St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-21
REAL turkish BATHS.
Scenes in a Fashionable Bath
House Near the City Of
Cohstantinople.
The Work Of the Hair Dresser,
Tooth-Polishep and Com
plexion Artist.
Air Which Is Hot, But Dry,
and Not Unpleasant and
Suffoeating.
A Fountain Of Pepfumed
Water--Baths on the
Rosphorus.

constantinople Correspondence.
The Turkish bath here is far from
being the Turkish bath in far away
America. Every Turkish house in the
best society has its private bath, that is
used on certain days and hours by
women of the family, and other days by
the men. Others again have two sets of
baths, one for the women and the other
for the men. These baths are heated
with hot air, which comes from large
furnace situated at quite distance
from the house, and fed by wood and
charcoal. The heat is carried in such
way as not to make moist atmosphere,
and the air in the different rooms is hot,
butdry, which is not so unpleasant and
suffocating as the so-called Turkish
baths i'll America. The three rooms
being passed, the ladies go into the last,
where there is a fountain of perfumed
water, and where the last part Of the
cleansing takes place. The baths in the
palace at Dolme-baktchee, Oh the BoS
phOrus, are very beautiful, but 1t would
require a volume to describe them, for
v L
tered in the bath, where the people
seem most to enjoy themselves.
just outside the limits of CONSTANT
nople, up in the Golden Horn, is Aga
Hammam. bath frequented by many
ladies of the highest position, not be-
cause they have no baths of their own,
but because they are sure to meet their
friends there without restriction and
have good time. 1t has always been a
great place for mothers to take their
manageable daughters, and other
mothers to go to choose bride for their
sons, and as wives are not chosen for
their mental, but physical, beauties
alone, certainly this is the place to
choose, where beauty is quite una
dorned, and, therefore, OF this bath we
will speak.
The ladies arrive, each one attended
by her own personal servant, and an
other who bears very substantial
lunch basket and a handsome gold-bor-
dered bathing-wrap. The eunuchS re-
main outside or go away and come back
at the hour the bath is ended, as it Oc-
cupieS several hours.
Beauties in the Bath.
First the ladies are Invested of their
clothing and receive a crepe sheet,
which they drape about them while
they sit the regulation time in the first
room. During this time they chat with
each other, though not very familiar ly.
and they keep up the pretense of the
irapery until they reach and pass the
next room, after which the sheet and
modeSty are thrown off, and with their
abundant hair streaming loose and I'M
confined they walk erect into the last
room as Eve did into the garden of
Eden. There they stretch themselves
out upon the marble slabs while two at
PENDANTS rub them and lather them and
pour hot water over them until it seems
as if they would boil them. Each lady
is laid upon marble slab which is
slightly inclined and two attendants be-
gin their labOrS. one at the feet and the
other at the head. They use sort
Of clay called pilo, which
raises a thick white, lather.
which sometimes grows several inches
thick. The attendants use nothing but
this soapy clay and their hapdS to
cleanse their subject with. and they rub
and knead and punch until it seems
they would reduce the flesh to pulp,
all the while leaving this iather to ac-
cumulate until the bather looks like a
SNOWFALL Another kind of soap is used
for the hair, and another again for the
gather thick. as the worker rubs and
tolls, the perspiration rolling in streams
down her own glistening body. Some
times these attendants are white, some
times black; and some of the ladies of
the harem are as black as any negro in
our own country. as it is quite COM
mon thing for a man to make wife of
his AbySsinian slave. These inky ladies
wear the Turkish veil as religiously as
Go the white wives: and, indeed, the
color line is not drawn closely at all
in the Orient. This Turkish bath is
lighted from the roof and through
stained glass, and the colGred light falls
upon the forms laid out beneath with
a deep basin stands in the middle of the
room and numberless little pipes throw
off sprays of perfumed water above the
slabs on which the ladies lay like ami.
mated snowflakes, kicking and squeal-
ing when soap gets III their eyes or
mouths, OF when the attendants tickle
them unexpectedly.
Washing Off the Lather.
A little silver basin stands at hand.
and after the ladies' have soaked in the
soap long enough they take quite hot
water, entirely too hot for anybody but
l..
pour it gently over them, not dashing
the water, but softly emptying it. so
that it soon washes off all the lather,
leaving the flesh rosy and fresh This
pouring of water is continued some
times half an hour. and rubbing, rolling
and kneading off the body, after which
the lady is at liberty to plunge into the
basin if she wishes among the other
laughing and frolicking women, black
and white mingling Unfortunately.
Words cannot depict the utter aban-
onment to fun and sport that takes nos
session of these women. and children.
too. for after girl is nine years old
she is admitted to women'S society un-
restrainedly. The young girls are ali
plumper than our young girls, and
they have in the main fine figures.
though the knees are always big and
prominent, which is probably caused by
the habit of sitting crOSS-legged as they
do. Their skin is very white and pure,
in spite of their unwhOlesome diet and
indolent habits.
When they have sported about in the
basin to their hearts content the SER
wants bring in their lunch baskets, and
the women squat fat on the dripping
floor, and, without other garments than
their trikcling hair, eat until. as Sa m
y,
play all manner of pranks with each
other, after which. the remnants of food
are carried away, and the women return
to the water again and splash about
there for a short time longer, and then
proceed to their dressing rooms. the
bathing gown for the first time being
produced. Then they go and seat them
selves on stools, after short lounge OF
divan and cigarette or so and coffee
and the professional beautifier take.
charge of them.
The Professional BeautIfiers.
First the hair is thoroughly dried ant
picked out free from tangles, ant
smoothed with the hands only until it il
soft and glossy as silk. Then it il
braided in two long tresses, though
some affect other styles of dressing it
The hair is most always banged in seal
lops. The hair dresser passes to an
other, and the tooth polisher comes. anC
with brush and charcoal powder
makes the teeth glisten; and these
women are quite expert dentists. pull
ing bad teeth and filing those possible