Towel

“ I used to believe in that wet towel and that strong tea. Lord! the things I used to believe when I was young. They would make an Encyclopædia of Useless Knowledge. I wonder if the author of the popular novel has ever tried working with a wet towel round his or her head: I have. It is difficult enough to move a yard, balancing a dry towel. A heathen Turk may have it in his blood to do so: the ordinary Christian has not got the trick of it. To carry about a wet towel twisted round one’s head needs a trained acrobat. Every few minutes the wretched thing works loose. ”

“ From the first day he chose for his nightly roost a towel-line which had been drawn across the corner over the wash-stand, where he every night established himself with one claw in the edge of the towel and the other clasping the line, and, ruffling up his feathers till he looked like a little chestnut-bur, he would resign himself to the soundest sleep. He did not tuck his head under his wing, but seemed to sink it down between his shoulders, with his bill almost straight up in the air. ”

“ It can be ornamented, so as to look well anywhere. A little frame, or towel-horse, by the washstand, on which to dry towels, is a convenience. A washstand should be furnished with a sponge or washcloth, and a small towel, for wiping the basin after using it. This should be hung on the washstand or towel-horse, for constant use. A soap-dish, and a dish for toothbrushes, are neat and convenient, and each person should be furnished with two towels; one for the feet, and one for other purposes.
It is in good taste to have the curtains, bedquilt, valance, and window-curtains, of similar materials. ”

“ Upon asking one of these nymphs for a towel, she held up to me a horrible cloth, which, but for the evidence to the contrary which its filthy surface presented, I should have supposed had been used to clean the floors. Upon my objecting to this, she flounced away, disgusted, I presume, with my fastidiousness, and appeared no more. As I leaned over the bannisters in a state of considerable despondency, I espied a man who appeared to be the host himself and to him I ventured to prefer my humble petition for a clean towel. ”

“ The ordinary bedroom towels come next; see how many your mother has, and how each kind is by itself: the hemstitched ones in one pile, the plain huckaback in another; those with colored borders in this one, and the bath towels in that. Any [Pg 137] one could come in and get a towel in the dark, sure of taking just the right one. You must remember always to keep your own towels just this way; too many people mix them in in any careless fashion, and do not take the trouble to have them arranged neatly, but it's the best way to do. ”

“ The twinkling stars are bright spangles hung by pin-hooks to the scenes, and the ripples are only slits in the water canvas,186 behind which an endless towel with slits cut in its surface and a strong gaslight between the rollers and the sides of the towel, is made to revolve. Every time the slits in the towel came opposite the slits in the canvas the light shines through and the silver dance upon the lake or river. When the slits in the towel are made to move upward the ripples seem to lift their silvery tops towards the bending sky. ”

“ In the bedroom there was a washing-stand, and on the washing-stand there stood a jug and basin, and in the jug there was real water. But all this was as nothing. I have known mere ordinary, middle-class dolls’ houses in which you might find washing-stands and jugs and basins and real water—ay, and even soap. But in this abode of luxury there was a real towel; so that a body could not only wash himself, but wipe himself afterwards, and that is a sensation that, as all dolls know, can be enjoyed only in the very first-class establishments. ”

“ Looking out of the towel, he caught my eye.
"But I am not a fortune-teller," he said, letting his head drop into a festoon of towel, and towelling away at his two ears. "You know what I am, don't you? Good night, Pip." ”

“ Nothing is more unsightly to a stranger entering a home than a dirty towel in either the bathroom or the kitchenette. To keep the towel out of sight I made a hanger as shown in the illustration. A wire was bent into shape similar to a clothes hanger and a sliding clip made to hold the towel in place. A cabinet was made to accommodate the towel, and the hanger was attached to a cord run over a pulley fastened at the top, through a weight pulley, and then tied to a screw eye at the top. ”

