Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-20

from the tub and walk some distance in the
coolest winter weather without stitch OF
clothing on and without catching cold.
When foreign physicians were first i'm
ported and looked up to in Japan, about 20
years ago, they actually succeeded, in their
ignorance, in making the Government pass
law forbidd1ng a higher temperature than
blood heat; but the mistake was soon dis
covered and the law repealed. To-day those
OF the foreign residents who are wisest have
given up their cold baths, and try to ap-
prozimate the Japanese temperature as
closely as possible.
Like the Turkish Bath.
The effect Of genuine hot bath, a Is
Nippon, is to make one feel like doomed
lobster after jumping into the tank, and to
look like one after climbing out again. The
natives rarely remain immersed more than
five minutes, and foreigners who follow
their example find the consequences similar
to those of Turkish bath. A profuse per-
spiration covers the body, and the whole
system seems renovated. If friction is de-
sired, it is supplied by the young man who
heats the water for trifiing fee, or else one
of the blind ''shampooers" may be called in,
who are experts in massage, and whose
doleful whistles are constantly heard as
thCy pCIdmDuldtc tuS btIcCtS, AOA al
invitation to come in.
In some of the semi-foreign hotels in
Toxic, Kioto, Nikko, ETC., oblong metal
baths similar to our own, have been intro
duced, but the Japanese themselves use
square wooden tanks, sometimes large
enough to admit several persons at time.
The water can be heated in short time by
means of copper tube which lines one cor
ner of the tub, and has grating for char
coal at the bottom. For economical reasons
the japanese never have bathtubs to lie in,
but usually make them only wide enough to
sit or kneel in, which requires less water
and therefore less coal
Communism In the Tub.
So far all seems well; but there is ono
thing about Japanese baths which is apt to
stagger foreign visitors-the use of the same
water by a number of persons. When the
family bath is ready, the father, mother,
children and servants all enter it in the
order here given. This may not seem so
very dreadful, but it is otherwise in
crowded inn where u score or two of guests,
entire strangers to each other, are expected
to use the same water, and to economize
fuel. This may be better than no bath at
all, and as the natives wash themselves ali
over before entering the tub, the objections
may seem largely imaginary; but We can
not overcome our prediction for fresh
tub for each individual, and communism
in bathing does not seem an inviting form
Of hygienic diversion.
We have similar forms of aqueous COM
munism at Baden-Baden, the hot baths in
Switzerland, and the first tank in our Turk
ish baths; but there, at least, the water
flows necessarily, while in Japanese inns
found sometimes that the lazy servant had
even retained the previous days water,
filled with hairs and shreds of skin. For
tunately the tastidiousness of foreigners is
taken into consideration, and they are
usually invited to the bath first. When
ever arrived late at an inn I refused to
bathe at all, at the risk of being considered
q barbarian.
A complaint about the condition of the
water might perhaps have been met with
the answer given by an American boarding
house keeper to guest who objected to the
towel: young man, that towel was used
by "a persons before you and no one COM
planned about it.
HENRv r ETNCK