"Well, now, you're ready, are you?" this to a noble jurist who, like
myself perhaps, had arrived only the day before. "Come on, now. Now you
have just ten seconds in which to jump under the water and get yourself
wet all over, twenty seconds in which to jump out and soap yourself
thoroughly, ten seconds in which to get back in again and rinse off all
the soap, and twenty seconds in which to rub and dry your skin
thoroughly--now start!"
The distinguished jurist began, but instead of following the advice
given him for rapid action huddled himself in a shivering position under
the water and stood all but inert despite the previous explanation of
the host that the sole method of escaping the weakening influence of
cold water was by counteracting it with activity, when it would prove
beneficial.
He was such a noble, stalky, bony affair, his gold eyeglasses laid aside
for the time being, his tweeds and carefully laundered linen all
dispensed with during his stay here. As he came, meticulously and
gingerly and quite undone by his efforts, from under the water, where he
had been most roughly urged by Culhane, I hoped that he and not I would
continue to be seized upon by this savage who seemed to take infinite
delight in disturbing the social and intellectual poise of us all.
"Soap yourself!" exclaimed the latter most harshly now that the bather
was out in the room once more. "Soap your chest! Soap your stomach! Soap
your arms, damn it! Soap your arms! And don't rub them all day either!
Now soap your legs, damn it! Soap your legs! Don't you know how to soap
your legs! Don't stand there all day! Soap your legs! Now turn round and
soap your back--soap your back! For Christ's sake, soap your back! Do it
quick--quick! Now come back under the water again and see if you can get
it off. Don't act as though you were cold molasses! Move! Move! Lord,
you act as though you had all day--as though you had never taken a bath
in your life! I never saw such an old poke. You come up here and expect
me to do some things for you, and then you stand around as though you
were made of bone! Quick now, move!"
The noble jurist did as demanded--that is, as quickly as he could--only
the mental inadequacy and feebleness which he displayed before all the
others, of course, was the worst of his cruel treatment here, and in
this as in many instances it cut deep. So often it was the shock to
one's dignity more than anything else which hurt so, to be called an old
poke when one was perhaps a grave and reverent senior, or to be told
that one was made of bone when one was a famous doctor or merchant.
Once under the water this particular specimen had begun by nervously
rubbing his hands and face in order to get the soap off, and when
shouted at and abused for that had then turned his attention to one
other spot--the back of his left forearm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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