Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-10-12


which speak, as She pointed him in the
direction in which point You.
There is n peculiar cloud on the sky, n
spotted cloud, now white, now black. 1t is
Vesuvius in awful and unparalleled erup.
ton. Now the smoke and fire and steam
of that black monster throat rise and
spread as Try gesture | now describe it. 1t
rises, n great column of fiery darkness
higher and higher, and then spreads out
like the branches of n tree, with midnights
interwrapped in its foliage, wider and wild
er. Now the sun goes out, and showers of
pumice stone and water from furnaces
more than seven times heated, and ashes in
avalanche after avalanche, binding and
scading and suffccating, descend north,
south, east and west, burving deeper and
deeper in mammoth sepulcher such as new
er before or since was opcfed-Stabip, Her
culancum and Pompeii-ashes ankle deep,
girdlc deep, chin deep, ashes overhead.
Out of the houses and temples and the
stcr. and into the streets and down to the
beach fled many Of the frantic, but others,
tf not sufIocated by the ashes, were scalded
10 death by the heated dcluge. And then
came heavier destruction in rocks after
rocks, crushing in homes and temples and
theatcrs. No wonder the sea receded from
the beach as though in terror until much of
the shipping was wrecked, md no wonder
that when they lifted pliny the elder from
the salcloth on which he was citing I'M
der the agtations of what he had seen he
suddenly expired.
For three days the entombment proceed
ed Then the clouds lifted and the cursug
Of that Apollyon Of mountains subsidized.
For 200 years that city of Pompeii 10y
buried and without anything to show its
place of doom. But after LOO years Of
obliteration workman's spade, digging
well, strikes some antiquities which lead
to the elimination Of the city. Now walk
with me through some of the streets and
into some of the houses and amid the ruins
of Basilca and temple and amphitheater.
From the moment the guide met us at
the gate on entering Pompeii that day in
November, 1889 until he left us at the gate
on our departure the emotion l felt was
indescribable for elevation and solemnity
and sorrow and awe. Come and see the
petriiied bodies of the dead found in the
city and now III the museums of Italy.
About $50 of those embalmed by that erup-
ton have been recovered. Mother and
child, noble and serf, merchant and beggar
are presentable and natural after LOO
years of burial That woman was found
clutching her adornments when the storm
of ashes and fire began, and for 200 years
she continued to clutch them.
There at the soldiers barracks are CA
skeletons 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 the
form of gentle womanhood impressed upon
the hardened ashes. Pass along, and here
we see the deep ruts in the basaltic pave
mentS worn there by the wheels of the
charots of the first century.
a VEsTIBULE OF PERDITION.
There over the doOrways and in the porti-
cos are works Of art inlmortaliZing the de-
hatchery of = city which, Notwithstanding
all hs splendors was vestibule of perdi-
ton. Those cutters ran with the blood of
the gladiators, who were the prize fighters
Of those ancient times, and it was sword
parrying sword until, with one skillful and
stout plunge of the sharp edge, the mailed
and gashed combatant reeled over dead to
be carried out amid the huzzas of enrap-
tured spectators. We staid among those
suggestive scenes after the hour that visit
ors are usually allowed there and staid IN
til there was not a football to be heard with
in all that city except our own. Up this
silent street and down that silent street we
wandered Into that windowless and roof
less home we went and came out again on
to Che pavements that, now forsaken, were
once thronged with life.
And can it be that all up and down these
solemn solitudes, hearts, more than 500
years ago, ached and rejoiced, and feet
shuliied with the gait of old age or danced
with childish glec, and overtaske1 work
men carried their burdens and drunhards
staggered? On that mosaic floor did glow
ing youth clasp hands in marriage vow, and
across that threshold did pallbearers carry
the beloved decd, and gay groups once
mount these now skeletons of staircases?
While | walked and contemplated the
city seemed suddenly to be throngcd with
all the population that had ever inhabited
it, and heard its laughter and groan and
blasphcmy and uncleanness and Internal
boast as it was on the 23d of August. a.
And Nesuvus, from the mild light with
which it flushed The sky that summer even
ing as | stood in disentombed Pompeii
seemed suddenly again to heave and flame
and rock with the lava and darkness and
dcsolatiOn ard woe with which, more than
1Sccnturics ago, it submerged Pompeii, a.
with the liturgy of fire and storm, the
to ashes, dust to dust"
MORALS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ART
My friends, cannot tell what practical
suggestion comes to your mind from this
walk through uncovered Pompeii but the
first thought that absorbs me is that while
art and culture are important they cannot
save the morals or the life of great town.
Much Of the painting and sculpture of
Pompeii was 50 exquisite that, while some
is kept on the walls where it was first pen
cilcd, TO be admired by those who go there,
whole wagon loads and whole rooms full
OF 1t have been transferred to the Museo
Borbonico at Naples, TO be admired by the
centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such du-
raLility Of colors that, though their paint
in@S were buried in ashes and scoritn for
Loo years, and since they were uncovered
many of them have remained there exposed
to the rains and winds and winters and
summers of 1870 years, the color is rs fresh
and vivid and true as though yesterday il
had passed from the easel Which of our
modern paintings could stand all that9 And