Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-15
WOMEN IN A TURKISH BATH.
The Inside Scenes as Described by One
of the Fair Bathers,


The Inside Scenes as Described by One
Of the Fair Bathers.
THE PROCESSION IN WHITE REaAIIA-aossIP IN
THE STEAM Room WHILE BANGS ARE STRAIGHT
ENING oUr-THE VIGOROUS GIRL ATTENDANrs-
BRIDE THE BELLE OF THE BATH.
The ladies' favorite hour for bathing in
Washington's Turkish bath is from 10 to 2, be-
fore the grand promenade on the Avenue, the
drive in the Soldiers Home grounds, the matt
nee, or the fashionable calling dress parade of
the afternoon, and between those hours they
may be seen trooping into the baths. ALI sorts
of women may be found there. Fat women 90
to get thin and thin women to get fat Plain
women go with an indefinite hope that II may
make them beautiful and beautiful women 60
in order to preserve their beauty; sick women
go to get well, old women go to look young,
tired women to feel rested, and misanthropic,
bilious, sallow, malarial women to get their
compilations and dispositions cleared up;
stylish women go because it is fash
ionable; dainty women because it is
luxurious and sweet, wholesome; ordinary
women go from laudabie ambition
to be clean in the fullest 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 trip
ping IN alone; they come in the daintiest of
toilets-aii simmer and dazzle and perfume,
with stylish coiffures and picturesque arrange
ments of gauze and flowers framing their
pretty faces, and they disappear in the dress
ing-rooms, and presently reappear clothed only
In diamonds and sheets. with their hair, be it
sparse or heavy, hanging over their shoulders.
There is little display of womanly vanity and
taste even in the arrangement of the long white
that trbi
women muf1e themselves up awkwardly and
clumsilv and trip over the trailing corners,
others throw the white draperies in classic
folds about their form, gathering them up in
one hand away from the bare white ankles.
THE ATTENDANTS.
The attendants present the most picturesqu
appearance. These girls are beautiful in form,
and their skin is as soft to the touch as that of
baby's; not an ounce Of superfuous flesh en-
cumbers them; not an outline of bone or joint
mars the roundness of shoulders and limbs.
They seldom know disease of any kind and are
splendid specimens of physical strength and
symmetry. Their hands are never exposed to
any other kind of work, and are soft as velvet
supple, firm and exquisite i'll touch.
SOME OF THE BArHERs.
These scantiy-clad apparitions fit along the
corridors leading to the bathrooms, and after
them scurry the white and muffied white fig
the heated rooms in constrained silence like
the first arrivals at a wedding feast. There is
the nervous woman, who comes flying in with
little bottle of smellingsalts, and sits anxiousy
on the edge OF the chair, exclaiming that she
knows that she never can stand the baths; that
the doctor has ordered them. and 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
cnnlI no i'm q AZ hot %,,,
Then there is the laxative woman, who has
| little bit OF rheumatism or nueragia in such
peculiar place, under her shoulder some
where, and she tells all the other women about it,
entering into the minute details with delight
full eagerness just what the doctor said, and
what her husband said. and what all the old
ladies said, &c, &c, ad infnitum.
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, and wants
her head cooler, asks half hundred questions,
and finally fidgets herself into 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 il the freckles across her
nose will melt Off The habitues of the place
lean back, ieisureiy dreaming of their con-
quests. their last souvenir nights triumphs and
floral ovations, or their latest and dearest
lovers, while their bangs slowly straighten out,
| noses. One slender, handsome woman, with a
heavy mass Of dark hair tossed over the back
OF the chair, one fair white arm outlined against
its shadow above her head, the sheet falling
from her faultiess shoulder and bust, sits with
her beautiful dreamy eyes full of soft splendor,
| 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 Shout
ders. One of them flies up suddenly aud goes
to the plunge. She puts one white foot in and
draws it back with little SILVER and screams;
then she tries the other foot, another little
squeai the stout attendant catches her sud-
denly about the waist and away they go laugh
ing and screaming together. The girl comes
up choking and frightened, but plucky, and
they try 1t once more, the attendant endeavor-
| ing 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 float
| ing, 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 drying room.
| suddenly mammoth woman is filled with
| ambition. and she plunges her generous pro-
| portions into the tank. The water spashes 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
Oh the seashore.
Then. climbing upon the steps, putting and
blowing, she filings herself into the water with
| splash that sends it flying over the railing
| and makes all the pretty girls jump and in
stinctively dip down to pull their skirts out of
| the way. after the manner of women, but find
| ing only the damp sheets, they smile.
| .- THE BRIDE. >
| "Georgie, George, 20 and attend to your
BRIDE whispered the manager. Now, the
bride was, matter of COURSE the prattiest girl
| in the place, with big brown eyes flashing I'M
der tangle OF yellow hair, that fell over fault-
less dimpled shoulders down to her, waist; but
the prettest thing about her was her. dainty
httle feet, pink and white and dimpled. like a
| baby's, and as faultless in shape as those of a
carven Venus. Few women have pretty feet
| and around the room was a large collection oil
divers kinds of pedal extremities. large and
| small, long and shoit, with distorted toes and
enlarged joints, but hers were faultless in form
and as delicate in coloring as the inside of a
| sea shell. She was laid out on a marble slab
| rubbed and scrubbed and secured. held under
| a shower-bath. up to which she lifted her
| pretty face like flower to the sunshine and
then wrapped up in q bath-blanket, and laid
out on one of the little couches her hair
brushed and spread out like mass of gold over