The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-12
ABOUT PUBLIC BATHS
WHAT LARGE CITIES ARE DOING IN
THE CAUSE OF CLEANLINESS.
The Work Accomplished I'm London
Which These Baths Are Operated.
Philadelphia Telegraph.

The Englishman and his bath have passed
into a proverb He may be s'lord of the
seas" and yearly add portions of CONT
nents to his already bulky empire, but his
proudest distinction will ever be that he is
the cleanest of men.
Lately rival has sprung up from an I'M
foreseen quarter Of the globe, and Japan.
with her positively luxurious facilities for
bathing, has startled the Western world
into the knowledge that an extreme desire
for cleanliness is not confined to the Anglo
Saxon race. One advantage, however, John
Bull must continue to have over the Jap,
he will always look the cleaner Of the two.
The most palpable gain we Americans
seem to have made by our recent Anglo
mania is what an aged gentleman of the
old school once termed somewhat fret
fully, this fad for bathing every day."
We may hesitate over the confession, but
1t is none the less true. that twenty years
ago it was the exception not the rule, for
the people of the United States to take a
tub bath daily. Indeed, among the poorer
classes it is doubtless, the exception still.
And were We questioned on the subject we
should probably explain this fact by say
ing that the poor do not like to battle; are
in fact. afraid of water. used externally.
AT least. If this were not the careless
conclusion Of most Of u.s. we should have
small excuse for our general indifference
concerning the lack of opportunities for
bathing which the poor of our cities have
had.
When the question is looked fairly in the
face and frankly dealt with, we must come
to quite another conviction. We must admit
not only that it is most necessary for the
poor to bathe-because of their very pow
erty-but that, given a chance they would
battle. Any one who has observed the con-
dition of the poor in cities knows that their
cramped quarters, physical labors, and few
changes of clothing make constant bathing
even more necessary for them as a simple
matter of health than for people OF ampler
and other modes of life.
That the poor would battle were they
given chance could be proved by statistics
taken from the Rome OF ST. Pauls time or
from the London of to-day, from medieval
Europe or from modern Japan. Indeed one
has only to study the data collected on the
subject in the years Of 1894 from Boston,
New York city and even from Philadelphia,
to be assured upon this point.
The first public bath of Rome, founded
312 B. c., was built somewhere between the
Capitolne Hill and the River Tiber. At a
later period the imperial city boosted of SAG
public baths, using annually 100000 900 gal
Ions of water. Pliny notes. in the first book
Of the Historic Naturalist that for six
hundred years Rome had needed no medi-
I'm Europe, during the middle ages, bath
ing was enforced by church and state at
various times, as. preventive of the ter
rible scourgeS of leprosy."
/ quote the above facts from a very in
teresting paper on Public Baths" read by
DIR. Simon Baruch in 1891. before the Sec
ton Of Public Health and Hygiene of the
New York Academy of Medicine.
The first bath house to be established in
England in modern times was opened in
Liverpool in the year 1872 Since then, Lon
Glasgow BIRMINGHAM of fbo
other large towns Of Great Britain. have
made public baths among the most i'm
portant of their municipal institutions, and
Parliament has enacted an admirable set
of laws relating to the maintenance and
regulation of such baths.
OF these English bath houses one cannot
speak too highly; they have been the models
for all similar institutions in France, Bel
GUM, Austria, and in our country. The
very fact that they have multiplied so rap
idly in England and over the continent dur
ing the last fifteen years is the best proof
that they are appreciated by the people.
A YEARS RECORD.
In the parish of st. James, Westminster,
London, 1858 baths were taken in the year
1893. These include first and second-class
shower and swimming baths. The receipts
for the year amounted to 5000. In Birmng-
ham, England, town having population
of 4S7.S97, there are four public bath houses.
During the year 1S93-94, 4S1, 1854 baths were
registered. and the receipts for those of the
first and second classes amounted to 1851,
the expenditure being 1885.
Those English ba tbs. arranged on the first
and second class plan, generally contain
two swimming pools, varying number of
private baths Goth shower and tub, and
often Turkish bath department and barber
shop. The first-clasS swimming tank is gen.
orally 1872 feet in length by 40 feet In breadth,
and is surrounded by small dressing rooms.
Besides the regular male and female at
The second-class baths are sometimes as
large as 75x25 feet bat are not provided
with dressing rooms. small lockers being
used instead.
1t seems to be a common plan, both in
London and elsewhere, to open the baths at
certain hours for school children only.
School tickets are distributed to this end
in the parish schools at low rates.
The municipal governments of New York
city. Boston and Philadelphia have follow
ed the aP a Of Roso mng gns
phia, and, until within few months, in
New York, the baths supported by the mu-
nicipality have been exclusively swimming
pools, some Of them large enough to accom-
modate about $50 bathers at one time. but
open for only four months of the year.
sze Tbose n Boston are axis feet those
in Philadelphia 3Sx107 feet. AT the latter
the attendants are a man, woman and
policeman. The buildings are cleaned twice
a week and the water in the tank changed
twice day. Boston has none but float
ing bath houses. Philadelphia, on the other
hand, has none but permanent bath houses.
Her river baths had to be abandoned for
sanitary reasons.
The New York register shows 1000, 600
baths to have been taken during the year
1894 at a cost to the city of about $4,000.
But it stands to reason that while this
kind of a bath must appeal very stronQy
to small boys and men it is less. practicable
and desirable for women. Out of the
IL 5SS baths registered in the six swim
ming tanks of Philadelphia during the sum-
mer of 1895. only 20 .912 were taken by women
and girls. 1t is instructive to note, however,
that even in England or in the charitable
institutions of this country. where private
bath rooms are to be had, the number of
men who avail themselves of the opportuni-
ties offered is generally twice as great as
the number of women.
Why this disparity should exist one is
somewhat at a loss to understand; unless,
indeed, it can be accounted for by the fact
that a woman's work consists for the most
part in irregular occupations about house.
and she, therefore. has not set times for
getting off to take bath.
Mention has been made Of the charitable
institutions in this country where private
baths are to be obtained They are but few
in number. The guilds connected with
churches and a mission association here and
there may be provided with bath rooms. but
so far as ] have been able to ascertain,
there is no large bath house containing pri-
vate baths for the poor in any city of this
country except New York.
The nearest approach we have to such a
thing in Philadelphia are the bath depart
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