Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-10-14

sA~~sesA~~D
the sculpturcd water nymphs. Notice
the weird, solemn, farreaching hum and
din and roar of o city at the close Of G
summer day. Let Ponpeii sleep wei
tonight, for 1t is the last night of peace
full slumber before she falls into the
deep slumber OF many long centuries
The morning Of the oath of August, A
D. 10, has arrived, and the day rolls on
and 1t is / o'clock In the afternoon
"Look" I say to you, standing on THU
wall, as the sister of Pliny said to him
the Roman essayist and naval command
or, on the day of which speak, as she
pointed him in the direction in which
point you.
There is peculiar cloud on the sky
spotted cloud, now white, now black
It is Yesuyius in awful and unparalleled
eruption. Now the smoke and fire ant
steam of that black monster throat rist
and spread, as, by my gesture, now de
scribe it. It rises, great column o.
fiery darkness, higher and higher, ane
then spreads out like the branches of 6
tree, with midnights interwrapped in it
foliage, wider and wider. Now the sur
goes out, and showers Of pumice stone
and water from furnaces more thar
seven times heated, and ashes in avail
anche after avalanche, binding and
scalding and suffocating, descend north
south, east and west, burying deeper
and deeper in mammoth sepulcher, sucf
as never before OF since was opened
Stable, Herculaneum and Pompeii
Ashes ankle deep. girdlc deep, chin deep
ashes overhead.
Out Of the houses and temples and
theaters and into the streets and down
to the beach fed many of tho frantic
but others, if not suffocated of the ashes
were scalded to death by the heated del
uge. And then came heavier destruc
ton in rocks after rocks, crushing il
homes and temples and theaters. NJ
wonder the sea receded from the beach
as though in terror, until much of the
shipping was wrecked, and no wonder
that when they lifted Pliny the elder
from the sailcloth on which lie was rest
ing, under the agitations Of what he ha6
seen, he suddenly expired.
For three days the entombnent pro
ceeded. Then the clouds lifted, and thu
cursiDg of that Apollyon of mountains
subsidized. For 1.7Co years that city o.
Pompeii lay buried and without any
thing to show Its place of doom. But
after 1,700 years of obliteration work
mans spade, digging well, strikes some
antiquities which lead to the exhuma
ton of the city. Now walk with me
through some of the streets and into
some Of the houses and amid the ruin!
of basilica and Temple and amphithe
ater.
EMOTIONS THE SCENE INSPIRES
From the moment tho guide met US q
the gate on entering Pompeii that day IL
November, 1880, until he left US at the
gate on our departure, the emotion I fell
was indescribable for elevation and so
lemnity and sorrow and awe. Come ani
see the petrifed bodies of the dead found
in the city, and now in the museums O.
Italy. About 400 of those enbalmed BY
that eruption have been recovered
Mother and child, noble and serf, mer
chant and beggar, are presentable and
natural after 1,7OO years of burial. That
woman was found clutching her adorn
ments when the storm Of ashes and fire
began, and for 1900 years she continued
to clutch them.
There at the soldiers barracks are 60
skeletons of brave men, who faithfully
stood guard at their post when the TEN.
pest of cinders began, and after 1,7OC
years were still found standing guard.
There is the form of gentle womanhood
impressed upon the hardened ashes.
Pass along, and here we see the deep ruts
in the basaltic pavements worn there by
the wheels of the chariots Of the first
century. There, over the doorways and
In the porticoes, are works of art. i'm.
mortalizing the debauchery of city,
which, notwithstanding-allits splendors,
was vestibule Of perdition.
Those cutters ran with the blood of
the gladiators, who were the prizefght-
ers of those ancient times, and 1t was
sword parrying sword, until, with one
slzillful and stout plunge of the sharp
edge, the mauled and gashed combatant
reeled over dead, to be carried out amid
the huzzas of enraptured spectators.
We staid among those suggestive scenes
after the hour that visitors are usually
allowed there and staid until there was
not a football to be heard within all that
CITY except our own. Up this silent street
and down that silent street we wander
ed. Into that windowless and roohess
home we went and came out again onto
the pavements that, now forsaken, were
once thronged with life.
And can it be that all up and down
these solemn solitudes, hearts more than
!. 800 years ago ached and rejoiced, and
feet shufled with the gait of old age or
danced with childish glee, and overtasked
workmen carried their burdens, and
drunkards staggered? On that mosaic
floor did glowing youth clasp hands in
marriage VOW, and cross that threshold
did pallbearers carry the beloved Dead
and gay groups once mount those now
skeletons of staircases?
While walked and contemplated the
city seemed suddenly to be thronged
with all the population that had ever IN
habited 1t, and I heard its laughter and
groan and blasphemy and uncleanness
and internal boast as 1t was on the a9d
Of August, 70. And Yesuyius, from the
mild light with which it flushed the sky
that summer evening as / stood in Olsen.
tombed Pompeii, seemed suddenly again
to neavo and fame and rock with th'
lava and darkness and desolation and
woe with which more than IS centuries
ago 1t submerged Pompeii, as with the
liturgy of fire and storm the mountain
unclaimed at the burial, "Ashes to ashes,