Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-14
WOMEN IN A TURKISH BATH.
INSIDE SCENES DESCRIBED BY ONE OF
THE FAIR BATHERs.
The Procession in White RegaIia-A
Biide Belle of the Bath-Gossip
in the Steam Room.
From the Washington Star.

in the Steam Room.
From the Washington Star
| The ladies' favorite hour for bathing in
| Washington's Turkish bath is from 10 to .,
before the grand promenade on the Ave
nue., the drive in the Soldiers Home
| grounds, the matinee, or the fashionable
calling dress parade of the afternoon, and
between those hours they may be seen
| trooping into the baths. All sorts of
women may be found there Fat women
go to get thin, and thin women to get fat
| Plain women go with an indefinite hope
that it may make them beautiful, and
| beautiful women go in order to preserve
their beauty; sick women go to get well
old women 20 to look young, tired women
to feel rested, and misanthropic, bilious,
| sallow, malarial women TO get their COM
plexions and dispositions cleared up; stylish
| women go because it is fashionable; dainty
women because it is luxurious and sweet,
| wholesome; ordinary women 60 from a
laudiable ambition to be clea:. in the full
est sense Of the word.
They come in carriages and on foot
| they come with their maids in attendance.
they come chattering along in pairs, and
| they come tripping in alone; they come in
| the daintiest of toilets-all simmer and
| dazzle and perfume, with stylish coifures
and picturesque arrangements of gauze
and flowers framing their pretty faces, and
! they disappear in the dressing ng-rooms, and
presently reappear clothed only in dia-
mondS and sheets, with their hair, be it
| sparse or heavy, hanging over their shoul-
| ders. There is a little display of womanly
vanity and taste even in the arrangement
of the long white wrappings that envelop
| them, for while some women mufile them
selves up awkwardly and clumsily and trip
over the trailing corners, others throw the
white draperies in classic folds about their
| form, gathering them up in ore hand away
| from the bare white ankles.
THE ATTENDANTS.
The attendants present the most pictur-
esque appearance These girls are beauti-
ful in form, and their skin is as soft to the
touch as that of babys; not an ounce of
supertluous flesh incumbers them: not an
outline Of bone or joint mars the round
ness of shoulders and limbs They seldom
know disease of any kind, and are splendid
specimens of physical strength and SYM
metry. Their hands are never exposed 10
any other kind of work, and are soft as
velvet, supple, firm ard exquisite in touch.
SOME OF THE FATHERS.
These scantily clad apparitions fit
along the corridors leading to the bath
rooms, and after them scurry the white
! and mutiled white figures of the bathers,
who seat themselves about the heated
rooms in constrained silence, like the first
arrivals at wedding feast There is the
nervous woman, who comes flying in with
a little bottle of smelling-salts, and sits
| anxiously on the edge of the chair. ex-
claiming that she knows that she can never
stand the baths; that the doctor has or
dered them, and that she knows she hasn't
strength to endure them, and she calls for
an attendant to tell her all about it, and
interrogates her neighbor to know if she
isn't getting pale, as though even a corpse
| could be pale in room at that tempera-
ture.
Then there is the talkative woman, who
has little bit of rheumatism or neuralgia
in such peculiar place, under her shoul-
| der somewhere, and she tells all the other
women about it, entering into the minute
details with delightful eagerness, lust what
the doctor said, and what all the old ladies
said, etc, ad ininitum.
Then there is the fussy woman, who
exclaims about The heat, and says she is
all burning up, and is sure something is
| wrong, and wants a drink, and wants her
| handkerchief, aud wants her head cooler,
asks half hundred questions, and finally
| fdgets herself into a fever
The shy little newcomer over in the
corner, demurely wrapped up to her chin,
| even her hands tucked out of sight, smiles
softly at the scene and wonders If the
| freckles across her nose will melt off The
| habitues of the place lean back, leisurely
| dreaming of their conquests, their last
| souvenir nights triumphs and floral ova-
| tions, or their latest and dearest lovers,
| while their bangs slowly straighten out,
and the perspiration meditatively drips off
their noses. One slender, handsome woman,
with heavy mass of dark hair tossed over
| the back of the chair, one white arm out
| lined against its shadow above her head,
| the sheet falling from her faultless shoul-
der and bust, sits with her beautiful
dreamy eyes full of soft splendor, all un-
conscious of the perfect picture she is
making in the white drapery through
which her form is outlined.
THE PLUNGE.
From the hot room they are rushed
across the corridor to the steam bath,
where, on the marble seats the pretty
bathers sit in various graceful attitudes,
with bare arms and shoulders. One of
them flies up suddenly and goes to the
plunge. She puts one white foot in and
draws it back with a little shiver, and
| screams; then she tries the other foot,
another little squeal; the stout attendant
catches her suddenly about the waist, and
away they go, laughing and screaming to-
/ gether. The girl comes up, choking and
frightened, but plucky, and they try it
once more, the attendant endeavoring to
teach her the stroke in swimming. After
countless attempts, which inevitably end
IN failure, she abandons the idea and only
| tries to float but even this is in vain, for
as soon as she experiences the sensation
incident to floating, down goes her head,
because she opens her mouth to give the
| funny little scream that is the voice of
most women's sensations. The attendant
puts an end to her fears by hurrying her
away to the dryingroom.
| Suddenly a mammoth woman is filled
with ambition, and she plunges her gener-
Gus proportions into the tank. The water
splashes to the brim. Up and down the
tank she swims and floats, while the water
beats against the sides of the tank in swift
recoil, like the wave on the seashore.
Then, climbing upon the steps, putting
and blowing, she filings herself into the
water with a splash that sends it flying
over the railing, and makes all the pretty
girls jump and instinctively dip down to
pull their skirts out of the way, after the
manner of women, but finding only the
damp Sheets they smile.
THE BRIDE.
"Georgie, George, go and attend to
yohr bride" whispered the manager
Now, the bride was, as matter of course,
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