The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-06

They Roasted Him, Froze Him, Steamed
Him, Drowned Him, Beat Him and
Then Rubbed His Bruises with Oil
But He Was Clean and Hungry.
The man who had never taken a Turkish
bath said the reason he had tarried so Ionn
was because he did not want to expose
himself to the scorn of the attendants, who
wouIo discover at once by his mistakes
That he was novice. But if his friend
would promise to steer him against the
game, he said, and instruct him. so that be
would not expose his ignorance. he would
go willingly enough. A man behind a desk
at the door took ST. of his money and
gave him ticket, a rubber ring with two
keys attached and an envelope. His guide
ran his hand through the rubber ring as
though it were bracelet, put his watch and
money In the envelope, wrote his name on
1t and gave it to the clerk and then started
OF with the green ticket
The heavy curtains behind led into a
tarkened, Ornately furnished and warmly
heated hall, with doors opening into it on
every side and doors opening out on an
oriental balcony that ran around it. 1t
was Uttered with a great many leather
sofas, on which We're stretched half dozen
men in different attitudes OF repose or ex-
haustion. They were wrapped in long
white cloths
THE WARM ROOM.
The attendant unlocked one of the doors
opening into the hall and showed dress
Ing room, into which the novice disap-
peared TO come forth clothed in a long and
hight strip of linen and his rubber bangle
his guide led the way before him down
stairs through a barber shop and down an
inclined place heavily carpeted. IL was
very silent and very dark.
AT the foot of the inclined and carpeted
plane the debutant stepped into bic
marble, gayly colored and tiled hall, with
deep tank of green water sunk in the
center and surrounded by brass rails. He
saw all this dlmly through a mist of steam
that brought the perspiration to the sur
lace of his skin with rush and made him
gasp and feel dizzy. He was quite SURE
that he would faint If he did not get back
to the fresh air, or he seized with nausea,
or fall over, or stife, or do something
equally foolish and ne tried TO hear what
his guide was saying and failed
His guide seemed as much at home in the
atmosphere of the place as though he were
on Broadway, and led him around to a row
Of steamer chairs that were hot to the
touch. The debutant was still afraid to
breathe, and painted and glared around him
helplessly, while his head seemed to be
splitting in different parts, and his ears
were ringing and tingIing. ''Do you want
to go into the warm room or stay here?" he
heard his guide ask politely.
"Intothe what-the warm room ?" gasped
the victim. Great Scott! what do YOU call
this?" he asked, pointing pathetically at
the redness of his skin and the streaming
perspiration.
'Oh, this isn't anything" said the guide,
jumping up and stalking off into a smaller
marble lined room filled with hot, dry
steam. This is the Russian bath" shout
Cd the guide; for the novice still found it
difficult to understand
"I-am-going-to- gasp
cd the novice. 'I-want-to-get-
The man who had been there before
pulled the chain of a shower bath and told
the novice TO put his head under it. The
water that fell was gratefully cold and the
novice held his head in the waterfall and
breathed freely and long. This made him
feel better, and when he stepped back into
the warm room again it did not seem so bad.
He lay down in the steamer chair and
watched the heat wash away about three
pounds of him with a novel and delighted
interest. Then his guide took up the line
bf march and signiied that he was to fol-
low fat attendant with biceps like prize
lighter, who led him into a room with
marble slab in it and a shower bath. There
was no one to direct him now, his friend
was locked up with another determined
looking prize fighter in the next room, and
the novice felt very nervous and inclined
TO give the whole thing up and 20 home.
IN THE PUGILISr's HANDS.
But his own particular pugilist decided
the matter for him 10y pressing him down
On the marble slab like a sacrifcial offer
ing on an altar and began pounding him
with a wet catchers glove He alternated
Ibis treatment by rubbing the bather's
Lkin the wrong way with his closed fist,
md hitting each particular muscle rap
with the palm of his hand. The only sat
lsfaotion the nceAe had was in listening
70 the whacks the other prize fighter was
giving his guide in the next room. He felt
that he was in part avenged When his
own body had been reduced to a pulp the
lathered him over with a soapy
substance that got in his eyes and mouth
and made him blind and ILL The attend
-
he passed over the novice's body as deli
cately as a sailor swabs up the deck of a
Then be stood him up under
q shower bath and dropped a ton of ice
water over his nervous system.
The attendant gave him about five min
utes to recover in the tank, around which |
be swan or fioated heavily. with the con-
viction that be was so clean that the very
sunshine would show darkly on his face. |
Then he was dried Of and laid out again |
On another slab covered with leather, and |
the pugilist had a little more fun with him,
and kneaded and thumped and pounded |
him and rubbed alcohol over him and then |
wrapped him in a cool white winding sheet |
and led him upstairs to one Of the leather |
covered sofas, where he was enveloped in |
another light covering and allowed to go |
to sleep after he had tipped the prize fighter !
for having reduced him 70 helpless sem
blanoe Of a man The principal thing that
seemed benefited by this initiation was his