BOMBS ON POMPEII

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 6

BOMBS ON POMPEII

LIFE AS IT WAS

WOMAN TURNED TO STONE

(By G. 0.)

Fire has again rained on Pompeii. Vesuvius is not to blame this time. If Rome radio is telling the truth bombs dropped from the skies almost entirely destroyed the museum and damaged remnants of notable temples. But a large part of * treasure-trove from Pompeii was kept in the great museum at Naples. Here could be seen pieces of frescoes and paintings, and bits of, mosaics depicting or. suggesting life in ancient Pompeii, and articles of common use and ornament, the lares etpenates of its people who were overwhelmed in the disaster in 79 A.D. How these things in Naples and Pompeii have fared there is no certain news. But of them, as of many other precious works of art destroyed in this war, it can be said that they were the heirlooms of generations to be, the heritage of those who are to live in that promised -"brave new world" arising out of the ashes of the world we know. Pompeii is of these heirlooms, belonging to the whole world, although held in trust by the Italians.

Two of the "inheritors" of Pompeii once walked together through its streets. One was an artist whose reputation is high in his. native Australia, and his work is" not unknown elsewhere, and the other was a person of no importance. But they had things in common, for both had seen much of the world as steerage passengers; seen it, too, as third-class travellers by rail see it, and as it also appears to men in strange cities with no more than a bob or two in their pockets. Both, too, had read Bulwer Lytton's novel with its scene laid in Pompeii and, thrilled by it in their youth, tihey were willing to adjust/first impressions to seeing the city as it -really was when uncovered from the ashes under which it had lain for centuries. " The adjustment, by the way, was complete. In the company of an old soldier of the Italian army they saw much, and saw some things not generally shown to mixed parties. They saw.mural paintings that could be regarded as vivid footnotes to certain admonitory passages in the Epistles of the New Testament addressed to Christians, some of whom may have lived in that very city in-79 A.B, ' '

Pompeii was a very gay or, as we should say, a very loose city in- the matter of morals. But it was very human, too; as its election "posters"— inscriptions, rather—showed. The two pilgrims above referred to said nothing at the time, but they felt deeply that they were in company with their invisible fellow-men whose bare and sandalled feet had smoothed the stone sidewalks which they trod, people verjr like themselves, living, thinking, talking, acting 1860 years or so ago very much as themselves. So they crossed the narrow street on stepping stones and noticed the ruts made in the paving by the wear of chariot wheels; saw how shelter might be had beneath overhanging balconies of houses in the Street of Abundance. The two men were taken to the house of a one-time wealthy Pompeian, and there remarked on the perpetuation in the idea of the patio of a South American house of the ancient atrium with its colonnade or cloister round it, its pool or cistern in the centre, and the rooms opening on to the atrium. They saw the chief room, the dining-room, with its stone benches where the diners reclined on cushions, and had not far to fall should they overdrink the wine of their country., They saw, also, the kitchen and other offices (as house agents would call them), and the bathroom, or calidarium, and how the water was heated, and the dressingrooms attached to the baths, and they wondered about the social standing of the Pompeian plumber. But they were profoundly moved by the decorations of the walls of these Pompeian houses, the vivid colouring after all these centuries and their burial beneath hot ashes. The artist discussed their design, drawing, composition, and other things with knowledge beyond the range of his companion.

Every tradesman in Pompeii had his distinguishing decoration; but even if it was mere "sales talk," yet it was graphically eloquent. These signs were veritable works of art. That exceedingly useful brass foot-rail to the saloon bar of today had its equivalent in the Pompeian pub in the form of a niche running around the bottom of the stone bar, just high enough for a drinker to rest a weary foot. The drinks were kept in jars with their mouths flush to the counter and could be ladled out in 'required quantities. The baker made no secret of his business in Pompeii. He ground his wheat in the shop, a donkey turning the upper stone, both stones combining to resemble a dice. He turned out a genuine wholemeal loaf and perhaps it was of just weight.

But the most pathetic, the most pitiful, object to the two men was found in the museum in. Pompeii. It was the figure of a woman turned to stone. She was seen recumbent, one knee raised, and one arm lifted as if to ! shelter her head. All that was fleshly of her had gone, and volcanic stone set like Portland cement had taken its place; b 4 ut her form was unchanged and there was more than a semblance of the features of her face. Who or what she was will never be disclosed. That she was caught by the merciless rain of ashes is tragically certain. Perhaps it was for her that some such writing as was found scratched on a wall in Pompeii was intended: "Farewell, Asellina; try to love me." But many more human remains and remnants of buildings "still lie buried under the ashes of Pompeii. The work of uncovering them all is slow and very far from complete. Is all that has been done to go for nought; are more bombs yet to fall and blast into dust these relics of life as it was in a lively Roman city of 79 A.D.? Or will Vesuvius, again vomit fire and slaughter as it did then, making, the fate of Pompeii one with that of Sodom and Gomorrah?

Weights of 2451b and 2791b of rubber an acre were found when two rubbergrowing trials in the Nelson district were examined, states an article in the current issue of the journal of Agriculture. When the shortage of rubber was seen to be of great concern to the economic life of New Zealand it was considered advisable to test the possibility of growing rubber in the Dominion. A plant called koksaghyz commended itself as one likely to be suitable, and a committee of members of the Departments of Agriculture and Scientific and Industrial Research was set up. The co-operation of the Cawthron Institute was enlisted, and trial plots were laid down at Ruakura, Hastings, Lower Hutt, Blenheim, Nelson, Timaru, and Alexandra,