The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-05-31
VIVID R1EEuKE BY BULwEH >
Horrorsof Y olcanic Outburst A Told
In Famous Novel About Pompen

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Horrorsof mic outburst asTold
in Famous Novel About Pompeii.
The horror Of q terrible volcanic eruption
is wildly portrayed BY Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton in his novel, Last Days Of Pom
pei, from historical material embellished
into & l4dRhing story He writes Us follows
Of the eruption Of Vesuvius, which, in 79
A. D., destroyed the cities of Pompeii and
Hercdlaneum
The eyes Of the crowd beheld, with in
effable dismay, vast vapor shooting from
the summit of Vesuvius, in the form Of
gigantic pine tree; the trunk, blackness
the branches fire La fire that shifted and
wavered in its hues with every moment,
now fercely luminous, now Of dull and
dying red, that again blazed terrifcally
forth with intolerable glare
Then there arose on high the universal
shrieks of women; the men stared at each
other, but were dumb. At that moment
they felt the earth shake beneath their
feet; and, beyond in the distance, they
heard the crash of falling roofs; an instant
more and the mountain-cloud seemed to
roll toward them, dark and rapid, like a
torrent; at the same time it cast forth from
its bosom shower Of ashes mixed with
vast fragments of burning vines lover the
desolate streets-over the amphitheatre
itself-far and wide-wit many mighty
splash on the agitated sea--fell that awful
shower
Each turned to fly each dashing, press
ing, crushing against the other. Tramp
ling recklessly over the fallen-amidst
groans, and oaths, and prayers, and sud-
den shrieks, the enormous crowd vomited
itself forth. Whittier should they fly ?
Some, anticipating second earthquake,
fastened to their homes to load themselves
with their most costly goods and escape
while it was yet time; others, dreading the
showers Of ashes that fell fast, torrent upon
torrent, over the streets, rushed under the
roofs of the nearest houses, or temples, or
sheds-shelter of any kind-for protection
from the terrors of the open air. But
darker and larger and mightier spread the
cloud above them. It was sudden and
more CHASTITY night rushing upon the realm
of noon.
Amid the other horrors the mighty
mountain now cast up columns Of boiling
water. Blent and kneaded with the half
burning ashes, the streams fell like seeth-
ing mud over the streets in frequent inter-
walls. And full, where the priests of Isis
had now covered around the affairs, on
which they had vainly sought to kindle
fires and pour incense, one of the fiercest
of those deadly torrents, mingled with i'm
mense fragments of scoria, had poured its
rage. Over the Bonded forms of the priests
it dashed; that cry had been Of death
that silence had been of eternity The
ashes-the pitch stream-sprinkled the
affairs, covered the pavement and half con-
cealed the quiyering corpses of the priests!
Meanwhile the streets we're already |
thinned; the crowd had hastened to dis
perse itself under shelter; the ashes began |
to fill up the lower parts of the town; but |
here and there you heard the steps Of fugi- |
tives branching them YEARLY or saw their
pale and haggard faces by the blue glare Of |
the lightning, or the more unsteady glare
of torches, by which they endeavored to
steer their steps. But ever and anon the
boiling water or the struggling ashes, mys-
FERROUS and gusty winds, rising and dying |
in breath, extinguished these wandering |
lights, and with them the last living hope
of those who bore them.
The fugitives hurried on; they gained
the gate; they passed by the Roman SEN
try; the lightning flashed over his livid face
and polished helmet, but his stern features
were composed even in their awe He
remained erect and mati6hless at his post.
That hour itself had not animated the ma
chine Of the ruthless majesty of Rome into
the reasoning and self-acting man. There
he stood, amid the crashing elements; he
had not received the permission to desert
his station and escape.
The cloud which had scattered SO deep
a murkiness over the day had now settled
into solid and impenetrable mass. 1t
resembled less even the thickest gloom of
a night in the open air than the close and
blind darkness of some narrow room. But
in proportion as the blackness gathered did
the lightnings around Vesuvius increase in
their vivid and scorching glare. Nor was
their horrible beauty confined to the usual
hues of fire; no rainbow ever riyalled their
varying and prodigal dyes Now brightly
blue as the most azure dept Of southern
sky-now of snake-like green, darting
to and fro as the folds of an
enormous serpent-now of lurid and in
crimson, gushing forth through
the columns of smoke, far and wide, and
lighting up the whole city from arch to
arch-then suddenly dying into sickly
paIeness, like the ghost of their own life
In the pauses of the showers you heard
the rumbling of the earth beneath and the
grooming waves Of the tortured sea; or,
lower still, and audible but to the watch of
intensest fear, the grinding and kissing
murmur of the escaping gases through the
chasms of the distant mountain. Some
times the cloud appeared to break FROM its
solid mass, and, by the lightning, to as
sumo quaint and vast mimicries of human
or of monster shapes, striding across the
gloom, hurting one upon the other and
vanishing swiftly into the turbulent abyss
of shade; SO that, to the eyes and fancies
of the afrighted wanderers, the unsub
stantial vapors wge as the bodily forms of
gigantic foes-the agents of terror and of
death.
The ashes in many places we're already
knee deep, and the boiling showers which
came from the steaming breath of the vol
cano forced their way into the houses, bear
ing with them strong and suffocating
vapor In some places immense fragments
of rock, hurled upon the house roofs, bore
down along the streets masses of confused
ruin, which yet more and more, with every
hour. INSTRUCTED the way; and as the day |