Los Angeles herald., 1890-09-13
TOOK A TURKISH BATH.
A NOviCE'S VIEWS OF THE MYS-
TERlES OF THE INSTITUTION.

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 Turkish
bath said the reason he had tarried so long
was because he did not want to expose
himself to the scorn of the attendants, who
would 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 he
would not expose his ignorance, he would
go willingly enough. A man behind desk
at the door took S1.25 of his money and
gave him ticket, 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
it and gave it to the clerk and then started
off with the green ticket.
The heavy curtains behind led into
darkened, 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
sofas, on which were 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 long and
light strip of linen and his rubber bangle
His guide led the way before him down
stairs through barber shop and down an
: inclined place heavily carpeted. 1t was
+. very silent and very dark.
At the foot of the inclined and carpeted
plane the debutant stepped into big
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 dimly through a mist of steam
that brought the perspiration to the sur
face 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 be seized with nausea,
or fall over, or stifle, or do something
equally foolish, and be tried to hear what
his guide was saying and failed.
His guide scanned as much at home in the
atmosphere OF the place as though he were
on Broadway, and led him around to row
of steamer chairs that were hot to the
touch The debutant was still afraid to
breathe, and painted and glared around bim
helplessly, while his head seemed to be
splitting in different parts, and his ears
were ringing and tingling. "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 smaller
marble lined room filled with hot, dry
steam. "This is the Russian BATH" shout
ed the guide; for the novice still found it
difficult to understand.
"I-am-going-to- to-have-a-fitI' gasp
ed the novice. ''I-want-to-get-ou
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 novel and delighted
interest. Then his guide took up the line
of march and signified that he was to fol-
dow fat attendant with biceps like a prize
fighter, who led him into room with a
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 go home.
IN THE PUGILIsTs HANDS.
But his own particular pugilist decided
the matter for him by pressing him down
on the marble slab like sacrifcial offer
ing ON an altar and began pounding him
with wet catcher's glove He alternated
this treatment by rubbing the bather's
skin the wrong way with his closed fist
and hitting each particular muscle rap
with the palm of his hand. The only sat
isfaction the novice had was in listening
to 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 pulp the
attendant lathered him over with a soapy
substance that got in his eyes and mouth
and made him blind and i'll. The attend
ant removed this with hard brush, which
he passed over the novice's body as deli
cately as sailor swabs up the deck of a
man-of-war. Then he stood him up under
shower bath and dropped ton Of ice
water over his nervous system.
The attendant gave him about five min
utes to recover in the tank, around which
he swan or aoated heavily with the con-
viction that he was so clean that the very
Sunshine would show darkly on his face.
Then he was dried off and laid out again
eon another slab covered with leather, and
the pugilist had little more fun with him,
and kDeaded 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 be was enveloped in
another light covering and allowed to go
to sleep after he had tipped the prize fighter
for having reduced him to helpless SEM
blance of a man. The principal thing that
seemed benefited by this initiation was his
appetite, for that night he sat down to a
sat, large, expensive dinner and asked for
s'two goes of soup."-New York Evening
Sun.
Graduated Medical Advice.
;rf, bappans that phySi