New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-04-30
Public Baths.


lfrom the fHiiHuelpnia LeuSeF.J
Although we may sometimes laugh at Yankee
80 notions - we are not the less ready to acknoWl
edge that many of them are capital in their way
and worthy of imitation by people farther South.
The Boston authorities are about opening salt
water baths for public use. and thus comforting
great boon on the people Of that city. We cannot
open " saltwater" baths here but still something
might be done, both BY private enterprise and by
concerted action among public spirited citizens to
extend the benefits of bathing, in or near our two
noble rivers to that numerous class of our people
who are without the benefits of baths in their own
houses. Establishments of this kind could be pro-
vided where, at even the smallest fee for admls-
sion, they could be made to defray their own eX-
penses, even be remuneratIve as private establish
ments The luxury of plunge into clear river
water is one that attracts al-both young and old;
and if the means were only provided on an extern
sive scale, they would be largely awaited of. Our
police regulations, however, from motives of pub
lie deceney tproper enough, if not overstrained,)
tend to discourage bathing, especially among boys,
along the river fronts There are those who doubt
the wisdom of this policy; but still every dictate
of sound morality could be observed, and yet both
men and boys could be encouraged to battle and
swim in the summer months by the judicious ex-
penditure Of few RATS of lumber for enclosures
at available points. The effect upon the public
health would be very sanitary. M
Public establishments for indoor bathing are
hardly less worthy of endowment than dispense
ries and hospitals for the poor. Wealthy men
could do most substantial good in this way at
the same TIME bHaJ Lley'aTe exercising tHeN Iee
ings Of benevolence While the chief provision
would be for cold bathing, there ought to be also
warm and vapor baths for the use of the invalid,
the aged and the infrm. In this way most valuable
aid would be given to the customary medical treat
ment of those persons who are prescribed for by
dspensary physicians Already baths and wash
houses have heen constructed for the use of the
poor and the needy. The veriest criminal, before
he enters his CELL and at stated times afterwards,
receives the benefits of abutlon and bath Why
should not the worthy poor be enabled to obtain
the free use of similar means for their comfort
and health?
In the matter of bathing modern civilization is
behind not only the ancient Greeks and Romans,
but, also the middle dark ages as they some
times called. There were at one time s56 public
baths at Rome, some Of which, as those of Dioce-
tian resembled in their extent and variety parts OF
small towns. All classes resorted to the baths
and the emperors themselves, such as Titus
Adrian and Alexander Seyerus, were occasionally
seen among the bathers.
The price of admission was very small, being
| not more than half a cent. 1t may, in part, be
said to have ,een gratuitous. In the middle ages
during the prevalence of leprosy, bathing was
made religious duty. One would wish that it
were everywhere SO regarded. No man would be
knighted or received into an order of chivalry I'M
less he had previously taken the bath. Every Sat
urday the attendants on the baths went through
the streets and called the people to the baths with
the Jingle of basins. In the fourteenth century,
the keepers of the baths were promoted to the
honors of a corporation guild by the Emperor
Weucesias. Coming down to the present day, we
find that in Russia the use of the bath, by vapor
and cold abluton, is general from the emperor to
the poorest peasant. Equally general is the use
of the bath in Turkey, Egypt aud Persia, among
all classes, from the pasha down to the poor camel
driver or the Arab boatman--in short every one
who can raise few paras.