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

solemn, far-reaching hum and din and
roar of a city at the close of a summer
day. Let Pompeii sleep well tonight. for
it is the last night of peaceful slumber
before she falls into the deep slumber of
many long centuries. The morning of
the 24th OF Auugst, A. d. 70. has arrived.
and the day rolls on, and it is o'clock
in the afternoon. Look / say TO you,
standing on this wall. as the sister OF
Pliny said to him. the Roman essayist
and naval commander, on the day of
which l speak, as she. pointed him IN the
direction in which l point you.
There is peculiar cloud on the sky,
spotted cloud, now white, now black. 1t
Is Vesuvius in awful and unparalleled
eruption. Now the smoke and fire and
steam of that black monster throat rise
and spread as by gesture / now describe
IL. 1t rises, a great column of fiery dark
ness, higher and higher, and then spreads
out like the branches of a tree, with
midnights interwrapped in its foliage,
wider and wider. 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 scalding and
suffOcating, descend north, south, east
and west, burying deeper and deeper in
mammoth sepulcher such as never before
or since was opened-Stabiae, Hercula-
| neum and Pompeii-ashes ankle deep,
girdle deep, chin deep, ashes overhead.
1
| theaters and into the streets and down
to the beach fed many of the frantic,
but others, if not suffocated by the ash
eS. were scalded to death by the heated
deluge. And then came heavier destruc-
ton in rocks after rocks, crushing in
homes and temples and theaters. No
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 he was rest
ing under the agitations of what he had
seen he suddenly expired.
For three days the entombment pro-
| ceeded. Then the clouds lifted and the
cursing of that Apollyon of mountains
subsidized. For LOO years that city of
Pompeii lay buried and without any
thing to show its place of DOOM But
after LOO years of Obliteration a work
mans spade, digging a well. strikes
| some antiquities which lead to the ex-
humation OF the city. Now walk with
me through some of the streets and into
| some of the houses and amid the ruins
of Basilica and temple and amphithea-
| ter.
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 emo
ton 1 felt was indescribable for elevation
and solemnity and sorrow and awe.
Come and see the petrifed bodies of the
| dead found in the city and now in the
museums of Italy. About four hundred
and fifty of those embalmed by that
| eruption have been recovered. Mother
and child. noble and serf, merchant and
beggar are presentable and natural after
burial of LOO years That woman
was found clutching her adOrnments
when the storm of ashes and fire began,
and for LOO years she continued to
| clutch them.
There at the soldiers barracks are
sixty-four skeletons of brave men, who
faithfully stood guard mt their post
when the tempest of cinders began, and
after LOO years were still found stand
| ing guard. There is the form of gentle
womanhood impressed upon the hard
ened 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.
A Vestibule Of Perdition.
There over the doorways and in
| the porticos are works of art immortal
izing the debauchery of a city which,
notwithstanding all its splendors. was
vestibule of perdition. Those cutters
ran with the blood of the gladiators,
who were the prize fighters of those an
cient times, and it was sword pariying
sword until, with one skillful and stout
| plunge of the sharp edge the mauled
and gashed combatants 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 stayed until there was not n foot
| fall TO be heard within all that city ex-
| cept our own. Up this silent street and
down that silent street we wandered.
Int xrfn
we went and came out again on to 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
eighteen hundred years ago, ached and
| rejoiced, and feet shuffled 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 across
that threshold did pallbearers carry the
beloved dead, and gay groups once
mount these now skeletons of stair
cases?
While I walked and contemplated the
| city seemed suddenly to be thronged
with all the poulation that had ever
inhabited IT, and / heard its laughter
and groan, and blasphemy, and unclean-
ness and internal boasts, IL was on
| the 23d day OF August, 10. And Vesuvius,
from the mild light with which II
| flushed the sky that summer evening as
stood in disentombed Pompeii. seemed
| suddenly again TO heave and flame and
rock with the lava and darkness and
desolation and woe with which, more
| than eighteen centuries ago. IL sub
merged Pompeii, as with the litugy OF
| fire and storm the mountain proclaimed
| at the burial, "Ashes 10 ashes, dust to
dust"
Morals More Important Than Art.
My friends, / cannot tell what practi-
| cal suggestion comes to your mind from
this walk through uncovered Pompeil,
but the first thought that absorbs me is
| that while art and culture are import
ant they cannot save the morals or the
| life Of a great town. Much Of the paint
ing and sculpture OF Pompeii was so ex-
| quisite that, while some is kept on the
walls where II was first penciled, to be
admired by those who go there, whole
wagon loads and whole rooms full of IL
have been transferred to the Museo Bor-
bonico at Naples, 10 be admired by the
centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such
durability of colors that, though their
paintings were buried in ashes and SEQ
riae for 170O years, and since they were
uncovered many of them have remained
there exposed to the winds and rains
and winters and summers Of 100 years,
| the color il as fresh and vivid and trfla