Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1893-10-18


say 70 you, standing on this wall, as
the sister OF Pliny said TO him, the
Roman essayist aud naval commander.
ON the day of which / speak. as she
pointed him in the direction in which
point you There is peculiar cloud
on the sky; spotted cloud. now white.
now black. II is Vesuvius in awful
and unparalleled eruption. Now the
smoke and fire and steam of that black
monster throat rise and spread, as, by
my gesture, ] now describe it 1t rises.
n great column of fiery darkness high
like the branches of tree, with mid
nights 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, Stabim Hcrculeaneum and
/ Pompcii. 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, IL not suffocated OF the ashes.
/ were scalded 20 death by the heated
deluge. And then came heavier de-
struction in rocks after rocks, crushing
/ in homes and temples and theaters. No
wonder the sea rcceded from the beach
as though in terror until much of the
I shipping was wrecked and no wonder
that, when they lifted Pliny the elder
! from the sail cloth on which he was
resting, under the agitation OF what he
| had seen, he suddenly expired For
| three days the entombment proceeded.
/ Then the clouds lifted and the curing
/ of Tint Apollyon OF mountains subside
/ For seventeen hundred years that city
I of Pompeii lay buried and without any
/ thing 10 show its place of doom. hut
! after seventeen hundred years Of oblit-
Grafton, "A worlSman's spade, digging %
well, strikes some antiquities which
| lead TO the eNhumauo OF tine city.
/ Now walk with me through some OF
the streets and into some of the houses
/ and amid the ruins of Basilica, anu
/ Temple and Amphitheater
From the moment the guide met us
at the gate on entering Pompeii that
| day in November, 1859, until he LETT US
at the gate on our departure, the emo
ton felt was indcscribable for eleva-
ton and solemnity, and sorrow and
awe. Come and see the petrihed bodies
of the dead found in the city, and now
IN the museums of Italy.
About 400 of those cmbalmed by that
eruption have been recovered. Mother
and child, noble and servant. mer-
chant and beggar. are presentable and
natural after 1900 years of burial.
That woman was found clutching her
adornments when the storm of ashes
and fire began, and for 1. 700 years she
continued 10 clutch them. There at the
soldiers barracks are sixtv-four sbele-
tons of brave men. who faithfully
stood guard at their post when the
tempests of cindcrs began, and after
! Loo years were still found standing
guard. There is the form of gentle
womanhood impressed upon the hard
cncd ashes Pass along, and here we
sec deep ruts in the basaltic pavements
worn there by the wheels Of the char
lots OF the first century. There. over
the doorways and in the porticos. arc
works OF art imnortalizing the de-
bouchery Of a city, which, notwith-
standing all its splendors, and was a
vestibulc of perdition.
Those cutters ran with the blood of
tho gladiators, who were the prize
fighters OF those ancient times. aud il
was sword parrying sword, until with
one sE-llful and stout plunge OF the
sharp edge, the mauled and gashed
combatant recled over dead. to be car
ried ont amid the huzzas OF enrapturcd
spectators We staid among those sug-
gestivc scenes after the hour that visi-
tors are usually allowed there. AID
staid until there was not a football 70
be heard within all that city except
our own. Up this silent street and
down that silent street we wandered
Into that windowlcss and rooHess home
wc went and came out again on 10 the
pavemcnts that, now forsakon. were
once thronged with life
And can it be that all up and down
these solemn solitudcs. hearts more
than eighteen hundred yearsag ached
and rejoiced, and feet shuflled with the
gait OF old age or danced with childish
glee, md overtaslSed worimen carried
their burdens and druulsards staggered?
ON that mosaic floor did glowing youth
clasp hands in marriage vow, and
across TINT threshold did pall-bes.ccrs
carry the beloved dead, ard gay groups
once mount those aow skeletons OF
staircnses? While I walked and con-
tcmplatcd, the city seemed suddenly TO
bc throngod with all the population
that had ever inhabited IL. and heard
It's laughter and groan and blasphemv
and uncleanness and informal boast as
was on the 23d OF August 90 And
Ncsuvius, from the mild light with
which IL flushed the sky that summer
evening as ] stood i'm dsentombed
Pompoii SCENE suddenly again Co
hcave and fa1c and rock with the
lava and darkness and desolution and
woe with which more than eighteen
centuries ago, It submerged Pompci.
Ss with the liturgy OF Gre and storm.
the mountain proclaimed at the burial.
ashes % ashes. dust 80 dust"
My friends. ! can not tell what prac.
tical suggestion comes TO your mind
from this walk through uncovered
Pompcii, but the fret thought that alb
Serbs me is that, while art and culture
are important, thcy can not save The
morals or the life OF n great town.
Much VI the painting and culture os
Pompci was so exquisite chat. while
some IS kept ON the walls where 10 was
first uongfIoH 10 ha Ddu,fr.f f... ft.....