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Show LUXURIOUSXESS OF LAZINESS. Ontdsln tbe Ancient Greek and Romalrs Exercise by Proxy. It is said that New ..Yk has become the most extravagant city in the world, having got ahead of Paris in that respect. However this may be, and I see no reason to doubt its accuracy,' it is certain that some of our residents are outdoing the ancient Greeks and Romans in : the luxuriousness of laziness. They have reached sucK a point in the art of doing nothing that they now exercise by proxy. The system of physical treatment known as massage, and hitherto employed in the cases of weak invalids, is in fashion for healthy men and women. It consists of the passive submission of the muscles to manipulation by a strong operator, who slaps and rubs the flesh, kneads : the joints, and flexes and extends the limbs, until every part of the frame has been as thoroughly worked as would be done by two or three hours of hard work in a gymnasium. But all the while the subject lies languid and inert on a couch, the exertion being altogether confined to the operator. The physicians used to advise this treatment to their nerveless, emaciated patients only. Now it is complacently recommendedlike recom-mendedlike trips to watering places for fashionable women, to persons only in-capacited in-capacited oy laziness for self-exercise. It is a cr.rrcnt cmze by idle sons and daughters of wealth. Every Turkish bathing establishment, has its rooms for massage, to which especially resort those devotees of dissipation who lack the desire de-sire for manly sports with which to make up for the labor which their circumstances do not require them -to perform. These apartments are used extensively by our dandies, and considerably by our belles. Beside the thorough exercising.the indolent indo-lent purchaser of muscular exertion is rubbed with perfumed oils, quite in the style of the storied Roman time. Some of the enjoyers of this luxury do not even go to the bath for it, but hire experts to .come to their homes. So large has this peculiar industry become that schools for the instruction of men and women have been opened under the countenance of reputable physicians. . A graduate of one of these concerns came to a friend of mine for . employment. He brought a diploma ; also, a letter from one of the most socially pretentious young fellows in town setting forth his ability as a mas-sager mas-sager . What will be the ' next development develop-ment of moneyed leisure?. New York Cor., Chicago Journal. |