The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-29
PROF. FELIX PLAYTEL,
Roman Baths. Turkish Baths.
Olive Oil Massage.



This introduction of the olive OH rub as
leading feature of the modern bath is
new thing to Chicago. though in New
York and San Francisco it has been the
fad of quite a number of persons the last
year two.
The oil massage, or scrape, is as old as
the knowledge of ancient books that es-
CAPPED the Alexandrian fire. Its actual
curati, e. corrective and nutritive virtues
were lost sight of in the growth of Ro-
man effeminacy, when the simple olive
oil treatment gave way to dudish mania
for unguents, the application of which
after the bath preserved about the per-
son of the bather an odor not disagree
able at first, but finally offensive TO every
one who was not infected with the fash
ion.
The variety of scents evolving from the
Roman bathing mode at length reached
the number of fourteen, all warranted to
radiate a block, and one can fancy that
to mingle with a gathering of the 400
was a good deal like trying to extract Oh
factory delight out of the fused atmos-
pheres of a cologne mill and soap fac
tory.
The difficulty in retaining the proper
scent became so great in this mighty strug-
gle of the odorous unguents that the
eight times a day to replenish.
Thus ii was that when the perfumed
oils came into fashion in the Roman bath,
the sweet, oil bath went out of use If
by this modification of the modes of per-
sonal cleanliness, brought about by that
aesthetic craze for new sensations which
marks national degeneracy, the human
family lost a sensible and beneficial bath
ing habit it was still a gamer, for out
of the Roman unguents came our modern
SOAPS Everybody knows that the base
of all saponaceous articles of the toilet
is oil, and the best of all soap basis is
olive oil Soap as not mentioned before
Pliny, about which time the preparations
of unguents began.
PlaytePs Chicago bath, though as yet of
modest surroundings and in no manner
suggesting the orientalism of his idea, is
after the method of the ancients, save
that he uses no scrapers either after the
first or second application of the oil. The
bather Is not immersed in hot water until
after ,having been massaged thoroughly
from head to foot with the oil, which is
rubbed off with linen cloths especially
selected and of the best quality.
IL is surprising what comes away from
the skin at the conclusion of this opera
ton Though a person may have bathed
simply, with scrupulous regard for clean
illness, the day before, the linen cloths viii
look as if they had been used in wiping
a scrubbed window.
few dainty women in the world under
stand this sercret and every morning make
their facial toilet with olive Oil and a
linen cloth No soap, however soft or
beautifully scented, can so perfectly
clense the skin or impart to it such vel
very life.
After the bather has been allowed to re-
main in the hot water until heated-that
is to say until perspiration appears IN
beads upon the forehead-he is again laid
on the slab and massaged with oil a sec
ond time and now severely. No cloth rub
follows, but he IS rushed INTO hot-air
room, the temperature of which IS pushed
up to the highest point he can endure.
Not many minutes after he Is placed IN
this atmosphere the perspiration starts
from every PORE unless the bather be
suffering from poverty of blood and the
attendant defective circulation at the sur
face of the body or has skin disease. In
such instances longer time is required
Not to exceed ten minutes of this part of
the bath is allowed.
Then the bather is taken to a second
slab-room, cooler than the first, and mas
saged third time with oil, though light