The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-28
A POMPEIIAN FESTIVAL.
Three Hundred People in the Costume
Of the Ancient Romans.
Gen. Lew Wallace's "Ben Hur"-The Ath-
letes and GladiatOrs Old Costumes
and Old Music of Rome Revived
correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal.

friends with me here IN Naples anu vicinity,
when the grandest of festivals took place on the
site of Pompeii- 1t was curious thing to have
the past reproduced so wildly and a scale of
such magnifcence. The student of history
could learn more in a few hours about the man
ners and customs of the Romans by what he
saw enacted before his eyes, than by months of
study in his closet. The first and the nineteenth
century were brought face to face, and more
than three hundred trained people in the cos
tunes of ancient Rome, filled the role of en-
peror senators, hctors, judges pretorian guards,
priests of Isis, musicians, chorus-singers, chart
oteers, and large plebeian crowd of men and
women. The scenic effect surpassed anything
that ever saw.
The time represented was the reign Of Vespa-
sian, the oonqnefor of Jerusalem. or, l ought
rather to say the co-eonqueror for, as every read
er of Josephus and Roman history knows. his
son Titus completed what Vespasian began,
and they both had their triumph in Rome,
together. Now if any wish to have a capital
description of the pomp and grandeur and the
scenic effect of Roman imperial procession,
such as we saw in Pompei can send them to
Josephus WAR of the Jews-Book viii, chapter
s. section A.; and if you desire the best de-
scription ever given of Roman chariot race,
with its hurry whirry, skirry, dust, and intense
excitement, why go to the chapters Of General
Lew Wallace's ben Hur." Those were the
chapters that Myron W. Reed said he read with
greater intensity of interest than any that had
ever before fallen under his eye do not know
a greater compliment to General Waaces pow
ers of description than this. All that / can add
is, that after witnessing this magnificent festival
at Pompeii, and after having read much on
the games of the ancient Romans. / can truly
say that the finest description of Roman char
lot race is that given in Ben Hur"
But I am anticipating. / only wish that |
could convey to your readers, without the help
of pencil, paint brush or engravers tool, little
of the reality concerning the most peculiar and
beautiful festival which we over here
just had the opportunity of witnessing. 1t is,
however, impossible, and. therefore, / must con
tent myself with what / can do by words and
phrases Perhaps it is Just as well for you are
in the midst of what always goes with or follows
after a convention to nominate q presidential
candidate. If my letter arrives before that i'm
portant event, all will be wondering (which
way the cat will jump if after, the
air is full of speculahons presiden
tial and political. what fghtings, Juggling away
at conventions, listening to speeches that con
vince no one on the opposite side, wayside dis
putes, torchight professions and an awful
smell of kerosene and all with the most patriot
ie desire to save the country and-the oficesl 1
have seen good deal of many nations on four
continents, and yet | have never seen any
thing that will beat the intense earnestness of
presidential campaign IN America. l always
feed like the newsboy at the Five Points Sunday
school, in New York. This embryo Democrat,
when a stranger was addressing the little
washed fellows about the fight between David
and Goliath, and was little lengthy in regard
to the challenge, theSpeeches and other prelim-
inaries couldn't stand it any longer, and in his
excitement he rose to his feet wiped his nose
with his coat-sleeve and yelled: Here, now
you Jist dry up, and tell as which licked" So
l feel about the presidential contest every four
years.
But cross the ocean with me, and HE with me
by railroad fifteen miles from Naples to the
southern slope of Mt Vesuvius, where in the
year 70 A. D. the Greco Roman city, Pompei
was buried beneath pumice-stone. ashes and
liquid mud Onet third of the city has been ex-
caYated, the streets laid bare, and also open to
sun and air are the first story of the houses
for, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, the
upper stories are all gone. Off in one corner is
the amphtheater. in a tolerable state of pres
efvation. which, in the olden time, had seating
room for 1880 spectators and the upper por
ton, now gone, must have held 5000 more.
Here were to be the reproduced gladiatoIiai con
tests. II was determined to combine
charity and sightseeing amid the
ruins of Pompeii, and thus do something
for the sufferers from the Ischian disaster, and
to crafty the sense of sight and sound. 1t,
therefore, from the very first, involved an
enormous outlay. The first areh@ologists who
have devoted themselves to the study of
antiquity had to evoke from ancient monuments
sculpture in stone and bronze, and from paint
ipgs on the walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii
and from that source which is never falling so
far as color is concerned, the beautiful moSaics.
which, unlike many objects of the ancients.
could not be carried away and lost. Some
things, however required the most profound in
vestigation as for instance the music. Now
from the statues of the museums could be OBJ
tanned the uniform of an emperor, or of
Roman general and the trappings of his horse
all ''as large as life and twice as natural like
Albert Calls wood and paint efigy of General
Grant and horse, which the Democratic Albert
generously offered to the Republican party few
%lr,,r l..
get the costumes of senators, lictors, priests
praetorian guards and the men and women of the
peoples and it Was just as easy to obtain chariots,
spears, swords, shields and helmets, for they are
in Italian museums. And to reproduce the
musical instruments of the ancients was not
difficult because we have many of them, es-
pecially those of bronze brass, ivory and ebony,
dug up from Hercuaneum and Pompeii. But the
great difficulty was to play upon these instru-
ments and to reproduce the music. We have
famous musical instrument manufacturers in
Naples some of the first living composers, and
some of the most skilled musicians This, of
course, would be the case in a city. where for
more than hundred years there has been a
conservatory of music which has produced such
as Beiipi, and where Donizetti was pro
fessor and composed his Lucia de Lam
mermoor" 1t was in Naples that Rossini lived
from 1910 to 1872 and here produced, among
other famous operas, his Barber of Seville
Cinderella" "Othello" and his sacred oratorio.
the Moses in Egypt" Here, also, was born
and muslcaliy educated Sir Michael da Costa,
the composer of the oratorio of ''Elijah;" and at
Naples lived, many years of his life, Thalberg,
and here the great pianist died
1t required months of practice after
the musical instruments were manu-
featured, for the most skilled modern rau-
sicians to play them with effect, because most of
them were without keys, and SO much de-
pended on the lip skill and the manual dexter
ity of the players The tuba of the Romans,
played in their armies large horn, either
bent into the form of circle and used as bass
wind instrument or was long five feetl
straight horn, like those used by early stage
drivers and canal boatmen in the West, and which
sometimes served the purpose, in fiooserdom
of calling the droves of hogs from the woods to
their feeding place, The ''cornp' answered to
bugle without keys; the bucinnao was sprial
brass instrument, while the ''tib:ryn CORE.
sponded to wooden Instruments IKE artas clar.