Evening star., 1927-05-19
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Fire or water, which is the more
destructive?" In some such language
school debates are often framed To-
day the world may contemplate q
visible demonstration. in the Missis-
sippi Valley and the foot of Vesuvius
volcano. 1t matters not that CEN
turies separate the catastrophes in
the great contrast; time is not of the
essence of this question. but the
mightiness of the elements is all that
counts.
Dictator Mussolini promises that
he will recall to Rome all its glory
of the past. Perhaps he will emulate
the pomp and other characteristics
of the Emperor who ruled when the
great volcano poured out its wrath
upon the magnificent depraVity or the
GLORY that was Rome" which 1t Is
Mussolinis ambition now 10 emulate
and whose relics he will uncover.
Not Rome, the city, alone, but the
Roman Empire flourished. Mussolini
and his hacker, King Victor Emmanuel
nave visited the ruins of Herculaneum
and set on foot systematic explora-
ton and (using American machinery
exhumation of its centuries-buried
streets and palaces.
Pompeii has been much more thor
oughly uncovered than has Hercu-
| laneum: the work of laying bare
| the latter city is more difficult, for
| Herculaneum lives beneath two or
three modern villages, which must
| be removed or destroyed in the eXca-
vation Of the dead city. Twice since
| the first eruption of 63 AID. did the
volcano add to it's blanket of lava
and cinders. Centuries passed and
upon the same site were built new
villages. For 16 centuries. the world
| forgot that there had ever been a
| Herculaneum until it's ruins were
accidentally discovered in I'LL. Only
spasmodic and inadequate efforts
have ever been made toward uncover
ing It's we'll preserved secrets.
X X X
The first calamity came when Nero
was at the height of his tyrannical
power, cruelty and magnificence. The
Romans had never lived in greater
| luxury. Herculaneum, miles from
| Naples. was the home Of mobiles and
| the wealthy, whose slaves were cap
! tured ''barbarians' Greek
artists and scholars, far more civilized
| and cultured than their masters.
Slaves were forced to fight one another
| or fight wild beasts for the amuse.
ment of Roman fans" male and
female. Virtue was despised, for
Christian ideals had not yet been rec
| ognized in Rome, except that they
gave excuse for Christian martyrdom
for the enjoyment of cruel Nero. Art
and blood and lascivity measured
Roman ideals in the reign of Nero
| What a great bully and coward was
| Nero, the ultimate suicide. His
| tyranny led to revolt and dethrone
ment and condemnation to suffer
death at the .pillory, but the coward
| forestaled it with suicide.
1t was in Nero's ''glory" that Rome
reached it's height, and then the great
Vesuvius belched hell fire and buried
the beautiful cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum under a deluge of hot
lava and cinders and redhot rocks
from which the terror-stricken popu
lation only in part were able to flee
Sometimes the modern eXcaVators
discover a cavity in the lava and
Cinders which are now hardened like
rock, and then they work most eau
tiously, pouring plaster of-paris into
the cavity, for they know what prob
ably made that hole. When the mold
has hardened, they cut away the sur
rounding cinders, and possess a cast
| or the very form Whlcn was tndt Oh
a human refugee overtaken in his
vain flight. AS the centuries had
passed, the human body turned into
a little powder at the base of the
space it left vacant in the cinders.
The cast is wonderful in its verisimili-
tude to life. Is there in all the world
a more impressive token of the vanity
| of human life than one of those
cavities" in the ashes where once
had been a human form and now is
nothingness? "How futile is man.
A mere cavity in ashes!
X X
Yet vast accumulations of erudition
and art will be unearthed in substan-
tial, tangible preservation. The crea-
tors Of beauty leave their beautiful
creations, though they become vacuity
themselves. Through all the nine.
ten centuries, those yacuous holes