Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-16
THE EARTH TROUBLED.
A City Destroyed-Liquid Fire Leaped
Up to the Heavens.
The Rehabilitation Of a Rich and Gorgeous
City Buried Thousand Years-A Roman
Fesuval-1he Temple OF Isis.

1nere Is PROBABLY no more interesting, TO-
mantle and thrilling chapter in the history of
the world than the story of the sudden and
awful desoation Of Pompeii and its recent par
tial resurrection.
1t is the city of romance.
Ages before the bold Osirian settlers ven-
tured TO make home on the bare, fre-Iiven
shore of the Crater Bay, the first name of the
bay of Naples, tradition had woven round earth,
air and water strange web of the fancIf0 do
lngS of gods and men.
The first eruption of Vesuvius of which we
have au, hentic record occurred in the year A. d.
70. en- the 24th day Of August, late in he after
noon. 1t is memorable not only as being the
one which destroyed Pompeii ami Herculeneum.
and caused the death OF Pliny the natural st,
but also as having had Piiny the younger, his
nenhew, as its historian.
Here was the lake Averno and the mouth of
He'll.
In this awful region was. according to the
illogical history, fought the great battle be-
tween the gods and the giants.
From those dark ages 20 the present time
imag ination has found in that portion of the
CampanIa on which Pompeii stood material for
its most vivid pictures.
The history of Pompeii is simple enough Its
building is ascribed to the Oscans. 1t is known
to have been city Of some imr ortance 500 years
before Christ, but under the empire it sc ms to
have become a kind of Brighton Of the epoch,
a fashionable sumner resort and watering
place. Cicero had villa in its suburbs, in
which he wrote his famous Offices and en-
tertained as guests Augustus Caesar. Balbus,
Hirtius and Pansa. Claudius took refuge here
from the tyranny of Tiberius, and his son
D usus died within the walls of Pompeii, cd lily
enough, from the effects of swallowing the
wrong way rear pip, which ch3ked him
On this memorable night He culaneum. 8
much larger city than Ponpeli, was destroyed
by kind of flow of liquid lava, which pouring
itself into everv crevica, has rendered attempts
to recover the remains almost fruitless. Pom
peii, however, was buried under thci coating
of ashes, which have rather preserved than
damaged it; SO that, as rule, the houses are
unearthed entire and pretty nearly in their
original con milton, the frescoes fresh as If
painted but yesterday, and even articles of food
are found just where they were left 800 years
ago.
sInce 1874, when the late Lord Lytton, then
Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, published his ia
nous novel, ''7he Last Days Of Pompeii,' so
extensive have been The discoveriei made among
the ruins of he buried citv, that very little of
what he then wrote remains accurate, The
cavGtions OF the past twenty years have laid bare
sufficient to guarantee the assertion that, far
from being little country seaside town, as the
great novelist described it 10 have been, Pom
reii very large city indeed, with possibly
over so, 900 inhabitants.
From certain indications it seems evident that
during the first four centuries of our era many
slight excavations were made, possib with
view of urearthing hidden treasures, and that
even a village or SO was built on the site OF the
once great city; but in Az another vigorous
eruption destroyed the huts and so scared the
people that, unit. l74s, no further attempts we
made to uncover what nature, in one of her
freaks OF temp,r. had SO artrully concealed. In
that year however, pea ant, whsn digyinr 4
we'll found a painted chamber containing
statutes and other objects Of interest. King
Charles II. of Naples, in whom the discoveries
of Rercu .aneum had awakened a desire for fur
Their explorat ions, ordered the excavations TO be
&C ntinued. In i755 the amphitheater was laid
bare, and since then until now. and notably
during the past ten years, the works have gone
on pretty steadily.
The grand and awful obstruction of Pompeii is
the scene which Pain will exhibit in Fort Worth
with his gorgeous and wonderful pyrotechnical
effects beginning October Is.
The circumst an ial, but fascinating account
given of supposed scene in Pompeii. on that
fatal day, by Lord Lytton, in his charming
work 1.-The Last Days of Pompeii,' istne
groundwork upon which the spectacle is
fashioned. and the characters and incidents in
the story are fairly accurately adhered to in the
realistic rendition.
The spectacle represents the ancient city OF
Pompeii, with all its grand and collosal build
ings. while Mount Visuvius is seen in the dis
tance, making in all charmingy realistic and
striking picture. Five hundred peope in cor
rect and handsome costumes take part in the
performance. All the sports of the Roman am
phitheatre reproduced, including boxing,
wrestling. racing, fencing and gladiatorial COM
bats. The plot of the story is briefly told Ar,
baces, rich Egyptian, has chosen the feast OF
the great Egyptian goddess to dazzle the eyes of
the Neapolitan lone, with whom he is infatu-
ated; He therefore aIrangss grand an! festival,
the Greek Glaucus. After the games the temple
of Isis, the Egyptian goddess. are thrown open
and the temple Illuminated interior Is ulspIayed
to view. The priest and prieste SEES
issue solemniy,. bearing aloft the golden
image of the goddess, which they place in the
center OF the stage. Suddenly Arbaces, who
wishes to dispose of Glaucus, demands that all
worship at the shrine of the goddess or suffer
death. Glaucus, who is a Christian, advances
to strike rhe idol with his sword. Suddenly the
earth trembles by some hidden force, while the
fearful rumbling from the very bowels of the
city causes CONSERVATION and dread, while from
the mountains liquid fire shoots up to the
heavens. Glsucus and lone manage to escape
by a boat from the doomed city. Arbaces is
killed by a falling column, aud the people.
screaming and shouting for aid, scatter in every
direction.