El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-07
Public Bath Is Revived
Brought Into Discredit by Exeesses
in Ancient Rome, Baths For Cen
eraI Use Are Again Popular.
BE Fred rie j. HagI1lu--
VvAsHNGTON, D. G.. Aug. 7

I 4 Ec-eeeEAf- - AA---lA44t
ASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. L.
! NJ The modern public bath. which
/ W affords pleasure and comfort
! To thousands Of people each day, is
| really a revival of one of the Oldest
/ institutions in the world The public
bath was in high favor in the palmy
days Of the Roman empire 1t is said
/ that the city of Rome contained at
| least $50 public bath houses, and arch
/ aeIogiscs find the remains of a public
/ bath wherever Grecian or Roman civ
/ ilization is known to have existed
Rich and poor. slave and freeman, en-
! joyed free bathing privileges in an
| abundant water supply provided by the
city.
In those ancient days, the bath was
J an institution for pleasure as well as
; for personal cleanliness Men and
( woman frequently bathed together with
| little regard for the distinctions OF
! sex, and much undue license resulted
I Consequently the Christians regarded
/ the bath as a source of evil and it was
/ not in public favor for centuries.
! Within the past half century the
/ public bath has again come to delight
] civilized man, and II is now conducted
with due regard for the conventional
/ ties in order to diSarm adverse criti-
] cism-
The first public baths established in
Lu4S country were opened III bDSLOA
4 in 1866. Six were opened at first and
I they were so located as to be within
/ easy reach Of the ctty's poor. By 1897
/ the number had increased to Il. New
/ York was the first state to pass COM
pulSOry legislation compelling the eS-
( tablishment of the bath
! Aside from the public baths estab-
lished by municipalities. a large num-
! Der Of institutions have established free
! baths IN connection with their char
/ table or educational work. Most Of
| these antedated the municipal bath
houses and some of them. are being
] discontinued since the municipal baths
have been established.
! The Young Mems Christian aSSOcia-
! ton has provided bathing and swimming
/ pools in all Of its largest buildings
| In some of them these privileges are
/ confined exclusively to members and
] in other nOnmembers can use them by
! the payment OF a small fee. Gymnas-
| iums connected with colleges and
! school, as well as different kinds OF
/ clubs and organizations. have provided
bathing facilities to a limited number
! of persons.
Teaches Many to SWIM
! The number of deaths by drowning
| each year is causing an increased in
/ terest in the value of swimming for all
/ classes Of people Because of this the
! modern public bath serves two pur-
/ poses, that Of cleanliness and Of pro-
I vidinS facilities for learning to swim
/ The physical education movement has
] done mach to aid the establishment OF
/ increased public bath facilities Every
/ all around athlete realizes the value
I of swimming as a physical exercise,
| aside from its utility in preserving
| human life
Swimming Pools For schools.
| Swimming pools have have been es-
J tabHshed in only a few Of the public
! schools in this country. The Paul Re
we're school of Boston was the first in
! this country to have this convenience,
although a year or two later IL was
| provided for several schools in Brook /
H~aT1r lnrr1H
in many towns are endeaYOring to in |
clude swimming lessons in the physical !
work Of the public schools
The addition of a swimming pool TO /
! the public bath has done much to i'm
prove the personnel OF the people who
go there. The first public baths, being
! established merely to aid in personal
cleanliness, were patrOnlZed chiefly by
/ persons who had insufficient bathing
facilities at home. They were espec-
! tally useful to the tenement residents
! in the great cities, including the i'm
migrant class Comparatively few
Americans went to the earlier public
baths until the swimming pool was
added
Society People in Public Baths.
Society people in many cities now
| patrOnize the public swimming pool. In
Washington line Of automobiles may
be seen IN front of the public bath
| buildings, especially upon wOman's day.
The bathers include a gOodly sprinkl-
ing of foreigners from the diplomatic
circles. Little girls of titled families
| acquire true democracy by swimming
with American school girls
Pools of Varying Depth.
A model public bathing plant In
/ cludes number Of pools Of varying
depth The first having a depth OF
about three feet will be used by the
small children Beginners will be al
lowed to paddle around in it until they
have acquired the swimming motion
[ The other pools are deeper, the deep
{ est hffr al ennr ton ZEE
Z is entered by a diving board, and no
one is permitted TO so into II who is
/ not fully able to swim
In towns where the number of pools I
IS not sufficient to provide accOmmo-
dalton for both sexes, the days are dI- I
vided alternately between them. Some
times ladies are permitted to have es-
cOrtS but this is frequently forbidden
Each person entering The bath is re-
quired to register name. age and resi-
dence IN case of possible accident The I
registry card is presented to the care
Jaker VINO gives out the checks Tor the I
lockers. Most of these are individual [
so that a bather has absolute privacy
in dressing and undressing and no one
is permitted to enter a public pool
without a suitable bathing costume.
With the development of the public
bath however. came a menace of dis I
ease which scientific people have al /
ready begun TO provide for An inves-
tlgatiOn made by the department OF
BacteriOlogy of the Chicago University (
reported five cases OF epidemicS sup
posed to be the result of bathing IN
rivers or pools where contamination
existed. The exercise of stringent re
strictiOns preventing persons afflicted !
with certain diseases from entering I
public baths is being authorized by the
authorities in charge of most of them.
In addition to this precautiOn some
means of purifying the water must be
provided for every standard pool.
Tomorrow: National Gamers Lab /
OratOry.
FORMER CHAUFFEUR To KING
TRIES FLYING; IS INJURED.