The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-16

curbs are holes for fastening horses
although we cannot see how, when one
chariot is stopping in front of house,
another could pass, so narrow are the
streets. They are very clean and kept
so by the guides, who picked up an
orange skin thrown down by myself
At the corners are three high stepping
stones from one curb to the other so
that the ladies would not wet their feet
when crossing the streets. Deep ruts
are worn into the blocks by the pass
ing of the chariot wheels, and the
whole thing looks as if the street com
missioner did his work we'll. Would
that our commission would make a law
against littering the streets of Savan-
nah with paper.
We first reached some excavated
buildings which had been turned into
a museum, and the larger part of the
antiquities has been removed TO the Ma
tional Museum at Naples. Enough is
left in this little Pompeian museum to
awaken our curiosity as to the things
we should see. Down the center of the
room are glass cases containing hu-
man bodies, men lying on their side
convulsed in agony, women, young and
old, with rings on the fingers and the
very texture of their garments visible,
so fine was the impression made on the
The soft part of their bodies had de-
cayed, but the bones remained. These,
| by an ingenious process of Fiorelli,
who had charge of the excavations,
were removed, and plaster poured in,
filling the entire cavity and taking ev-
cry little impression perfectly, so that
| even their terrified and convulsed fea-
lures are plainly seen. Something ter
| rible, pathetic in the sight human be-
| inPS in fhp full piounoapt of lifa
! smothered into death at a moment. A
| dogs form, in one case, was so greatly
| convulsed that it seemed tied in a
knot In cases along the walls were
| the bronze Instruments, and samples
! of their daily food gathered from the
ruins loaves of bread from the oven.
amphorae with wine, a roasting pig.
and all the paint-colors in little Jars
those marvellous colors with which
/ they painted all the wall-surfaces of
| their houses. Scarcely one utensiI of
/ domestic life was missing, and they
were all of artistic form and beauty.
Among the public buildings uneov-
| cred are the Basilica and the Forum.
| Now Basilica was a market with
| magistrates tribunal at the end-but
such a market! A colonnade of col
| umns around the open court, painted
| and with exquisite capitals: pedes tails
for statues of the gods; walls, every
| square inch of which was painted
with frescoes, each one study, then
| delicate genre pictures on Pompeian
red running around the frieze; gold
lamp weighing three pounds hung
| up somewhere, to settle accounts by
! it's light when the sun had set. Think
| of buying and selling with such an en-
| vironment. Opening out of the Ba-
silica was the Forum, the center Of
every Roman citys life. and the cen
ter of Pompeii: for all the main streets
lead to it. 1t occupied the most ele-
waited spot in the city 1t is hard to
| tell what use the Romans did not
make of their forums. In them they
| held assemblies of the free citizens, dis
cussed the latest gossip from Rome
orators plead, poets recited their lat
| est verses, law business was transact
| ed; If the Ponpeians had indulged in
stocks, certainly the stock market
would have been held in their forum,
for here every day every man of note
was certainly to be found This was
marble building, of marble pavement,
Ionic columns, numerous statues of
| gods and men-protected against noise
OF chariot wheels by stone pillars
blocking all the streets converging on
the forum and shut in by iron gates
| at night. OF temples, not a few, for
we certainly saw the shrines of all the
| Pantheon distributed throughout the
city; but the most interesting was that
| of Apollo, because of its beauty, and
that of Isis, because of the disclosure
| of the trickery of the priests of Isis.
| The cult of Isis was introduced from
Egypt and chiefly attractive because
| of the oracles the goddess was sup
posed to utter; but alas! the spade of
the excavator has disclosed the mech
anism; there were underground pas
sages by which the priests could creep
up into the hollow pedestal and ven
| triloquize the lying oracles as if de-
livered by the goddess herself The
priests of Isis knew the good thing they
| had so they elected to remain behind
when the eruption came. AS a result,
one skeleton was found with an AK in
his hand, having cut through two
| walls, but perished before he could get
through the third; another was found
with bones of chickens, fish bones,
bread and wine, as if he had been at
dinner. On the altar were found the
| burnt bones of victims. An inscription
was found with the words "Numerus
Popidius Celsinus erected this temple
| when he was 6 years old" Such pftyi
he might have found better use for his
money if he had only waited. 1t was
great town for small shops. AS in
Naples the nobility turn the whole
| ground floor into shops, which they
rent out for all kinds of small trades,
so the wealthy Pompeians surrounded
| their villas or houses-which we will
describe directly-with one-room shops
| and another room back for the shop
keepers family. And these little
| tabernae are most Interesting; they
are entirely open to the street; one
was discovered with twenty big jars
for wine, and with the wine in them;
another, with four mills for grinding
flour and an oven for baking bread.
We ate our lunch of sandwiches and
tangerines, on Dec. 8, sitting on the
low marble counter of an excavated
wine-shop in Pompeii with the stains
/ of the wine upon it; but there was no
wine in the jars near at hand Some
fellows unpaid bill was checked up
| on the stucco-post, saying that he
would pay by the ides of March. That
account has not been paid. The differ
ent shops are marked by the signs OF
their trade; thus a goat indicated a
milk-shop; two men carrying an am
phora, wine shop; two men fight
| ing, a gladiatorial school; a man whip
ping a boy hoisted ON another's back,
a schoolmaster; and the checquers,
like in Naples to-day. on a door-post,
indicated an innkeeper. Much writing
| on the walls in red paint has come
down to US; IN. Pansa solicits your
votes as aedile." here. Is verse from
} Ovid. and here, the first lines of the
henei next Is notice that hot