Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1907-09-20
A Short Trip to Europe --Pompeii
BY X. H. McCLINTIC.

are Herculaneum and Pompeii, two
cities lying around it's base, buried
by ashes from it's crater nearly 2OOO
years ago aud lost to sight for CEN
turtles. These two cities are close
together around the bay OF Naples.
TIE car line takes you to Pompeli,
passing on the right Hereulaneum
and on the left Vesuvius.
Pompeii, being more excavated is
more interesting than Herculane-
uni, and it only will be referred to
here,
In SO AID. il was a rich residen.
tial city Of 10000 inhabitants. when
il was much damaged and wrecked
by an earthquake, the effects OF
which are still plainly visible in
many Of the walls Of the buildings
and in the ravements of the streets.
II years later, when much of the
havoc wrought by the earthquake
had been repaired, as the work on
the streets and building show. it
met it's doom in the shower OF ASH
es that were thrown out by the
eruption on the 9th Of August,
70, which covered it up toa depth
of from 80 to 40 feet. The idea
that many entertain that these cit
les we're overwhelmed by streams
of molten lava ia not correct. 1t
was simply kind of ashes. not
such ashes as come from wood, but
a kind of dirt, cinder; mineral mix.
ture, but light and floating.
TIE people who lost their lives
did so from suffocation mainly.
Most of the people escaped from
the city. The excavations have re-
vealed the fact that possibly as
many as 1000 persisted. Why
some of these did not get away, as
the showers of ashes continued for
weeks, we do not know.
The unmistakable evidence as to
many who persisted is that they
were the old. the feeble, the Grip
pied and blind.
Now you will Of course be inter
ested to know what the evidence
could be to lend one to say that
many of the old and feeble We're
left behind.
When the bodies were covered
up by these ashes, they, soon pack
ed around the body and in process
of time, the body mouldered away
to dust again, leaving a cavity in
the packed ashes just the shape Of
the body and in many cases thes-
remain to the present day.
tn some Of them still are found
some of the ZONES Of the nnfortu.
nate.
When one Of these cavities il
found BY the eYcavatora,it is, with
out breaking it further, immediate
" filed with wet plaster OF paris
Which soon hardens, and when It Il
taken out. it is Of course an exac
cast OF the body that formerly
made the cavity, So from tn
st it is easy to tell what former
ly occupied the cavity. The casts
show that they are the models o
people without legs, the crippses
the aged and the inGrm.
Many Of them died having botl
their hands over their nose ant
mouth, dying from sutfocation. try
ing to exclude the floating ashe
which filled the air, while not
few tried to accomplish the sam
by tying some kind of cloth
around their mouth and nose.
We find all kinds of domestic an
! finals suffered in this calamity. Pos
sibly the most noted excavation o
animals Is one of a dog, copies an
paintings Of which are often seen
1t shows a dog in awful anguish
his body almost doubled, his hea'
twisted around on his side, and hi
mouth widely distended. in hi
| deathly struggle.
| You will understand that thes
excavations, which have been 60
ing on for over so years, aud ar
still gong on. are accomplished b.
taking away all of the ashes an'
dirt from the top down to the leve
| of the earth as it was before tn
calamity.
This of course leaves the wallso
the houses all standing excep
! " hen from one cause and another
they have broken or fallen away
| some being in a>much better stat