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Show I JU L O h MP 2IHM Ai J If I If Interesting Discoveries in the Pathetic Ruins of the City Overwhelmed Over-whelmed by the Fiery Flood From Vesuvius' Crater Pointed on the front wall of a Pompeian store that may have deal'- Hm! "'" "" ' - in bathing suits a marine Venus in a boat-shaped car drawn b ' y' SEVENTY-NINE years after the birth of the Saviour the long-smoldering long-smoldering ' wrath of volcanic Vesuvius burst forth with dreadful fury. The top of this majestic mountain moun-tain peak In southern Italy blew off with a roar that shook the earth, and from its flaming crater there poured a flood of molten lava, fine white ashes and tiny bits of stone that buried to a groat depth the surrounding country for miles in every direction. One of the populous towns and cities caught in this torrent of death and destruction de-struction was called Pompeii. It was a place that vied in beauty and prosperity with Rome itself until that terrifying moment when it suddenly became no more This was nearly two thousand years ago. Pompeii, completely blotted from the world's view, soon became only a pa-thPtir pa-thPtir memorv. Veeetation gradually took root on the upper crust of the tons of stone and ashes which covered the city, and new generations of men built their homes there, heedless of all the marvelous beauties of a past age that lay forgotten under their feet. Only in modem times did man conceive H the idea of digging down into the cruei tomb which Vesuvius had reared over Pompeii and seeing what this ancient city was really like. The result of the first excavations ex-cavations proved so remarkable that still larger ones were undertaken, and now H it seems certain the work never will be H allowed to cease until all Pompeii is laid bare to our view. Even during the war, while man's H wrath was laying in ruins so many of H Europe's cities, the excavators kept right on, uncovering all that is left of this ancient an-cient victim of nature's vengeance. To-day, thanks to the patient persistence persist-ence of the archaeologists and the liberal-H liberal-H ity with which the Italian government has supported their efforts, we have a comprehensive idea of the daily life that went on in Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago. We know how its people lived and loved, what their joys and sorrows were, how they worked and played. Almost every day sees interesting new details added to the picture science is preparing of life in old Pompeii. Ono of them was the uncovering a few weeks Rgo of a wall on which was painted in tall rod letters, much after the manner of modern politicians, the election appeal ap-peal of two candidates whose campaign for office was cut short by the eruption of Vesuvius. One of these men was Cnaeus Helvius I Sabinus, who sought the votes of his fel low citizens for the office of jEdile; the other was Caius Gavius Rufus, who was running for Duumvir. On the doorstep of a house near by was found the body of an old man perhaps that of Sabinus or Caius Rufus i himself. It was molded in the volcanic I ash which had overwhelmed him on that fateful August day in the year 70. Leather slippers, bearing the trademark of n Pompeian merchant, were still on his feet. I In one house recently reached by the i spades of the excavators the dining table was all set for the family's meal a meal that was never finished. Another An-other pretentious home reveals n shrine of the household gods and a magnificent interior court and garden, adorned with , wall paintings, statues, vine trellises and fountains. According to Professor Federico Halb-herr, Halb-herr, of the Italian Department of Antiquities, An-tiquities, the extraordinary results now being achieved in the ruina of Pompeii ' are due chiefly to the new, more careful j and more scientific methods introduced by Professor Spinazzola, the director of the National Museum of Naples. Those methods provide that the ground be dug, not by means of pits and abrupt i trenches, as formerly, but as arehaeolo- I gists are accustomed to do in prehistoric pi i"t .- M upper 1 1-v.. : . f ' 1 ' he red ht' which have escaped total d.-truc- fa-y ja - ' 1 t i ' shes and ston tl0n' T y : ; : V - '- ' from the vol. I The new ,tem of cano's crater 1 Ostian habitation as curious J? - ; a closed building, wall like Oriental dwel- orra- "f Hk - '-' -' lMByip lings, with no open- ment . ' " 'f ings, or only a few, A '"v toward the street fT- ' must now be com- v $ ' pletely abandoned. ' ' ' ' On the contrary, eg ' ' ' the Pompeian housi vhSH was provided with lllt'1 plenty of windows, .'Mto ; grouped in pairs, or .i '-' f& three or four to- Kg? t&gM X '! 'Tsj2t . ' g e t h e r, in the ' A '. , Sf H9 manner of the - r . . . ; - Gothic biforae, ; - v: g trif one and quad- I ''B rReT rifora?, and, like k ?JH those at Ostia. jfej VlB but even more s, f B t .WM with projecting j M E tMBESL. . balconies, balus- B&J?f " ' f '- ,f H ", s trades and gal- f " ' . t -X f Vi.v- k lenes, permitting ' raL 9 a "I ' V j I !ff its inhabitants to "K . , ;..;& h s--j 4L - ; enjoy watching " .', ' ,' '4 the movement of 3?. r ? tj ' ' ' ' people outside. ' 'j'' buildings e,n the , ' .' -: i j:.;-v . principal streets BBgWB must have been iff ' i?!qf ent from that V ' jS'"' -fl- ' 1 ' ?t . U ! ' !;.: which strikes our : ' ; , ' ' " ' '1 J Campania towns 1 " ', I . )t kt-- ' U of to-day. . '. ' ; ?;Ip";;iP The doors, and Yy 1 . -0,-''" ' s,-r5 r' ; ' ir more especially the V ; "-' ,.. v , . : V'J shop:-! and taverns, ' -. :? ' ''. W wi 1 ,',jKf' ;'i W-- ' '' ? ' Sv were mjt mounted by . ,. v- J awnings or pent Vv'J(- ' ' - ' :' '': ' '' . houses, supported by wooden beams and - .' : ' , . " ' i' covered with common tiles, - - j serving to protect custom- a . y . ers and passengers from V ftEm'&-' - W V rain and sun. In the - course of the excavations V -the carbonized beams have been replaced by iron