The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-11-01

A-N0i IVuy .hnoWS SOmetnlng ABOUT
the rest, and how the poor old gentle
man, being weakly and asthmatic, was
sutfecated by sudden outburst of
flames and sulphur fumes. In that aw-
fiil darkness, when the sudden rush OF
flames was the only light which pierced
the dense smoke, the fields We're full Of
terrified people, fleeing they knew not
whHher- from the land to.the sea, and
back from the sea to the land. In the
midst OF that fiery rain many imagined
that they saw the shadowy forms Of the
Titans the Giants OF old, whom Jupi-
ter had chained below Mount Etna-
looming awfully through the smoke,
and thought that they heard the clang
of trumpets. announcing the end Of the
world and thu. return to chaos.
Thinking. of all this, in the warm,
clear sunshine, as we wander through
the house where the paintings are yet
bright on the walls, and we may walk
round their gardens, and see their dried
up fountains seems to hear all the
Book Of Revelation sounding in ones
ears, and a voice saying: "Behold, /
make all things newr'
In these deserted streets life suddenly
stopped eighteen hundred years ago. 1t
is true that the destruction was not in
Simultaneous; and great number of the
inhabitants saved their lives, and even
took away good deal of their treasure.
But enough was left to show us every
detail of Roman life. The old world is
set before us with all its good and its
evil, its glories and its shame. We know
what manner Of men and women they
must have been, and what their daily
lives were like, almost as well as if we
had actually .dwelt among them,
These old Pompeiians were very mod
ern. Thereis nothing new under the
sun. They hadafolding doors and hot
water-urns; theyput gratings to. their
windows and made rockeries in their
gardens; their steel-yards are exactly
like those Your own ntcheesernonger uses
to weigh his Cheddars and Glosters.
Their children had toyslike ours bears,
lions, pigs, cats, dogs, made Of clay,
and sometimes serving as jugs also.
Poor children poor mothers! How did
they fare in those three days Of darkness
and dism,iypa aWU 3a
People wrote on walls and cut their
names on seats, just as we do now,
They kept birds in cages In Naples
to-day, as you walk along the Chiaia,
you may find yourself in the midst Of a
herd of goats, with bells round their
necks, exactly like those in the Museum,
They gave tokens at the doors of their
places of entertainment the people
in the gallery had pigeons made Of a
sort Of terra-cotta- They put lamps in
side the hollow eyes OF the masks that
adorned their fountains. They even
made grottos Of shells yulgarity itself
is ancient.
They ale sausages, and hung up
strings Of onions, They had stands for
public vehicles, and the sehoolmaster
used birch to the dunees.s They put
stepping stones across the roads, that
dainty young patrician gentlemen and
the pursy old senators might not soil
their gilded sandals. II was never cold
enough for their pipes to burst, but they
turned their water on and off with taps;
and their cook-shops had marble conn-
ters. They clapped their offenders into
the sto ks two gladiators were kept
there eighteen hundred yearsl
When their croekery broke, they
riveted it. AT Herculaneum there is a
huge wine jar half buried in the earth.
1t has been badly broken, but is so
neatly. rivnted with many riyetsz-that
/ 1T no dOubt9held the wine MS well MS
ever. Those fivets have lasted eigh-
teen hundred yearsl II is d strange
thing to think about. What would the
housewife have saidlif some one had
told her that hercracked pot would out
last the Roman EmpireP
The view is very wide from those
Pompeiian streets-I do not mean the
view seen by the bodily eye--though
Vesuyius and the plain Of Stabia can
be seen at every turn but the view OF
the Kingdoms of this world, and of the
dealings of God with theme That first
year OF the Emperor Titus is become
the wear of our Lord 79, sls3F
lsFThinking Of all which has happened
while Pompefi lay buried, one comes
hupon the Temple of Isis. It's name car
fies us back to an antiquity compared
to which Rome is of yesterday, Isis
| the symbol of the fertile. earth, the
Bride Of the Sun, the Mother of all liv-
ing-was worshipped beside the mys-
terious Nile long before Joseph was
sold. into Egypt, or Abraham went
down thither. This temple was one Of
the buildings which suffered in the great
earthqilake of A. d. 63. Numerius
Popidius rebuilt it in the name of his
little son Selsinos, then but six years
old, as appears from the inscription
above the temple door, where his name
stands recorded among the decurions,
| &. r. g. AZ A..