The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-10-11

Rev. DR.. Talmage presented an arousing
theme of the living cities of today drawn
from the tomb of a dead city OF the past
The opening hymn, led by cornet and
organ, was joined by the voices of the
multitude:
Arm OF the Lord. awake. awake,
Put on thy strength, the nations shake
The subject was "Pompeii and Its Les
sons" the text. Isaiah XIV, 2. Thou
hast made of d defended city ruin
A flash on the night sky greeted us as
we left the rail train at Naples, Italy.
What was the strange illumination? 1t
was that wrath Of many centuries
vesuvius. Giant son of an earthquake.
Intoxicated mountain of Italy. Father Of
many consteTnations. a volcano burn
ing 50 long and yet to keep on burning
until perhaps It may be the very torch
that will kindle the last confiagration
and set all the world on fire. 1t eclipses
In violence of behavior CotopaM and
Aetna and Stromboli and Krakatoa. Aw-
full mystery. Funeral pyre of dead cit
les. Everlasting parOxy SIN of mountains.
1t seems like a chimney Of hell. 1t roars
with fiery "reminiscences Of what it has
done and with threats of worse things
one of the villages at it's base for a pres
ent of all Italy.
On a day in December, 1881. IL threw
up ashes that fioated away hundreds and
hundreds of miles, and dropped in Con-
stantinople. and in the Adriatic sea. and
on the Apennines. as well as trampling
out at its own foot the lives of $4,000
people. Biologists have tried to fathom
its mysteries, but the heat consumed the
iron instruments and drove back the
scorched and blistered explorers from
the cindery and crumbling brink 1t
seems like the asylum of maniac ele-
ments
At one time. far back, its top had been
fortress. where Spartacus fought and
was surrounded. and would have been
destroyed had it not been for the grape
vines which clothed the mountain side
from top to base, and laying hold of
them he climbed hand under hand to
safety in the valley. But for centuries
1T has kept its furnace burning as we
saw it that night on our arrival in No
vember of 1889.
The Dead City.
OF course the next day we started to
see some of the work wrought by that
frenzied mountain. "All out for Pom
peiir' was the cry of the conductor
And now we stand by the corpse Of that
dead city. As we entered the gate and
passed between the walls I took off my
hat, as one naturally does in the pres
ence Of some imposing obsequies. That
city had been at one time a capital Of
beauty and pOmp, the home of grand
architecture, exquisite painting en-
chanting sculpture, unrestrained carou-
sal and rapt assemblage. A high WALL
twenty feet thick, three-quarters of it
still visible, encircled the city. on
those walls at distance Of only 100
yards from each other towers rose for
armed men who watched the city. The
streets ran at right angles and from
wall to wall. only one street excepted
In the days Of the citys prosperity
its towers glittered in the sun. Eight
strong gates for ingress and egress-gate
OF the SeashOre, gate of Herculaneum
gate Of Vesuvius being perhaps the most
important. Yonder stood the temple of
Jupiter hoisted at an imposing eleva-
ton. and with its six corinthian columns
OF immense girth, which stood like
carved icebergs shimmering in the
light. There stands the temple Of the
Twelve Gods. Yonder see the temple
Of Hercules and the temple Of Mercury
with affairs Of marble and bas-relief
wonderful enough to astound all sue
ceeding ages Of art, and the temple Of
Esculapius. brilliant with sculpture and
gorgeous with painting.
Yonder are the theaters, partly cut
into surrounding hills and glorifed with
pictured walls and entered under arches
Of imposing masonry and with rooms for
captivated and applaudatory audiences,
seated or standing, in vast semicircle
Yonder are the costly and immense pub
lie baths Of the city. with more than the
modern ingenuities of Carlsbad Notice
the warmth Of those ancient tepidariums
with lowering radiance Of roof, and the
vapor Of those caldariums with decor
ated alcOves, and the cold dash Of their
frigidariums with floors OF mosaic and
ceilings OF all slinfully intermingled
hues and walls upholstered with all the
colors Of the setting sun and sofas on
which TO recline for slumber after the
plunge.
Yonder the barracks OF the cele-
brated gladiators. Yonder is the summer
hphAC VI s91AihSNf AHG ANoiitih nloiDIldu
and senator the architecture as elaborate
as his character was corrupt. There is
the residence OF the poet Pansa, with
compressed Louvre and Luxembourg
within his walls. There is the home OF
Lucretiue. with vases and antiquities
enough TO turn the head OF virtuoso.
Yohder see the Forum at the highest
place OF the city. IL is entered by two
triumphal arches. II is bounded on
three sides by doric columns
YOnder, in the suburbs OF the city, Is
the home OF Arrius Diomed the mayor
of the suburbs, terraced residence of
billiOnairedom, gardens fountained
statued, colonnaded the cellar OF that
villa filled with bottles of rarest wine, a
few drops OF which were found 800
years afterward. Along the streets OF
the city are men of might and women
OF beauty formed into bronze that many
centuries had no power 10 bedim.
Battle scenes on walls in colors. which
all time cannot efface. Great city OF
Pompeii So Seneca and Tacltus and
Cicero pronounce 1t.
A Word Picture.
Stand with me on it's walls this even
ing Of Aug. 20, A. d. 70. See the throngs
passing up and down in tyrian purple
and girdles Of arabesque and necks en-
chained with precious stones. proud Of