Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1903 — Bathe in Scanty Suits. [ARTICLE]

Bathe in Scanty Suits.

A pert/ of mueh-traYeled men. were returning one hot night last week fjrom Manhattan beach when the conversation turned to the salt water bathing customs of the countries they had visited. An Englishman told how the women of his native land took their dip apart from the men and clothed in hideous garments resembling nightgowns. A frenchman described the barelegged frolics of the _ gay Parisian women summering by the sea. An American explained how the sexes, absolutely unclothed, enter the waters of Japan, with nothing but bamboo rods to mark the more or less imaginary line dividing the men from the women. “Ah,” Interposed the Englishman, “how immodest!” “Yes, perhaps,” observed f a Christianized Turk, who was of the party, “but In my country men and women do the same, except that each man and woman preserves modesty by wearing a white mask.” , ? “Suppose,” said the American, “yon should wish to ’ bathe without the mask?” “Ah,” replied the Turk, “y<pa must wear the mask—it is the bathing costume!”—Philadelphia Record.