Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-06

The Very Surprising Adventure OF . Lady
Who Sought To BE Thinner.

lut luiluldtt lfltDdt OF a lAlN well known IN
Washington society have been both shockcd
and panied to learn of a recent misadventure
which has befallen this most charming Of
women.
In the brief period during which she WINS the
spouse Of distinguished southern Congress
pan she was much n marked as a leading belle in
the most exclusive social circles at the capital.
Admired while yet u maiden. fresh from Nir-
ginia's lovely meadows. as the plumpe-t Of the
fair buds that blossomed in Ma-hington's
flower garden. even what Shakespeare calls the
''buxom air" of summer WAS less SO than She
as she appeared in the early days of her Joyous
matronhood. Alas that for the positive
plump and the comparative ''buNom' there
should be no superative save ''corpulent"
With a woman getting fat is art 10 be progress
siye. like euchre or tiddledy-winks and the lady
in question had by no means attained her max
imum of adipoee at the time of her first divorce.
Her second. third and fourth husbands OBJ
served with an interest not unmodified by ap-
prehenslon her steady increase in embonpoiut,
but IL was not until her recent period u
widowed mourning that. owing. perhaps. TO
her enforced withdrawal from social exercises,
she ran up in weight over the limit she had set
for herself as one of alarm.
Az the story was told to a STAR reporter il
happened that just about at the same time
she received penny valentine. believed TO
have been sent by a former intimate but now
envious friend. which represented. in brilliant
colors and with much freedom Of execution. an
enormously fat woman with very red nose,
having poetic legend attached, which began:
..Fair Mistress o'B.se,
ahrfe ar solie -, -
Mo Sh@1 admir- d,g,, i sS%r shaIe
And so on in the well-known and refined
penny valentine style.
Tins too much. One may acknowledge
being stout even TO the point of corpulency.
but 10 be called ''obese' Is beyond endurance
The first impulse entertained by the lady 10
whom the ode was addressed was 10 scratch
out the ewes Of the person she suspected "a the
sender. Her sober second thought prevailed
and she procured a steam bath.
She had read in a newspaper a statement 20
to the manner in which one may reduce ones
ayoirdupois forty pounds a week and get down
to any point of weight desired by having a
wooden box with steam pipe connections put
up IN the bath room. at q cost of only $40 aud
spending quarter OF an hour in il daily. Luz
asmuch as she was gaining flesh at the rate Of
three pounds a day, there was time 10 lie
lost. She sent for the carpenter and the plum
Der at once. The next evening she took her
first steam bath. unattended. Her maid had
taken her evening out. but she thought the girl
was not needed, and the other two servants had
gone home for the night. Is the Washington
fashion. So she shut herself an, having turred
on the steam. and found herself enjoying the
sensation hugely. Ii seemed 10 her that she
was shrinking perceptbly In the heated aud
moisture-laden medium which the box IN
closed. Meanwhile, being seated. her head
projected out through hole in the top and
she was thus relieved from any Inconvenience
iprbreathing.
thought she would stand it for ten minutes
longer before getting out and refreshing her
seif with a cold plunge Ii began TO be mo-
notonous, but was she not growing thinner!
She fairly imagined that she could ted herself
shrink Guessing at the time-for she had left
her watch ia her boudoir-she felt for the knob
of the box door at length, but il would not
open. The key the outside and the food
carpenter had put on spring lock!
A pretty nix. IN truth! Shut up in a hot bath
for AN indefinite period-at all events until the
maid should arrIve-with no possible way Of
getting out or even OF turning of the steam.
Can anything more embarrassing be imagined?
Eight pm. and no hope of rescue until 10
at the earliest There nothing for il but
resignation. The unfortunate lady. though APP
palled at the prospect, summoned up such
Christian fortitude a she had accumulated in
society. and made up her mind TO wait since
there was no alternative. After what seemed
about a week. she heard the clock ON the
mantlepiece in the drawing room below
strike 3. BY the time that 10 Was struck
she began to despair Of surviving the ordeal
Only one consolation SUPPORTED her; she could
not be mistaken In the feeling that she had al
O'Clock arrived and IL midnight: but still the
maid had not returned. At the beginning the
luckless victim had tried 90 gather together
some Of the objurgatory epithets which she had
heard men use on a few occasions, to their eyi-
dent mental relief in trying circumstances, but
she far beyond that now. Necessity is the
mother of shamelessness, as well a. of invention,
and she would have thanked heaven for a man
who would have had the courage TO invade the
sacred precincts of her bath room. unlock the
Of fh.aa hax
out lively, madam. if you please
She must have fallen asleep from exhaustion
soon after that At all events. when conscious
ness returned, she saw rays Of daylight stream
ing in through the closed curtains IL was .
frightful situation TO vale up to. A feeling
came upon her that she must do something OF
perish. and, acting upon q desperate sugges-
ton, she deliberately wriggled her way out
through the hole at the top of the box. through
which her head had been thrust and fell in an
angular and ungraceful heap on the bathroom
floor.
The maid, who had been kept out all night in
attendance upon an aged and habitually vale
tudinarian aunt, knocked upon the door at that
moment and inquired II madame wac taking
her morning bath. There being no answer she
entered, and, picking up her mistress in her
arms with an establishment she was only able
to express by such inadequate phrases as Mon
Dieug and bon Dieun, she carried her into
her bed room and rendered her ne comfortable
as she knew how. The burden borne by the
faithful domestic was only Ga pounds. Before
she had made trial Of the steam bath Mrs. -
had weighed z37 pounds. She entered it at1:30
pm. and left IL ct z an, having lost LIS
pounds. This was not equal TO the guarantee
attached to the process, which promised loss
Of five pounds ion every quarter Of an hour; but
il served. The most charming OF women was
reduced almost 20 "a living skeleton, and her
physician states that an exclusive diet of candy,
potatoes and well-buttered bread will scarcely
render her fat enough to appear respectfully in
evening dress next winter, supposing that she
remains in Washington all this summer and
submits rigidly TO the regimen described.
Most remarkable however, Of the circum-
stances connected with this very curious case is
the fact that when the steam box Was unlocked
few hours after the catastrophe its floor was
found 10 be covered six inches deep with q very
pure quality Of highly refined tAllow.