Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-02-04
A VISIT TO POMPEII,


have said, the aspect of the local mu-
scum is smart. 1t glistens, it CLEANS
with its polished oaken fittings and
glass cases. The pots and pans, the
fishhooks and stirrups, the calcined
loaves and fruits and nuts that have
almost. but not quite, brought me
face to face with the people of A. D.
70 are from carbonization black, but
they are comely. The whole room
looks bright and cheerful, yet on ev-
cry side are there momentoes of
death, sudden, violent, and terrible.
Ranged round the walls are skeletons
of men, women, infants, horses,
mules, dogs, cats, and poultry, all
dug from the ruins. Stay, the little
sucking pig yonder, that was found
in the bakers oven, escaped violent
end. He had been mercifully stuck
to death before they scored and trus-
sed him for the bake-house His
tender cracking, the gristle of his
snout, his ears and eyes have long
since been resolved into dust and
ashes. but the osseous structure of
the tiny creature is yet perfect, even
to the bones of tbe petttoes and the
vertebr@ of the once curly tail. Plum
sauce and not pumice stone should
have crowned the funeral pyre of
that little pig. How brown and shi-
ny he must have been growing, how
nice he must have smelt, when the
black rain of ashes came down upon
him and covered him up for eighteen
centuries.
But the middle of the museum;
what is there in the midst of the mu-
scum? Sudden, violent and dread
full death, the aspect of which is al
most supernaturally revealed to US,
but which bears no appalling look.
[ have rarely known civilian who,
having once been over a field of cat
tie, say three days after the slaugh-
ter, exhibited the slightest desire to
make second time that journey full
of horrors. Yet there is nothing
shocking, and scarcely anything, in
deed, that can be called painful, in
the appearance of the images of
death ranged at full length on the
tables. The PROSTATE figure of the
man who, from the aqualine out
line of his countenance, is known as
the Roman, and who is girt with
money-belt. His death must have
been Jrom asphyxiation. His head
reposes on one of his arms; the ex-
preston of the countenance is one of
deeply thoughtful gravity, scarcely
sleep, although the eyes are closed,
but rather profound meditation. And
then the rdgdzzo, the boy of eleven
OF twelve summers, who has tumbled
face foremost on the ground, and
died there in a moment. And the
rdgazza, the exquisitely formed young
girl of sixteen or seventeen, her face
turned little on one side, so that
you can see her sweet innocent fea-
lures, and her hair fixed in girlish
coquetry. These images Of sudden
and violent death are all nude; but
when they were stricken down by
death they wore the garments of their
time and rank-garments which the
heated ashes calcined and made to
vanish in moment. But the aqua
bdHdnte, the boiling vapor permeat-
ing the pumice, the scorie and the
ashes formed round each body fine
paste, which received the imprint of
the corpse which it surrounded. This
paste after some days dried, and be-
came sharply defined mould, and
then came the eighteen centuries of
entombment. The bodies decayed,
the bones fell away from ligaments
which turned to dust, but the sharp
mould remained, retaining every de-
tail of the external form of what had
once been human. And one day Ca
valiere Fiorelli, experimenting the
proffs of the "scavi," was told by one
of his workman that with his pickaxe
he had struck into cavity apparent
ly of considerable dimensions. The
cavity was sounded, and by and by
some vestiges of mortality-a verte-
bra, bone of tarsas or metacar-
pus was brought to the surface. 1t
instantly occurred to the astute mind
of Cavaliere Fiorelli that human
body had once filled that cavity, and
that the long-since indurated mass of
pumice and ashes had formed a
mould which should present an ex-
act imprint of his disintegrated
corpse. Liquid plaster of Paris was
brought and poured through the
aperture of the cavity. The plaster
was allowed to harden, and then the
surrounding mould was gently re-
moved, and these astonishing tram
scripts of life suddenly turned into
death were revealed. In only one of
these bodies, strangely resuscitated-
if the paradox can be pardoned-by
means of bucketful of liquefied
plaster of Paris, are any signs of
acute physical suffering visible. There
is reproduction of the body of q
dog which, with collar round its
neck, was found by the side of the
yestibule of patrician's house. The
poor dog has died hard, it has rolled
over in its agony and lies on its back