CONVICT LABOR FOR ROAD WORK. 123 
PERSONAL CLEANLINESS. 
When a number of persons are thrown constantly into contact 
with one another, as they are in camp life, personal cleanliness and 
good sanitary habits are especially necessary for the preservation of 
health. 
BATHING. 
A weekly or semi-weekly bath is insisted upon at practically all 
camps, and is not infrequently considered by the prisoners the 
greatest hardship which has to be endured. In a few cases the 
prisoners are not required to bathe at stated intervals, but are allowed 
to follow their own inclinations in this respect. This arrangement 
is unsatisfactory and often results in scuffles among the prisoners, 
accompanied by more or less ill feeling, because of the forcible bathing 
by his comrades of some prisoner who has become obnoxious through 
personal neglect. 
Many camps are provided with shower baths, some of which are 
supplied with hot and cold water. The heating systems are attached 
to the kitchen range at the smaller camps, and to specially con- 
structed hot-water heaters at some of the larger camps. When such 
facilities are provided the men are encouraged to bathe daily, but are 
required to bathe once or twice a week. Certain large camps in the 
South are equipped with excellent shower-bath systems and require 
that daily baths be taken by all the convicts. Individual towels and 
an abundance of soap are furnished. Other camps, while not insist- 
ing upon the daily bath, require each man to bathe his feet before 
going to bed, an excellent rule to be established. 
The shower bath is especially well adapted for the use of convict 
camps. A simple and easily handled apparatus will suffice, and but 
little water and time are necessary for the bath. The transmission 
of disease which may occur with the use of a tub is impossible with 
the shower bath, and the tonic effect of the cold water is of great bene- 
fit. The popularity of the shower baths was much greater at those 
camps where the water was heated, but whenever warm water is 
used it always should be followed by water as cold as can be borne, 
and it is well that the men should become accustomed gradually to 
cold water, at least in the summer. It should be remembered, how- 
ever, that the shock of a cold bath is severe and that it is dangerous 
for men who have heart trouble or diseased blood vessels. 
At camps where shower baths are not provided, water for bathing 
purposes is usually heated in large iron kettles suspended over wood 
fires out of doors. The heated water then is transferred to wooden 
wash tubs or galvanized-iron pails and carried to the nearest place 
which affords protection. At other camps the water is heated on the 
kitchen stoves or in metal washtubs placed on open fires. 
