The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-21
vESUvIUS IN ACTION.
THUNDERoUS REVEILLE BEATEN
BY THE OLD VOLCANO.

Every Ten Years or So the Great
Volcano Springs Into Action and
There Is Always n Fear In the
Minds of the People That Its Fiery
Shower May Repeat the Destruct-
ion of POmpeii aud Cover Towns
Located Within Its Fearful PAN OF
Death-How the suIphurOus Mount
Looked to a Party of Americans.
From the philadelphia Times.
Naples, Sept. Late last night, after
the noisy streets of this big city were
stilled in slumber, q sound like monster
clap of thunder was heard from end to
end of the town. Then all was still again.
When people awoke this morning they
told each other of the noise as they would
speak of an aforementioned. dream. But 1t
was no dream. 1t was old Vesuvius beat
ing his reyeille and to-day the eyes of
Neapolitans are fixed intently on the
smoke capped peak of the great volcano.
AS often as middle-aged men have seen
the great mountain in eruption, there is
always the fascination of novelty in the
the apprehension of danger might not be
realized.
The present angry humor of the ancient
giant may safely be regarded as one of the
mighty eruptions that generally occur
about once in every ten years. Perhaps
this one, too, may continue for a week or
So and then end without doing any great
damage, but there is always the possibility
that at any moment the monster forces
asunder and hurl death and destruction
on all sides like the hot avalanche that
overwhelmed Pompeii thirty-five years
after the death of Christ. There are towns
to-day even more in the dangerous path
of the lava and sands than were Pompeii
and Herculaneum in the ancient times,
and these are the first thoughts that occur
TO all jewellers along the Bay of Naples
when the danger signal is aloft on the
mountain, as it is this morning.
1t should not be supposed, however, that,
outside of these periodical eruptions, the
volcano is inactive, AS a matter of fact
1t is always in eruption, just as it has been
for nearly 1000 years.
The picture of Vesuvius that Is familiar
to thousands of Americans who have new
er crossed the ocean shows the tall noun
tain nesting on The edge of the blue bay
of Naples, while rising from its crater
and stretching TO a great hight is white
column of smoke. This is just as 1t APP
pears by daylight on ordinary occasions,
to every person who looks toward il from
all sides within a radius Of sixty miles
At night a red glow tints the smoke, and
every few minutes a bunch of flame
climbs up the white ladder toward the sky.
These are proofs 10 the distant beholder
that there is no time when the seeing
blazes are not at work in the bowels of
the mountain If for one short hour by
day the crown of smoke disappeared en-
tirely, or one failed 10 see at night the
intermittent glare, 100000 souls in Naples
would be thrown into CONSERVATION, and
there would be such another scamperlng
away from the menacing spectre as occur
red that fatal time when the thoughtless
people of the towns nearby were buried
as they ran in galloping graves of sand
1t Is a tradition all along this horseshoe
gulf that when the smoke and the flame
cease men must fly, for 1t VIII mean that
the great leviathan is inhaling a mighty
breath that shall soon burst as a resist
less torrent over the earth.
No living man, however, has ever seen
such moment of tranquility on Vesuvus
and perhaps no man shall inside of anoth-
er 1900 years Like the condemned souls,
the great rock is ever burning yet never
consumed. All the wide slope on the sides
of the mountain is as dense in it's sulphur
Gus consistency as IL has been for ages.
It's coating Of lava never seems to lose an
tota in intensity. To the venturous one
who stands on the egg-shell edge of the
crater and looks below into the blazing
mass there is the same violent culver Of
the earth to-day as was felt fifty years
ago; the same rumble and roar greet his
ears; the same mighty masses of molten
stones are hurled upwards, and the same
fierce red flames still shoot out of "the
chimney Of hell" as the people hereabouts
call the blazing mountain.
To-day the lofty peak presents a much
changed aspect. In place of the curling
haze that ordinarily hangs above the sum-
NIT there is this morning a high wide cur
tain of flame that even the bright sunlight
fails TO pale. At intervals of a minute the
curtain waves violently In the air and
though seen in this distant city-ten miles
from the foot Of the mountain-there is
much that appals in the sight. Picture a
thousand foundry smoke stacks, heaped
in mass. and all belching forth their
flames. This may help you to know what
Vesuvius looks like to-day. for not only
the great crater but smaller assures are
serving as escape valves for the pent-up
fury OF the aging furnace
Many new assures have burst open on
the sides Of the volcano within the last
afteen years. The largest Of the NJ ~