Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1907-03-01
THE DOOM OF VENICE
1T MAY BE TO LIE IN THE BOSOM OF
THE ADRlATIC.

The Famous BELLS OF ST. Mnr4l's Hay
Toll on Oceans Depths Like Those
of Old Port RoyaI-The SunIsen
Cities of the World.
1t is believed by many tilat Venice
is sinking into the Adriatlc and that
she gradually will disappear beneath
the waters Of the great lagoon from
which her palace crowned islands
arise. Other cities have gone that
way before her, and ships now sail
over spots which were once teeming
with populous life.
At the entrance to the harbor of King
ston, Jamaica, the original city of Port
Royal lies fathoms deep beneath the
blue and sunlit waters of the Carib-
bean sea. A narrow strip of land, on
which are n small settlement and a
fort, is all that is left of what was
once the richest and wickedest town in
the West Indies. 1t was the resort of
pirates, who rested there from their
depredations and made the city hid
eous with their revelry. But these pi-
rates brought great stores of their loot to
the city, and It's commerce grew and
lourlshed. Palaces and churches were
built, a pirate often striving by rich
endowment of Il church to square his
accounts with heaven.
Throughout the greater part of the
seventeenth century no town In the
western world was so magnificent as
to its buildings or SO luxurious as to its
habits as Port Royal. Then one day in
1882 the anger of the Lord shook the
island of Jamaica, and the greater part
OF Port Royal sank beneath the sea-.
CARRYING with 1t hundreds of its In
habitapts. Towers, churches, palaces
and forts went down, many of them
not tumbling in ruins by the shock,
but sinking bodily beneath the waves.
On bright day, sailing over the
spot where Port Royal once stood, one
can look far down through the clear
water and see the remains Of the city
still standing there on the ocean bot.
tom, with fishes swimming about
among its towers and great tropical
seaweeds waving from its sunken
walls
The negroes of Jamaics-and some
white people, too-will tell you that be-
fore q storm the supkeu bell of the
great cathedral which went down with
the city on that awful day in 1852 can
be heard distinctly tolling below the
waves. rung as II warning by the
ghostly hands of the spirits of depart.
ed buccaneers which haunt the subma-
rine city. People who do not believe IN
ghosts, but think they have heard the
tolling of the bell, say the explanation
Is that when the city sunk the great
bell OF the cathedral was not thrown
from its place, but still hangs as IL
| originally did. The coming storm be-
fore 1t reaches jamaica stlrs up the
waters of the Caribbean and sends in
upon the shore deep waves, which roll
! through the sunkcn city and set the
! hell a tnllHs,
! Another suLken city OF renown is
Buiae, that splendid resort on the ital.
ian coast where Nero and Caligula
''reveleI and drank deep" A strag-
! Cling village and heaps of marble ruins
still stand upon the shore und bear the
name of Baiae, but the greater part of
the city lies beneath the waters of the
Mediterranean. and tourists from Ma
pies go out there to gaze down into the
waters ana try to catch glimpse of
the submerged city
/ The resort OF all the wealthy mobiles
of Rome when Rome was mistress of
the world, Balae was a marvel of luz
urious splendor. Palace after palace
was built Oh the shore, and architects
designed magnificent structures eX-
tending out into the sea
When Rome decaycd and the Goths
ravaged Italy, Baiae was sacked by
the invaders. Soon after the city be-
gan to sink. First the buildings which
had their foundation in the water sub
sided beneath the waves, ana then
the sea made an attack on the land.
Gradually-ihe shore line reCedel. and
the Mediterranean flowed through the
streets where Iadrian had driven his
imperial chariot aud Horace had walk
ed thinking Of his next poem.
These promontorles, crowned with
grand towers and gorgeous palaces,
were undermined and toppled into the