Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-15
IMAGES OF DEATH.

w no CnaL mas an OpiSCt DciotC h1A cNSA
grows tired in Pompeli? As L have said,
the aspect OF the local museum is smart.
1t glistens-it CLEANS with its polished
oaken fittings and glass; cases. The pots
and mans. the fishhooks and stlsTups, the
calcined l9aves and fruits and nuts that
have almost, but not quite, brought me
face to face with the people OF a. ID. 10,
are from carbonizstion black, but they are
comedy. The whole lover room looks
bright and cheerful, but on every side are
there mementoes 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. Say, the little sucking pig
wonder. that vas found IN takers oven,
ESCAPED violent end. lie had been merci-
fullv stuck to death before they scored
and trussed him for the bake-house. HIS
tender cracking, the gristle OF mis- snour,
his ears and eyes have long since been re-
solved into dust and ashes, but the osse7us
structure Of the Tiny creature Is stlli per.
feet. even to the bones OF the petite toes
and the verJebre of the once curly tail
Plum sauce and not pumica stone should
have crowned the funereal pyre OF that mt
tie pig. How brown and shiny 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. Bat the
middle of the museum-what IS there IN
the midst of the museum? Sudden, VIC
lent and dreadful death, the aspect OF
which is almost supernaturally revealed to
us, but which bears no appalling look. l
have rarely known civilian who, having
once been over a field of battle, say three
dayg after the slaughter, exhibit the
slightest desire to make a second time that
Journey full Of horrors. Yet there is moth
ing shocking, and scarcely anything, in
deed. that can be called painful, in the ap-
pearance Of the images OF death ranged at
full length on the tables. The PROSTATE
figure of the man who, from the aQuiline
outline Of his countenauce is known as the
Roman, is grit with money bslt HIS
death must have been from asphy Xiatlon,
His head reposes on one of his arms the
expression on MS countensnce Is one of
deeply thoughtful gravity-scsrcely sleep,
although the eyes are closed. but rather
| profound meditation. And then the ragszz',
! the boy of II or y summers, who has tum-
| bled face forward on the ground and died
! in a moment. And the TagaZZI. the eXquis-
itely formed young girl of l6 or II, her
| face turned a little TO one side, so that you
can see her sweet, innocent features, and
her hair fixed in girish ooquetry, These
| images of sudden and violent desths 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 a
moment. But the aqua b0llaate, tae boil.
| ing vapor permeating the pumice, the
soorie and the ashes, formed around each
| body a fine paste, which received the i'm.
print of the corpse which it surrounded.
! This paste after some days dried, and be-
came sharply.detined mold, and then
came the eighteen centuries of entomb
ment The bodies decayed, the bones fell
away from the ligaments which turned to
dust, but the sharp mold remained, re-
tanning every detail Of the external form
| of what had once been human. And one
day Cavaliere Fiorelli, experimenting the
proofs of the "scavi, " was told by a work.
man that with his piokax he mad struck
into cavity apparently of considerable di
mensiols. The cavity was sounded. and
by and by some vestiges of mortality
vertebra, bone of tarsus, or 9 metacar.
pus, was brought to the surface. 1t
instantly occurred to the astpte
mind Of Csvaliere Fiorelli that
human body had once occupied thst cavity,
and that the long-since indurated mass of
pumice and ashes had formed 3 mold which
should present an exact imprint of the dis
integrated corpse. Liquid plaster Of Paris
was brought and poured through the aper-
ture of the cavity. TIE plaster was al
lowed to harden, and then the surrounding
mold was gently removed, and these alton
ishing transcripts 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 liquifed plaster OF Paris, are
any sigma of acute physical suffering viz
ible. There ia the reproduction of dog
which, with collar round its neck, was
found beside the vestibule of a patricisn
home. The poor dog had died hard it
had rolled over in its agony and lies on
its back, its mouth open, its limbs violently
contorted. The stretched out fore paws
are crossed, almost in the attitude of sup
plication and the whole frame is twisted
and wrenched in manner suggestive Of
fearful pain having been suffered ere the
relief Of death came. i London Telegraph.