The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-10-11

See the verdured and lowered GROUNDS
sloping into the most beautiful bay OF
all the earth--the Bay of Naples. LIS
ten to the rumbling chariots, carrying
convivial occupants to the hall OF mrtn
and masquerade and carousal. near
the loud dash of fountains amid tne
sculptured water nymphs. Notice the
weird, solemn, far-reaching hum ana
din and roar of city at the close OF q
summer day. Let Pompeii sleep Wen
tonight, for it is the last night OF
peaceful slumber before she falls into
the deep slumber of many long cen.
turies. The morning Of the Gath OF
August, A. D. 70, has arrived, and the
day rolls on; and it is o'clock in the
afternoon: "Lookp' l 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 speak, as she pointed him IN
the direction in which ! point you
There is peculiar cloud in the sky; a
spotted cloud, now white, now black.
1t is Vesuvius in awful and unparal-
leled eruption. Now the smoke and
fire and steam of that black monster
throat rise and spread, as, by my ges-
ture, / now describe it. 1t rises,
great column of fiery darkness, higher
and higher, and then spreads out like
the branches of 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, Stabie,
Herculaneum, and Pompeii Ashes
ankle deep, girdle 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 the frantic, but others, II moi
suffocated of the ashes, were scalded
TO death by the heated deluge. And
then came heavier destruction in rocks
after rocks, crushing in homes and
temples and theaters No wonder the
sea receded from the beach a
though in terror, until much OF the
shipping was wrecked, and no wonder
that when they lifted Pliny the elder
from the sail cloth on which he wal
resting, under the agitations OF wha'
he had seen, he suddenly expired. Fol
three days the entombment proceeded
Then the clouds lifted and the cursint
of that Apollyon Of Mountains sub
sided. For seventeen hundred year
that city Of Pompeii lay buried ant
without anything to show its place o
doom. But after seventeen hundre'
years of obliteration, a workman
: spade, digging a well, strikes some an
tiquities which lead to the exhumatiol
of the city. Now walk with me throug
: some Of the streets and into some o
l the houses and amid the ruins of basil
ca, and temple and amphitheater
From the moment the guide met u
at the gate on entering Pompeii tina
0 day In November, 1889, until he left Il
at the gate on our departure, the emC
0 ton felt was Undesirable for eleva
$ ton and solemnity and sorrow an
i awe. Come and see the petrified bodie
5 of the dead found in the city and no'
Q in the museums Of Italy. About $50 q
those embalmed by that eruption hav
Il been recovered. Mother and chilc
9 noble and serf, merchant and begga
T are presentable and natural after se'
u enteen hundred years OF burial. Tha
woman was found clutching her adorr
l. ments when the storm Of ashes an
l. fire began, and for seventeen hundre
o years she continued to clutch then
r There at the soldiers barracks are si'
Q ty-four skeletons of brave men, WI
u faithfully stood guard at their POI
IL when the tempest of cinders begaj
IS and after seventeen hundred yea
5, were still found standing guard. The
is is the form of gentle womanhood In
l. pressed upon the hardened ashes. Pa
g along, and here we see the deep ruts
Is the basaltic pavements worn there
q she wheels Of the chariots Of the fir
l. century. There, over the doorways al
s, the porticos, are works OF art immo
e. talizing the debauchery of city, ,whic
80 Notwithstanding all its splendors, WI
re a vestibule of perdition. Those gu
s. ters ran with the blood of the gladi
n tors, who were the prize fighters
IL those ancient times, and II was swo
Sc parrying sword, until, with one ski
Id full and stout plunge Of the sharp edG
s, the mauled and gashed combatan
Oh reeled over dead, 10 be carried o
Id amid the huzzas OF enraptured spec
OF tors. We stand amid those suggesti
70 scenes after the hour that visitors q
g. usually allowed there, and staid un
O. there was not football TO be hea
n within all that city, except our ow
Is On this silent street and down u
as silent street we wandered. Into u
It. windowless and roohess home we we
n and came out again on the pavemeI
K that, now forsaken, were once throng
he with life.
n And can II be that all up and do
a these solemn solitudes, hearts, m,
at than eighteen hundred years a
n ached and rejoiced, and feet shufi
Is with the gaitof old age or danced W
,l- childish glee, and overtasked worlsm
he carried their burdens, and drunka
he staggeredP On that mosaic floor
81. glowing youth clasp hands in marriI
Is, VOW, and acrosG that threshold
he pall-bearers carry the beloved de