————————————— whe
POMPEI'S FALL
© 70LD BY PLINY
Excavaiion Work by Italy
Recalls Narrative by
Eyewitness.
Tow York.—As the work of exca-
vating Herculaneum officially began
under the auspices of Italy's king the
other day, old Vesuvius stirred and
started into life, hurling blazing rocks
and smoke clouds high into the air as
if in protest at the unearthing of a
city it had’ buried 1,848 years ago.
But, according to scientists, there is
little danger of Mount Vesuvius re-
peating the terrific outbursts of 79 A,
D., and so the celebrating throngs
made merry, even into the night, when
brilliant fireworks lighted up the Bay
of Naples, vying with the bursts of
dame high up in the volcano’s crater.
It is a different picture that Pliny
the Younger draws—a picture of ter-
ror-ridden days and nights, presaged
by violent earth tremors that leveled
many houses before the awful spec-
tacle of fire was dimly seen through
a rain of blazing stone and ash by a
doomed humanity. Yet concerning
the disaster he writes with a philo-
sophical detachment that makes one
wonder at his powers of observation
and presence of mind in such r
panicky time.
Eighteen at Time of Disaster.
Pliny the Younger was only eighteen
at the time of Mount Vesuvius’ erup-
tion, yet remarkably precocious and
devoted to study. Born to riches in
an honorable family, the early death
of his father led to his adoption as a
son by the elder Pliny, his uncle. Caius
Plinius Caecilious Secundus was the
youth's name, his mother being Plinia,
the elder Pliny’s sister, and his father,
Caius Caecilius, of a plebeian family
‘that nevertheless numbered consuls
land other men of pote in its ranks.
The father’s health, however, prob-
ably was responsible for the fame his
son achieved, for the elder Pliny, re-
nowned naturalist and man of letters,
‘saw to it that his adopted son was
given the best of education and
schooled in the literary and philosoph-
jeal learning that meant sO much to
him.
Vespasian, first emperor of the Fla-
yian dynasty, came to the end of his
‘worthy rule over Rome in the year
tragedy stalked in the Bay of Naples.
The dissolute times of Nero had been
followed with the bloodshed of civil
wars under the Emperors Galba, Otho,
and Vitellius before Vespasian was
placed at the empire's head to restore
good times. He passed on to his son,
Titus, the rule of Rome, and the de-
struction of Pompeil and Heculaneum,
in the first summer of Titus’ short
reign, was one of three tragedies that
marred his otherwise excellent dispo-
sition of Roman government. A fire
jn Rome nearly as bad as that of
Nero's day and a time of plague which
followed it were the other two.
No Indication of Eruption.
To the Romans clustered along the
penutiful shores of the Bay of Naples
in villas and close-built cities in T9
A. D., there was no indication that
Mount Vesuvius might erupt. Earth-
quakes were not uncommon in the
region; in fact, one in 63 A. D. had
been of a devastating nature. The
Roman towns grouped along the cres-
cent-shaped bay shore, starting at the
northern promontory, were: Misenum,
Baiae, Puteoli, Neapolis, Herculaneum,
Pompeii and Stabiae.
At Misenum existed a naval station,
Raiae was a popular bathing resort,
Neapolis was one of the largest Ro-
man metropoli, Pompeii was a more
or less commercial center, and Her-
culaneum the summer resort of the
wealthy. For this reason the task of
digging it from beneath 100 feet of
lava and volcanic mud is expected to
reveal finer literary and art treasures
than those uncovered at Pompeii in
the past.
Pliny the Younger, in 79 A. D,, was
spending the summer with his uncle
and mother near Misenum, the elder
Pliny being in command of the Roman
fleet stationed there. To the south
and east rose the vine and tree-clad
mountain slopes, completely covering
Vesuvius in such manner that there
was no suspicion of volcanic forces
slumbering there.
> Saw Death cf Uncle.
Here Pliny, who began practice at
an advocate a year later, witnessed
the eruption and saw his uncle go to
his death in an effort to rescue people
caught on the bay shore closer to the
voleano’s mouth. Pliny’s description
of the disaster the world owes to the
historian Tacitus, who some years la-
tor wrote asking for the details sur-
rounding the elder Pliny’s death and
for an account of the dangers which
the youth himself escaped.
«On the 24th of August,” Pliny first
wrote, “about ome in the afternoon,
my mother desired him (the elder
Pliny) to observe a cloud which ap-
peared of a very unusual size and
shape. He had just taken a turn in
the sun, and, after bathing himself in
cold water, and making a light lunch-
eon, gone back to his books; he imme-
diately arose and went out upon a
rising ground from whence he might
get a better sight of this very uncom-
mon appearance.
