Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-25
THE TURKISH BATH.
Better One May Be Had in United
States Than Turkev.

From the Westminster Gazette.
Comparisons are proverbially odious,
and it is impossible for one to compare
the bath of the east as found in the east.
with the bath of the east as found in
western countries. The one has an air of
dinginess and dilapidation and speaks OF
long years of use without repair. and is
managed with remarkable lack of re-
strictions of all kinds; the other is light.
airy. and clean in appearance, and is ruin
on hygienic principles with strict adher-
ence to Doctors orders.
to all and sundry upon the payment of a
few piastres, and to those of us who have
taken the baths in England or France, the
bath in Turkey Is disappointment. Out
of the hundred public baths in the great
capital there are hardly half a dozen
that European cares to use. and In
some OF them the massage. according to
our ideas. is of the rudest kind; while the
treatment of bronchitis. as experienced by
friend of mine. is not much more ad
vanced. The sufferer, after visiting the
hot room. had his chest we'll sprinkled
with crushed pepper and covered with
hot ashes. then he was laid upon a hot
utes After this his head Mas washed
three times and both neck and head were
thoroughly massaged: then he was wrap
ped in four or five towels and left to his
own devices-to smoke and to drink.
But 1t is at the throne of Zeus, in
luxuriously fertile valley. that the best
public baths in the empire are to be found
Here-some two hundred years before
Christ-Hannibal persuaded Prusias, King
of Bithyna, to found Brusa, and here
great Zeus
Spoke and awful bent his noble brows,
Shook his ambrosial curls, gave the nod
The stamp OF Fate and sanction OF the gods.
High heaven with trembling the dread slgn took
And all Olympus to Its center shook.
Here, at the foot of Olympus. and in the
country for miles around. sulphur and
iron springs are to be found; the hot and
cold, sometimes within few inches of
each other. frequently supply the same
fitted with their own hot baths. Long
before the Christian era Brusa was ia
nous for its baths. and invalids all over
the eastern world came to get rid of
their aches and pains. their colds, their
govt and their rheumatism. Her Justinian
founded the Great and Little Baths
which his consort Theodore came from
Constantinople with retinue of 5000
self, IL is said, was suffering from some
ailment when she came she took the
baths daily during her stay of two
months, and derived much benefit from
them Now, however. during the two
fashionable months Of April and May
when the town Is crowded with
strangers, people take but seven or fif-
teen baths. and profess to be cured Of
their ailments: but the inhabitants them
selves take the baths regularly twice
week.
There are two small baths reserved for
women-one in connection with an Ameri-
can hotel. the other the Buyuk Kukurii.
whose hot sprig is the scene of a horrible
tragedy, In the reign of Diocletian, the
Bishop of Brusa. on refusing to sacrifice
In the adjoining temple, was plunged
bodily into the boiling spring by the pro-
consul. who afterward ordered the
bishop and three others who held fast to
their faith to be beheaded on the spot
for refusing TO obey.