The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-04-11

The present eruption of Vesuvius Is
being likened to that which destroyed
Pompeii and which has been described
in wonderful words by Lord Lytton.
The following is taken from the Last
Days Of Pompet: N
~ lie eyes Of the crowd followed the
gesture Of the Egyptian, and ,beheld
with inenable dismay a vast vapo1
shooting from the summit of Vesuvius
in The form of a gigantic pine tree; the
trunk blackncss-the branches, fire; tina,
shifted and wuvered In It's hues witt
every moment, now fiercely luminous
now of dull and dying red. that again
blazed terrfically forth with intoleraDle
glare!
There was dead. hcart-sunken silence
through which there suddenly broke the
rear Of the lion, which, from within the
building, was echoed back BY the sharper
and flcrcer yells of its fellow beast. Dread
scers were they oftthe burthen OF the
atmosphere. and wild prophets Of the
wrath to come!
Then there rose on high the universal
shrieks OF women: the men stared at
each other, hut we're dumb. At that
moment they felt the earth shake be-
meath their feet; the walls OF the the
atre trembled; and beyond. in /. the dis
lance. they heard the crash Of falling
roofs: an instant more. and the mountain
cloud seemed TO roll towards them.
dark and rapid. like torrent;
al the same time. 1t cast forth
from its bosom shower Of ashes, mixed
with vast fragments OF burning stone!
Over the crushing whatsoever the desolate
streets-over the amphitheatre ltself-far
and wide-with many a mighty splash
ia fall a L
shower.
Searching Glare.
The cloud which had scattered SO deer
a murkIness over the day had now settled
into a solid and impenetrable mass i re-
senblcd 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 Vesu'
vius Increase In their vivid and scorch'
ing glare Nor was their horrible beauty
confined TO the usual hues Of fire; no
rainbow ever rivalled their varying and
prodignl dies. Now brightly blue as the
most azuc depth Of Il southern sky--noW
OF a livid and snake-likc green, dart
ing restlessly to and fro as the folds
OF nh enormous serpent--now OF lurid
ana lnlDicTHDlc Cillll3O|lt.- Susll'i6 ioi
through the columns of smoke. far and
wide, and lighting up the whole city
from, arch TO arch--then suddenly dying
into slckly paleness, like the ghost
OF Its own lfe
In the pauses OF the showers. you heard
the rnmhling OF the earth beneath, nnd
the grooming waves OF tho tortured sea
Or, lower still, and audible but to the
watch Of lntenscst fear, the grinding
and Kissing murmur OF the escaping Gases
through the chasms OF the distant noun
tain. Sometimes the cloud appeared t
break from It's solid mass, and Ivy tn
lightning, to assume quaint and vas
lnimicrics Of human or OF mon
s,er shapes, striding across the gloom
hustlipg ono upon the other, and van
ishing swiftly into the turbulent nbSs
of shade; SO that, to the eyes and ian
cies If the affriGh'rd Wanderers, the un
substantial yapors were as the hodil.
forms Of gigantic foe. the agents of ter
rpr and Of death.
Boiling Showers,
The ashes IN many places were al
ready knee deep; and the boiling shower
which came from tl.e steaming breatl
n the volcano fIrcrd their way Int
the houses, bearing with Them a stron'
and suliiocating vapour In some places
! immense fragments Of rock, hurled upol
| tho housc roofs, bore down along tn