The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-05-10

do to-day. Thus, there were often shops in
the finest houses. cut of from the dwelling
parts and interfering in nowise with the fam
lily life, the shopkeeper going away at night to
his own abode in some remote part of the city.
There are many traces of shops still standing;
some having awkward stone grain-mills, where
the miller ground and sold his meal himself,
and others bakery connected with the bust
ness. There are kitchens, too, with stone
benches having round holes where little fires
We're built, each kettle having its separate fire;
and some of the kitchens are thriftily placed
opposite the public baths. A pottery works
was found with quantities of earthenware, new
and unsold at the time of the city's destrlc-
tlon and druggists with full array of bottles
and some specimens of medicine yet unde-
stroyed. Artists materials were found, too as
rich as when they vanished from the artists
possession.
Another feature of Pompeii, as characteristic
OF ancient life and remote from modern life as
the public buildings and thecompaet dwellings,
is the Street of Sepulchres. This is outside the
city wall, on the slope OF q hill. On each side
of the street there are tombs which contained
urns of ashes Of cremated citizens and show
thoroughly o5tentatious taste. 1t was u custom
to bury the dead by the side of the common
highway, and other tombs line other roads
leading out of Pompeii; but the one famous
road of tombs is this military road to Capua,
Naples, Herculaneum and Reggia. Each tomb
is mauSoleum, standing alone leaving traces
of ornament and inscription and commanding
beautiful view of the mountains and the sea.
Towards the end of the row is the furnace IN
which cremation was practised, and next door
is triclnium, or dining-room for three, where
the mourners found refreshnent after the cere-
mony of cremation, an arrangement more prac-
teal than poetic and trifie out of keeping
with the quantities of glass vessels for preserv-
ing tears which have been found In the
vicinity.
THE MUSEUM AT NAPLES.
The chief impressions derived from a visit to
Pompeii are of that city's admirable situation,
its unique preservation, its compact plan, its
disproportionately roomy public buildings and
its curious cemetery; that is to say, the I'M
pressons are general and would be disappoint-
ingly incomplete were they not supplemented
by visits to the national museum at Naples.
| To this museum the finest frescoes have been
removed, with mGsaics, statues, bronzes, glass,
pottery and even articles of food discovered in
| the excavations. The collections are system
atically arranged, the frescoes mounted upon
| the museum walls, the mosaies inserted in walls
| and floors, and every care taken to facilitate
study of the details of Pompeiian life.
| The museum collections show, much more
than the city itself does, how instantaneously
destructive the first effects of the volcanic
action must have been, and how contradictorily
conservative its after effects. They also show
| the luxurious wealth and love of art of which
| a visit to the city gives only hint The inn
| preston of sudden destruction, originally con-
veyed by the sight of loaves of bread and a
| little pig arrested in process of cooking, is
| deepened by the sight of a row of little jugs
with straight Sits for dropping coppers through
and row of little coin spread out before them
the savings banks and small boards of long
| sinee-dead Pompeiian boys and girls. There
are earthenware playthings, too, pigs ducks
and chickens and queer little gods and god
desses and some moulds have been found for
| shaping such toys. There are wonderful speci-
mems of precious glassware-a plate inlaid with
| gold and lapis- lazuli-and gilded jars. But the
browning treasures of the museum are the freS-
Goes and mosaics These have been removed with
the skill that characteriZes all the work done oil
| late years atPompeii, and they are mounted with
reference to good light, careful copies having
! been made at the time of excavation, In order
| to register any change in color which may
arise from exposure to light and air. The
striking features of the frescoes are their brill
| fancy, their good drawing, and the prepOI.der-
ance of cheerful NEUROLOGICAL subjects. Apollo
| Baeehus and Cupid appear many times IL
charming combinations and in varied degrees
of good drawing. The NEUROLOGICAL pictures
/ however, are, in a measure, monotonouS, and
do not suggest much original power in thu
painters. There is much more power in tbs
treatment of few rather modern subjects
4 such as girls picking flowers and animals IL
| various circumstances. Next to mythology
indeed, animals seem to have been fayoritt
subjects for domestic decorations. There arr
deer and hounds in profusion, and game an6
fish, such as might have delighted the heart o
an old Dutch master. Some of the animals are
astonishingly individual, and stand forth a;
though they might be portraits of FIRMLY pets
In some of the NEUROLOGICAL paintings animal:
are introduced surrounding the god, and theil
attitudes are funnily ifelike and attentive
The pictures are painted on backgrounds o
solid brilliant red or orange, or on hard panel:
of black, and such free use of brilliant masses
of color and sharp contrast can be explained
only by reference to the comparative darkness
of all Pompeiian rooms, lighted, as these were
| wholly from interior courts.
LIFE-LIKE MosAIcs.
The custom of finishing floors in mosaic CAV,
fine opportunities for design, and mosaic dogs
who guarded the vestibule floors of two larg
houses, now look ready to spring at any conner
and seem to justify the warning, Beware o
the dog" which is wrought into the mosaic a
their feet. One especial -renowned mosaic
represents battle of Alexander the Great il
which he has run his spear through an OPP
ponent, while men and horses struggle fiercel.
around him. An examination of details show
OF real art; the eyes, for instance, of both mel
and horses are full of fierce, intent expression
while the effect of the whole is at once simple
and forceful. In many of the smaller mosaic
there is the same power. In one little struggl
between kitten and a bird, the victorious
malicious expression of the kitten and tn
utterly forlorn state of the bird arouse bot
amusement and sympathy, and remove tn
work from the list OF merely interesting an
tiquities, placing it among works of art.
The final impression derived from the colleC
ton of frescoes and mosaics is that interio
decoration was a necessity of life in the Roma
cities of the first Christian century, and tina
we of later generations have much to lear
from the buried aneientS as TO the uses an
methods of the art of design.
Too much cannot be said Of the admirabl
management of the excavation of Pompei
The museums are beyond criticism, aud tn
processes used in the town itself are thorough
fitting. A small force of laborers is kept a
work carefully loosening the soft earth an
removing it in baskets. When there are ind
cations of the presence of buried objects, til
suspected space is sealed until it can be exam
ined in the presence of persons high in au
thority. The discipline maintained anon
workmen and guides is almost unique in Italy
and the thoroughly scientific and business-lik
administration of the work gives cause for regre
that it cannot be completed within the life
time of the present director, Signore Frovell