Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-10-09

ing Of the cath OF August. A. D., 70.
has arrived, and the day rolls on, and
&C is one o'clock In the afternoon:
"LOokri I say TO you, standing on
this wall, as the sister Of Pliny said to
him,
THE ROMAN EssAYIsr
and naval-commander, on the day OF
which / speak, as she pointed him In
the direction in which l point you.
There is q peculiar cloud on the sky; q
spotted cloud, now white, now black.
IL Is Vesuyius In awful and unparalleled
eruption. Now the smoke and fire and
steam Of that black monster throat rise
and spread, as, by my gesture, l now
describe it. 1t rises, a great column OF
fiery darkness, higher and higher, and
then spreads out like the branches Of q
tree, with midnights interwrapped Ia
its foliage, wider and wider. Now the
sun goes out and showers Of pumice
stone aud water from furnaces more
than seven times heated, aud ashes IN
avalanche after avalanche, binding and
scaiding and sutfOcating, descend,
North, South, East and West, burying
deeper aud deeper in mammoth sepul-
chre, such as never before or since was
opened, Stabie, Herculaneum and Pom
peiL. Ashes ankle deep, girdle deep,
deep chin deep, ashes overhead
Out Of the houses and temples and
theatres and into the streets and down
20 the beach fed many OF the frantic,
but others, If o suffocated of the
ashes, were scalded TO death by the
heated deluge. Aud then came heavier
destruction Ia rocks after rocks, crush
ing In homes and temples and theatres.
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 sail cloth on which
be was resting, under the agitations Of
chat be had seen, he suddenly expired.
tOr three days the entombment pro-
ceeded. Then the clouds lifted aud
the cursing Of that Apollyon Of Noun
tains subsidized. For seventeen hundred
years
THAT CITY or POSfPEu
lay buried and without anything to
show It's place OF doom. Aut after seven
teen hundred years OF obliteration, a
workman's spade, digging a we'll, 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 Basilics, and Temple and Apphi-
theatre.
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 orr departure, the emotion
1 felt was indescribsble for elevation
aud Solemnity, and sorrow and awe.
Come and see the petrIfed bodies OF the
dead found Ia the city, and now Ia the
museums Of Italy. About $50 Of those
embalmed by that er Eruption have been
recovered. Mother and child, noble
aud serf, merchant and beRRar, are pre-
sentable and natural after seventeen
hundred years OF burial. That woman
was found clutc hing her adornmentS
when the storm OF ashes and fire began,
ana for 100 years she continued to
clutch them.
There al the soldiers barracks are
sixtv-four skeletons Of brave men, who
faithfully stood guard at their post
when the tempest OF cinders began, and
after seventeen hundred years were
still found standing guard. There is
the form OF gentle w~omanhood i'm
pressed upon the hardened ashes. Pass
along, and here we see the deep ruts in
the basaItic paYements worn there by
the wheels OF the charlots Of the first
century. There, over the dOOrways
and 10 the pOrticOs, are works Of art
immOrtalizing the ~debauchery OF a city,
which, Notwithstanding all its splen-
doris, was
A vEsTIBULE OF PERDITIoN.
Those cutters ran with the blood of the
gladlatOrs, who were the prize fighters
Of those ancient times, and 1t was sword
Darrying sword, until, with one skiltul
aud stout plunge OF the sharp edge, the
mauled and gaShed combatant reeled
over dead, 70 be carried out amid the
huzzas OF e%nraptured s pectatorS. We
stald among thore suggestive scenes
after the hour that visitors are usually
allowed there. and staid until there
was not a football to be heard within
all that city, except u own. UP this
selent street aud down that silent street
we wandered. Into that ~wlndowless
and rooaess home W. want and came
out again onto the pavements that, now
~forsaken, were Once thrOnged with lie.
Aud can il be that all up and down
these solemn s~olitudes, hearts, more
than eighteen hundred years ago, ached
and rejOiced, and feet Shufled 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 pall-bearers carry
the beloved dead, and gay groups once
mount those now skeletons Of ~Staircases?
While l walked and contemplated, the
city seemed suddenly TO be t%hronged
with all the population that had ever in
hablted 10, aud / heard its laughter and
groan and blaSphemy and u%ncleanness
and Internal boast. as IL was on the 23d
OF August 20. And Vesuvlus, from
the mild light with which IL flushed the
sky that summer evening "a l stood In
disentombed Pompeii, seemed suddenly
again 70 heave and fame and rock with
the lava and darkness and desOlation
and woe, with which, more than eigh-
teen centuries ago, IL submerged Pom
peiL. as, with the liturgy of fire and
storm, the mountain proclaimed at the
burial: ashes 70 ashes, dust to dust"
My friends, I cannot tell what practi.
cal suggestion comes to your mind from
this walk through uncovered Pompeti.
but the first thought that absorbs me Is
that while ART aud culture are import
anti they
CANNOT SAVE THE MORALS
or the life OF a great town. Much Of