The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-01-03
THE VICTIMS OF POMPEH.

Interesting Facts Connected with the De
struction of the City.
The work of exploration which has
been steadily going on in Pompeii for
over a century, from the day when ex-
cavations first began on the site of what
was then vaguely called La Civita,"
in 174S, has led to other than purely
archaeological results. 1t has enabled a
fairly accurate notion to be formed of
the nature and extent of the catas-
trophe. We know, for instance, that
the lava stream did not reach Pompeii,
and that the city was not destroyed by
fire. We know also that the eruption
was accompanied by one or more shocks
of earthquake, which threw down
houses here and there, and buried men
and women under their ruins From
the fact that skeletons have been found
at the entrance to the public bath,
which was quilted hastily by the few
grand ladies who were not present at
the gladiatorial performance in the am
phitheater, the time of the catastrophe
can be fixed with approximate accura-
cy at or about noon. Above all, the
discoveries of skeletons, every one of
which has been carefully recorded for at
least a century, enable some conclusion
to be drawn as to the total number of
victims of the catastrophe. 1t would be
a mistake to suppose that the majority,
or even very large portion of the in
habitants of Pompeii perished. The
effects of the ashen shower. were not
instantaneous, and every one who
could get away from the city on the
first alarm probably saved his life. The
bulk of the people were in the amphi-
theater, VIII ch was tuated near one of
the city gates on the side remote from
Vesuvius, and there was nothing to
hinder every one in the great audience
from getting away in time. Those who
perished were those who deliberately
put off their fight to save wife and
child. or still more often, valuables.
OF such victims 40 have been al
ready found From the year when the
excavations began, in 17IS, to the year
1896. the total number of human re-
mains discovered was 160; from 1927 to
1915 it was 63; from 1916 to 1860 it was
60; from 1861 to 1872 it was 81, and
from 1873 to 1881 about 100. But it is
to be remembered that only two-fifths
| of the buried surface has been brought
| TO light. On the whole there appears
good reason for putting the total num-
Der of human beings who perished in
the eruption at least as high as LOO.
To these should be added the skeletons
of three dogs, seven horses, eleven
hens, two to- toises, fifteen pigs, ten oxen
and the bones of fifteen other amin ais.
The remains of one of these dogs were
found in the porch of the House o.
| Orpheus," and the cast which Signor
Fioreli has taken brings be ore us with
painful vividness one of the minor
tragedies of that awful day. The poor
beast was chained at his post, and in
the general panic and confusion no one
remembered to let him loose The
chain lay by the remains when they
were found, and it was evident that the
creature had strained his tether to the
utmost in the effort to keep himself
above the masses of ash and pumice
stone that rapidly accumulated around
and over m. The est is to be seen
in the little museum at Pompeii. The
dog lies half on its side, half on its
back, his slender head and open
muzZle, gasping for little air,
buried between the hind legs, which
have been convulsively brought for
ward in the last agony of death. But
the process which had been so successful
in reproduc ng the very form and like
ness of this creature as he lived and
died has produced results no less extra
ordinary in the case of tn, human VIC
Tins of the catastrophe. The i6ta of
pouring plaster of Paris in a liquid state
into the motIlds left by the bodies in the
soft ash d not occur to any one till it
suddenly flashed across Fiorelli about
twenty years ago. OF the remains of
the lS0 human beings discovered in
Pompeii in the first hundred years of
the exc AVIATION there is conse Iuently
| only a written record. 1t is only from
the journal of Excavations for the
year 1881 that we know of the touching
and famous sight which greeted the
eyes of the first dlscoverers of the
''HouSe o. the Eaun." On the floor OF
the bangueting hall lay the body of a
woman, probably the mistress of tie
house. with her jewels scattered where
she had thrown them in despair of res
cus or escape. The roof had been
crushed in by the weight of falling ash
and pumice stone. and the hands of the
ing woman were upstretched in a
vain effort to keen o the impending
we ght. Parts of he body and cloth nc
could still be made out, and drawing
could be made of the charming oot
But such records are lifeless and tame
indeel, beside the ytraordinary por-
trait statues VIII ch are now TO be sec n in
the lit 10 museum at Pompeii. There
are nina of these, or were a very
short time since. and to see them is
Ii seeing the men and women them
sci es of eighteen centuries ayo. Flo
relli me hod is as simple as possible. A
small opening is made, the plaster is
delicately poured in, and when it has
had time to ha den the surface crust of
ash is peeled of, and the man or woman
comes back 10 life aga n. The details
of clothing and feature have all left
their mark on the soft ash, and are all
faithfully preserved in the plaster cast.
The results ach eyed by Fiorelli are
striking and om1lete. Take the cast
of the elderly slave, for instance. prob
ably man some sixty years od, who
appea to ha e cen taking his siesta
when the erupt on began, and to have
been painlessly asphyxiated in his sleep.
He lies on his right side, the knees a
little bent, the left leg drawn up and the
cheek resting on the right hand. The
coarse. strongly-marked fea ures and