THE MOST IMPORTANT ROOM

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 23

THE MOST IMPORTANT ROOM

What is the most important room in the house? The living room, because we live and entertain in it? The bedroom, 'because upon its couch we spend one-third of our lives? The kitchen, say the gourmands, for man must live by food! No! say I! for good temper and bodily satisfaction, give me the bathroom! (says a writer in an exchange). If the bath water is hot and plentiful, if the towels are large and warm, no business depression, no private worries can barm me! And for a brief time (until the next bathing candidate bangs upon the door). I am an Empress in my own right!. Not that perfect cleanliness of a utilitarian nature cannot be achieved from the most meagre resources ! In many an Italian village I have lived a soaped and hygienic life with a small basin and an even smaller jug of hot water night and morning, the sovereign recipe being “Little by little,” up to the waist at night and down to the waist at morning 1 Still, for the full joy and bliss of cleanliness, give me the modern bath, with every known “gadget” that ingenuity can supply. Have you ever noticed ho\v ; through all history, the height of civilisation and luxury, as in the Roman Ctesar’s day, centred around the institution of the bath, and in Japan, no mean civilisation either in its ancient culture or its modern Western adaptions, the bath is both a science and a joy I