The Oskaloosa herald., 1902-08-14
ACROSS THE OCEAN.
Dan Davis Shakes Hands With
His Holiness, Pope Leo.

CARS ana CdIdSlrOpuleS, anu a luOoI
curious country withal. We left Rome
for Naples, which is quite long ride,
with the understanding that we were
to return to Rome at certain time to
visit the Pope But before speak
of the Pope | wish to say some things
about our visit to Naples. IL you ever
visit Italy you cannot afford to miss
seeing Naples, as it is the tail end OF
all creation. should judge that
Naples is about 100 years behind in
most everything. The city has over
one million people and is situated on
the Bay of Naples, which opens into
the Mediterranean Sea and is one or
the most inviting and beautiful
places in southern Italy. 1t is quite
warm, the climate is tropical. They
raise oranges, lemons, figs and most
everything that is raised in tropical
climate. But the people are SLOW
Most all of the stores in Italy close for
about three hours in the middle of the
day, and you can see people sleeping
around the streets everywhere, lying
about on the streets, side walks and
on the wharf. Naples, like Rome, is all
Catholics. The people worship most
anyway and believe most anything
that is told them. Some parts of
Naples looks fairly well, but the most
of it is dirty and the people look rag
ged. We started from our hotel on the
bay to visit the ruins of Pompeii and
Mt. Vesvuius. You can see Mt. YES
uvious plainly from Naples and it looks
like you could walk to it in short
time, but when we drove over to Pom
peii, which is quite near, it took us
about three hours. We stopped at
Pompeii for dinner and found gang
of beggars and fakirs ready to re-
ceive us. After | entered the hotel |
asked the landlord to show me place
to wash my face and hands, and tip
ping a man for brushing the dirt off
my clothingz, for you cannot turn
around without tipping somebody. |
was shown into the wash room and tip
ped a boy to get me some soap and
when | got through washing | reached
for towel but found three boys
standing with towels on their Shout
ders waiting for me to tip them so
that they might furnish me with
towel, which of course | had to do. So
it is in Italy.
We visited the ruins of Pompeii. 1t
was a very ordinary place of small
proportions. At the time of the
Christian era, in 50 A. D., an eruption
took place from Mt. Vesuvius, which
destroyed much of the town, which
was promptly rebuilt, but 90 years
later a terrific eruption of Vesuvius
buried it and most of us Inhabitants.
Consequently the city disappeared un-
der ashes, stones and lava. This was
so sudden that the inhabitants that
were so buried had no time to flee
from danger, so that the city of Pom
peii has been so buried for nearly
1000 years. This we know from con-
temporary writer. For some years
work has been going on exhuming
the city and many relics and new
discoveries are being made every day.
If you ever have seen the National
museum at Naples you will be surpris-
ed to see the thousand different things
exhumed at Pompeii. 1t is quite i'm
pressive to anyone to walk into city
which has been buried for 1000 years
and see the walls, streets, sidewalks,
fountains and everything you could
imagine in a city of the present age.
| saw the most beautifully decorated
walls of palaces and houses, statues of
all kinds, standing here and there of
the finest marble. Water pipes of
lead which conveyed the water as it
does today. Mills where the wheat
was ground still stand, signs of diff
ferent kinds still marks the places of
certain business houses. The Grand
Theatre building with stairway and all
stand sufficiently to show the plan and
size of the place and the store stair
ways show that they have been badly
worn by travel. | cannot take time
to described bto you the different
buildings, as it would take too much
time and space, but all the streets
were paved with stone and the side
walks were quite narrow, but you can
see where the vehicles have worn
grooves in the stone where they were
mostly travelled. We walked over the
entire city and were astonished to
think of the architecture and improve
ments that existed at that time were
so elegant, bath houses with tubs for
cold or hot water, places built in the
walls to put your clothing, etc. We
visited many houses decorated with
| the most beautiful mosaic work, rep
resenting different figures, people, ami
mails of all kinds, cock fights, quails,
| ducks, cats and from the pictures upon
the walls don't think we have i'm.
| proved on them. The work was fine
and many of the floors were decorated
| with mosaic. Most of the walls were
very beautiful, decorated with paint
4 ings which still hold their colors. One
| thing | noticed was the many foun
tains and statues. At the gate where
you enter are the petrified men, women
and children, also dogs, showing the
last position of the bay when the terri
fic eruption took place. You could i'm
agine the last struggle so perfectly
where the bodies were preserved.
After visiting Pompeii we started t
climb Mt. Vesuvuis and hard task i
was. My wife, children, and LADY
from Missouri and myself comprised
the party. We had to pay IL franc:
each and IL francs more to the govern
ment guide at the bay. We rode b!
carriage as far as we could, and theI
we took 1t on horseback as far as thu
horses could go. Then came the tn,
of war, we had to foot it, but forum
ately it was cloudy, which protected III
from the extreme heat of the summer
| don't believe we could have made ii
but the women hired a man with
rope to assist them. We finally go
to the top and looked down into tina
awful crater, such frightful sight
smoke rolling out at the bottom, hun
dreds of feet below. II a person wan
ed to commit suicide and wanted t
make sure work Of it this is the plac
to Jump.
II Well, ] must cut this matter shor
said when left Oskaloosa | wa
going to see the Pope; they all laugl
ed at me, but l have had the hont
since left Of shaking hands with II