Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-07-04
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fFrom the Brooklyn Press.l
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If cleanliness lis next to godliness many
Pagans come nearer toIthe mark than Chris
tians. The greattrouble seems to have been
that the one ordinarily developed tendency
to exclude the other. Itwould have been
hard to find q cleaner or more goddess set
than the fierce Paynim of crusading days,
while in that same era Of battling truth, the
godliest men were usually the filthiest, in
deed the Christian monks deemed dirt the
best evidence of piety. But it is a browning
glory of late civilization that 1t. tries to COM
bine the merits of the two SYSTEMS, though
jtis.to be feared, that cleanliness is the vir-
tue most easily succeeded in. There is one
fearful in the life of the ancient pagans which
wesmight well adopt, aid that is, their splen-
lid system of public bathing places, where
for nothing, Or fora small and almost uni
versally attainable fee, the ,people-had access
to means OF personal cleansing. The Greeks
carried this to great perfection. The Ro-
mans paid SO much attention to'their public
baths that the magnificent piles OF masonry
erected for them remain to this day, even in
their ruins, among the grandest monuments
of that grand era. Since their day the Turks
and Arabs have been the most devout bath
ers y it is a part OF their religion, and the
public bath is as necessary an institution as
the Mosque. The Russian and the French
are the next best provided with this great
luxury, and the two nations which are the
poorest in public provision for personal
cleanliness are the two most enterprising OF
the human race. England and America are
sadly deficient in this regard. One reason
undoubtedly is that individual responsibility
| and prosperity so generally diffused through
1.-THE mass of the people, lead each man to
lllook out for himself in all such purely per-
Isonal matters, and so, really, these are
among the cleanest of all the peoples.
But there are great numbers of our ciii-
liens, of little worldly prosperity, who do
not, can not, take such care of themselves
las in fact the public health demands Tens
of thousands of our population never think
of bathing This becomes serious matter
in the crowded quarters of our large cities,
and is one that all good citizens are intcres-
Ilted in. What we need is system OF public
baths The annually recurrency of the cho'-
era scare, and the indubitable evidence that
lithat fearful disease has Its, origin and hon Z
lin filth and corruption, bring out its impor.
tsnce into the light Of day.
II Brooklyn has a very large population. A
IEgreat proportion are laborers, who from the
llcircumstances of their life, are unable to take
Especial care of their persons they have moi
been accustomed to Il, they do moi feel iht
need of it, and yet 1t is the only thing
that will, give any assurance of life anf
llhealtb. But during the hot weather COO
bath is esteemed q most refreshing luxury,
and If proper provision were made for thu
> indulgence of the poor in summer bathing, il
llwould certainly have o most wholesome ef
| feet, not only upon the hot weather healil
of the city, but also upon the ptrsonal hahiii
and permanent general cleanliness of Its dis
ease breeding classes.