A VISIT TO VESUVIUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 15

A VISIT TO VESUVIUS.

By Ani>kew Cameeos.

- - The Tecent. activity of Vesuvius is almost already forgotten in the more awful calamity which has fallen upon San Francisco. Yet it may not be without interest to your readers if I put down a few notes of my visit to it a little more than a year ago. ■ It is much more than that since I first saw its gloomy crown gleaming high above the surrounding darkness. I "was then on my way to Edinburgh in 1880, and some time in the middle of the night I was awakened with the cry " Vesuvius is in sight, and all aglow." Soon I was on deck gazing with a strange fascination on its red crown. At once the thoughts sped back to the dark days when it pourtd - forth its wnith upon ihe afnghted inhabitants of the cities at its feet, when Herculaneam and Pompeii were Buried out of eight, and. the 1 voice of joy was turnfd into* sbirow and the rush of life into, the stillness of <leafcß. T-ot,<roe who had .spent most of his" 'days in "New Zealand, where everything is, new and history has hardly begun, it was' a new experience to stand face to f ace.-wjth this mountain, the story of <Jeeds * reached bstk into the first century. Something similar was my experience afterwards when, in Edinburgh, I read "The Heart of Midlothian." 1 had" read it before leaving the colony and had tasted something of its sweetness, \et there was a far-offness about it to me, a child of this young and far-off land. But as I read it in Auld JReekie, and listened to the cry of the Porteous Mob — "Porteous! Porteous .' To the Tolbooth ! To the Tolbooth!" — it was instinct with new life, and seitt. me forth on a wet Saturday afternoon to look on the "places of which I had-' just $een reading. On mv first visit *to Naples 1 wn6 not able to go out to Pompeii or to Vesuvius. A young man had died on board the steamer and been buried at sea the day 'before reaching Naples, and so we had to ■wait patiently till the health officer could make it convenient to come on board and clear us. He' was in no hurry, and many and strong were the expressions of affection for him to which not a few of the passengers gave utterance. At last he came, but the -forenoon -w<us well gone, and with it all hope of seeing Pompeii or of climbing the steep slopes of Vesuvius. A year ■ ago, I -was- more 'fortunate. I came by steamer from Palermo, in "Sunny Sicily," and had two days to spend in Maples Before go"ing corta to join my friends at Rome. The run from Palermo takes about 32 hours, and was made in ' -ijisi Marco Polo, whichr was 'crowded with ; Sicilians, who were evidently on the wing for America. They seemed a light-hearted company, who had no regrets at leaving their island home, with its beautiful vineyards and oliveyards and orange groves. On reaching Naples I 6poke of this to my friend, the Rev. Mr Irvine, who has been xesident Presbyterian minister in Naples for many years, and who is an old ttudent of the Otago University. He spoke pathetically of the hopeless poverty of tbe land and its people — a poverty which becomes more intense the further south you go. ' He eaid as many as '10,000 people sailed from Naples in a week for America. It is astonishing. As I travelled through Italy I was charmed with the country. Its "warm, rich soil 6eems capable of producing ambundant harvests in answer to the husbandman's labour, and on everyside the fields were green and the vineyards clothed with beauty. It «eemed as if there could be no reason for sons of Italy to cross the wide sea to find a new home, npt even in America. There must be something far wrong when such multitudes forsake this beautiful land. • Here are some facts I gathered regarding the social condition of the people : In Southern Italy a labourer may get half a franc — less than 5d — for a day's work, and one franc is regarded as good pay. Then the Government levies a direct income tax of 20 per cent, "which-appHes to the labourer and lord alike. Of course, the Government does "not- try to" take 2d out of the labourer's wage of a franc a da\\ It does not dare to enforce the tax on salaries acd business incomes. To try to do so — to demand 4s .jn the pound from every business and professional man on his annual earningswould speedily end in revolution. Still any man, be he rich or poor, is liable to this exhorbitant tax, and every man with fixed investments must pay it. Then indirect taxation seems even move crushing. Sugar is taxed so high that when I was in Naples it was selling at 8d and B^d per lb ; while salt, which is a Government monopoly, is sold at 2d per lb for the poorest quality. Little wtfnder that men doomed to carry such burdens and to live without a living wage make haste to go to other lands in which hope holds an open door! On this occasion I had no great desire to explore Naples itself. I had still a lively recollection of its dirt and countless smells ; they were still more than a memory though more than 20 yeai-s had come and gone ; and so I turned my . attention to the buried city and the burning mountain. As soon as I had found quarters in a German hotel — I forget its name — I made for Pompeii by train. It is about 13 miles from Naples, and lies directly at the foot of Vesuvius and between it and the sea. The railway station is within a few yards of the entrance to the ruins. In thus selecting Pompeii for my first afternoon I made a mistake. I should have gone first to the Museum (Museo Nazionale), where there is a model of the buried city, and where the various -woTks of art which have been recoveied are exhibited. This would have given me some insight into the inner life of the people who once walked these streets and loved and laboured behind these walls. I tad seen this mcdel on my previous visit, but that was not sufficient. Then I should have gone to Vesuvius to feel the throbWg of that inishtv jyant at wlw>£« ;up-

