The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-14

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Several eminently respectable American
travellers have come home and dwelt
with fond recollection on the custom
known Us the Swedish bath, They have
told with detail how the fair-haired,
strong-limbed buxen daughters Of Seam
dinavia rub and scrub, and souse and
swan. and finally dry and dress you and
send you forth cleanerl wiser and bet
ter man. They have dwelt too, on the
point that these good sisters do all this,
day IN, day out. and think 1t no shame.
Now II these explorers had gone Just a
little further In their sociological investi.
cations, II they had crossed the Baltic
Sea and touched the shore of Finland.
they might have brought back to Yankee
readers news of another national bath
not less interesting than that of Sweden.
and good deal more strenuous.
| The Finnish bath is like the Swedish in
the one respect that It Is administered by
women, but there are points of difference
which will impress themselves upon your
memory If you happen to take one-and
you may take one here in Manhattan or
over in Brooklyn II you only pursue your
quest diligently
The persecution that the Russian gov
eminent heaps upon Its Finish subjects
is driving them, to America In great num-
bers. The young men and women who
are not bound by inseparable ties are
leaving the farms and villages by the
thousand and coming here to grow up
with new country. There are consid-
cradle colonies of them in some OF the
northwestern states, which naturally at
tract a majority of the Finnish immi-
grants, but a certain proportion stick
in New York, and of these many drift
over to Brooklyn.
Finland In Brooklyn.
So many of them have gotten together
In the South Brooklyn neighborhood
which folks have tried to name Blythe
dale-that is, around and about Sixtieth
street, and New Utrecht avenue-that
their settlement is commonly known as
Finland. Finnish speech, which Is COM
posed of great many ks" connected
by few vowels, goes gathering on the
Blythedale air, the older of Finnish cook
ing rises to heaven morning, noon and
night, and, naturally, there couldn't be
so much else that is Finnish without a
Finnish bath.
The proprietor of the bath Is thrifty
immigrant dame and its chief ornament
is her young daughter. The bath is housed
in a little building back of the home of
these two women.
Several tubs, corresponding number
of large stovels and a great many punches
Of switches hung up to dry with the
leaves still clinging to them are the es-
sential feature of the bath.
The stoves are followed out in the mid
die and wood fires are kept burning in
them much of the time so that they may
be always hot.
Suppose that you have searched and
found out the bath and made known with
some hesitation your desire to be washed
in Finnish fashion; suppose that you have
hung up your clothes to the last rag, and
suppose you stand there wrapped in your
towel like a naked savage in his breech
clout What then?
Well then, most likely you will be some
what embarrassed. 1t takes time to get
used to strange costumes.
Making Things Ready.
Meanwhile the mother or the daughter
lit really doesn't make any difference
of course, but let us say the daughter
has been making things ready for you
You may be embarrassed by the unwont-
ed situation In which you find yourself
but she isn't.
Why should she be? It's part of the
days work for her, Just the same as fry
ing the bacon for breakfast. and If she
has any particular doubts on the subject
they probably relate to your conduct rath-
er than her own.
Why, she probably says to herself, does
that big, foolish man stand there and look
silly? While you have been preparing for
the bath she has partly filled one of the
tubs with hot water and has taken down
some of the numerous punches of dry
twigs and put them to soak in the tub.
Now she sprinkles some of the water on
one of the hot stones, and as the vapor
arises in a cloud she pushes you within
it and before the first shock of wonder
and amazement has passed off you are
properly soaped and steamed and the
energetic mistress of the bath is beating
you smartly with a bundle of switches.
It is no feeble trouncng, neither Is 1t
painful or disagreeable. Damned be he
who first cries hold, enough, you say
to yourself.
The hot water has softened the leaves
and the branches into pliancy and as they
play lively tattoo upon your shoulders,
tickle the small of your back go capering
down one leg and up the other and return
by the outside route to- the starting place
the soap is whipped into lather, your
blood joys along at a smart clip, your
muscles draw taut and you are very glad
to be alive.
Meanwhile the steam Is growing uenser,
the maiden is warming to her task and
plying the switch with increasing vigor.
Faster and faster falls the rod that chas-
tens, or should chasten, swifter and swift
er run the thrills that follow 1t from
head to foot, when suddenly the fiagella-
ton ceases. You are now ready for the
tub
Off comes the leafy lather. The towels
fly up and down your anatomy as swiftly
as did the switches Before you know it
you are clothed and in your right mind
again.
The same fair hand that laid on the rod