Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-12-05
LANCASTER. WISCONSIN. THURSDAY DECEMBER s. 1878.

base, and miles of fertile plain dottes
with numerous villages, whiIs 10 b.
opposite direction stretches the oper
sea. The wonderful beauty Of the
situation and its surrounding has
given rise TO the italian saying. Re
di Napol poi mort .Sae Naples
and die"
| Our first visit is to the Museum.
which is particularly rich with me-
mentoes from the buried city, Pom
peii, and there is no other place
where go good an idea can be OBJ
tanned of the home life Of the Ro-
mans as from a careful study of the
many articles which are here pre-.
served. Among these are various
household and domestic articles,
many of which are OF q similar
shape to those in use with us. There
was plano which modern carpen-
would handle with ease. | do not
know how many articles there are
10 all but saw one numbered TO-
878. There are great many sta
tues, bronzes and vases, in more or
less perfect state, which have been
exhumed. One room contains grains
of various kinds, bread, meat and
some eggs which came from the bu-
ried city. These are ell charred and
would not be recognized except by
their form. There is also glass
bottle filed with oil which is 10 good
condition and not dried up. Cne of
the most interesting rooms to me
contains the Library Of the Papyri,
which was discovered in villa near
Herculaneum. These rolls were
completely encrusted with ashes and
they werd supposed for a long time
to be valueless. Originally there
were 5000 of them but only 1900
are now preserved. They are charr-
ed and are as black IS coal. The in.
ner bark of the papyrus plant was
pasted together forming a long roll
and on this the writing was done
with the stylus, II was for long
time thought impossible to unroll
them, but at length an ingenious ma
chine was made by which they are
carefully unrolled sitter being moist
ened. Two or three of these were
at work ut the time of our visit.
Several hundred of the papyri have
been unroIled and read bat they are
mostly of little value. There are al
go human figures encrusted in ashes,
which were found in various places
in the buried city.
10 the afternoon we go by train
ride Of forty minutes to Pompeii
where we at once engage guide for
the visit to the buried city. pomp-
eli was destroyed during the great
eruption of '79 by cloud Of hot ash
es and by subsequent falls Of volcan-
ic matter until at present, it is COW
cred with deposit twenty feet in
thickness. For three hundred years
after it's destruction the ruins were
dug into and ransacked for marble
and other treasures until it was sup
posed that everything of value had
been removed. For the next 1,4O0
years the city was neglected and al
most forgotten. A little more than
hundred years ago xcavations
were again commenced, but it is only
within the last twenty years, since
they have been taken in hand by
the government, that they have been
conducted in systematic manner,
and any thing like satisfactory results
obtained. Every thing which can DO
readily moved, and even the more
important frescoes as soon as found,
are taken to the museum at Naples
An area of 60 acres has already been
excavated, which is supposed to in.
clude the most important third
of the city. If the work is contin-
ued at the same rate as now it will
take about seventy years to COM
plete it and will cost $1,000, 900.
The streets are regularly laid out,
the main ones "a feet wide, the mar
rover ones IA feet only. They were
originally well paved with large
square blocks of lava which were
worn into deep ruts by wagon
wheels. At the corners of the streets
are stepping tones projecting nearly
foot above the pavement for the
convenience of pedestrians in mud
dy weather and at the same places
there are often the remains of foun-
aims, or notices painted in real let
ters, generally relating to municipal
affairs. The houses are mostly built
of concrete and covered with coat
of marble or plaster which was orna.
mented with paintings 10 bright COL
ors, red being particularly notice
able. Most of the houses have stair
ways showing that they were more
than one story high, and one of the
houses has q charred second story
remaining which was built of wood
and projected over the street. The
shops which were small were open
on the street the whole width OF the
front and closed at night with wood
en- shutters. The private houses,
particularly those of the wealthy,
we're built around an open court and
had only solid walls on the outside
WITH single outrhuce from Tue
| street. As these walls were built up
to the line of the street and had al
most no windows, walk through
street occupied entirely with resi-.
dences must have been dismal af-
fair. Within, the rooms of the hous-
es generally opened into some court
which was an uncovered square, con-
tanning fountain or flower garden.
All the walls were brilliantly
painted and the floors were fire.
quently inlaid with mosaios. With
| the bronze ornaments and statuary
and the inlaid furniture these houses
| must have been cheerful and very
pleasant. 1t was with mingled awe
and pleasure that We wandered amid
these remains of every dsy life of
the Romans, and nothing We have
ever seen except the ruins at Rome
has so impressed US with the reality
of those ancient times. As we study
them carefully in connection with
the Museum both here and at Naples
and see the implements Of their ev-
a -