The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-10-30
Written for the Boston Journal ]
TAKING Z TCREISH BATH.

limbs. and how hot is to be the seeth-
ing caldron, before we deliver our
selves over to the hands of the Sorcer-
css. Though newspapers insist upon
it as the first duty of man that he
should 60 straightway and take a
Turkish bath, and thereby be rid of
all the heshy ills, and though rhap-
sodies are penned on the beatitudes
of feeling and rejUvenation of strength
which it induces, much curiosity is
still felt as to thu details of this
imported mode of ablution. TO
satisfy the eager inquiries Of her Sis
tiers. the writer proposes to describe,
in explicit English, the method by
which such pretended marvels are
wrought; and lest, at the outset, any
ono may suspect her candid testimony,
she declares on her knightly word
that she has paid her full fee, like
ether mortals, and expects no fayoTs
il the future.
1t is up a long flight Of steps, before
4 stately dwelling on Washington
Street, that the great unwashed go
daily; and hither we come, O merry
party Of noviees, resolved to meet
braveIy whatever awaits US, aud, if
need be, TO perish together. We are
Ushered into an ordinary sitting room,
presided over by smiling goddess;
and at her behest we first registered
our names and abiding place. This
strikes rs as a thoughtful provision,
for in case we never come out alive it
will be a comfort TO our friends to
see where we last booked ourselves.
Then we pass to an inner apartment,
surrounded with Gurtained stalls,
like those in ice-cream saloons. Into
these the goddess distributed US,
depositing with each folded sheet,
and informing US that we are to pre-
sent ourselves in this array, as soon
as may be. One by one we came forth
from the little dens; but in spite of
the clasie air which we have tried to
impart to the trailing folds, and the
severe simplicity In which we have
skewered up our jetty locks, after the
antique Greek drawings, our appear
ance fails to be impressive. Peals of
laughter, sudden and long, greet each
recruit that joins the waiting band
for the more than Lingard transfer
nation from beerimped, bepanniered,
beruffled little danes, into lank, mel
ancholy spectres, shrouded in white,
is irFesistibly comic and exhilarating.
We take up line of march. and pass
s0lemnly across the room first enter
ed, with its five straight cane-seat
lounges, set end TO the wall. 1t cheers
Us now to discover there a row of
chubby faced, frouzy damsels rolled
I'D in warm blankets, looking like
fresh little mummies just walked up.
Though their eyes twinkle contagious
ly as the ghostly procession files be-
fore them, we move on silently to our
fate. The goddess glides before US,
and at o door mysteriously shut, rings
an unseen bell. As we halt we find
she has vanished.
The door opens, springs behind us,
and we are in new domain. The
being wka onened the door may be
mermaid, y.aiad or siren, but she is
certainly of the Irish persuasion,
with great air of health, good ma
ture aud dispatch about her. We
step down to the tiled floor warm to
the touch the mermaid flashes water
on our head, and lays there a folded
towel, wet and dripping over our eyes,
This done, she remarks blithely that
we are to remain here till called for,
perhaps twenty minutes, and disap-
pears. We survey the small room
furnished only with one cane-seat
lounge and a few hard chairs, and en-
closed on one side by dark, floating
curtains, scant and faded. No orr
entail magnihcence here, surely. We
grow conscious that this is hot re-
gien; calm breathing is no easy matter,
and the perspiration starts over us in
great beads. Even the light covering
which we hug about US soon becomes
a burden, aud that towel-limp, heavy
aud wet, ID pitches over our faces at
every motion, or shelves off sideways,
or rushes down behind to the hot
tiles and IN vain we place it straight
and square, after the manner of Ital-
ian peasants, and strive to bear our
heads erect. 1t Is hard work to be
statuesque, with the mercury passing
q hundred.
Soon a spirit of adventure possesses
US; we lift the curtain in front, and
wander into a larger section of the
same room, but the floor is much hot
ter, and the thermometer on the wall
saws 1902. The storehouse of the
caloric seems to be closed ovens in
the opposite wall, and thence the
tremulous tides of hot air radiate. 1t
i heroic to approach it; we cannot
SIT eUmposedly, so crossing our arms
we.pace back and forth like Napoleon
at st. Helena, but feeling more like a
watermelon In state of violent per-
SEPARATION. 1t occurs to us that no
sound from without has reached us
since we entered, and when, pray, was
that? The mermaid has forgotten as,
or she has lured US to our destruction,
and escaped through the curtained
door. If she had read Dante, she
would probably have written over it
. Abandon hope, all ye who enter
here Shall we set up cries for help?
No one will hear them. But sudden
ly, from the unseen region beyond,
there issue sharp sounds, so resonant,
SO frequent. so plainly untempered by
mercy, that we stop on the thresh-
hole Of a Joke, gaze into each Others
eyes, aad tremble. Then all is still as
before. Is the victim dead?
But soon the curtained door opens,
the mermaid looks through. smiling
and at case, as if nothing had hap
pened, and motions US to approach.
We look volumes of farewell mes
sages o. those we leave behind. and
vanish with her. Another smaller
but decidedly cooler. Three parallel
curtains divide it, between each an
oblong marble slab is set, looking fol
all the world like tomb tablets from
an old ohuchyard, scrubbed up anC
taken indoors. Here, then, the poor
victims are buried. But we are nov
so reduced IN circumstances, SO hope
lersly in her power, so llmpsy anC
ignorant, that We never think O
resisting the mermaid. She takes
I, IL -