Wichita eagle., 1888-04-12

Splendid and Costly Baths Rapidly Null
tiply Throughout the City-Where the
Pretty Society Women Go to Take a
Merry Swim.
"Me tub is me second self" a well known
lawyer said in the Hoffman house the other
night, @and one reason why / don't leave
New York and go with my family to the
mountains is simply because l cannot enjoy
my bath as do in town. l bath in ice cold
water all the year round, and l have never
had cold or a sore throat since / began the
practice. In the country a man can never
get good bath when he wants it-before
breakfast-and SO he begins the day wrong"
The bath has almost grown TO the proper
tions of q fad In New York. Apartments
without a bathroom are not to be thought
q, and tubs are distributed through the
hotels in a fashion that would crafty the
spirit of the ancient Romans Everywhere
the bath is the principal subject OF talk IN
renting fats or houses Many a private res
idence in New York IS embelished with a
bathroom that is modelled on the famous one
in the Vanderbilt mansion | had the pleas
ure, the other Gay, of looking over the cuts
that have been prepared for an article on
this subject for one Of the magazines. The
article will probably appear within fifteen
years. There were twelve photographs Of
the bathrooms in the houses of prominent
New Workers. Most of them were apart
ments ten to fourteen feet square. with
the walls and ceilings of marble or
porcelain tiles, and the floor a more or less
expensive mosaic. Light was admitted
through stained glass windows, and the bath
proper was plunge of four or five feet deep,
and as many feet square, surrounded by a
bronze railing. Marble steps led down from
different sides, and the arrangements of the
faucets, showers, etc, were modelled on clas-
steal originals. Several of these bathrooms
represent in themselves outlay of thou
sands Of dollars, and they put the primeval
tub to the blush.
Baths are building everywhere about town.
A new one, which will soon be thrown open,
is under the Produce exchange, and it is in
many respects one of the most costly bathing
places in the world. Several hundred thou
sand dollars have already been spent on it,
Salt water is carried directly from the bay,
and is kept running through the bath con-
stantly. There are rooms where thirty at
PENDANTS are as hand to scrub, rub and douse
with alcohol the festive bathers. The main
tank Is sixty feet one way by fifty the other,
ard runs in depth from five to nine feet.
All along the river front, both in the East
and North rivers, the public baths are now
open, and in many places there are baths
established as business ventures In competition
with them. Baths of this description are
made of wood, and are nothing more or less
than huge hollow squares with floor graf
ing that keeps the bathers from going too
deep They are floated near some pier, and
bathing suits, together with the privilege of
swimming for an hour, cost from fifteen to
twenty-five cents. All sorts and conditions
Of men, boys and children attend them.
Certain hours are set aside for the bathers
of the gentler sex. They are forced to wear
suits of regulation pattern, and it is neces-
sary 20 be very strict in the matter, for the
women are proverbially careless about con-
cealing their charms when men are not about
Some of them swim in a fashion that would
astonish the professionals, and they dive off
the ratings and play all sorts of pranks with
each other, precisely as schoolboys do. l re-
member once having look at bath when it
was occupied exclusively by women. A man
was going to buy the place and l went with
him to look at it. He went over the estab-
lishment while | stared at the bathers with
unremitting industry. 1t was in one OF the
poor wards of the town and most Of the girls
were factory operatives and shop employees.
Many of them had brought old calico wrap
pers with them to serve as bathing suits, but
the restrictions of the bath would not permit
this, and they were forced to wear more suit
able costumes. The display of magnitcently
proportional figures and graceful outline
would have driven Fifth avenue mad with
envy.
The best society swinS There are now In
the vicinity OF Fifth avenue several bathing
establishments which represent a large out
lay of capital, and which are patronized only
by people of high social pretensionS. One of
them isin charge of an acute and shrewd
Swede, who says openly that he viii not
allow any middle class people" to visit his
place.
Il never touch anything" he said to me
one day, conposedly, (which is not of TIE
upper crust. instruct the arlstocratic peo-
pie of New York how 10 swim; | will not
have anything to do with the humber ele-
ments of the town. This is partially because
like it, and partially because bath that Is
run exclusively for the best class of society
will be literally patrorized. Ny place occu-
pies four city lots, for which | paid SS5 coo
before began to build The expenses are
very large, as it is necessary to keep the pool
warm enough in winter to admit of bathing,
and all of the accessories are in good taste"
This was true TO an eminent degree. Every
thing that the water touched was marble or
silver, and the dressing rooms were models
of comfort and elegance. Illustrated maya
zines and papers were scattered about the
reading rooms and the attendants were all in
snowy uniforms There were probably half
q dozen ladies swimming at the time They
wore very light and close fitting bathing
suits, and their instructors were women
One Of the swimmers was society lady
whose face has been familiar to New Workers
at the opera and fashionable balls for several
seasons. She is a dainty little woman, with
sface as delicate as a cameo, and she has q
soft voice and a gentle manner. She reminds
one of a num- she is so quiet and demure.
The day that glanced in the bath she was
Just emerging from her dressing room. Her
trim figure was clad in single garment that
looked as though it might have been made Of
Turkish toweiing. She battered down the
walk on run, scudded up the steps to a
springboard five or six feet above the water,
poised herself on the end a moment and then
sprapg in the air like bird and dived out Of
sight Presently she came to the surface Of
the water, ten or fifteen feet beyond, and
went splaShing hand over hand TO the steps
Once there the scrambled 10 the walk again
and repeated her dive with shrek Of syul-
tation that could be heard all over the build
ing. She was as wild, untramnleled and VEN
furesome as street arab on an east side dock.
Many OF the crack croquet, badminton and
polo playing girls swim regularly at these
baths They have learned that it develops