“ Towels. The Japanese cotton towel, generally a yard long by a foot wide, serves various purposes besides that of drying the hands or the body. Both sexes occasionally employ it as a head-dress. Male artisans and coolies twist and then tie a towel across their foreheads to prevent the perspiration from running down into their eyes, while females of the same class make shift with one as a sort of light hood to cover the head. ”

“ The table being on casters is easily moved to any part of the kitchen for use.
Kneading Table.
Dish-Towel Rack.—Nothing adds more to the ease and facility with which the frequent dish-washings of the household may be accomplished than clean, well-dried towels. For quick drying,—an item of great importance if one would keep the towels fresh and sweet,—the towel rack represented in the cut, and which can be made by any carpenter, is a most handy device. When not in use, it can be turned up against the wall as illustrated. ”

“ I have an engagement and I would like to get my housework done. Tom, help yourself to a towel, and be careful not to wipe the plates on a glass towel. You can tell the difference by the border. The dish towel is all border, the center or hole went up on the oil stove, a little trick our stove has—it does not like towels. The proper towel for the glasses is that one with the black line drawn through the middle. The black line is not important, it was put there with a single wipe of the spark plug from the Lassie. ”

“ A figure was lying on a cot bed—a figure that was bound wrist and ankle. A towel was tied over the face of the helpless form, and from behind this towel came the labored breathing which had already attracted attention. ”

“ He had a closet in his room, fitted up for the purpose, which smelt of the scented soap like a perfumer's shop. It had an unusually large jack-towel on a roller inside the door, and he would wash his hands, and wipe them and dry them all over this towel, whenever he came in from a police-court or dismissed a client from his room. When I and my friends repaired to him at six o'clock next day, he seemed to have been engaged on a case of a darker complexion than usual, for, we found him with his head butted into this closet, not only washing his hands, but laving his face and gargling his throat. ”

“ The amount of toilet so-called necessaries is incredible, and the number of patent objects overwhelming. When we consider that seven things only are necessary to our personal neatness and cleanliness—soap, sponge, towel, and tooth-brush for washing, and brush and comb and nail-scissors for the rest of the toilet—and then count the other paraphernalia seen in our dressing-rooms, we shall discover how many frivolous trades our superfluities maintain, to say nothing of ingenuity misplaced in making advertisements of dressing-cases and hair-restorers conspicuously attractive. ”

“ If you let one end of a towel be in a bowl of water, the other end lying over upon the table, the whole towel will become wet from the spreading of the water among the fibres in obedience to capillary attraction. ”

“ What the strangely-shaped masses of colour were intended to represent she had not the slightest idea. There was a very simple toilet-table, neatly covered with a towel, and its appointments were the simplest and commonest. A high, wide, deep-drawered bureau, and a pine-framed mirror, perhaps a foot wide and less than two feet long, completed the furnishings, save a couple of patchwork footstools under the windows. ”

“ I fear the soap has got into your eyes, and that you will make that towel very black indeed. All boys, when they wash themselves, should take care to rinse off the soap and dirt before using the towel. To make the poor little sweep quite clean would take much washing. I should like to see the soap and water a little cleaner. Many of us have nice wash-stands and baths of marble, but this poor little fellow must make the best of what he can get. See how cleverly he has put a brick under the broken leg of the stool to prop it. I like to see boys clever and ingenious. ”

“ One day Ishi and I were standing just within our big gateway, watching the people go by. I noticed that almost every woman had her head wrapped in the blue-and-white towel that servants wear when dusting or working in the kitchen. ”

“ DRYING DISHES AND UTENSILS.—If such dishes as plates, platters, and saucers are placed upright to drain and are rinsed with very hot water, no towel-drying is required. Glassware and silver should be dried with a soft towel. Towels made from flour sacks or from glass toweling are good for this purpose.
Coarser towels may be used to dry cooking utensils. To prevent rusting, dry tin, iron, and steel utensils most thoroughly. After using a towel on these wares it is well to place them on the back of the range or in the warming oven. Woodenware should be allowed to dry thoroughly in the open air. ”