rising such destruction had fallen on the people. Something of the terror of that longgone night when Vesuvius surprised the sleepers of Pompeii may still be felt as one looks at the figures, which have been recovered and placed in a small museum near the entrance to the city. Here is j one surprised in sleep and on his face the horror of death is clearly written; and here is a mother, whose first thought is for her child, whom she tries in vain to shelter from the shower of death which falls around them. The agony of it all is here in minature. With a shudder wepass out and look away to yonder mountain, which 6eems as innocent and peaceful as a sleeping child ; and yet not quite so innocent as it looks, for yonder at intervals may be seen a pillar of cloud rising above it, bearing witness to the fierce forces that rage behind that smiling face. And. now let us on. through the city of the dead. One« it was a flourishing and fashionable provincial -town, now it is silent as the grave. **or 4ong centuries it lay buriea, *nd not till 1860 was systematic «xploration catrcd on. As we pass up its narrow -streets (the broader 24ft wide, the'narrower / 14ft) let us try to repeople it with' t£e proud Italians who dwelt within its .. -walls, -Here we see the people fathered for sacrifice and worship in one of fts beautiful temples, and then move on to the great theatre of Augustus, a structure still in a splendid state of preservation. What a sea of faces'' Its rising tiers of stone seats are crowded with old men and matrons, with young men and maidens. It is a gladiatorial combat they have come to see, and we can almost hear the shouts of the multitude as they applaud the skill with which the combatants have fought. In passing we note that it was here the explorers found 63 bodips of ihose who sought in vain to escape on that fatal day of 79 a.d. when the whole city was buried in ashes. From this scene of riotous cruelty let us pass into the Forum, at one end of which stands the Temple of Jupiter. Here the life of the town centred itself, and at our leisure we may listen to the loungers as they discuss the fortunes of Cffisar*s last favourite, or may join ourselves to that little group and hear them talking of the wonderful victories which had come to the arms of Rome, and of her mastery of the woikl. To them it seems certain that the kingdom which cannot be shaken has found its centra in Imperial Rome. Other powers had l-isen and sunk into decay, but Rome can never know defeat, can never know decay- So they thought ; and 50 men still think. If only the armies are large tut! the revenues ' nourishing, all seenv. w«ll. JVnd jet in every sheet of Pompeii there -were the signs of coming ruin. Her wickedness was stamped on her brow, and in this she was only the child of her day. and neither then nor now can any nation long .abide in strength in which luxury and' lust go hand in hand. But we must hasten hick, the signal for shutting the gates has gone, and, much though weVould have liked to enter some of the shows that line the streets or to pass into one of the houses of the Pompenan aristocracy, we must deny ourselves the pleasure. To know Pompeii it is evident we must come again iw.-d again to wander quietly and thoughtfully among its ruins till the past becomes* alive and finds a tongue in which to tell us her secrets. This pleasure, however, cannot be ours. It is a long, piobably a last, farewell we say as we pass out 'of the gates to find our way back by train to Naples. Toiporrow we will climb the mountain. I (To be continued.)