“A cloud, from which mountain was
ancertain at this distance, was ascend-
ing, the appearance of which TI can-
not give you a more exact description
of than by likening it to a pine tree,
for it shot up to a great height in the
form of a very tall trunk, which
spread itself out at the top into a
PTI RU AO Som SA 2 ——
sort of branches, occasioned, I imag-
ine, either by a sudden gust of air
that impelled it, the force of which de-
creased as it advanced upward, or the
cloud itself, being pressed back again
by its own weight, expanded in the
manner I have mentioned; it appeared
gometimes bright and sometimes dark
and spotted, according as it was either
more or less impregnated with earth
and cinders.
Youth Stays to Study.
“his phenomenon seemed to a man
of such learning and research as my
uncle extraordinary and worth further
looking into, He ordered a light ves-
sel to be got ready, and gave me
leave, if I liked, to accompany him. I
said I had rather go on with my
work ; and it so happened he had him-
gelf given me something to write out.
As he was coming out of the house,
he received a note from Rectina, the
wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost
alarm at the imminent danger which
threatened her; for, her villa lying at
the foot of Mount Vesuvius, there was
no way of escape but by sea. She
earnestly entreated him therefore to
come to her assistance. He according-
ly changed his first intention, and
what he had begun from a philosophi-
cal he now carried out in a noble an”
generous spirit.
“He ordered the galleys to put to
sea, and went himself on board with
an intention of assisting not only Rec-
tina, but the several other towns
which lay thickly strewn along that
beautiful coast. Hastening then to the
place from whence others fled with
the utmost calmness and presence of
mind as to be able to make and dic-
tate his observations upon the motion
and all the phenomena of that dread-
ful scene.
Burning Rocks Fall on Ships.
“IIe was now so close to the moun-
cain that the cinders, which grew
thicker and hotter the nearer he ap-
proached, fell into the ships, together
with pumice stones and black pieces
of burning rock; they were in danger,
too, not only of being aground by the
sudden retreat of the sea, hut also
from the vast fragments which rolled
down from the mountain and obstruct-
ed all the shore. Here he stopped to
consider whether he should turn back
again; to which the pilot advising him,
‘Fortune, said he ‘favors the brave;
steer to where Pomponianus is.”
The brave elder Pliny, his nephew
told Tacitus, won his way to the shore
where he greeted his friend Pomponi-
anus, maintaining a cool front in the
face of nature’ cataclysm for the bene-
fit of the latter by ordering a bath
and lying down to sleep as night came
on and the turbulent waves prevented
them from sailing away. Pliny con-
tinues:
Nearly Hemmed In.
“The court which led to his (the
sleeping Pliny’s) apartment being now
almost filled with stones and ashes. if |
he had continued there any time
longer, it would have been impossible
for him to have made his way out.
‘80 he was awakened and got up, and
went to Pomponianus and the rest of
his company, who were feeling too
anxious to think of going to bed. They
consulted together whether it would
be most prudent to trust to the houses,
which now rocked from side to side
with frequent and violent concussicns
as though shaken from their very
foundations; or to fly to the open
fields, where calcined stones and cin-
ders, though light indeed, yet fell in
iarge showers and threatened destruc-
tion.”
The trapped Romans finally decidea
cor the fields and went out “having
pillows tied upon their heads” for pro-
tection, and after going to the shore
of the bay the elder Pliny suddenly
fell and died. The opinion of his
nephew was that death came from suf- |
location from the fumes in the air,
but it is probable that a sudden at-
tack of illness was responsible, since
Stabiae, whither he had gone, was
about ten miles from the volcano’s
mouth. Pliny’s account of his uncle's
death was followed by another letter
i to Tacitus in which he described his
and his mother’s escape.
Earthquake Felt First.
“There had been noticed for many
days before,” he wrote, “a trembling
of the earth, which did not alarm
much, as this is quite an ordinary ¢.-
currence in Campania; but it was so
particularly violent that night that it
not only shook but actually over-
turned, as it would seem, everything
about us.”
Pliny and his mother were both
awakened from uneasy sleep after the
elder Pliny had gone and fled the
house to sit in an open courtyard.
There the youth began nonchalantly
to read “Livy,” as he says, either in
“courage or folly,” and he continued,
although a friend of his uncle’s re-
proved him. The tottering buildings
finally persuaded them to leave the
town. ASTIEEIRBeE TN
“hw Escapes With Mother.
