Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-01-27

members OF this great family, still to DC
seen ia the Naples Museum ; the senate
Hall /; the 1emtle OF Mercury, whose
altar in the centre is still 10 almost com-
plete preservation temples to many
gods, theatres, baths. and many snmp-
tuous mansions.
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN or DID,.
As ] strolled through the streets j was
amused TO see on several stfeet-corners
panied notices inviting the citizens to
vote for such aud such q one for decn.
RON (; so 1 presume an election must
have been going on about the time OF
the destruction, when an incident more
potential than BurcharI or Murchison
put an end then and forever to Pom
plan decurions. .
The general aspect OF Pompeii is that
OF a rich town totally unroofed. and
with the upper portion OF every building
completely DESTROYED, from which oil the
inhabitants fed, and where time and the
elements have done some destruction /;
but your surprise is that they have done
80 little.
HOUSES AND
The fact that all of the houses were
either Of stone or brick, and that few
we're OF over two stories in height, even
If any we're, but more than all the cha-
racter OF the catastrophe explains this.
The ashes OF Vesuvius, like the sand
of Lbyan desert, is a wonderful pre-
server. But one thing is very remarka-
ble-the permanence of color. The
Pompeiian remains differ from all we
know in the excessive lightness and
gayeiy Of their domestic architecture.
When they erected a column 1t was
rarely of stone-monolithic or other.
They builtupa brick pillar, coated it with
plaster. huted the plsstering for six feet,
and left the rest plain, and then they
painted it some brilliant color. The
most common was that deep blood hue,
which is known to-day as Pompeiian Red,
but their blues. yellows, and greens are
as beautiful and as permanent.
DANCING GIRLS.
When one bemoans the almost total
obliteration OF DE Vinci's "Last Sup
per-" and the melancholy d~iscoloration
OF the masterpiece Of all frescos-the
Last Judgment in the Sistine chapel. q
true fresco, not an oil painting or plaster
as the former-these things OF yester-
day. he wonders to see on the walls OF
every respectable house in Pompeii
figures as fresh as il six months had not
passed instead of the entire Christian
era since their execution. Bronze and
iron have rusted ont their beauty, the
polish and sharp outline Of marble have
persisted, but the d~ancing-girls and
hunting scenes that forgotten artists
spread on the chamber walls of the we'll
TODD Pompeiians twenty, maybe twenty
five centuries ago, for the city was al
ready 700 years old at its destruction,
survive absolutely undimmed.
ADwELLING-HoUsE DESCRIBED.
And now that I have spoken Of private
houses let me describe one Of them. A
large portal opening directly on the
sidewalk paved with Mosaic stones and
having as its ornament q very spirited
picture of a wild boar in Mosaic in the
floor, gives entrance to the inner court.
This is an open square of about ~ feet
each way, paved with stone slabs or with
Mosaic, and having in its centre a square
or a tank Of marble about 10 feet IN
length and a foot in depth, in which a
fountain played. The courtyard is sur
rounded interiorly by pillars, upon which
the second story was partly built, thus
forming a covered arcade completely
around the court, and from this arcade
to the right and left chambers open,
| One, two, or three Of these were bath
rooms, and the pipes still exist, made OF
bronze and soldered at the joints with
lead, which conveyed the water from the
kitchen. The bathing-rooms included
not only the ordinary plunge-bath Of our
houses, but a complete arrangement fol
| hot air or steam bathing. One OF the
rooms is surrounded by a double wall,
and was obviously heated by conducting
hot air around the interior wall, or steam.
At the extremity of the courtyard op'
posite the entrance q hallway opens,
having on one side the dining-room-a
spacious room-and on the opposite the
kitchen, laundry, and servant rooms.
A POHPEuAN MILL.
From one of the corner chambers OF
the court a stair way leads to the second
and only other story, where the female
members Of the family slept. The sleep
ing-rooms are little more than cells
none being above twelve feet square
the luxury Of furniture is a very modern
weakness. In some OF the room Of this
house the bedstead- "a stone shelf built IL
the end of the room-remains. BehIlC
the kitchen is the room where the slave,
ground the corn for the family, and thu
mills still exist. These consist OF two
stones, the lower in the shape of a soli(
cylinder of stone, whose upper parts Gu
to the shape of a cone, about twenty
inches high.