The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-16
WRONG WAYS 70 SOBER UP
CHANCES SOME MEN TAKE TN
THE TURKISH BATH.
Customers Who Bride Attendants 10 Get
Them Drugs or Lauor-Danger In the
Hot Room-Foollng WITH h Shower
and Piunse-AsN spaser's Troubles

Them Drugs or dQuOr-DehBe LII inc
Hot Room-Fooling With tho Shower
and Piunse-As Alspager's Troubies-
-No Turkish bath oonld exist without
the patronage Of the rummies, Of course;
but I wish some Of tenn would behave.
durn emf saidtiie manager Of q Turkish
bath in the Tenderloin, and he looked per-
turbed as he said it. Fright this MINUTE
I've got two doctors working over one Of
them In a private room downstairs. An
hour or so ago the doctors told me they
didn't know whether they'd be able to
fetch thdlaka through or not but one Of
/, them Just 'phoned up to me that e guessed
the rummy would. be.all right. n dadvised
me to send"him to Ills home-or to q hos
pital right, away.
$50 Pin taking the first long breath
I've had for about six hours. 1t doesn't
do a Turkish bath any particular good.
you know, to haveH spread around o
people dying in 1t.
This rummy who's kept me. dancing
for the last six hours fbr fear that he'd
rash in did one of the usual idiotic things
that it's impossible TO guard against,
He'd been hitting only the high knobs for
, week or 30, 30 that when he skidded
along here ne wis nearly dead. not only
from the hard wet things he'd shot into
his frame but from the need Of sleep.
"He couldn't pull the sleep thing, though
on account of his nervousness, and 80 he
began to send out for trional In twenty
grain gobs. Now the rule here. as it
is at most Turkish baths, is that when
patrons send attendants OUT for medi-
cines their orders for such stuff must be
. o KID at the desk. by the day or night
manager. THIS OF course ia for the pur-
pose OF seeing to it that the irresponsible
rummy doesn't TOSS death dealing chemi-
Gals and things into himself in over large
quantities.
This chap knew all about that rule
though. and when the first twenty grain
dose of trional failed to hand him some
sleep-and no gave1t aff of four minutes
to act too-he, sent the attendant out
for twenty more grains. Of the same.
Additionally he foxlyTtoldsthe attendant
that he needn't get the order for the sec
ond dose o KID at the desk, and slipped
the attendant a bone FOR dispensing with
that part OF the rule. ~ -
THE attendant got the man h second
dose, and the rummy- gulped that. and
waited fully three minutes for action on
It In the sleep line. When there wasn't
anything doing. Inv the WAY. 81. slumber
after the second dose he sent out-fof the
third. and then the fourth and then the
fifth. making. all told, just 100 grains Of
trional for himself. all projected into bis
diaphragm within ths.snace Of about
forty minutee-and Il that wasn't enough
to slaughter, ~ lumberjack, considering
that about -Af9eeh grains is about the
average dose topyts 4. ErewnuP person 10
sleep, I'll never touch second.
After hurting the final relay Of sleep
stuff into his torso the rummy. collapsed
and two doctors. have. been engaged in
yanking the man back from the jaws
OF death ever since. I've fired the at
tendant who got the hundred grains
of trionsl for themnnSof5ctfse.-bn but that
won't get me anything. The next souse
who comes along and offers ar attend
ant a bean per errand for doing the same
kind of thing will get away with it just
the same.
"I've read of the difficulties that the
commanders of warships have to keep
booze of of their vessels, but the naval
skippers ought to try running a'Turkish
bath for a while II they Haanttfo find out
what sure enough booze. blockade. run
ming means. I've had pickles stay here
three or four days, getting more soused
all the timef yet-liYe .obeeryed'with my
own eyes that none Of the liquor came
from the bar. and all OF the attendants
have supposedly been under watch all
the time. There's some class to q mystery
OF that kind, but don't like that Kind Of
class in a mystery.
The fummies themselves are capa-
BILE of giving trouble a-plenty. and more
without any connivance whatever on the
part Of the attendants. For. one thing,
most OF them seem TO have a fixed idea
that the longer they stay in the hot room
Of a Turkish bath the better .ite going to
be for them and the sooner they re going
to be able to walk the world ar soDereu
and pinkie-winkied up.
Now, that idea is almost tragical. II
has caused a lot of chaps on sprees to die
o Of hand In Turkish baths.
The hot room Ii, place at all for a
rummy when he first hits a Turkish bath.
It's liable TO doall Kinds Of things to him.
weaken him. to the fading point, give him
a nice little case Of heat prostration,, cause
syncope and e6llapee, and eaw and split
him up generally. The fellow who's
been on a spree has no business 10 the hot
room at all, ! say, until after he'shad some
hours OF rest around the place and peer
massaged and .m~anhandled by the oper-
ators and beehput Under the cold showers,
The large, nm ,Silch. all that from the
rummies. The hot rooms, the place for
them. and they maksYor 1t, or try to make
for 1t, at the start They want to fight
II the way to the hot room 10 barred to
them. Then as soon as the attendants
take heir eyes off them they stink into
the hot room and sprawl out there, and
N amount-of watching will keep them
from etaying.in the, hot room for two or
three hours alta Stretch.
AT the end Of that time they haven't
got enough vitality left to fight a water
bug, they've put Themselves back about
q week in their ambition to get over their
toot. and plenty Of them thus get them
selves into such a shape that they have
lives are to be saved at all.
Then there are q .Iet. Of them who
wander around the place like maverick
eouls, trying to find other ways of killing
themselves. One Of their favorite
methods is to get themselves scalded
to death under the hot showers. They
know their business, you know, and they
haven't got time to wait for one of the
attendants to swing along n Ak the
warm shower for them.
@The attendants always keep a sharp
eye out for the rummy self helpers who
want to nudge themselves into the next
world by the hot geyser route, but for
all their watchfulness a rummy gets