New-York tribune., 1868-07-25
LAV1TORIES.

In these sudoriic days, we do not consider
it beneath our dignity to remark that bathing
has both practical and pOetical side. AS
specimen of the latter, we may mention what
Tom Campbell described as "the solemnly-
" ridiculous bathing" in Thomson's Seasons"
by which Musidora cooled her white but fe-
vered limbs, and young Damon took peep at
her from behind a tree. 1t may not be gener-
ally known that in the original draft, Thom-
son had q group of three MusidOras, but
whether there was an equal number OF Peep
ing-TOm DamOns we are not informed. At
Newport, also, and other fashionable salt-wa-
tering places, the young gentlemen must be
great deal more stupid than we suppose (and
that would be stupid indeed if they cannot
talk appropriate poetry to the young ladies,
and extempOrize, while the diving and duck
ing, and splashing goes on, one of those pretty
Marine EclOgues which the old Italian poets
used to sing so cbarminglY. The prose OF
bathing, we take it, is bathing in tub, in a
narrow CELL in company with piece OF soap,
a sponge, pair of slippers, a brush with
long handle and couple of towels. 1t isn't
at all romantic but the medical schools agree
to an NJ. ID. that it is extremely healthy, espe-
caly if the brush with long handle Is hard
enough, and the performer rubs himself to a
reasonable rubescenCe Then there is more
prose than poetry in a Russian bath, from
which the victim emerges in a semi-sodden
condition, and the extreme romance of the
Turkish bath with pipes and Coffee is well
known to all readers of Eastern travels. FL
nally, and we should think the prOsest of all,
there is that Winter morning bath, with the
thermometer in the cruel neighbOIhOod of zero,
which the late venerable John Quincy Adams
was accustomed to take, even when he was
forced to cut hole in the ice before he could
come at his principal convenience. Incredible
as the story may appear to the brolllng reader
in July, we assure our infamed friend that
this is what Miss EdgewOrth used TO call in
the margin ga fact"
While speaking of bathing, we may notice
that in the far-off city of Melbourne it has be-
come the fashion for those who advertise fur
nished rooms to mention that baths are in
cluded among the privileges and appurtenances.
Wherever Mr. Bull goes, and however press
ing may be his avocations he still retains that
passion for soap and water which is such
mystery to the German mind. Perhaps we
have inherited something of our great ances-
tors propensity, although the amount of water
supplied in some of our hotels, when the Gro
ton is not let on, would not seem to strengthen
this view of the case. In Boston, free public
baths have been established, we believe, for
several seasons. In Lowell, Mass, there is a
great agitation of the question of supplying
the citizens with the same luxury at the public
expense; and when the people of Lowell get
good idea into their heads, it is remarkable
how uncomfortable they are until they have
reduced theory to practice. There is nothing
more absurd in the notion of free baths than in the
notion of free schools. The idea of baths for the
use of the whole people is as old as Rome and,
notwithstanding their limited supply of water,
the Athenians cOntrived to do q great deal of
bathing-we mean the people of Athens in
Greece, and not the people of Athens in
Georgia, although we might suppose the latter,
from their irritable character, to be continually
in hot water.
AS this RepublicIadvances in greatness, it is
really desirable that a majority of the citizens
should be Republicans, and therefore well
washed. Our Democratic friends, we know,
maintain different theory upon both points.
They might be perfectly willing to appropriate
millions for public baths, but they would bear
watching Gas well as washing) in its expendi-
ture. And to conclude our aquarian remarks
with a question, we beg leave to ask what
would have became of New York during the
present month without the blessed Croton7