Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-05
AIR RAID RECALLS
POMPEII IN LONDON
"cH-knOVrn English Esanyist Draws
Parallel Between Experience OF
DWcllcrs In Those Two Cities.

X Why. late 1T night tundcr ful!
noon noon, should ], walking through q
|hin "A new and terribly vivid way?
was last in Pompcii in Novsnbr,
I9lG. on a still. hazy day. 1t was
normal dcsertion-,hc assertion OF :,
city OF ruin. city without one inhab-
liant or single roof--and II was dc
struck again by the profound sadness
OF IL all. Even after the centuries
.hat nave passed SINCE its tragedy the
Place Is sad, and if trippers can be
day, they must be wonderful people
Honeymooners. too--does not Po,npc,,
chill and fr!ghten them Thinking OF
Burnc-Jones's wlstful figures in Love
Among the Ruins" l fancy That IT
4 must.
Save for few custodians had II
DO mEseli. roaming about its streets
until l was weary. noting how much
liau peeh done by the cXcavators since
was previously there twenty years
before. and for the first time getting
some OF the bronzes in the Naples
museum into their right environment
was also for the first time realizint,
inc true scale OF the place. for the
Impressions OF the earlier visit had MOI
Included the minutcness Of the rooms
put they are SO impossibly small. Even
nose IN The most sumptuous villas are
my, %hlle the streets are just alleys.
nan forgotten about this. had for
gotten also how often tho corner
Youses. where these alleys meets, arc
ine shops with the receptacles in
,Ehc marble counter from which the
(-Rine-red or white-was ladled forth
often still intact
\ people, who insisted on every
ntensil and household article being
fJSeautiful should. one would thini,
after visit to the PomDciian CALLER
les In the Naples Museum, have had
rooms large enough for those things
10 be seen: women who seem to have
spent so much time on the adornment
- .he person.1udGtng in part by the
,umDers OF toilet sets. manicure sets
ana SO forth--should. one would think
|ssuaFe mad spacious corridors and salons
I'm which TO make triumphant pror-
asssei. BUT they did not The forum
or any capacity: for the rest. there is
not Il room in Pompeii as big as those
In ESQ London fat
som mhe ~ n n 1913. l first passed through
Marne and in particular that portion
OF inc town OF Sermaize- les Bains
Gn,ch was reduced to waste by the
Iermans | exclaimed, How like Pom
pen: and now. in Pompeii. the recoI-
lection OF the Marne was strong. But
me SADNESS or the Marine Is, or course
more poignant, for the calamities of to.
day must ever exceed those Of yes,cr
day And yet the mere fact that in
AeVery ruined French village you see
~ Drave EFFORT being made to save
some thing from the wreck is mitiea-
non. Here and there are always n
rev nuts 10 which villagers have re-
turned, and the unquenchable fires of
human hopcfulness. though they NAV
perplex and even dismay, rob the Ger
mans OF their full triumph But Vesu-
vius retains hers.
Being alone. and as 7 have said
having plenty of time. was able to
assilnilate the dead life with n new
tnoroughness. and the weather condi-
y .lons were fortunate. too. for the
!. breathlessness of the day had sur-
OF doom in it, as though tho
yo4szs65o were thinking deeply before
or anger And vet l couli only FUN
BILE at the tragedy
Quite recently in London street.
under a run moon. attained realiza-
|ition. 1t was the night of an air raic.
and the guns were booming, and IittIx,
flashes In the sky showed where our
shells were bursting. when suddenly
shatterlng explosion was heard. and