Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-06-24
LAST DAYS OF POMPEII.
In Albany Clergyn1an's Sketch Of
Two Buried Cities.
Rev. Charles Wood Visits Herculaneum
and Its Sister City-Vivid GIimpses
at the Home Life of
Centuries Ago.

Through thick clouds of dust, and
between miles of tall houses and long
| lines of maccaroni drying in the hot
sun, we drove along the Bay of Naples
| toward Herculaneum. Carriages
dashed by drawn by three horses fast
ened abreast, with bright jingling har-
ness, and filled usually either with
English, Americans or Germans bound
on the same errand. Carts mounted
on two large wheels, and packed even
| out on the shafts with men, women and
children, were being dragged along at
no mean rate by long-haired ponies of
| the most diminutive sort. High walls
| shut out of view the larger part of the
way, but now and then, through the
opened doors OF some of the larger
villas, we could look down to the sea.
We passed La Favorita, one of the
summer palaces OF the King of Italy,
| now occupied by the deposed Pasha OF
Egypt and his seraglio; and very soon
we came to a most unpretending sign,
which announced the fact that Hercu-
laneum was Just under our feet.
By the Pickering light of u torch we
| descended long Hight of stone steps
into the exhumed corridors of an i'm
mense theater. Helculaneum was not
destroyed like Pompeii by soft ashes,
but by lava as hard as molten iron.
| Because OF the difficulty of working
such material, and still more be-
cause large town has been built over
the old city, very little comparatively
| has been done toward its excavation.
Beside this theater, which is still large
! " under lava, the work thus far has
been carried on only III one other place;
vet, i'll the few houses that have thus
| been uncovered, q number of the finest
! bronze statues in existence were found.
| No one can tell but that hundreds Of
| others as beautiful as the Sleeping
| Fawn and the Mercury 10 Repose now
| lie under the cellars Of these Wretched
little Portician houses. Very near the
| sign that marks the entrance to the
Theater of Herculaneum the road
| makes q sharp turn to the LETT up the
| side of Vesuvius. Bands Of little boys
and men Waylaid us here, half-entreat-
ING and half demanding that we should
accept of their services as guides.
Every spot worth seeing in Italy is in
tested with these creatures. They stick
like burrs, and to get rid of them is
such an unpleasant process that almost
any journey is begun by the average
tourist with very appreciate loss Of
temper.
The road rises gradually up the
N untain, guarded on each side by
thick walls of lava. The houses of the
peasants are built Of the same ma
teria1. The little vineyards by which
nearly all these houses are surrounded,
are cultivated with great care. and
produce one Of the most highly priced
| of the Italian wines. Each moment
the view beneath us became wider and
| more beautiful. The CITY, and the
Campagna, and the bay, with its towns
and villages, and its great islands of
Capri and Ischia, We're under our ieet.
Above us was the cone Of the volcano
distinctly outlined aga nst the sky,
sending out perpetualIy its soft cloud
of white smoke. Often the road ran
by the edge of immense masses Of lava,
| look no | Ike the twisted entralS torn
from some gigantic Prometheus inn
prs0ned in the mountain. The yegeta
| ton became less abundant. The lava
| was piled around Us to q more stu
pendous he ght; everything except the
Ia vision beneath us was weird and
unreal 1t would have been impo sible
for the ancientS not to have peOpled
this place w tn mysterious beings. For
them the gods were the only possible
explanation Of all these wonders. Be-
cause we know more than they we felt
less. No old Greek or Roman could
have gone on as calmly toward what
he thought the entrance 10 the abodes
of his gods as we toward what VIC
knew was only the mouth of vol
| canO.
Before we reached the observatory
the clouds closed around us, and the
wind that had been strong all the
morning becamo almost a gale. My
companion, though he had successfully
guided great company few months
ago through some very tempestuous
weather. concluded, Sls his broad chest
would offer such fair surface of at
tack to the wind, and, as the view from
the top would be on such a day cx-
ceedingly crcumscribed, that the as.
cent would scarcely be worth the
trouble So we spent an hour or more
in examining the very delicate instru-