the birth of Christ came
terrible eruption of Mount Vesuvius and
buried it. For LOO years the buried
city remained unknown. There had
Z fingered through the centuries atraditlon
OF the event, but it was regarded only
Is an old woman's tale. The tradition
had been proven; the ancient city had
been opened to us, not in moldering
I. ruins, but just as it was left by 10000
busy people. In its ovens had been
found the loaves as the baker had left
fhem. as he fled from the rain OF ashes
md sulphurous air. The loaves looked
like the loaves of to-day, and bore the
baker's brand and trademark upon
Mem. This newly discovered city OF the
hast proved the saying that there was
nothing new in the world. To-day was
III 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
49, s,rurola of awakened Christianity