The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-02-21
THE JAPANESE BATH.
personal Habits of the Most Fas
tidious People.
HOW THEY HEAT THEIR BATH WAITED
The Whole Family Use the Same We,
Every Village Has Its Public Bath
of Generous Capacity,

If cleanliness be next to godl;nos,
the japanese are worthy of all cons;d
Grafton for in personal habits thew aro
the most fastidiously clean of any raco
on the globe.
With us it is considered indicative ~
an advanced state of retirement To taka
daily plunge while with them a dali.
soak, and that in water SO hot as TO ba
unbearable to the uninitiated. is tbo
universal habit of even the commonost
iaborer. Every house of any size i
provided with its bathing apparatus
which consists of an immense tub II
hole IN the side of which an iron nor
Is inserted, bottom inward, and Mas.
tered around that no water may escana
The tub having been filled with water
glowing charcoal or pieces of wood ara
burned in the pot, the water being az.
casionally stirred to bring it in contact
with the surface of the pot until sniff.
GENTLY hot, which takes about four
hours. Usually the tub is put in a
small room provided for that purpose
but not infrequently it is placed in the
yard, and the family additions ara
gone through with in a manner in
which embarrassment is so markedly
lacking as to suggest an innocence
quite primeval, compelling yor. to
brace yourself with the good old
proverb, Evil to him who evil
thinks"
Only one bath is provided daily, and
IN 1T the whole family bathe, begin.
ming with the master of the house and
descending to the lowest servant.
This custom of the whole family Ms.
ing the same water seems dreadful,
but when everybody bathes daily in
water exceedingly hot, using no soap,
some OF the Objectionable features are
removed.
All the guests at hotel even use
the same bath, and once foreigner Of
whom | knew, not knowing this and
wishing to be obliging, wrought mex
presslble CONSERVATION in an inn BY
letting the water out of the tub; the
process of heating being SO tedious it
could not be repeated, and for JAPAN
ese to retire without being par. boiled
Is considered hardship indeed.
In every village there is public bath
OF generous capacity, which the Door
who are unable to afford the necessary
fuel for home bath patronize. 1t
is the most popular of resorts and on
cold winter evenings they SQUAT in
these steaming reservoirs laughing
and gosslping and seemingly have
good time. There will be numbers
bathing at the same time and in the
remoter parts of the empire where for
elgn influence is not felt both sexes
frequent the bath together.
This hot bath is the only occasion
when the poor creatures really know
what 1t is to be comfortably warm in
winter for having no artificial heat in
their houses and their clothes being of
the scantiest they simply endure not
1--we during the cold season. Parts
OF Japan abound in mineral springs
where nature affords unlimited op-
portunlty to the people to crafty their
taste for half scalding themselves.
here you will see doctors with watch
IN hand marshaling a company of
bathers who sitting around the sides
OF tub will prepare themselvs to Ell.
dure by plunging first one foot and
then the other in the seemingly almost
boiling water when at a given signal
IN they will plunge like so many turtles
ana regard with anxious eyes the au-
tocratlc and pompous doctor to catch
the first sign permitting them to
scramble out again when after cooling
OH they will repeat the ordeal. It
seems strange that they do not suffer
more from such sudden and violent
changes OF temperature. I have fire.
quently seen them with snow on the
ground walk mile after the hath
clothed with only a single loose gar.
ment and barefooted except for their
wooden clogs yet they seemed no way
unfavorably affected thereby. The lack
Oh stamina which characterizes the
race sometimes attributed to this
habit Of frequent hot bathing and il
seems not improbable, for though not
sickiy' they are short-liyed, people.