Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-15
LAST DAYS OF NAPLES
Will VesuVius Offer Theme
for This Story2
VOLCANO IN ACTION
A GREAT CITY BUILT ABOVE A
FIERY CHAsM.
Black Record Of Burning Mountain
Scientists at Observatory Busy
These Days.
VOLCANO IN ACTION

Written for The Evening Star
Naples, the most densely populated Of the
worlds great cities; that quondam resort
OF the wealthiest mobiles of ancient Rome:
that City of the Siren,' within whose four
square miles huddles together popula-
ton greater than that of Boston, has shud-
dered again. for that seething hell pent up
beneath her has again burst the Vesuvian
gate.
Will some Bulwer Lytton of the near fu-
ture have chance to put to paper Last
Days of Neapolis?'
The present eruption, commencing quiet
~ on September / and reaching it's maxi
mum on the 25th, has been more violent
than any since the great outburst of 1872.
This Is why seismologists are asking each
other the above question with greater anx-
iety than they have betrayed this genera
ton past. Indeed they are specializing
with seriousness upon the cataclysm which
may swallow into the belly of the earth
this larger sister Of Rome for it is a we'll
accepted theory now that Vesuvus Is but
the vent of vast fiery chasm undermining
the Italian metropolis, whose thin crust of
earthly foundation may any time give way,
precipftating more than a half million of
souls to the roaring furnace below.
Immunity Due to Patron Saint.
but nine miles due west of the eruptive
cone. Its postern gate is scarce further
down the lava slope than the ruins of Pom
peii, but although the ashes of the great
vocano have frequently darkened the city
and thrown the Neapolitans into terror,
and hot lava has flowed almost to its very
gates, never has soul within its walls
suffered from the Vesuvian wrath If 1t
mas been one hundred chances to one that
the great city would escape, the last chance
mas about gone by; for five scores of
times since Pompeii was DESTROYED In the
hrst century of the Christian era has the
great black background of Naples belched
forth Ask the orthodox Neapolitan the
wherefor Of his immunity and he will at
tribute 1t to the protection of the city's
patron, San Januarius.
In ancient times some pagan divinity
may have closed its gates against the black
lava flows squirming snake-Iike down
the mountain; for Naples is centuries older
than the days of Glaucus and the blind
Nydia. The original city founded by
honor of one of the sirens. This was aug
mented by a second colony of the ancient
Hellenes, who added the new city. In the
fourth century before Jesus 1t fell into the
bined settlement the name Neapolis or
new town" On its neighboring hill, Pc
sellopo, Virgil composed his Georges"
Within the city proper Nero made his first
The Vesuvian volcanic region, like that of
Aetna, is partly land and partly sea, in
Guiding all of the Bay of Naples-sometimes
called THE Crater" lying at the very feet
of Vesuvius. with a circuit of fifty-two
miles and the metropolis at the extreme
northern corner.
Birds in the Cannon's Mouth.
The whole base of the mountain is skirt
ed by a series of villages, where abide 1OO,-
600 souls-birds nesting in the lannon's
mouth. Between these settlements and
even above-within the jaws of the fiery de-
mon-the tourist sees scattered huts, tent
shaped, of straw interviewer. After the
great eruption of September many Of the
villagers deserted their homes and camped
in the open, further below. Time and again
have the lands of their ancestors been en-
quilted by the seething lava, yet has this
daring humanity persisted to return to the
danger zone And why? Simply because
each renewed eruption adds fertility to the
soil, resulting from decomposition of the
volcanic products.
A road twenty miles long. commencing at
Naples, extends enthusiastically along the