The Boy Travellers in The Russian Empire / Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with Accounts of a Tour across Siberia, Voyages on the Amoor, Volga, and Other Rivers, a Visit to Central Asia, Travels among the Exiles, and a Historical Sketch of the Empire from Its Foundation to the Present Time

by Thomas Wallace Knox

"The peasants sometimes use their stoves for baths," said the Doctor, to the great surprise of his youthful auditors.

"How is that possible?" one of them asked. "Do they fill the stove with water the same as they would a bath-tub?"

"Not exactly," the Doctor answered, smilingly. "You know the character of the Russian bath as we find it in New York and other American cities?"

"Certainly," was the reply. "It is a room filled with steam, and with a series of benches on which you lie and are heated, the highest bench being hottest of all."

A BATH IN THE EAST.

"The Russian bath of the best class here," said Doctor Bronson, "is arranged in the same way. The more primitive bath is simply a room with benches, and a fire on a pile of hot stones. Water is thrown over the stones and converted into steam, and the finishing touch is to mount to the topmost bench while an attendant deluges the stones with water and raises a cloud that threatens to scald you. The most profuse perspiration is the result, and the bath is no doubt a great sanitary institution. The Turkish bath is much like the Russian, hot, dry air taking the place of steam.

"Taken properly, the Russian bath has no bad effects, and is beneficial in rheumatism, gout, certain forms of neuralgia, and several other diseases. It is a wonderful restorative when you have been shaken up in carriages on Russian roads, and an excellent thing after a journey of any kind. Every good Russian considers it his duty to bathe once a week, but he does not always adhere to the rule.

"In every village there is a bath-house which is the general property of the villagers, and maintained by popular contribution. When a peasant has no bath-house he creeps into his stove, bakes himself on the hot ashes, and after perspiring freely crawls out and is drenched with water. Nearly every private house has its bath, which is generally in a small building in the yard, rather than in the dwelling-house. In all the large cities there are numerous bathing establishments, some of them fitted up in gorgeous style, while others are of the plainest and cheapest sort. The Russians are quite gregarious in their bathing habits, and think no more of taking a bath in the presence of each other than of dining in a restaurant."