The Portland daily press., 1892-09-26
IN FOREIGN LANDS,
The Pompeian Museum, Pozzuoh and
Some Sights of Rome.


ter several hours in Pompeii, the nina
is alert and receptive Tor anything con-
nected with the former life of the people
who once dwelt there. So catching a
train Immediately bound for the city we
succeeded it getting two or three hours
before the closing OF the Pompeiian
museum in Naples. The delight one
feels on entering and lingering in this
place is something which nothing in the
world can surpass. To be amidst, to
look upon, to associate with these arti-
cles of daily use SO many centuries in
the past, is like having lived at that
moment and to have kept up kind of
existence ever since. 1t does not give
one so much the feeling of age, as it does
that OF having received the Alchemist's
touch of having once lived and now be-
ing restored to youth again,
To visit these exhumed cities and be-
hold the memorials of them, is worth all
The time and trouble of ajourney thither
If there were nothing else to see. To
look upon the actual food they ate, the
same dishes they used, some of the very
kernels of grain that supported their
life, the beautiful coins they had in the
interchange of trade, the canoes and
curious ornamental rings and bracelets
which they wore of every sort, the scales
which were works of art, the weights of
even the most ordinary being beauti-
fully carved heads of some goddess or
person of distinction--all of these are
objects of the most intense interest as
seen here. These numerous accessories
exhibit hnman nature of the days of
Pompeii, to be the same as that of to-day
The same vanities, the same objects of
pride, the same efforts for prominence,
but far cruder. idea of refinement in
many of the avenues of life. Especially
is this true of the paintings which show
how much greater hold the baser part of
the character had upon their lives. There
were to be seen here queer mirrors, rich
toilet articles in silver and bronze,
door-plates, locks and keys, all with in
laid work. old bells and gongs, some of
them very musical in tone, elaborate
vases and spoons andmusical instruments,
tickets of bone and ivory, silver plate,
glass ware OF such a different texture
from ours and not in the least trans
parent. In one room full of glass cases
one case contains loaves of bread just as
they had been baked on that fated day
with the baker shame on one loaf (Celer,
slave of L. Granius Verus) and in the
same case an object of food which looks
precisely like our round dough-nut In
the center of this Dom is sealed jar
filled with oil, which has been preserved
all these years and some remarkable
coins from Diomede's Villa. There is
scarcely anything of the ornamental
kind with regard to dress or personal
adornments which one sees nowadays
but has its duplicate in this collection.
Everything discovered, to the minutest
object has been preserved. Broken
pottery, bits of netting, the needles of
which look like our crochet-needles. and
even an old piece of coarse canvas cloth
evidently used for scrubbing purposes is
carefully kept in fine glass case II
seems sometimes that explorers value
objects according as they show signs of
demolition.
One of the things, the German couple
referred to in another letter, found the
most difficult to appreciate was the
double starred Niobe headless and, if /
remember rightly, without hands and
feet which is considered one of the very
finest in the Vatican sculpture gallery.
The old frescoes from the walls and
ceilings of the houses in Pompeii and old
statues dug up from the courts and
found in saloons are shut up by them
selves in one large room. But this en-
enumeration is nothing compared to the
whole number and variety of objects ex-
hibited.
Fashionable Drive of Naples.
Via Caracciola is the eorso near the
sea with the Villa Nazionale on the other
side. Here all the magnificent turnouts
appear between the hours of four and
six o'clock and ON Sundays too. No
fashionable drive in any city I have
ever visited exhibits to greater advant-
age the fine equipages and elegantly
dressed people than this corso, the
horses being larger and better groomed
and more splendidly caparisoned than
elsewhere. and the driving is kept up in
more spirited manner.
The Villa Nazionale which runs along
all the way by the side of this drive
contains the fine public gardens, in
which is the celebrated aquarium and
farther to the right parallel to this is
the Strada Chiaia. Then there are the
heights of St. Elmo to see, with it's
castle and church of San MARITIME and
farther round the Bay of Naples. Posilipo
and way above all, the lapodimonte; and
finally Pozzuoli full of old classic remi-
niscences.
Pozzuoli and the Solfatara.
One enters the crater at Solfatara walk
ing over its hot inside surface whence
from assures all about sulphurous gases
continually arise. The ancients called
the crater of Solfatara ''Forum Vulcani."
They thought it was connected with the
volcanic region at Ischia. An almost in
destructible coment is made from the
puzzalana earth found in this whole dis
trict, deriving it's name from Pozzuoli
There are several ruins of old temples
near here and an ampitheatre. A tew
fragments are left of o Villa of Cicero,
which he called his Academia he having
composed his Academy here' Hadrian
was temporarily buried in this Villa of
Cicero, but his remains were afterwards
conveyed to Castle St. Angelic in Rome
which was then called Moles Hadriani
because Hadrian had it built purposely
fo,, bic own tomb