The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-11
AT THE BASE OF VESUYIUS
An Interesting Mixture of News and
Gossip from Naples.
YesuVius Again Belching Forth Fire and
Ashes-The Early Days of NaPles-Sig-
nor Traschis Railroad "COlyume."
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.


fall of heated day. Three streams of bright
molten lava had burst out fl om Mt. Vesu-
vius thousand feet below tie crater and,
as darkness advanced, cleaned fercely as did
the pillar of fire of old which troubled the
host of the Egyptians" The season OF the
year, the heated term OF July, and some
other things, made my memory travel rapid
ly over the Mediterranean, the wide Allan
tic, and the nearly 1000 miles inland TO In
disnapolis, and recalled that it was just
about this time six years before when l was
delivering course of lectures in the new
Courthouse courthouse of which my fell
low-townsmen ought to be proud, for l have
not seen one its equal in architectural beau
ty and effect on this side of the water. The
object of the lectures was to raise money
for those two excellent local insti-
tutions the orphan asylum and the city dis
/ pensary. 1 believe that it was the first time
that any public exercises ever took place in
the new building, Although the weather
was very warm, the subject of the lectures,
the objects for which they were delivered,
and the place where they were given was SO
novel and attractive that these various
things did far more to make the course
complete success than any peculiar power of
| the lecture,
From these recollections of the events of
| the six years previous, my mind began to
dwell on the contrasts in every respect lex
| cept the climate in summer) between the
| surroundings in indianapolis and those with
in sight of the railroad route from Pompeii
/ to Naples. If l should ascend the tower of
Il ~,
! quadruple purpose of State-house, court
| house, county buildings and City Hall, l
might gaze over a radius, at furthest, of ten
miles, and behold, first, our city, then Gull
| tivated region of almost unvarying flatnesS,
save where the loftiest point of beautiful
! Crown Hill breaks above the northwestern
horizon, or perhaps, the distant blue of the
nearest bluffs of White river, in the south
west. The historical associations, too, would
| be very limited in connection with the view
| that l have mentioned from the top of our
truly beautiful courthouse. Sixty-four
years, only, would take me back
to the time when George Pogue and George
and James Mccormick, only few months
! apart pitched their tents--Or, more likely,
made their log-fires, the one at the eastern
end of Michigan street and the others (the
McCormicks) near where afterwards. was
located the National bridge. When a child,
l was shown the remains OF Pogue's cabin.
And this makes me remember how old | am
perhaps the oldest living boy born in the
old Corporation with the exception of
Conrad Crumbaugh, whom l saw in 1881.
| One of the Harding bows is my senior but he
was born just outside of the Corporation"
And, if L may be allowed to drift away
from the main subject / will. right
here return my thanks to my many friends
who, in Indianapolis and elsewhere, remem-
bered that in April OF this year / COM
| pleted my sixtieth year. 1t did seem rather
| IN
letters almost under the shadow of Virgil's
tomb with the graceful bay of Naples stretch
ing before me, and with Mount Vesuvius ris-
ing grandly above ALL
But to retarn from this episode. Perhaps
the earlist civilized association connected
with Indianapolis, was the coming of French
! fur-traders from their advanced post at the
bluff (where Waverly now stands) up to the
ford of White river near the mouth of Fall
creek. This was in the latter part
| of the eighteenth century. The
| first English-speaking white per-
son was undoubtedly, the late William
Conner, who came to the same place to trade
for furs in 1902 long before he settled within
a short distance of Noblesville. A little
more than a hundred years. then, covers the
whole ground of civilized historical associa-
tons with the city of which an Italian gen
tleman once spoke to me as "the Indian
Napoli. But now to the ancient Napol,
from which | write.
Three hundred years before Rome's tabled
existence, that is 800 years before that ter
rbly hard legend to swallow, the story of
Romulus's and Remus's birth and
wolf-suckling, Naples, under the
name of Paleapolis, had an
historical existence. Cuma, the
ruins of which, on the borders of the
sea, are only ten miles west of us, was settled
by the Eubean Greeks before the Prophet
Samuel became the judge of Israel. But
Cuma was not good port-indeed, it was
only an open roadstead, and, therefore the
Greeks sought other sites for the landing
and the embarkation of their vessels, fer the
Greeks were the great commercial men of
that day. as they were in the days of the
| Romans, and as they continue to be at pres
ent in all the eastern parts of the MediUerra-
mean. The new sites selected WERE first
Pateoli, which afterward became the Liver
pool of Italy, and about which l shall write
in future letter; and, second, port further
eastward on the beautiful bay which the
Romans IN after years called Crater, or Cup,
from its symmetrical form. What the orig
ina name was do not know, but when
this port began to expand, the part earliest
settled was called Paleapolis, or old city,
and the new portion was called Neapolis,
or new city, and from this Greek
word we have Naples, and the Italians their
Napoli. Thus, we see, Naples began exist
ence (while David was on the throne of
Israel) nearly $500 years ago, and has con
tinued until the present day.
Now, if / should ascend the northern slope
of Vesuvius, which is the cool side at this
present moment, my vision would only be
limited by the mountains around Rome at
! the north, the main chain of the Apprentices
at the east, the mount ains of Calabria and
the Mediterranean at the south, and the vast
expanse OF sea at the west. I shall thus gaze
over a radius of more than one hundred
miles in either direction, and upon land and
water teeming with the richest historical
associations, where, to say nothing of earlier
peoples, Etruscan, Samnite, Greek Roman,
Goth, Norman, Spaniard and French, as
well as Italian, have played grand parts in
the worlds great drama "Ischias noun.