The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
ENCHANTING HERcULANEuM.
POmISeii Finds Of Small Importance in Comparison.

|
 Comparison.
 New York Evening Post.
 One cannot doubt that the foreign scholars who have labored to make this great archaeological enterprise possible will have a favored position as asso- ciates In the work and as investigators of the finds. For q layman it Is difi- cult to realize the importance of this project so far have the sensational dis coveries at Pompef dazzled the popu- lar imagination, .tt.. l From the point of view of art. how ever. all that has been found at Pom peii Is of slight importance compared with the result of casual excavations at Herculaneum. The remarkable Greek and Greco Roman bronzes that are the pride of the Naples museum came from a single villa at Hercula- neum. The few scraps of wall paint | ings that gave a hint of the dignity of Grecian painting have the same origin but are relatively obscured by work from Pompeii. The ruins of the latter city have not furnished a single 1 manuscript. Herculaneum, practically unsearched, has already given up a large library-medlcal and scientific, to. be sure: further investigation may bring us substantial additions to class | ical literature. In short, when we look at Greco Roman antiquity through | Pompe!i. it is as if some thirteenth -cen- tury archaeologist should judge Amer ican civilization from the remains of Saratoga or Long Branch, whereas Her lculaneum will represent the polite tastes fof early imperial Rome. Furthermore. Pompeii had been greatly damaged hy earthquake and flimsily rebuilt In the taste of the decadence before 1t was overwhelmed by the falling cinders, hut Herculaneun, when the mud rolled over it, still kept intact the treasures of the most cultured Romans-HelIen- izers of the generations of I-ucretius and Cicero.
 ! The value of these hidden treasures the widest imagination is not likely to exagerate. The history of archaeolO- gy hardly affords a parallel. The ex Gavator of today breaks into an un- ! known Pharaoh tomb only to find that a sneak thief had preceded him bv a thousand years The Greek marbles ot ancient Rome are mostly in the mortar I of the medieval city, bat here arc the 1 summer homes of cultured Rome of the Augustan period and earlier. only awaiting the careful hse of the pick and spade
 As if to provide against such a prize being enjoyed too cheaply. nature has locked up in Hercu,aneum under about eighty feet of volcanic concrete. and Ihle mas WlliHu tHdI SoihS twenty tHou~ sand Neapoltians shou:d swarm above the villas were Roman patricians dweit in spacious ease. To uncover Hercula- neIIm will be an expensive business involving the condemnation Of much land. and then the most cautious meth ods of excavation. The nature of the work dictates patience all around. No one should expect quick results at the cost of irreparable damage to the beautfful objects imbeddeJ in the a tfff- ened mud. On the other hand. we can 1 imagine no investment or capital by an art lover that is moie certain to bring handsome returns. The uncover ing of a single villa like that which contained the large bronZes of the Naples museum would amply tustry any expenditure likely to be made. We discern a peculiar appropriateness, too in fact. that this great p:oiect is to be ] internationnl !n It's cone.