The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-10-26

100 years that city Of Pompeii lay buried
and without ANYTHING TO show its place OF
doom. But after 1900 years OF obliteration
workmans spade, digging a well, strikes
| come antiquities which lead TO the exhumar
ton of the city. Now walk with me through
some of the streets and into some OF the
houses and amid the ruins OF basll1ca and
| temple and amphitheatre.
From the moment the guide met us at thu
| gate on entering Pompeii that day IN NO
vember. 1889, until he left US at the gate OF
| our departure, the emotion l felt was lnds
| scribabIe for elevation and solemnity ant
sorrow and awe. Come and see the petri
fled bodies OF the dead found in the city, ane
now in the museums Of Italy. About 450 O
| those embalmed by that eruption have beeI
recovered Mother and child, noble ant
| serf, merchant and beggar, are presentabh
and natural after 1900 years Of burial. Th@
! woman was found clutchinc her adornment
! when the storm Of ashes and fire began. ano
! fer 1900 years she continued to clutch them
I There 1T the soldiers barracks are sixty
| four skele tons of brave men, who faithfully
! stood guard at their post when the tempest
! Of cinders began. and after 100 years Were
| still found standing guard. There is thi
| form of gentle womanbood impressed upon
| the hardened ashes. Pass along, and here
we see the deep ruts in the basatic pave.
OTIS of the first century. There, over the
doorways and in the pordeoes, are works of
| art immortalizing the debauchery Of city,
which. notwithstanding all its splendors, was
a vestibule of perdition.
Those cutters ran with the blood OF the
gladiators, who were prizefghters OF those
ancient times, and It was sword parryinc
sword, until, with one skilful and stout
plunge of the sharp edge, the mauled and
gGshed combatant reeed 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
football 10 he heard within all that city except
our own. Tp this silent street and down that
silent street we wandered. Into that WIN
dowless and rocless home we went and came
ont again onto the payements that, now for
saken. We're once thronged with life.
And can il be that all up and down these
solemn solitudes, hearts more than 1900
years ago aehej and reioiced, and feet shut
fed with the gait Of old age or danced with
childish glee, and overtasked workmen car
ried their burdens and drunkards staggered?
on that mosaic floor did glowing youth clasp
hands in marriage vow. and cross that
threshold did palIoearers carry the beloved
dead, and gay groups once mount those now
skeletons Of staircases?
While I walked and contemplated the city
seemed suddenly to be thronged with all the
population that had ever inhabited it. and
heard its laughter and groan and unclean-
ness and internal boast as it was on the go
of August, r. And Vesuyius rom the mid
light with which It flushed the SKY that sum
mer evening as stood in disentombed Pom
peii, seemed suddenly again to heave and
fame and rock with the lava and darkness
and desolation and woe with which more
than eighteen centuries ago it submerged
Pompeif as with the liturgy OF fire and storm
the mountain proclaimed at the burial,
"Ashes to ashes. dust to dust.
Nv friends. | cannot tell what practical
suggestion comes 10 your mind from this
walk through uncovered Pompeii, but the
first thought that a5sorbs me is that While
art and culture are important, they cannot
save the morals or the life Of n great town.
Much Of the painting and sculpture OF Pom
peii was 20 exquisite that. while some is kept
on the walls where it was first penciled to be
admired by those who 90 there. whole wagon
loads and whole rooms full OF it have been
transferred to the Museo Borbonlco at Ma
pies, to be admired by the centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such dura-
bility Of colors that, though their paintings
were buried in ashes and soOriB for 400
years and since they were uncovered many
OF them have remained there exposed to the
rains and winds and winters and summers
1870 years. tho color is rs fresh and vivid and
tru9 as though yesterday it had passed from
the easel. Nhch o. our Inodeth paiHtiH I
couIu stahd an thatf anu YET iIIHhy % tno
pa@lmehs OF Iompenan arr sHo" tial :ne
city was sunk 70 sucn ueptn OF aDoLnlnalIoI
tnat there was nothing deeper oculptureu
and petriaed and embalmed abOminatlon.
Ihere was state OF pupIIc lnorals Wo5so
tnan belongs 10 any CITY no" stahHlnS unoef
the sun. 1900
Aet now many thlhk tnlt an tnat Is hec9s-
sary IS 70 cultivate me mihd anu aug{lhee ne
khoWledge ana !I1proVe tne ar.7' nay We Ep ,
the impression that elo9uehce WIN WIN, 90 d,9 tno
eleyatlns Workf Why, fohpen ma Clcero
halI OF every year Tor IT'S cltIzeh. rave you
the ldea thAt literature is al that rs Aec ICES
sary TO keep cry ri5h'f why, oallusI; WIN
a pen that was the ooast OF hotnah LteTa-
ture, had a mansion III thdt Iooineu cry. 70
you tnlhk that sculpture anu art are quito
sufficient Tor the prO1uctlOn OF gOOu InOralS!