The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-11-14

and ashes, which in turn we're cementcd
by torrents of rain
The town Of Pompeii, with its 10000
or 10000 inhabitants, was III the year
20 A. d. the Atlantic City of the ad.
iaccnt metropolis OF Rome. Gaycty,
dcbauchcrv and worse aboundcd, and
it was al the height of fctc OF an
usual license that the city was over
wbelmcd by sudden eruption Of the
ever-menacing volcano which lowered
landward, The twin cities were COM
plctcly buried and almost forgotten. In
decd, the whole topography Of the re"
gion was so changed that il was not
until l7iS that tho first remains were
uncovered. Dhcnccforth and up TO the
present excavations have steadily been
going on, until a very large part of
Pompcii has been dug out of the ashes
and scoriae. with much of Hcrculancunl,
giving us moderns IN insight into the
ancient life and customs, and also vcr-
flying the accounts of such historians
as the Younger Pliuy, Now I'll let
Barton Corticc take up the tale.
He had fortified himself with let
tors from Count Mario, and these
largely freed us from the espionage
! Of those in charge of the excavations
jand from the professional guides. So
! We were free TO roam at will through
pies of classic Pompeii
''Thc reason why we didn t waut to
bc bothered with n circcroue is that |
SIN the best guide YOU could have. -
was Barton 5 first remark when we
found ourselves alone, and pacing the
Street of Tombs.
"Huh. huh. - [ eruntcd d been
lures TO cvincc surprise at any re.
mark like that. But all he wanted
wls listener, not verbal anta@-
ouist
had noticed, however. on the
street corner of a house the letters
"NIA III
What's that stand for'" was my
natural inquiry.
ooh. merely that the PompeiianS
numbered their avenues Ono, Two
/ Three. and so on, lust the same as
in little old New York, was the mat
tcr-of fact reply.
a little further on we came to .
large square building,
"What 5 this place. ] asked
''Our old barracks, Corticc an
swcred. A good many Of the poor
fellows never got away that night.
81 fluttcrcd the leaves of my guide
book, and sure enough came TO Tho
entry: "IIere 81 skeletons were found
presumably those OF soldiers on
guard,
"Qute right | remarked.
r. ''Ah. - he inquired Then, seeing
The book in my hand. calculated
scornfully. ''Of course m right
Wash Z ] bercPH
We trampcd the silent streets. one,
dcuscly populated with soldiers aut
senators, queens and .courtcsans, fc>
two or three hours On certain oi
the houses signs had been placed
such as: House Of Sailust. House OF
the Tragic Poet. House of the Fam
and so on. named thus by tho eXcava
tors according to the objects fount
therein. These names gave Cortic'
uumitigatcd disgust.
"They re all wrong! be sputtered
''but they wouldn t believe me if
told them the truth, so what's TN
usel
We tramped through the wbeel-rut
ted streets. we visited the ancicn
Coliseum. the so.called Temple OF Isis
aud the Forum. In nj our pereGrination
Corticc seemed ucl cctlv sure Of III
route. and named each site correctly
as | found bv covert references 10 m
faithful Beadcker But still he sceme
dissatisfied and somewhat at "A loss
Again and again he went over a Ger
] tain route, stopping frequently. az