“ Then raise the upper part of the towel, and lay it even, so that the Sewer (arranger of dishes) may make a state.
When your lord has washed, take up the Surnape with your two arms, and carry it back to the Ewery.
Carry a towel round your neck.
Uncover your bread; see that all diners have knife, spoon, and napkin.
Bow when you leave your lord.
Take eight loaves from the bread-cloth, and put four at each end.
Lay for as many persons as the Sewer has set potages for, and have plenty of bread and drink.
Be lively and soft-spoken, clean and well dressed. ”

“ Take a towel of Rennes cloth, [128] two and a half yards long, fold it lengthwise [128] and lay it on the table. Roll up a handful from each end tightly and stiffly, then in the middle of the towel place eight loaves or buns, bottom to bottom, and then wrap them wisely and skilfully. To tell you more plainly for your information: take the ends of the towel that lies on the bread, draw them out and twist tightly a handful nearest the bread and smooth the wrapper stiffly. When it is ready, you must open one end all in a moment before your lord. ”

“ One of the silliest pieces of finery seen in a bed or dressing room is the trimmed towel-horse cover. Towels cannot possibly dry if the evaporation is stopped, and even when the cover is made of thin muslin, it is only a troublesome frivolity.
Every lady has her own particular taste about her toilet-table, so that I only give a caution to let it be safe, and not liable to take fire. We frequently want candles on our dressing-tables; therefore it stands to reason that the veil often placed over the looking-glass is highly dangerous. ”

“ Send me, please, a dozen clothes pins, to keep my washing on the tent-ropes. Pickle hung up his wet towel today, and had to chase it into the next company street. As everywhere is the same black sand, you can imagine its condition, likewise that of a moist cake of soap when you accidentally drop it—excellent for scouring, but not good for other cleaning purposes until its new covering is dissolved away. Send me also some paper napkins folded; the supply at the mess-shacks sometimes gives out. ”

“ I am not, however, so obstinately conservative as to fail in appreciating some other points in the American mastery of the domestic arts. I may long for chilly rooms and remote baths, but I thoroughly enjoy clean towels. Never have I met so many clean towels as in America. The English middle-class housekeeper is behind her French sister in the provision of towels, but the American is ahead even of France. The American towel is indeed small, the bath towel particularly small ”

“ If the patient likes a rough towel, use a regular bath towel, if you can get it. Be careful, never to let loose and wet ends of the wash cloth drag along exposed parts of the body. It is a good plan to sew your wash cloth into a bag, and to slip your hand inside, and work with it put on like a mitten. A rubber or fibre sponge is to be preferred. Keep one for the face, neck, arms, and hands, and another for the feet and legs. The vulva is bathed best by means of a fountain syringe used as an irrigator, and a little sterilized gauze twisted around your dressing forceps. ”

“ There are lots of little dodges that spell comfort for the dressing-room of the woman who wants comfort and can have luxury. There is the hot-water towel-rack, which is connected with the hot-water system of the house and which heats the towels, and incidentally the dressing-room. ”

“ Taking out a moderately clean towel and a tin pot from his budget, he walked amongst the wet grass trailing the towel after him, and when it was sufficiently saturated for his purpose he wrung it carefully into the pot; after many repetitions of the same process he returned to the fire with about a pint of very doubtful looking water. "You see," he said, "I would willingly share it with you; but may be, as you are young bush men, you would find it more agreeable to use your own towels." ”

“ And then the Lord arose and took a basin full of water and a towel, and bowing down, he washed the feet of all the twelve and dried them with the towel.
13. He breathed upon them and he said, And may these feet walk in the ways of righteousness for evermore. ”

“ And now, with the bath at 100 F., with a folded towel on the bottom of the small tub, the soapy child is placed into the water and after a thorough rinsing is lifted out again to a warm fresh towel on the table and the careful drying is quickly begun. After the bath all the folds and creases are given a light dusting with a good talcum. ”