Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-05-19
WOMEN IN BATHS.
SOME 60 TO GROW PAT. OTHERS TO BECOME
LEAN.
Psttsd and Pattsd Into Comfort by Soft-Handsd
Gentle Nurses One Bars-Armsd Goddess
Who Felt as if Her Very
Soul was Clean


These are halcyon days of bygienic en-
lightenment and physical culture. Tn
''greenery gallery, Grosvenor gallery
young woman with bilious complexion
and malariel disposition and indigestibl
views of life has gone out like the hustle
and in her place has come a vigorous
straight limbsd Hebe with a skin like ala
baster and cheeks like the heart of a sea
shell, who walks and rides and rows anC
runs, plays all manner of games with thu
abandon of the beautiful Hellenic maid
ems, fences and boxes, but most OF all, sh'
battles, not in a basin half full of tepit
water for fear of taking cold, like an infan
in long clothes, but in the public Turkish
baths, like her big brother, with all The
happy zest of the Eastern maidens, Il
whom the bath day is great holiday, anc
the ceremony itself q part OF their re
ligion.
Fifteen years ago woman could ecsrcC
be hired 10 avail herself of the delights Of
the baths, but within the past five years
this practice has grown in popularity with
astonishing rspidity, and last year the
number of women bsthers was double that
of the year before, and the increase was
greatly in advance of that in the number
Of men bsthers. There are now five baths
open TO women in New York and four in
Brooklyn, and they are always crowded
with fair bathers who seek the baths to
drown their woes and melt of their flesh,
TO clear up their compilations and life
perplexilies as well, and to ehjoy the de-
licious lar guid luxury Of being petted and
patted into comfort by foft-banded, gentle
nurses, ana then tucked up in blankets to
dream away the minutes in some delight
ful Lotus land, psopled only with the
shadows of those they love best.
They go in with weary, cOlorlesS faces,
and they come out with pink cheeks
ard bright eyes, concluding that after
all marriage isn't failure and life is
worth living.
The most regular fr,qusnters of the
bath are actresses, for not only is beauty
their most valuable stock in trade, but
health, upon which they understand so
well their fairness depends, is greatly bsn.
fitted by the baths, which supply in effect
the exercise they require and seem to find
little time, inclination or opportunity to
rake and help and keep in check the sup.
erabundsnce of flesh which their manner
of living entails upOn them.
The he ny women come next in the
category, if we except those who battle for
the cure of certain diseases, for which The
baths are delightful remedies. To reduce
flesh eny considerable amount a woman
is advised to take bath every day for 70
or 100 days in succession.
Ooe plucky and determined woman
kept up the process for three months, and
lost so pounds. A fleshy woman stays as
long rs she can endure it in the heat, often
three quarters of an hour or a whole hour.
Is rubbed and scrubbed aud fummellel
and pounded until she can't breathe, and
then tucked away in warm blankets to
rest. Ore lady Kept up this heroic trent
ment for so many days that when she was
little late at the baths the attendants
smiled and said: ''Oh, she hasn't strength
20 get here" and when she was little
ate in returning home the carriage would
be sent in great haste, lest she had at last
become exhausted.
Then there are the thin women who 90
to get fleshy, and they succeed to a Ger
tain extent, for their flesh solidifies and
the scale1 register little increase OF
weight, over which they rejoice with Joy
unspeakable.
Their modus operandi differs materially
from that of the feshy sisters, and IS much
pleasanter in operation though slower in
results. The thin woman is prayed first
Of all with warm water until she feels tina
she is slowly dissOlvipg; then wrapped up
in big sheet and taken quickly to the hot
room and tucked up in a chair to swelter,
in the meantime refreshing herself with
cps of boiling hot water. When she has
borne that for 10 minutes and is Just be-
ginning to enjoy it, she is lard out on 8
couch in a still hotter part of the room
with q damp towel spread over her face in
such way that it doesn't touch it, and
lett TO slowly dissolve for 10 minutes more
20 minutes in all, and then taken away to
the scrubbiDg slab, though she may wish
70 remain in the heat, about which there
Is for some women a mild and delicious
D
most unbearable sensation of discomfort.
After the usual scrubbing and rubbing
she is stowered with cold water, which sh,
usually thinks she cannot bear, but does,
because she cannot avoid it as there is no
place to run 70, and she hasn't breath
enough 20 scream, and then she is rubbed
With fragrant oil, if she be very thin and
wishes ii, and with alcohol, whether she
wishes it or not and is tucked away in the
blankets 10 gossip with her friend, if sbe
be accompanied by one, as she usually is,
or to dream, if she be alone, in delightful
lsnguor.
''Oh, | AN so happy" said a dusky
haired woman, with wistful, shadowy
eyes, as she drew the sheet from one marble
white arm and shoulder. 81 wish could
stay here always" and q pretty actress,
with big melting eyes full of naughty
witchery, said to her companicn, as they
went trailing their long white sheets down
the passage with their bare arms CLEAN
irg well, how do you like it-feel as if
your very soul were clean, don't yOu?"
Then there are the women who 90 into
the baths to improve their complexion,
and they are more successful in their aspi-
rations than any of the dissatisfied sisters
who seek to cast the burden of their de-
fOrmities into this modern pool of Beth
saida. The complexion succumbs to the
treatment, though flesh seems sometimes
to be depressed with depraved instincts,
refusing to come when it is wanted and to
depart when it is unwelcOme.
A thick skin and dirty face are in so
many cases synonymous terms according
to the conclusions of enlightened research
that women are almost ashamed not to
have a passably clear skin. There is no
part Of the body which is so continually
exposed to the dust and CRIME of the city
streets as the face, and yet the woman who
carefully battles her body every day will
often think a little dab of water on
the face is sufficient. Consequently the
pores OF the skin fill with fine dust, which
mixes with the oily oxidation of the skin,