" Indeed, it would be hardly reasonable to expect that people
should indulge often in a full bath at home in a city where the water
must be drawn from wells, and carried up long flights of stairs in
pitchers and pails by women and children.
The notions of the lower classes with regard to dress have doubtless a
good deal to do with their health. The same notions prevail in most
parts of Germany, but are especially hurtful in a climate so severe
and variable as that of Munich. Thus, it is considered improper for a
servant-girl to wear a hat or a bonnet in the street when she is about
the business of her calling. On Sundays and holidays, indeed, or when
she has an outing in the afternoon, she may adorn herself with such an
appendage; but to go to market or to the grocer's with her head
covered would be a piece of presumption which would at once expose her
to ridicule from all the members of her class. Hence, all day and
every day women and girls may be seen in the streets without any
covering on the head, though, by way of compensation, most of them are
obliged to go about a good share of the time with their faces bound up
on account of swelled jaws and tonsils, the natural result of such
unnatural exposure. Occasionally, in the coldest weather some few,
more prudent than the others, wear a hood or a small shawl over the
head, but these cases are rare, and excepting in the depth of winter
such a precaution is not thought of, although the gusty, chilly
weather of spring and autumn and the frequent cold blasts that occur
in summer are quite as dangerous, if not prepared for, as are the
winter storms.
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