262 BATHS FOR THE MILLION. (Cap. XIII. 
whom I was staying, did not know me for the first 
few minutes after I sat down in his room. 
In the town of Shanghae, as well asin many other 
large Chinese towns, there are a number of public 
hot water bathing establishments, which must be of 
great importance as regards the health and comfort 
of the natives. I will describe one which I passed 
daily during my residence in Shanghae. There are 
two outer rooms used for undressing and dressing ; 
the first, and largest, is for the poorer classes; the 
second, for those who consider themselves more 
respectable, and who wish to be more private. As you 
enter the largest of these rooms, a placard which 
is hung near the door informs you what the charges 
are, and a man stands there to receive the money 
on entrance. Arranged in rows down the middle 
and round the sides of both rooms are a number of 
small boxes or lockers, furnished with lock and 
key, into which the visitors put their clothes, and 
where they can make sure of finding them when 
they return from the bathing room, which is 
entered by a small door at the farther end of the 
building, and is about 30 feet long and 20 feet 
wide; the water occupying the whole space, except 
a narrow path round the sides. The water is from 
1 foot to 18 inches deep, and the sides of the bath 
are lined with marble slabs, from which the bathers 
step into the water, and on which they sit and 
wash themselves: the furnace is placed on the out- 
side, and the flues are carried below the centre of 
the bath. 