bars, tho fallen ' Q, R or broken tiles laid again or ' '! '"' ' BoulangerJs restored to their positions, and V famous paint- the odd painted signs of the shop en- ' .. WV big of life in lux- trances protected by glass, v . V; ' urious 0id Pompeii, Two further aims in Professor Spi- entitled "A Promen- nazzola's system have been, first, to leave ' - ade in the Street of the the objects discovered as far as possible ' -' Tombs " in their original places, instead of trans- "" ferring everything to the Museum of Naples; and, second, to take casts, not only of tho bodies of skeletons found as has been the practice since Fiorelli'd time but also of every othor decayed object belonging to tho house or furniture, furni-ture, and even of trunks of trees and of roots of plants in the gardens. It is known that a complete mold is frequently found formed around the different dif-ferent objects and bodit-3 by the fine white ashe3 and lapilli, consolidated by water, while the incloned matter itself -1 - - -' Sfi became disintegrated in process of time. By pouring liquid gypsum into the hollow hol-low interior of such molds every one of them can be preserved intact, and moat interesting casts have been taken lately, such as that of a folding door of quite monumental size, still retxiimng its strong decorative large-headed nails, which was immediately replaced on its hinges. This was the door of a large mansion, certainly belonging to one of the wealthiest wealth-iest and most refined families in the I town. Its rooms were found adorned with splendid pictures of the fourth Pompeian Pom-peian style, and we can still admire on the walls of one of them, serving as the triclinium, or dining room, the chief episodes of the Trojan War, executed by a painter o uncommon skill. The four pillareel wings of its central court and garden were decorated with statues and shaded by trellises of vines and climbing plants, and an elegant double stoned hrine, or fledicula, rose in front of one of them, with a spring of Vflfeatafe A dinner table all set fof ii meaJ that was never eatct, brought to light by the ex uly in one of water at its foot. The garden itself, like some others, has been revived with plants of the same kind as those which were burnt there 1,8-13 years ago, since their roots could be recognized by means f casts. The latest excavations following the extension of the Via dell' Abbondanza beyond the large crossroad in the direction direc-tion of the Amphitheater have laid bare further part of the street, a quarter of a mile long, with almost all the houses both on its right and left sides. On the crossroad itself was found a 6mall sanctuary, or competum, as the street shrines were called, with a brick altar, upon which have been detected the at.hes of the last sacrifice performed there before the 24th day of August, 79 A. D., when the fatal eruption began. On the wall over the altar a large tripartite fresco painting in the form of a triptych reproduces the figures of the twelve Penates, or protecting gods, of the city, while a smaller picture on its left contains a sacrificial scene, with a group of priests offering the victim in the presence of two dancing Lares. Two houses in this block are particularly particu-larly interesting on account of their paintings and contents. One was the home and studio of a certain Ccrialis, an engraver and merchant of precious stones, in which some of the jewels and hard stones carved by him were found still there, together with the tools of the craft. On the walls of its rooms are to Via Qi.en rn n t-, 1 f , 1 .leln ikA muuv I'll 1 iCJUHIIH tu MIV myth of Iphigenia and to the legend of Orestes and Pylades. The other house can be presented as a veritable marvel in the art of archaeological archaeo-logical digging and restoration The rooms of lis upper floor have been kept upright by accurate works of consolidation consolida-tion and tho ceilings themselves patiently patient-ly reconstructed by putting together and fixing in place thousands of pieces. In one of them the crystal lamp is still fixed In the wall; the wick only Is wanting! The triclinium contains the benches and till pmvii!' I with tMj vessels for daily use And a hole in tii-jj pavement shows that the dlshps ert.'j brought up from the kitchen by a lifl New shops and bars, or thermapolifcjj were discovered in gre.-.t numbers, witH curious fresco painting.-, both in tharj interiors and also at their entrances generally alluding to th. art icles and.; ' goods sold by tho proprietors or to thdf industries, but sometimes also of a dif3 f( r nt kind, decorative or allegorical,! uch as the fine picture of a m8riMj Venus in a boat drawn by elephants or that of Romulus bearing a trophy rfj war. J Other wall paintings in the excsvatMj houses show hunting scenes or reP4Vl with different variations, the cofflfflM topics of the Trojan War, which fl form the subject of some admirtM stuccoes in a rich mansion. M Popular inscriptions of varied CoH tent love addresses and complin"!! proverbs, flashes of wit, and, not seldoJB rude and vulgar sallies traced by thij dealbatores, or bill painters, or scratfflM by loafer? and street boys, were brou?K to light on the walls of the more ftfl quented places. Among theater advertisements theM is one announcing that on a certain H a creat performance wen Id C'Ncn , the amphitheater of the town, ami an-3 other. Inviting the Pompcians to a Rlawjj atorial combat in that of Putcoll, tM modern Pozzuoli. .JM Tn Qma r.f tho Infest examples of ttm tion appeals discovered we find the l didates promising to the voters sPle"B gladiatorial games, exciting hast bats, or vonationes, and dramatic Vm formances in the theaters. dB The new flood of light which PB ent excavations are throwing upon M pen is invaluable. cy en.b picture to ourselves a part ot iw full of actual life, besides the dca1 ters of it, and. Indeed, are Mi new chapter in the history of cxpior j ol the oid Vesuvian cities. S |