Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-10-20

| Whrn lhc STORM OF HsheS ana IRE began, an
for 400 years che continued TO clutch them
There at the soldiers barracks are sixty
four skeletons OF brave men, who faithfully
stood guard AZ their post when the tempes
OF cinders began, and after 100 years wer
still found standing guard. There is tn
form OF gentle womanhood impressed upol
the hardened ashes. Pass along, and her
We see the deep ruts IN the nasaltic pave
ments worn there by tho who els OF the chart
OTIS OF the first century. There, over III,
doorways and In the porticoes, ara works OF
art lmmortali7ing the dehauchery OF n city
| which. Notwithstanding all its splendors wa.
q vestibule OF perdition.
Those cutters ran with the blood OF IN,
Rladiators. who were prizefghters OF thos.
ancient times, and II was sword parryine
sword, until, with one skilful and stout
plunge OF the sharp edge, the mauled and
Rashed combatant reeled over dead 10 be
carried out amid the hu2zas OF enraptured
spectators. We staid among those 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
our own. Up this silent street and down that
| silent street we wandered. Into that win
dowless and roofiess home we went and came
| out again onto the pavements that, now for
saken, were once thronged with life.
And can II be that all up and down these
solemn sohtudes, hearts more than 1900
years ago ached and rejoiced and feet shut
| lied with the gait OF old age or danced with
childish glee, and overtasked workmen car
ried their burdens, and drunkards staggered?
on that mosaic floor did glowing youth clasp
| hands in marriage vow, and cross that
| threshold did pallbearers carry the beloved
| dead, and gay groups once mount those now
skeletons CT staircases2
! While walked and contemplated the city
| seemed suddenly to be throngei with all the
! population that had ever inhabited Il, and
| heard Its laughter and groan and unclean-
ness and internal boast as II was on the 28d
OF August, 10. And Vesuvius, from the mild
light with which 1t flushed the sky that sum-
mer evening as stood In dissent ombed Pom
polt, seemed suddenly again to heave and
| flame and rock with tho lava and darkness
and desolation and woe with which more
than eighteen centuries ago 1t submerged
Pompeit, as with the liturgy OF fire and storm
the mountain proclaimed at the burial,
ashes to ashes, dust to dust"
My friends, l cannot toll what practical
suggestion comes to your mind from this
walk through uncovered Pompcii, but the
/ first thought that absorbs me is that while
art and culture are important. they cannot
save the morals or tho life OF great town.
Much Of the painting and sculpture OF Pom
p"ii was so exquisite that, while some Is kept
on the walls wheIe It was first penciled. to be
admired by those who go there, whole wagon
loads and whole rooms full OF it have Letn
transferred to the Museo Borbonico at Ma
Piles, to be admired ny tn" centuries.
Those Pompeiian artists mixed such dura-
bility OF cOlors that, though their paintings
were buried In ashes and scorR for 100
years, and since they were uncovered many
OF Thorn have remalned there exposed to the
rains and wInts and winters and summers
1870 years, the color is as fresh and vivid and
true as thoush yesterday it hal passed from
tho easel. Which OF our modern paintings
could stand all that2 AMI yet many OF the
specimens OF Pompeiinn art show that the
city WAS sunk to such depth OF Ahominnt!on
thnt there was nothing deeper. Sculp,ured
and petrllled and emSalmed abomnation.
There was a stnto OF public morals worse
than belongs to any city now standing un Ter
the sun.
Yet how many think that all that Is neces-
sary is to cultivate the mind and advance tho
knowledge and improve the arts. Have YOU
the impression that cloqucnce will do tho
elevating work. Why Pompei hal Cicero
half OF every year for its citizen. Have you
the Idea that literature is all that Is neccs.
sary TO keep city right? Why. Sallust. with
n pen that was the boast OF Roman litrra-
turo, had mansion in that doomed city. Do
you think that sculpture and art are quite
sufficient for tho production OF good morals?
Then correct your deusIOn by examining
the statues in the Temple OF Mercury at Pom.
peii, or tho winged figures Of its Parthonon,
and the colounA les and arches OF this house
OF Diomed.
BY all means have schools and Dusseldorf
md Dore exhibitions and galleries where
the genius OF all the centuries can bank it.
self up in snowy sculpture and all bric-a-
hrac, and all pure art, but nothing save tho
religion OF Jesus Christ can mako n city
moral. In proportion as churches and l}!
bles and Christian printing presses and re-
vivals OF religion abound Is a city pure and
clean. What has Buddhism or ContucRnism
or Mohanmcdansn done in all the hun
dreds of years OF their progress for the Gle
walton OF society Absolutely nothing
Peking and Madras and Cairo ara Just
what they were ages ago, except rs Christi
anity has modified their condition. What is
the difference between our Brooklyn and
their Pompcii2 No difference. except that
which Christianity has wrought. Favor all
cool art, but tako best care OF your
churches, and your Sabbath schools, and
your Bibles, and your family affairs.
Yea, see In our walk through uncovered
Pompeii what sin will do for city. We
oughtto be slow to assign the judgment Of
God Cities are sometimes afflicted Just az
good people are afflicted, AMI tae earthquake,
and the cyclone, and tho epidemic are no
sign in many cases that God is angry with a
city, but the distress IS mt Tor some good
AMI kin purpose, whether We understand
it or not. Thn law that applies to iniivid-
uals may apply to Chrisillu cities rs well,
"All things work together fOi good TO those
that love Goi.'
But tho greatest calamity Of history came
unon Pomueli not to improve its future con-
dion, for II was completely obliteratei and
-fll never DO rebut. 1t was 80 bal that
It ncedcdto be- burioi 1900 years before even
Its ruins ware III to be uucOvera l. SO SOlOm
and Gomorrah were filled with such turpi-
tude that they were not only turned under,
but have for thousands OF years bceL kept
under. Tho two greatest cemoterins arc the
cemetery in which the sunS"n ships arc bur
led all the way between Fro Island and
Fastnot Lighthouse. an the other cemetery
is the cemetery OF dead cities.
! get down on my knees anil road IL
epitapheoogy ola long lin" Of thom. Hers
lies Babylon, once called "the hammer Of
the whole earth" Dead and buried under
piles Of bitumen AMI broken pottery and
vitrened brick. And l hear wolf howl and
a reptile hiss rs | am reading this optaph
(Isaiah xiii, 81, "The wild beast Of tho
desert shall be there, and their house shall
DO full OF doleful creatures.
The next tomb kneel before in this CEN
etery OF cities Is Nnevch. Her winged lions
are down, AMI tho slabs OF alabaster have
crumbled, and the sculpture that represented
her battles is as completely scattered as the
dust of the heroes who fought them. Per-
haps put my knee into the dust OF her Sar-
danapalus as | stoOp to real her cpitaph
(Zephaniah H., IA, "Now is Nineveh dosota-
lion and dry Ikea wilderness, aud lio,ks lie
down in the midst of her all tho beasts OF
the Nations, both the cormOrant AM tho bit
tern, lodge in the upper lintels of it." And
while l read 1t hear an owl boot and n
hyena laugh.
The next entombed city pass has monu.
mont OF fifty PROSTATE columns Of gray and
red granite, ana 1t is Tyre. Ihe next Sc
puloher OF great capital Is covered with
scattered columns and defaced sphinres and
the sands OF tho desert, and It Is Thebes. As
pass on find the resting place OF Mycene,
a city OF which Homer sang, and COrinth,
which rejected Paul and depended upon her