After this a black cloud of ashes
came upon them, and Pliny led his
mother by the hand to a place away
from the main road, so that they
would not be trampled by the panic-
stricken mobs in flight. He vividly de-
scribes the cries made by parents and
children separated and lost in the
blackness of artificial night and the
oft-expressed fear that the end of the
world had come.
When light at last returned Pliny
(nd his mother went back to Misenum
to await the sad news of his uncle,
and he closes his letter to Tacitus
with the modest declaration that his
narrative is “not in the least worthy”
for Inclusion in history; a fact which
literature today vehemently disputes,
inasmuch as Pliny’s story remains the
world’s most thorough and enlighten-
ing description of a disaster nearly
nineteen centuries ago, and the only
written account by an eyewitness.
Honeymoons by Air
2 Popular in England
London.—Many more women
use the airplane service be-
tween England and the conti-
nent than men. There has been
a large increase in the number
of young honeymooners whe
travel by air rather than put
up with the discomforts of
cross-channel steamer travel.
Close observers say that the
women seem much more at
home several thousand feet in
the air than the male passen-
ger. Increased facilities for
flying now make it possible for
the wealthy woman to leave
Croydon in the morning, fly to
Paris for shopping, and be back
in England in time for dinner.
Several well-known society
woien have made several such
trips this season.
GET POWER FROM CURRENTS
OF STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR
Spanish Economist Sees Vast Possi-
bilities in Harnessing Power-
ful Stream.
Madrid.—The currents passing from
the Atlantic ocean into the Mediter-
ranean sea, and vice versa, produce
an enormous power that could be
used and transformed into electricity,
according to Don Emilio Zurano
Munzo, prominent Spanish economist,
who has completed a preliminary
study of the question, and submitted
it to King Alphonso XIII
Zurano calculated that one currem
going through the Strait of Gibraltar,
coming from the Atlantic ocean and
carrying a yearly volume of 26,000 cu-
bic kilometers of water, at an aver-
age speed of ten kilometers per hour,
and the other current crossing under-
neath from the Mediterranean into
the ocean, with a yearly volume of
3,000 cubic kilometers saturated with
salt, can be turned into a formid-
able continual electric power of over
30 milliards of horse power.
In the document addressed to the
king, Zurano said the maximum pOw-
er lies in the bay west of Algericas,
but that power is also available in oth-
er points on both sides of the strait.
Explaining the course of energy
| there, Zurano pointed out that to get
| an appropriate idea of che water flow-
ing every year into the Mediterranean
sea, one must imagine a huge cube of
water three times and one-third high-
er than Mount Everest running at
800,000 cubic meters of water per sec-
ond. Adding the subcurrent which
\ furnishes 95,000 cubic meters of wa-
| ter per second, the constant electrical
power obtainable reaches 36,690,000,
| 000 horse power.
Kiss in the Dark Gets
Freedom for Prisoner
Paris.—A kiss in the dark got
Frenchman out of prison the other
day.
The prisoner, Fritz Gabril, had been
behind the bars for two years and had
several more to serve. His wife came
to see him. At the leavetaking in the
dark corridor Gabril and his wife em-
' praced with especial warmth, the
parting kiss being so movie-like in
. léngth that the guards noticed it and
. were moved.
' @abril had a slip of paper in his
| cheek. It passed his wife’s lips dur-
ing the embrace. On the paper was
| written:
“Tomorrow, during the recreation
hour, I will jump over the wall. Have
a vehicle waiting for me on the other
| side of the moat.”
Mrs. Gabril had the vehicle. Hel
| husband got away and hasn't been
heard of since.
Odd Styles Feature
Weddings in Africa
Boma, Belgian Congo.—Natives ot
the yemote Kasai region of Africa
have ¢aken a liking to the fashions of
civilieation.
“The first converted native couples
I married,” said Father Achille de
Munster, a missionary in the district
for the last 20 years, “wore nothing
but a loin cloth. But you should see
them now. Recently I married 15 cou-
ples. They all sported white suits
and the brides wore shoes and hats
and their black faces were literally
powdered white, ss So..
«Some had on one white shoe ana
one black. They seemed to think that
was the height of chic.”
One bridegroom, Father Munstex
said, fainted from the heat and his
costume of two pairs of trousers, two
shirts, two vests, two coats and a
tight collar.
Cattle Become Wild
Pacific ocean from Kodiak.
