Show VESUVIUS AGAIN ACTIVE Great streams of lava are again flow flowing flowing flowing ing out of Vesuvius destroying vege vegetation tation and ant jeopardizing the lives and the property of the residents of a dozen Italian towns towne The scene at night is described as s being one of mingled horror and grandeur as from the sum summit summit summit mit of or Vesuvius there leaps a column of or firo fire fully 1000 feet In height the glare lighting the sea and sky for many miles There is js a strong probability probability ability that several villages will be de destroyed troyed and already the inhabitants are moving to more secure places Matteucci direct r of the Italian It IIan observatory believes the eruption eruption eruption tion constitutes a grave menace but buthe buthe buthe he is philosophical over it Indeed he heis heis is 1 unintentionally humorous when he says in effect that the r Is a good thing because if it had haa not come cometo cometo cometo to pass there might have been a later and much more violent outpouring From which we gather that thal SIgnor Matteucci believes s that nothing is so sod bad d it be worse Compared with th oWr o h t eruptions tho the present out outre re Fourth or of July I fireworks Bulwer Lytton gives a marvelous de description descrIption In his Last Days of Pom Porn Pompeii PompeIi pelt of the outbreaK that destroyed that ancient city The description is the more remarkable because it Is of course purely fanciful Yet the writer places the scene before us In language that cannot fall fail to Impress the reader The Egyptian in an endeavor to dis distract distract distract tract the attention of the people from their expressed expressed determination to cast him to the lions has pointed to the cloud of vapor hanging over Vesuvius the vapor that Is shot with lurid flame The description goes on There was a dead si silence lence through which there suddenly broke the roar of the lion which was wa echoed back from within the building by the sharper and fiercer yells of ot its fellow beasts Dread seers were they of the Burden of the Atmosphere wild prophets of the wrath to come Then there arose on high the universal shrieks of f women the men stared at each other but were dumb At that moment they felt the earth shake be beneath beneath neath their feet the walls of the thea theatre theatre theatre tre trembled and beyond in the dis distance dIstance distance tance they heard the crash of falling roofs an instant more and the moun mountain mountain tain tam cloud seemed to roll roU toward them dark and rapid like a torrent at the same Bame time it ft cast forth from Its bosom bos m a shower of ashes mixed with vast fragments fi of burning stone Over the crushing vines over the desolate streets over the amphitheatre itself far and wide with many a mighty splash in the agitated sea fell that awful shower No UNo longer thought the crowd of justice or of Arbaces safety for them themselves themselves themselves selves was their sole thought Each turned to fly each dashing pressing crushing against the other Whither Whither should they hey fly Some an anticipating anticipating anticipating a second earthquake has hastened hastened hastened to to load themselves with their more costly goods others dreading the showers of ashes that now fell feU fast torrent upon tor torrent torrent torrent rent over the streets rushed under the roofs of the nearest houses or temples or sheds shelter of any kind for pro protection protection protection from the terrors of the open air But darker and larger and might mightier ier ler spread the cloud above them It was a sudden and more ghastly night rushing upon the realm of noon Lord Lytton has left lett very little for others to say of any eruptions of Ve Vesuvius Vesuvius Vesuvius It may maybe be Interesting how however however however ever to compare his description with that of the Bible chronicler who wrote of the destruction des ruction of Sodom I and Go Gomorrah Gomorrah Gomorrah He wrote Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven and He overthrew overt re those cities and all aU the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground and lo 10 the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace |