Wichita eagle., 1888-05-05
SOAPS AND TOWELS.
GRAVE RISKS RUN BY GUESTS OF
AMERICAN HOTELS.

Tho Peri1s of Using Cheap and Pasty
| Toilet Soaps-Disastrous Effects on tho
Wash Room.
The writer has had wide experience
| among the great Establishments of New
Iork. and in only two has found toilet soap
/ that was really Of superior quality. Many
proprietors purchase cheap CASTLE and poor
| cottonseed Oil soap by the hundred bars
| and cut these into convenient cakes They
cleanse well and generally are free from
coarse perfumes and poisonous coloring mat
ter. But nearly all brands of this class are
poorly made and strongly alkaline. They
| not only attack the skin and eventually pro-
! duee sores, but they also irritate the mouths
of the pores and eat into the glands and the
oil they contain. Their use gives a clean
skin, but one that is dry, rough and inelastic.
Frequently, after few days, dried white
patches rise and fall off, the lips and nostrils
chap and general feeling of uneasiness and
even positive discomfort results. Worse
than these are the cheap and pasty toilet
soaps so much in vogue. They are nade
from rancid vegetable oils and half decom-
in the shortest time and the cheapest manner
possible To cover up their foulness or poor
workmanship, the manufacturer colors them
with brilliant dyes or very dark dyes, and
with the rankest essential oils the market
affords.
A cake taken from second rate Broad
way house is good case in point. 1t has q
neat oval form, a strong but pleasant odor,
fathers freely, and is of handsome rich
brown hue. To any but an expert it would
appear superior article, while to hotel
proprietor it offers, besides all these attractive
qualities, the far more fascinating element of
extreme cheapness. Careful examination
and analysis show that the brown color con-
ceals a slovenly workmanship, which would
otherwise be exposed, in irregular masses of
varying shade and consistency, and that the
strong essential oils serve to smother rank
smell Of putrefaction and nauseating raw
materials The amount of the oils is so large
as to act as a rubefacient and even an irri.
tant upon the skin
The writer once experimentally rubbed it
on his face and allowed the thin saponaceous
film 70 remain ten minutes before washing
it OFF. On its disappearance he found the
cuticle covered by numerous red points inter
mediate in appearance between acne and
eczema, which lasted twenty-four hours be-
fore the face resumed it's natural appearance
Such toilet soap applied to women of fine
compilations but of sensitive skins would ruin
their appearance in less than a fortnight,
and would in the long run produce a condi.
ton of the cuticle which would require
weeks Of medical treatment to restore to its
pristine state. Far worse would be its use
upon babies and young children. Their skin
is finer and more delicate than can be easily
described. 1rritated by such soaps it would
break out into painful erupticns and in
short while thereafter into running sores.
The evils described apply chiefly to the bed
room and bathroom; those of the public
wash room are far worse. Here larger
cake is employed, and almost invariably one
whose workmanship is SO inferior that with
the slightest use it becomes pulpy or sticky.
In this condition it does all the harm men
toned, and besides this it may act and fire.
quently does act as vehicle for disease
virus and disease germs.
a person suffering from a skin complaint
or from some blood disease, which manifests
itself in cutaneous disorders, ulcers or other
sores, uses the cake and by the mere friction
Of rubbing loosens scales and pieces of dis.
eased matter which are retained by the glu-
tenous surface of the soap. These may or
may not contain the virus or the germs re-
ferred to. If they do the next person who
uses the cake runs serious risk of absorbing
the contagion and becoming a sufferer from
the same disease So bad are matters in this
regard that the only safe rule for a person
solicitous for his health is to never use the
soaps supplied by hotels for patrons and
guests, but to always carry his own with
him or to try fresh cake, 10 matter how
great the temptation may be to use that
which is freely offered in places of public 70
sort.
More Objectionable yet are tho unwieldy
roller towel, the saloon towel, and the long
and broad towels of the wash room. Thea
under any and ali circumstances are DIG
grace to the house that uses them and an in
suit to its customers. The towel removes
moisture from the face and hands by rub
bling. The friction does more, however, than
remove moisture alone. 1t forces off scales
pieces of dead skin, lymph from cuts and
abrasions mucus from the nostrils, perspira-
tons from the pores, pus from sores and
ulcers, and anything liquid that may be eE-
GREETED from the body or may have been
thrown upon its surface. The fbrous and
interlaced structure Of the towel make it a
marvellous receptacle and catch all for these
varied substances. They remain in its inter.
stices until it is washed, and even long after,
unless it is thoroughly boiled and rubbed
with strong laundry soap or treated with Ja-
velle water or chloride of lime. It is all very
well for the first man who applies towel Of
the class mentioned to his face and hands;
the second man runs risk, and the risk in
creases automatically with each USER
Annerican ANALYST