More than 40 years ago the Alaska
cattle for experimental purposes.
continues to thrive.
cattle can be grown in the region.
on Alaskan Island
Kodiak, Alaska.—Three hundred and
fifty shorthorn cattle browse over the
mountainous surface of tiny Chilikof
island, 200 miles out in the northern
Commercial company, a development
concern long since extinct, stocked
the island with a few head of tame
On
the little isle with a surface of only
20 square miles, the cattle have de-
generated from inbreeding and have
become thoroughly wild, but the herd
Alaskans say the
experiment at least has proved that
ee ——
LATEST VESSEL
TO SKiM OCEAN
Half Ship, Half Plane, It
Will Use Gas Derived
From Sea.
Paris—A French naval engineer
named Jean-Paul Michel has invented
an ocean liner that is half ship and
half airplane.
The new ocean vehicle, which 1s
called The Greyhound of the Sea, iS
guaranteed to have a speed of 50
miles an hour and te cross the Atlap-
tic in 60 hours.
It is unlike any other boat or aire
plane that has ever been built, al-
though an Italian company at Genoa
ts now constructing a “mystery boat”
along somewhat the same lines.
Driven by Two Air Propellers,
The Greyhound of the Sea will be
driven by two big air propellers at
the bow, just like an airplane or
seaplane, and instead of riding
through the water like a ship it will
glide over the top of the waves. There
will be an air rudder and also a water
rudder, but there are no under-water
propellers. The ship has large skids
underneath to help it slide across the
waves.
“I know exactly how it will per
form when it is finished,” Michel, who
is a graduate of the leading French
technical school, explained the other
day.
“I have been testing out different
models for almost fifteen years, and I
finally found one that fulfilled all my
expectations.
“The first big experimental ship,
which is about 150 feet long and has
accommodations for thirty persons, is
now being built in my shipyard near
Toulon. It is more than half finished,
and the first thing I am going to do
when it is all ready is to take a trip
to New York. I am going to make it
in two days and three nights.
“I think my invention will upset all
existing ideas about navigation, and
particularly the propulsion of war-
ships.”
But the strangest thing about The
Greyhound of the Sea is that it will
carry practically no fuel aside from
a little oil for an emergency motor.
Michel also has invented a procest
of exacting sodium from the sea,
transforming it on beard ship into a
gas and using this gas to run a spe-
cial motor he has adapted to it, but
the details of the invention are care-
fully guarded.
The most important room on boara
ais new ship will be a big laboratory
near the stern, where a chemist will
be constantly on duty te supervise
this chemical process.
He claims there is such an abun-
dance of this fuel in the ocean that
he could travel on it as long as his
ship held together, bu& just as a pre-
caution he is going to install a little
Diesel motor and take on a little fuel
oil, this precaution being omitted after
the new system has been fully tried
out.
In appearance The Greyhound oi
che Sea will look something like a sub-
marine, with horizontal fins at the
sides, riding the surface of the water.
Top Will Be Entirely Enclosed.
The top wil be entirely enclosed ex-
<ept for a promenade deck near the
stern. The ship will be smokeless, of
course. It will not be able te fly, al-
though at high speed it should simply
skim across the whitecaps.
it is being built of very thin steel,
m order to be as light as possible, and
it is difficult to foresee how it will be-
have in a heavy sea.
The high speed will be attained by
reducing friction with the sea rather
than powerful motors.
Northwest to Celebrate
Fruit Industry Jubilee
Yakima, Wash.—The Pacific North-
west fruit industry this autumn will
celebrate its diamond anniversary. It
was in 1852 the first apple, plum and
pear trees were planted in the Pacific
states and they came from a nursery
in Towa.
In that year a traveling nursery
orought from Henry county, Iowa,
grafted trees which were set out near
Milwaukee, Ore. From these the pres-
ent orchards were gradually devel-
oped.
The fruit trees and shrub train con-
«sted of two wagonloads of Towa dirt
in charge of Henderson Luelling.
Many of the original orchard trees set
out in Oregon 75 years ago are grow-
ing and bearing fruit,
Lures Humming Bird
With Bottled Sugar
McGregor, Iowa.—With an ar-
tificial flower and a bottle of
sugar, Miss Althea R. Sherman,
ornithologist, has transformed
the elusive ruby-throated hum-
ming bird into a constant and
friendly visitor to her garden.
She has discovered, by attract-
ing humming birds with artifi-
cial nasturtiums and tiger lilies,
that the birds often absorbed
in a day more than twice their
weight in sugar dissolved in wa-
ter and that they preferred the
artificial nectar to that of flow-
ers. More than a dozen hum-
ming birds came in quest of the
sweets where formerly they
called singly or in pairs.
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