Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1908-04-18
ruined CITY
OF POMPEII
IS WONDERFUL
Scenes In the Exeavated Ruins
Devastated by vesuyius
Centuries Ago Are Almost
Beyond Belief.
&C. c. You.,E.l

derIul excdVated RUNS.
The ride from Naples there is fif-
teen miles on the train and we get
OF near the ancient city wall, and UNI
der the shadow of Vesuyius whose
smoking summit still shown the noun
tain is angry and may be preparing
a flame of death as when Pompeii was
destroyed, 70 A. D.
Standing on a house top near the old
Pompeiian forum and looking in pano-
rama at the excavated city is indeed
a sad but charming spectacle. 1t is
the only scene in the world, where a
destroyed city has been ressurrected
with all of its customs, shops, streets
and the real life that existed the fatal
day that Vesuvius decreed its death in
fame. Crossing the streets, passing
in and out the doors, it seems to me
hear the resounding echo of the liv-
ing people in their walks and talks of
life, though they have been dead near
ly two thousand years. Wherever /
look, or stop to think flood of emo
tons rise within me, and no man can
have the same until he has visited this
strange place.
Pompeii was founded six hundred
years before Christ, its walls were two
miles in circumference, and it became
the principal fashionable residence city
of this part of the Roman empire. AZ
ter its total destruction by the volcanic
eruption of Vesuvius in 10 A. D., 1t lay
buried and forgotten for centuries.
In 1892 an architect was digging wat
erway canal and by accident discov-
cred some of the buildings about TWEEN
ty feet underground but no one believ-
ed it could be Pompeii, for most gen.
eral was the opinion that its houses
and people had been burned to ashes
and beyond recognition. Two centur-
les later some meager excavations
found a few statues in marble. But in
1860 the real scientific excavations be,
gan which have brought to sight a city
whose streets I walked as easily as
any other in Italy. The house of Glau-
Gus and the house of Pansey of which
you read in that splendid volume, LAS
Days of Pompeii," are really here. They
are just as described The house of
Vettii Is more recently discovered
one, and larger than either of the 9TH
ers and the paintings are still on the
walls. the bath tub in the room, the
dining room is still there, the great
wide Roman courts and beautiful mo-
siac floors Snow it to be perhaps the
richest of all the Roman homes.
One house has yet skeleton in IT
where It was found and whose life
persisted in the flame. Another house
was found with only child and its
body was so incased with ashes as to be
preserved in shape even to this day.
A dog on porch was struck by the hos
ashes, he stopped to bite his back and
was caught in the fame, and his boos
/ is preserved in perfect shape. A man
was found lying on his stomach, ap,
parently in great agony, perhaps too
sick to move, and his body is now in
shape and form in features and every
organ perfect A middle sized woman,
apparently in the last months Of preg,
nancy, was found lying on her back
and her body may seem almost as
natural as life. Only those bodies that
were lying down were found to have
been preserved in shape. Those run
ming, as most of them were from the
alarm Of danger were crushed into
pieces; as this was the state in which
they were discovered. In the museum
in the excavated ruins kept up by the
government are many interesting and
well preserved relics which have been
taken from Pompeii in the last thir-
ty years.
In the amphitheatre were found
the bodies of gladiators with the
weapons, and the bodies of animals
which were used in one kind of shows.
They eveidently had music here, TO.
in the same theatre were found flutes
and other wind instruments very much
like we use today. All the city yet has
the original stone pavement and yet
are seen the ruts made in the stone
by the chariot wheels; at a certain
corner where there was a sharp curve
the mark in the rock shows where
the chariot wheels turned. Now we
come to a drug store, there is the
inscription in Latin, and the sign is
snake instead of pestle and NOR
tise, inside are the glass bottles for the
medicines and the smaller bottles for
measuring, and in bottles is original
oil. Along with this are some seven
kinds of surgical instruments, and
three of them are such that l see in
surgeons case today.
Then there is the wine shop or sal
Don on most every street corner. Here
Is the bar and let down in it are the
stone Jars into which the wine was
poured by the keeper and the dram
drinker was given cup to dip out
1heir own drink. On the stone table
| ia the wine shop or on the stone floor
are to be seen the chess boards where
the proud Romans did their gaming.
saw one just live this in the origin
mai floor of Pilates judgment hall in
Jerusalem which has recently been ex.
cavated and found ten feet below the
street level.
1 passed along a street and saw on
the corner wall cut in the stone don
key in about one half life size-this
was called donkey street" Another
corner showed cut in the same style
a life sized rooster, this was likewise
called Chicken street" Still another
street corner had that famous statue