The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-02-07
Images Of Death.

Who that has an object before him
ever grows tired in Pompeii? As I
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. rs, are
from carbonization black, but they are
comely. The whole lower 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, in
fants, horses, mules, dogs, cats and
poultry, all dug from the ruins. Stay.
the little sucking pig yonder, that was
found in bakers oven, escaped vi
olent end. He had been mercifully
stuck to death before they scored and
trussed 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 crea-'
ture is still perfect, even to the bones
of the petite toes and the vertebre of
the once curly tail. Plum sauce and
not pummice stone should have
crowned the funereal pyre of that little
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 cover;
ed him up for eighteen centuries.
But the middle of the museum; what
is there in the midst of the museume
Sudden, violent and dreadful death,
the aspect of which is almost supernat-
urally revealed to us, but which bears
no appalling look. Ihave rarely known
a civilian who, having once boon over
field of battle, say three days after
the slaughter, exhibited the slightest
desire to make second time that jour-
ney full of horrors. Yet there is moth
ing shocking, and scarcely anything
indeed, 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 aquiline outline of his countenance
is known as the Roman, is girt with q
money belt. His death must have been
from asphyxiation. His head reposes
on one of his arms; the expression of
his countenance is one of deeply
Thoughtful gravity-scarcely sleep, al
though the eyes are closed, but rather
profound meditatation. And then the
rdgdzzo, the boy of eleven or twelve
summers, who has tumbled face fore
most on the ground and died in a mo-
ment And the ragazza, the exquis-
itely formed young girl of 16 or IL, her
face turned little 10 one side, so that
| you can see her sweet, innocent fea-
lures, and her hair fixed in girlish CO.
quetry. These images of sudden and
violent deaths are all nude; but when
they were stricken down by death they
wore the garments of their time and
rank-garments which the heated ash
es calcined and made to vanish in g.
moment. But the aqua boItG'ste, the
boiling vapor permeating the pumice.
the scori8 and the ashes formed around
each body fine paste, which received
the imprint of the corpse which it sur
rounded. This paste after some days
dried, and became sharply defined
mould, and then came the eighteen
centuries of entombment. The bodies
decayed, the bones fell away from the
ligaments which turned to dust, but the
sharp mold remained retaining every
detail of the external form of what had
once been human. And one day Cava-
liere Fiorelli, experimenting the proofs
of the ''scavi," was told by workman
that with his pickax he had struck into
cavity apparently of considerable di-
mensions. The cavity was sounded,
and by and by some vestiges of mortal
ity-a vertebra, bone of a tarsus or
q metacarpus was brought to the sur
face 1t instantly occurred to the Rs
tute mind of Cavaliere Fiorelli that u
human body had once occupied that
cavity, and that the long since indura-
ted mass of pumice and ashes had
formed a mold which should present
an exact imprint of the. disintcgrated
corpse. Liquid plaster of Paris was
brought and poured through the apcr-
ture of the cavity. The plaster was al
lowed to harden and then the surround
ing mold was gently removed, and
these astonishing transcripts of life
suddenly turned into death were reveal
ed. In only one of these bodies,
strangely resuscitated-if the paradox
can be pardoned-by means of buck
etful of liquefied plaster of Paris, are
any signs of acute physical suffering
visible. There is the reproduction of q
dog which, with collar round its neck,
was found by the side of the vestibule
of patrician's house. The poor dog
has died hard; it has rolled over in its
agony, and lies on its back, its mouth
open, its limbs violently contorted. The
stretched-out forepaws are crossed al
most in the attitude of supplication;
and the whole frame is twisted and
wrenched in a manner suggestive OF
fearful pain having been suffered ere
the relief of death came.-LOndon Tel
egrGph.