Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-12

rises, great column OF nery darkness,
higher and higher, and then spreads out
Ike the branches Of a tree, with midnights
inserwrapped in its foliage, wider and Wild
sF. 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 suffeoating, descend north.
south, east and west, burying deeper and
deeper In mammoth sepulcher such as new
er before or since was opened-StabiR, Her
culaneum and Pompeii-ashes ankle deep,
girdle deep, chin deep, ashes overhead.
Out Of the houses and temples and the
aters and into the streets and down TO the
beach fed mnny Of the frantic, but others
II not suffocated by 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 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 resting un-
der the agitations Of what he had seen he
suddenly expired.
For three days the entombment proceed
cd. Then the clouds lifted and the cursing
| Of that Apollyon of mountains subsided
For LOO years that city of Pompeii lay
buried and without anything to show its
| place OF DOOM But after 1,700 years Of
obliteration workman's spade, digging a
well, strikes some antiquities which lead
70 the exhumation 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 amphitheater.
From the moment the guide met us at
the gate on entering Pompeii that day in
November, 1885, until he left us at the gate
on our departure the emotion l felt was
lndescribable for elevation and solemnity
and sorrow and awe. Come and see the
| petrified bodies of the dead found in the
city and now In the museums of Italy.
| About $50 Of those embalmed by that erup-
lion have been recovered. Mother and
':hild, noble and serf. merchant and beggar
| are presentable and natural after 1,700
| years of burial That woman was found
clutching her adornments when the storm
of ashes and fire began, and for 1,7OO years
she continued to clutch them.
| There at the soldiers barracks are "a
skeletons of brave men, who faithfully
stood guard at their post when the tempest
of cinders began, and after 1,700 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
chariots Of the first century.
| vEsTIBULE OF PERDITIoN
There over the doorways and in the porti-
cos are works of art immortalizing the de.
| bauchery of city which, notwithstanding
i all its splendors, was vestibule of perdi-
| tion. These 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 mauled
and gashed combaGant 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 un-
til there was not football to be heard with
in all that city except our own. %Cp 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 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 l 800
years ago, ached and rejoiced, and feet
shuf1ed with the gait of old age or danced
with childish glee, and overtasked work
| men carried their burdens and drunkards
staggeredi On that mosaic floor did glow
ing youth clasp hands In marriage VOW, and
across that threshold did pallbearers carry
the beloved dead, and gay groups once
4 Il
| While 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
blasphemy and uncleanness and internal
boast, as it was on the 23d of August, 79
And Vesuvius, from the mild light with
| which it flushed the sky that summer even
ing as I 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
Is centuries ago, it submerged Pompeii, as,
with the liturgy of fire and storm, the
mountain proclaimed at the burial, "Ashes
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 so exquisite that, while some
is kept on the walls where it was first PEN
ciled, to be admired by those who 90 there,
whole wagon loads and whole rooms full
Of it have been transferred to the Museo
| Borbonico at Naples, to be admired by the
| centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such du-
ralHlity of colors that, though their paint
ings were buried in ashes and, scoriB for
! 1,70O years, and since they were uncovered
many of them have remained there exposed
| to the rains and winds and winters and
summers of 1S0 years, the color is as fresh
and vivid and true as though yesterday it
had passed from the easel. Which of our
| modern paintings could stand all that? And
yet many of especimens of Pompeiian art
show that the city was sunk to such depth
of denomination that there was nothing deep
er. Sculptured and petrifed and embalmed
abomination. There war a state of public
morals worse than belohss tp any city now
| standing under the sun. Nv
Yet how many think that all that is nee
essary is to cultivate the mind and advance
the knowledge and improve the artsa Have
you the impression that eloquence will do
the elevating work2 Why, Pompeii had
Cicero half of every year for it's citizen.
Have you the idea that literature is all that
is necessary to keep a city rights Why,
Sallust, with pen that was the boast OF
Roman literature, had mansion in that
doomed city. Do you think that sculpture
and art are quite sufficient for the produc-
tion of good morals? Then correct your
aelusion by examining the statues in the
Temple of Mercury at Pompeii, or the
winged figures of its Parthenon and the
colornades and arches of this house Of
Diomed.
By all means have schools and Dussel-