Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
With respect to bathing, there is no danger of the people of Munich
being mistaken for an amphibious race. The tiny bowls and pitchers
that furnish an ordinary German washstand, and the absence of
slop-pail and foot-bath, are sufficient proof that only partial
ablutions are expected to be performed in the bed-chamber; while the
lack of a bath-room in even genteel houses, and the smallness and
rarity of bathing establishments, show that the practice is by no
means frequent or general among the better classes. The fiercest
radical who should find himself for a time in the midst of a crowd of
the populace would scarcely hesitate (supposing him to be possessed of
delicate olfactories) to bestow upon them the epithet of "The Great
Unwashed." Indeed, it would be hardly reasonable to expect that people
should indulge often in a full bath at home in a city where the water
must be drawn from wells, and carried up long flights of stairs in
pitchers and pails by women and children.
The notions of the lower classes with regard to dress have doubtless a
good deal to do with their health. The same notions prevail in most
parts of Germany, but are especially hurtful in a climate so severe
and variable as that of Munich. Thus, it is considered improper for a
servant-girl to wear a hat or a bonnet in the street when she is about
the business of her calling. On Sundays and holidays, indeed, or when
she has an outing in the afternoon, she may adorn herself with such an
appendage; but to go to market or to the grocer's with her head
covered would be a piece of presumption which would at once expose her
to ridicule from all the members of her class. Hence, all day and
every day women and girls may be seen in the streets without any
covering on the head, though, by way of compensation, most of them are
obliged to go about a good share of the time with their faces bound up
on account of swelled jaws and tonsils, the natural result of such
unnatural exposure. Occasionally, in the coldest weather some few,
more prudent than the others, wear a hood or a small shawl over the
head, but these cases are rare, and excepting in the depth of winter
such a precaution is not thought of, although the gusty, chilly
weather of spring and autumn and the frequent cold blasts that occur
in summer are quite as dangerous, if not prepared for, as are the
winter storms. As a general thing, a servant goes out on errands in
precisely the same clothes that she wears in the kitchen, and paddles
about in rain and snow in the thin, low house-shoes which, on account
of their cheapness, are the favorite foot-gear of the ordinary Munich
women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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