The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1902-08-14
ACROSS THE OCEAN.
Dan Davis Shakes Hands With
His Holiness, Pope Leo.

SdTS ana CdJdSlTOpulSo, duu % AhOoe
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. II 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 OF
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 we'll, 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 man for brushing the dirt of
my clothingz, for you cannot turn
around without tipping somebody. |
was shown into the wash room and tip
ped 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 a
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 SO A. D., an eruption
took place from Mt. Vesuyius, which
destroyed much of the town, which
was promptly rebuilt, but 20 years
later a terrific eruption of Vesuyius
buried it and most of as Inhabitants.
Consequently the city disappeared un-
der ashes, stones and lava. This was
I,of Inn inh OF
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 ii
| 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 al
| 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 cal
see where the vehicles have worI
| grooves in the stone where they were
mostly travelled. We walked over the
| entire city and were astonished Il
4 think of the architecture and improve
merts that existed at that time wer'
so elegant, bath houses with tubs TO
cold or hot water, places built in tn,
walls to put your clothing, etc. w,
visited many houses decorated will
the most beautiful mosaic work, rep
resenting different figures, people, ami
mails of all kinds, cock fights, quails
ducks, cats and from the pictures upol
the walls l don't think We have i'm
proved on them. The work was fin
and many of the floors We're decorate
with mosaic. Most of the walls wer
very beautiful, decorated with pain
ings which still hold their colors. On
thing | noticed was the many -four
tains and statues, At the gate wher
you enter are the petrified men, wome
and children, also dogs, showing tn
last pos ltion of the bay when the terri
fic eruption took place. You could in
. agine the last struggle so perfect
| where the bodies were preserved.
After visiting Pompeii we started
climb Mt. Vesuvuis and hard task
was. My wife, children, and a lad
from Missouri and myself comprise
the party. We had to pay IL franc
each and IL francs more to the COVER
ment guide at the bay. We rode
carriage as far as we could, and the
we took 1t on horseback as far as II
horses could go. Then came the tt
of war. we had to foot it, but fortu
ateiy it was cloudy, which protected I
from the extreme heat of the summe
don't believe we could have made
but the women hired man with
, lrope to assist them. We finally g
to the top and looked down into tn
: awful crater, such a frightful sigt
!, smoke rolling out at the bottom, hu
/ dreds of feet below. II a person wal
:, ed to commit suicide and wanted
make sure work of 1t this Is the pla
to jump.
vi Wall I must Ont this matter sho