The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-02
TURKISH BATH EFFECTS.
M BUDDY BLOOMING HEALTH
OF THE GIRL ATTENDANTS.

BARELY Have any Disease - Nine
Hours a Day in an Awtully Hot
plsce-Their Habits and Their Gsrb
Described.
From the Net0 York Sun.
IF cleanliness is next to goodness, then
,rrely the Turkish bath is temple of holt
naSs and the acolytes who administer its
,scred rites and mysteries are indeed worthy
N he canonized as saints. Perhaps praying
in the desert for the sins of humanity or
baing slowed down in boiling oil is a more
picturesque form of martyrdom than devot-
ing ones life to the purifying Of soiled cuti-
cls but we doubt much if the welding Of
the scrubbing brush be not quite as potent
for the practical good of the race as the
counting of perfumed rosaries in expiration
Of sin.
The continually increasing number of
women who frequent the baths has necesSi-
ated corresponding increase in the num-
her of women who take up this peculiar
employment OF these women bathers
about two-thirds take the baths with view
10 reducing their flesh or at least to prevent
A further increase in avoirdupois: most Of
the remaining third are inspired by de
termination to acquire more flesh, and a
small contingent are actuatei by a laudabls
ambition to be really as clean and sweet as
"morning roses newly washed in dew" 1t
may be rather interesting information to
the stout ones, who remain in the heat and
steam until fairly parboiled, that in one of
the baths up town there is an attendant who
has been in a dripping perspiration nine
hours day for three years, and yet she
would make fair showing in a dime mu-
scum of fat women. The ambitious scraw-
nv devotees to the bath would hardly be
encouraged to see in another bath slight,
SLIM little slip of woman attendant, also
constantly in the heat, who would make a
good anatomical model for artists or physi-
clans, and would need Queen Elizabethan
ruff and seventeen strings of pearls to make
q decollete dress becoming. The fieshy
attendant shunS the stout bathers as mu b
as possible, for they invariably ask her why
she doesn't get thin in the baths, and are
rather inclined 10 be discouraged at her
answer, which is always, "Oh, it isn't nat
ural for me to be thin"
As rule, however, the attendants are
vigorous, sturdy specimens Of well devel-
oped womanhood, with exquisite, firm, vel
vety flesh, fair complexlons, clear bright
eyes, and great physical strength and en-
durance. Some Of them have not been i'll
a day in ten or fifteen years, though they
work constantly in the great heat with
their bare feet continually in contact with
vet floors and their dresses damp from the
splashing Of the water. Perhaps this is some
thing of an illustration of the survival of
the fittest, as a woman not well developed
and naturally robust cannot endure the
work at all and makes way before her SUI
perior in vigor at the outset. In the baths
devoted exclusively to women the attend
ants go on duty at s o'clock and remain
until g. They lay aside all clothing, shoes,
and stockings, and don little cotton gown
reaching only to the knees and low about
the shoulders, with no sleeves. Son of
the little dresses are very picturesque affairs
Of scarlet, which contrasts happily
with the clear white flesh of throat
and limbs; others are of blue, with baby
waists and gathered skirts, while more ar
tistic still aresthe white draperies modelled
after the Grecian Chiffon, clasped on one
shoulder, falling thence below the other
arm to fasten on the hip and fall apart
down the side again at every step. 1t re-
ouires a handsome woman to appear really
well dressed in that costume to bring out its
artistic beauty, as well as a great deal of
loneliness to be clothed round about with in
addition to make it seem strictly conven-
tional and complete.
Really, the belle of the baths is curly
haired Irish girl with short, wavy hair
which twists and kinks in closer rings as
the steam and heat grow more and more in
tolerable, who wears an origin | and un-
combining little suit of Turkish towels. Two
knotted on the shoulder by two corners and
tied again below the other arm by the op-
posite corners form the bodice Two more
tied by the corners on each hip make the
pettic0at. When she can't endure the heat
another instant she takes header of into
the tank, stays until she cools off, comes out
glowing and laughing, and goes at the
scrubbing again without the preliminary of
changing her dress at all-simply ring ing
cut its fringes little
In baths where certain hours only are set
apart for ladies the attendants time of
service is shorter. lasting until l o'clock or
alittle later. The heat of the room through
which they are constantly passing and
,epassing is usually 1902 to 175", and the
temperature of the small bathrooms in
which all their vigorous work is accom-
plished is, or should be, 90o. In one of the
busiest baths Of all the massage and scrub
bing is all done in the Russian bath, where
the steam arises in such white clouds that
the bather is mercifully yelled and invisible
to the other occupants of the room. The
Precipitation pours off the attendant much
more freely than from the bather, and the
only relief she has during the humid hours
is an occasional quick dip in the plunge.
When the small bathrooms are used the
attendant stands upon the wet stone floor
and administers her vigorous massage,
from which many woman winces, but
through which she is invigorated at the ex-
pense of the rubber. The scrubbing and
massage completed, the attendant turns a
spray upon her patient. the water con-
tinually growing colder and colder. Mean
while she is herself in dripping perspira-
ton and receiving the ice-coIu water onIv
on her bare feet as it flows across the fl or
TO an opening in the side. Sometimes the
patient is held under shower of cold water,
and as most women scream and shrink
and gasp at first, the attendant must
hold them and get some of the cold drip
pings herself. Then she tucks her patient
away in warm blankets, wipes the perspra-
ton off her streaming face, and hurries
back into the heat, to go through the same
performance again adj lt6itum. She en-
counters all types of femininity in her
work-tte fussy woman, the exacting, the
frightened, the nervous-and she must have
just the right thing to say, just the encour-
aging word, the subtle little bit of fattery
concerning the figure, so carefully worded
less it give offense the unlimited patience
and invention of mother with lot of cross
babies to give their weekly bath.
The ii sy women are usually the most
difficult patients to manage, for though
they go to the baths for The laudable pur-
pose of SOLDERING off, they almost invariably
insist on having more wine after the bath
is over, and in making such time about 1t
that there is nothing else to do but to give
il To than and then bundle them into q cab