The Washington critic., 1888-08-25
SOMETHING ON CITY LEE
Something About - Bnsinc-, Recently
Started In Washington

started in Washington.
NINE. BLANK, ALCOHOL BATHS AND MAG.
AVA netic treatment Ladies' and gentlemen
hours, 0 n. m. to y p. M, -- New YORK ave
nue., To right, northwest.
This odd little personal appeared in an Is
sue or two Of the Post a short whilo ago. odd,
that is, for Washington. In n New York or
Chicago paper It would he but one of dozens.
But IN this city such an advertisement is o
decided novelty.
MADAM Blank" Is New York woman.
They say that her mother ran an establishment
similar TO that indicated by this personal, on
strictly moral and thcrapeutlcal basis how
ever, aud that It was then that Madam learned
the massage business She Is said to have
gone wrong when quite young, naturally
enough under the circumstances, and not long
ago she came here, tackled tin sign with
"Madam Blank' on II in gilt letters Oh a
black ground to the door of her room, "to
right and sat down 10 wait.
She has two large rooms, one looking out
on the Avenue and connecting by door with
the rear room which also had a door leading
TO the hall, and IL was In the best sort OF a To-
cation, and from the windows you could al
most throw stone to the Y. NJ. G. A. build
ing.
One, on reading Madam's advertisement,
would expect her to be, as usual, an aged
crone, with false hair and smelling strongly
of herbs, who would "massage" one with
honey knucltles and talk the while with the
utmost freedom, calling spades spades in the
unpleasant way old women are sometimes
wont to- But Madam Blank was young and
pretty, decidedly pretty. She was petite aud
handsomely built, though on rather slender
lines, and the pink paleness OF her plump
soft hands were soothing as u benediction iu
the mysteries OF the massage treatment.
Her face was q perfect oval, and her big
gray eyes looked innocently out from under
har clfUhtly aroha1 aynhpnWc tttIa U1prV n
meeting brows" that Byron sings of. Her
hair was brown and her dress and manner
quiet, even Quakerish when she chose, and al
together Madam was very sweet to look upor.
Madam bad an assistant, big blonde girl,
with magnificent pair Of shoulders and arms,
whose story was even more romantic than
Madam's She was Of Chicago birth, and
years ago her sister elopeu with a Chicago
butcher, who sold out his business, Invested
the proceeds in o cattle ranch In Wyomingand
started with his sweetheart for the ranch, all
in one night, just fortnight after they first
met.
Before they had been on the ranch half
year the newmade ranchero's head cowboy
as the foreman of q ranch is called--fell in
love with the Chicago girl and married her
A couple Of years ago her sister, now madam's
assistant paid her visit. Her advent at the
ranch was great event. Were they in Utah
and polygamy reversed she could have mar
ried all the cowboys on the ranch.
Their methods of expressing their alteration
were as unique rs sincere. When their days
work was done aud the ranch lay drowsily In
the half light after the sun dropped behind
the snow-tipped peaks of the Rocky Noun
tans, tho cowboys mounted their favorite
nags and raced back and forth by the little
porch where the Chicago girl sat and gave eX
hibtions Of horsemanship that would make
Wild West Show star mad with envy.
Back and forth they flew, one after another,
In and out of the saddle, waving the coils OF
their braided hair lariats round their heads
and now and then breaking horses neck in
mad jump over the back of n grazing cow
Finally, the rivalry settled down to two of
the cowboys, who seemed equally favored by
the Chicago girl, aud the less favored ones
ranged themselves about equally on their re-
spective sides. Then one evening as she was
walking short distance from her sisters
home there was a rush Of hoofs behind her,
and before she knew 1t one of her lovers had
dismouuted, lifted her In his arms to his
horses back, mounted behind her and oding
her with his hands, the bride reins in his teeth
guided his horse by word and spur over the
mountain slope to deserted cabin u couple Of
miles away.
Here she staid two or three days. until one
sunny morning, when her bold lover was away
mt work, and she was guarded by three friendly
cowboys, her other admirer rode up, surprised
her g,iard dSlilled one outright and seriously
cholIed the third into insensibility Then he
led the girl To nearby clump of trees, where
he had left another horse and under pretense
Of taking her back to the ranch succeeded in
corralling her in deserted army tent that he
had fitted up for her reception.
ltwas week before she succeeded in es-
Gaping and making her way to her brother-in-
laws ranch, and by that time she was weari ed
OF ranch life, and she got back to Chicago as
fast MS she could. Soon after she met Madam
Blank and became her assistant.
The Madam's business in Washington began
to prosper almost Immediately, but she
had not been at 1t many months before
Police Lieutenant Amiss' bright men ''caught
on' and she had to move, and now the door
'to rght' is stripped of its modest sign and
the rooms are vacant.
These 'magnetic baths and massage treat
ments" by women always make one think of
the barkeeper's good old joke when he asks
''With or without ?'' while making whisky
cocktail and not unnaturally, either
Madam always gave the baths herself, and
the assistant waited in the other room until
she was wanted. OF course the man who was
getting the bath made love to Madam in the
most desperate sort of way, but Madam her
self was ice.
She went about her business in a nonchaant
way that resulted in even more desperate
love-malling. She gave the baths as thor
oughly as a man would, rubbing and knead-
ing the bather's flesh just as the attendant Mt
Turkish bath does and then she calls in the
blonde assistant.
But Madam is gone now and the nice old
men who took the treatment to make them
thinner and the flash young ones who did it to
make them stouter, don't climb up the mar
row stairway to the room "to right" any
more.