Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-29
lSss other Local News see Second Pas ell
POnpeii.

The History and the Drama of vesu.
 vIus-Rev. Henry G. Spaulding's First 2 Lecture-An Archaeological and Scicn-
 iEfc DiscussfOn-HOv the Ancient
 the Volcano.
 The opening lecture in the course to be given in the Grand Opera House by Rev. H. G. Spaulding was delivered last evening be- fore large and intelligent audience. The remaining lectures of the series will treat ccn- secutively of the antiquities of Pagan and Christian Rome, but the subject of the first discourse was the Destruction of Pompeii." Numerous stereopticon views, finely shown, gave additional interest to the discussion.
 The lecturer began by giving a brief sum- mary of the letters written by the younger Pliny on the eruption of vesuvius, A. D. 79. These letters are valuable for the incidental descriptions which Pliny gives of certain vol canic phenomena attending the destruction of the Campanian cities. But fully to under stand the events of the great catastrophe it is necessary to question the principal actor in the Vesuvius drama, the volcanic mountain and the buried towns. Mir. Spaulding then gave graphic description of Mount Vesuvius from pre- historic times to the present day, and described in detail the various and inter esting phenomena of volcanic action. He also discussed the latter theories concerning the force of volcanic energy. A series of careful ly prepared stereopticon views made every point in the description forcibly real. The illustrations of the eruptions of 1872 were especially good, being actual photographs of the volcano, which were taken in the very midst of it's outbreak. This eruption, the lecturer remarked, throws a flood of light backward upon the events that occurred eighteen centuries ago when Pompeii was destroyed. Supplemented by thorough ex- animation of the buried city itself (now half revealed by the excayations), this new knowl- edge of volcanic phenomena enables us to read the story of Pompeii's destruction almost as clearly as if complete contemporane- ous account of it had come down to us.
 Having thus described and illustrated the many changes which have taken place in the appearance of the volcano and the country surrounding since the time when the city was entombed in ashes, the lecturer took his hear CTS with him into Pompeii. They walked its streets, visited its Forum and public build ings, joined throng of worshipers at a sacri- flee in the Temple of Fortune, and, having called up as much of Pompeii's vanished past as would enable them to realize it's rise and progress, they entered the Pompeian home. Giving an historic framework to the scene, the lecturer briefly narrated the awful events of the afternoon of August A, D. 79, and in imagination followed the terrified inmates of the Pompeian houses as they fled from the sudden storm of cinders and ashes.
 view was shown of an eruption of Vesu- vius such as that must have been by which Pompeii was overwhelmed, while another ad khn AAaino ipho vko Pompeii, he said, was buried under two prin- cipaI strata of ashes and volcanic mud to an average depth of twenty four feet. The lower stratum was made up of dry Ecoriae, the pumice-ike stones, the cinders and ashes. Over this is second layer of mud, which was formed in the air when the moist atmos- phere, already laden with the fine ashes and dust from the explosion, received the torrents of rain that fell after the showers of lapilli had ceased.
 Very little was burned in Pompeii. Only in the rarest instances were the yellow ochres of the wall frescoes reddened by heat. The apparently charred pieces of wood, the loaves of bread found in the ovens, and the other things that seem to have been burned, have been simply carbonjzed by weathering. Most of the inhabitants probably made their es- cape. The largest number of victims seem to have died of asphyxiation, from the same mephitic vapors which caused the death of the elder Pliny. The evidence of the manner of their death is abundant, and discloses the pathetic story of the doom of these Pompeians with an eloquence stronger than words. The lecturer showed a number of pictures of casts taken from hollow moulds- in which human remains were found. Some of these casts show the outline of the we'll developed Roman form to perfection, and even the fneness or coarseness of the cloth ing is told, thereby affording means of judging whether the victim was noble or plebeian. After speaking of the valuable re- suits which archaeological science is now bringing to light with respect to the unwrit- ten history of Pompeii, the lecturer exhibited representations of few of the gems of art found in the buried city. The choicest of these, he said, was unquestionably the famous Naples vase, which was shown in it's original brilliant colors. The vine, represented in re- lief on this exquisite vase, grows in the vol canic soil around Pompeii. "Let us," said the lecturer, ''fill the glass with it's wine, and across the abyss of the ages salute the men of that old Roman world-men whose deeds are imagined on Pompeii's risen walls, and whose voices seem to be still speaking in her silent courts and empty streets, saying, as the bur den of their speech, Even thus all worldly glories pass away"
 The second lecture of the course will be given on Wednesday evening, Feb. 4, upon Pagan Rome-Its Hills, Walls and Gates, with a sketch of the Fountains, Aqueducts and Baths"
 Course tickets for the remaining five lectures of the course, with reserved seats can be ob- tained at Judd's bookstore for $1.75 and $I.- 25 according to location of seats.