Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-10-23

or high personages horses were not per-
mitted within the city limits, so slaves
pulled the chariots through the streets.
Only few of the important streets
were wide enough for chariots to pass.
The cross streets were for a single
vehicle. When person was in his
equipage on a narrow street, the slaves
would precede to the corner, ring a bell
fastened there and announce the coming
of his master. Others coming around
that way would have to stop for the
passage of the one first announced.
The streets excavated have been cleaned
by sweeping, and are today as clean as
when coursed by Glaucus and his friends.
On each side are the houses, packed
together. generally of one-story, never
more than two. The walls of each
house show distinctly that this people
lived but little within doors, a space 20
feet square sufficing at times for the
home of some family in ordinary circum-
stances. The more ostentatious home
was upon the order of Mexican hidalgo.
You enter from the street by the one
doorway, all its other walls on the street
being blank save for the small opening
of window in each room, sometimes
with crudely made glass in the aper-
ture, but oftener without. A second
door, or swinging grating, may greet
you, and this passed you get into hol-
low square, in the centre of which is a
cistern, and above the roofs sloping to-
wards and dumping their rainwater
into the cistern. Around the cistern
may be fountain, statuary, flower stands
ETC., all found toppled over but now
righted and placed where they stood
before the hail leveled them. Around
this square court and under the roof are
entrances to rooms. The best room is
possibly not more than ten feet square.
The lanquid ladies and effeminate gents
would shift their places under the square
portico or from room to room as the
sun rose or sunk and the breeze whitfield
from this or that direction. If there
was second story it usually belonged
to the servants, as sometimes did the
cellars. The floors are usually of marble
set into mosaic style. The roofs were
Of tile, made fiat and Tapped like our
shingles of today, though being in
broad pieces and many layers the roofs
required little slant to them. The
weight of the erupted stone and ash
broke in all roofs. but the ground rooms
of some of the two-story buildings did
not fill up. On the walls of rooms and
court are many figures painted upon the
cement. Most of these are from my
thology, and the lewd and debased pre-
dominate. The most offensive paintings
and statuary to us of today were the
commonplace ones of that day, and
guests were welcomed unconfused into
halls, courts and rooms with most sug-
gestive characters confronting them.
The lives and habits of the people are
imprinted on every excavated surface.
The vilestt traffic was apparently licensed,
respected and carried on openly, and
advertisements of the debased con-
fronted those of reputable callings. No
recounting of the days of Sodom and
Gomorrah can compare in debauchery to
what must have been in Pompeii.
The narrow stone streets and high
pavements with stepping stones at
every crossing, the blocks of low COM
pact houses, some with only single
room with its door opening on the street;
a glance within some larger and wealth.
ier domicile, like that of the Athenian
Glaucus, with the Watchdog ("Cave
Canem"o in mosaic tile of the floor
over which you must pass to enter:
the house of the banker, so called
because money chest and usury papers
were found therein; the house of royal
favorite, the most elegant yet, with its
court and fountains and highly painted
ceilings and walls-ali these afford
thought and speculation. Then we see
the wine venders' stands, usually on
some corner-the great earthen Jars,
pottery almost large enough to stuff a
grown human being in, cemented in
rows of stone counters, and long handled
dippers that reached down to bring the
fluid up. Nearly every private resi-
dence had its wine cellar-these jars
buried to their necks in earth or cement
to keep the liquid cool. We pass on to
the baths. first the cold bath then into
the large stone room for the hot baths.
The walls of this room were hollow. and
hot air used to be forced within the
walls. The bath methods were not un-
like our Turkish baths today. One sees
the stone seats where customers were
wont to await their turn. and the stone
steppings are worn thin with the impa-
tient feet awaiting turn. Here the Jail,
or dungeon; the Forum, the Temple OF
Justice, the arches and Columns of
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