The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-06-24
A BrIeT Sketch of POmpeii.


hence it's name. 1t was built at the foot
of Mount Vesuvius to catch the tourist
traffic in lemonade, peanuts, palm lea
fans and other articles necessary fol
those who came to Mount Vesuvius.
One day when this frolicsome noun
tain was in state of violent eruption.
like boy taken down with the measles.
it became sick at the stomach and
threw up such quantity of ashes that
Pompeii with all its pomp was buried
quite out of sight. A prohibition can.
ddate in distillery district could not
be more completely showed under.
Never was there such tumble in
ashes as was observed that day. They
were absolutely drug in the market.
Folks would't cart them away as gift.
And still ashes continued to fall.
Everybody was panic stricken. They
began to wall and put on sackcloth,
but the disparity between the limited
amount of sackcloth and the illimitable
quantity of ashes was ludicrous in the
extreme. People demanded with ashen
faces, when is this to end? But it came
to an end after a while, and Pompeii
too.
You have heard of ashes of roses?
Well. nobody ever rose from those
ashes.
For nearly eighteen hundred years
Pompeii lay asleep, and it would have
been ash heap to this day had not some
scientific explorers come scratching
around the base of Mount Vesuvius-
for to such base uses do they come at
last-and discovered surface indications
OF the lost city. They continued dig
ging, and it was not long before the
Phenix arose from it's ashes.
This was the Phenix Hotel, the most
popular IN Pompeii. The guests were
all in their rooms; although many of
them had left orders with the porter to
be called for the early morning train.
Eighteen hundred years waiting to
be called! Many hotel porters are that
way now.
The head clerk of the Phenix had
disappeared, but they found his man.
moth diamond pin, by the illumination
OF which they were enabled to contin-
ue their explorations.
They kept on digging and pretty
soon they unearthed theatre with a
whole minstrel band seated in a row on
the stage. The audience were in their
seats, too, entirely petrified-an end
man had gotten off a new joke. The
stage was thickly covered with chest
nuts, all of which were carefully col
lected and shipped to America, where
they were eagerly bought up by the
minstrels, who continue to use them,
encrusted, as they are, with the ashes
of Pompeii.
And still they dug and dug.
A newspaper office was the next
thing that came to light. The editor
was discovered in the attitude of hold
ing up his right hand before a notary,
swearing that his circulation exceeded
that of all the other papers combined.
''Old Subscriber" was sitting in the
EDITORS chair writing a communication
for the wastebasket, too much absorbed
in his work to notice the fall in ashes.
veteran Observer" was at another
desk preparing an article on the SUBJ
ject Of "Strikes.'' On the bulletin
board in front of the Office was an an
nouncement that Susan B. Anthony
would speak that evening on the SUBJ
ject of ''Woman's Rights.
We have not space to enumerate all
the curious things that were brought
to light by the excavations at Pompeii.
The spade revealed the ovens where
those venerable but athletic pies were
baked that now adorn SO many of onr
railroad lunch counters. The genuine
have the letter P fiy-blown on the crust
The number of skeletons actually
found among the askes of Pompeii was
small when compared with the census
of the city, and this was mystery un-
til posters were found on the dead walls
announcing lecture by eli Perkins,
when all was explained. 1t was the
day before the fatal tempest of ashes
when these posters were discovered,
and on reading them thousands of the
panic-stricken inhabitants broke for the
woods, and in this way their lives were
miraculously preserved.-Teras SDt-
lRQS