Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-06-23
PUBLIC BATHS.
These Useful Institutions In Ancient a
Modern Times.

These Useful Institutions In Ancient and
Modern Times.
Nearly all American and European
visitors to Japan speak with adInira-
ton of the public baths of that country.
In the city of Toxic there are between
eight and nine hundred public bathing
esta blishments, each frequented by at
least three hundred people, who pay
for the privilege an extremely small
sum-so small that no one is too poor to
afford it. Outside of the baths the
Japanese are much given to bathing in
their own houses. They are one of the
cleanest people in the world Travellers
from the western world would frequent
1y express their regret, in describing
these Japanese baths, that the prog
ressive peoples of Europe and America
have no such esta blishments. Our
American cities, indeed, are for the
most part blessed with public baths
which are open in summer, but they
have none, or practically none, which
are warmed and opened in the winter,
like those of Japan.
In many parts Of Europe, indeed,
bathing is almost unknown. People
who are supposed to be civilized and
even enlightened go from infancy to
the grave, through long life, without
a single thorough-going bath 'san over,
They did not derive this uncleanly Gus
tom from their ancestors of the ancient
world The Roman empire throughout
almost its entire extent was a world of
magnificent and universally patronized
public baths.
The abandonment of bathing was, in
curious way, the result of the triumph
- he -ic<i -,
Christianity itself certainly could never
be accused of encouraging uncleanli-
ness. Proper care of the body, as the
temple of the Holy Ghost" is enjoined
by the Christian Scri ptures In the i'm
perial reigns which marked the decline
of Rome the public baths, which in
former generations had been sources of
national strength, became, on the con-
trary, sources of corruption and cause
of the decadence of the people. A use
full institution had been subjected to
great abuses. In these baths the
Romans of that degenerating age spent
a great proportion of their time They
bathed in warm and perfuned water,
and SO softened and weakened them
selves by continual indulgence in this
luxury that they not only became in
capable of resistance to their tyrants,
but fell an easy prey to bodily vices and
sicknesses.
The early Christians, who led a severe
and virtuous life. regarded the public
baths with horror. With the triumph
of the new religion, these sources of
corruption were prescribed. But the
reaction against the abuse of the public
baths went too far. Not only were the
baths abandoned, but bathing as well.
The French historian, Michelet, calls
the Middle Ages ''a thousand years
without bath
The days of chivalry were not days of
personal cleanliness Many famous
knights and kings were so untidy in
their habits that they created remark,
even in those days. The magnificent
courtiers and ladies who surrounded
Henry ". and Louis XIV. Of France
hardly washed their hands and faces
though they ate their food with their
fingers. The duke of Orleans, the IA
nous regent during the minority of
Louis XIV. was the first to introduce
clearly manners in the French court,
then the center of the worlds polite
ness. If personal cleanliness was at
that time almost unknown in the courts,
the appearance of the people may per
haps be dimly conjectured. This long
period was time of terrible epidemics
Mysterious plaques, feeding, no doubt,
| upon the filth of towns, swept away
| myriads of people. A comparative free
dom from epideInics has resulted from
the more clearly habits and the in
| creased knowledge of sanitary modes Of
living. Public baths, beyond all doubt,
are conducive to public heaIth--Youth's
Companion.