Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-06-23
A BURIED CITY.

For q number of weeks we had been
living at the foot of Il burning mountain.
in rough little village, bearing the ia
nous name of Pompeii.
Living in Pompcii. and every morn
ing looking out of the windows to see if
Vesuvius is belching forth fatal flame.
Or only threatening smoke, does not
mean that one is living among the ruins
d that old Roman city. We were in Il
modern peasant hamlet of few
scattering houses Just outside the high
walls that shut in the ruins.
Most of the readers of the Companion
have heard the tragic story of POM
Eeii-a bright city destroyed i'm the full
noon of summers day, when its
streets were full of people. and its shops
of purchasers; when mothers in hun.
dreds of shaded courts worked at their
embroidery. and watched their children
merri!y at play around tinkling fount-
aims. The whole life OF this gay Italian
city was going on as busily and rs nat
urally as life goes on in any American
city today, when that awful mountain
that lowered near it burst its bounds.
ami rained deadly tempest of scorch-
ing lava and bl;stering ashes down upon
it. For three long summer days the
air was filled with ashes. and the fiery
lava flowed, leaving, at last, black
waste, beneath which Pompeii lay lost
to human sight for seventeen hundred
years.
Now. / would like to tell You what
we saw in and about the ruins of this
buried city. just eighteen hundred years
tho ,l,,- IL
out forever.
pompei was destroyed A. ID. 70. At
that time Italy was not known as
Italy, but as the Roman Empire, the
proudest name in history; numbering
its subjects by millions upon millions OF
different races and different religions.
At the time of this great eruption
other cities OF the plain beside Pompcii
were swallowed up. The writer Pliny
was at this time on the shore OF the
Mediterranean, and has stated that lie
Saw the black tempest extend over the
SEA Is well as over the plain. Some OF
the cities well known in history have
never been uneartheI. and lie today
dead under fertile farms. gardens and
vineyards. Just as they have lain since
the day of their burial.
Pompeii itself is only partially ex.
cavated. A large part of it still lie:
under ground.
When the fiery storm ragged. many
Pompeians escaped. fleeing in boats by
the sea. Many. however. were over
whelmed, and died sutiocated in cellars
temples, even in tombs where they tool
refuge. To-day can be seen, where ex
cavations have already been made, hll
man forms in all the asonics OF death
and in one place the guides point out il
aceilar the indentatiOnS made in a wal
by the heads of sirangling women an,
children. They show also oil in glas
bottles; the bones Of the chickens anl
fish that had served for dinners. per
haps, the day before the tragedy; ever
eggs and fruit preserved in their natura
forms. There are also joints of mea
and trussed fowls just ready to b,
cooked. or just cooked. and also the
skeletons of domestic animals twisted in
every form of painful death.
From the position of some of the h,,
man bodies, it is supposed that they ha,
once escaped. but returning after Tn,
storm was over to dig among the ashe,
for some traces OF their homes. wer,
even then swallowed up by the sbiftin.
lava, or strangled by the lingering sui
phurous fumes. Some Of these bodie
may have been those of thieves iron
neighboring Naples. digging for valu
ables to which they had no ri CHIT
SO much Of Pompeii has been un
earthed that one can freely wande
through the streets. enter at will ih
rooiless dwellings, bath places, temple
and shops. and muse among the statue
OF the public squares. The principa
streets are as narrow As alleys. as wa
the fashion of cities in those days. an
nave tnrning-o off places. where one char
40. must wait for another to pass. The
are paved with immense square stone:
anu upon the stones one can plainly Sc
ruts worn by wheel, eighteen ceuturie
ago Upon the house walls also can h
seen painted notices serving the sam
purposes as modern placards. and an