The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-07-29

searches among the Roman antiquities,
they had left for the Eternal City, soon
after. After having barely succeeded in
getting the train, and encountering sew
eral other interesting adventures, at
about half past eight l found myself at
the turnstile at Pompeii. which revolves
for every nationality of the world.
To say that day spent among the
| ruins at Pompeii is interesting in the ex-
| treme but feebly expresses the interest
| centred in it, One visits in the first place
| kind of museum filled with plaster
casts of men, women and animals, the
imprint of which had been made in the
hot lava at the time of the destruction OF
the city. Some of the men are line
and Napoleonic looking and all appear
like ossified figures instead OF plaster
casts.
AS one casts the eyes beyond to the
present village of Pompeii, it seems very
strange to notice bow little below the
| level of the latter the old city was built,
especially when one remembers that Her
culaneum, which is still mostly buried,
is almost entirely under the streets OF
Portici.
The Story of Pompeiis Destruction.
| All are familiar with the story of this
| unfortunate city, of town known in his
| tory four hundred years before Christ,
| with evidence then of Grecian antiquity.
About the time of the Christian era it
was thoroughly Romanized. the wealthy
Romans hiring estates and many of the
Emperors at times living there. The
earthquake of 63 A. d. destroyed much
property, from the loss of which they
| were rapidly recovering when the disas-
| ter of 10 A. d. overlook them. Nearly
| all escaped at the time, since the first
| shower of ashes and lava only buried the
city three feet deep, but it is supposed
many went back for their valuables or
! fled hither from fright, since as lately as
| 1878 one hundred and sixty eight skele-
tons were taken from the ruins, and it is
estimated that out of the fifteen OF
twenty thousand, two thousand lost their
| lives.
Since not quite half of this city is
| vet excavated no one can tell what
| further developments may come to light,
| although it is thought the portions OF
| most Importance have been already ex-
| humed. At the present rate of excava-
| ting it will take sixty years longer, 1T is es-
| timated, to bring all Of it to the surface, and
| will cost five million additional francs.
| The expenses are paid from fund &C
cruing each year from the two francs
| admission fee, demanded of the many
thousand people who visit the place.
| was fortunate enough to see a piece
! of wall uncovered, which until that hour
had not seen the light of day for more
| than eighteen hundred years. 1t was
| covered with fine frescoings which ex-
hibited to great advantage the early
style of art. 1t was simple in design,
but rich in coloring, and altogether was
if,,lr, Of icti I'm m
ship. When left they were still wash
ing it off with big sponges and bringing
out all of its original beauty.
Almost all the old relics have been re-
moved to the Pompeian Museum at
Naples, where visited for the first time
that afternoon, but one stills sees large
tanks for holding their wine, cisterns in
the middle Of their courts for rain water,
large mills for grinding grain, huge
money chests and large receptables for
oil. 1t seems that in early times, people
ransacked the city and took away all
they considered valuable, leaving it I'M
disturbed for fifteen hundred years, dur
ing which time the debris was ever get
| ting deeper.
In the latter part of the 10Th century,
an aqueduct was laid under portions of
| it, and in the 18th century some excava-
| tention and called forth considerable en-
| thusiasm among scientific and scholarly
men, But during the latter part of this
century when the later explorations were
| beginning to be made the private houses,
| many of them were found just as they
| had been 1000 long years ago, left as
though a hurried departure had been
| made in the middle of the day.
| The Bath, Kitchens, Stepping Stones, Etc.
| The baths are perhaps the most luxuri-
Gus of anything seen, resembling our
| Turkish baths, and many of the conven-
| fences which modern science suggests,
are seen here. Evidently they were
erecting a new one at the time of the dis
aster, more elegant than at present ex-
| hibited. The Kitchens are the crudest of
all and constantly bring to mind products
| of the smoke house, since not even an
aperture indicates the suspicion of any
thing serving for chimney. 1t seems
that they must have became very tired of
eating, not only smoked ham, but smoked
| beef, mutton, smoked veal and vegeta-
| bles. There are no stoves but only
cubby-places built solid on a brick en-
bankment which if hollow would itself
have been tolerable range. These lit
tie square places might have supported a
| HCule Stew pan, ana TOT Iuel mlgnU
have consumed in smoke a few twigs OF
a little charcoal. Large fire places which
we always see in ruined castles had
evidently not been discovered, or on ac-
count of economy of space were
ignored. Where they prepared their
great feasts is a problem, unless
| they roasted their oxen in the open
courts and did the rest of their baking
in their magnificent ovens, seen here
both in private houses and in
bakeries, and like those in our great
grandfathers' houses. But the kitchen
utensils were beautiful in design and
workmanship, the most ordinary being
hammered into shape and made of beaten
brass and silver.
There are signs of sewer, which sug-
gests their notions of germs and bacilli,
and perhaps theories on anticipates.
The most convenient arrangement in
the whole city was perhaps their step
ping stones midway at all crossings, at
least ladies with the present styles, in
bad weather would SO regard them; not
| co tho bnrcoc which were OhliOpd tn