THE VIRTUE THERE IS IN RUBBING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3030, 12 March 1881, Page 4

THE VIRTUE THERE IS IN RUBBING.

Among profitable employments for women is the massage or occupation as a "rubber." Formerly only the horses had the luxury of being groomed, and the massage is a luxury of the same sort. Now human being can have it; it is prescribed by the doctors and is a good-paying employment, skilled rubbers being quite in demand. The massage is not merely rubbing, however, but is a sort of compound knoacling and manipulating of tho skin and muscles, so that they arc wakened up, as it were, stimulated into activity, ancl this without the slightest tax on the strength or will of tho person under the rubber's hand. There are born " rubbers," as there are born nurses, who understand by a sort of instinct just what movement and treatment is required, but it is also taught as a profession. The nurses of tho Women's Hospital are trained in it, but it is made a separate branch also by men and women who are not nurses, ancl who only learn how to follow up the muscle lines of the body, and to knead gently and pat and pinch up the languid and bloodless ilesh. Massage for old folks, whose circulation is sluggish, is a good thing to go to bed on. We havo travelled a good way from the old knowledge of the Greeks, who knew the exhilaration of muscle-using. Even to cx-

tend the arms visrorouslr and. suddenly, stiwht out from tho shouMcr, opening and shutting the clenched fist, -ires an entirely new pleasurable sensation to those who never " stretch their rausck-s. ..ne, massage, whioh in part supplies tms exhilaration, is vastly in furor just now in America. A rubber's usual is a ".ollur an hour, and good rubbers can many hours into the clay. It takes for this businoVs a slock of nervous strength, because there must be considerable human eloctriciry passed along in the process, llie comfort that is communicated by contact with a comforting and soothing hand every sufferer knows. Indeed, that old saying of the Gospel that " he knew that virtue had gone out of him " has a far-off application to this sort of human agency. The rubber should be personally an agreeable individual, one that ib is pleasant for the sick and weak to have about them. A good firm hand, untiring patience, a delicate touch, and plenty of energy and cheerfulness. Nobody should undertake tho rubber's duties without being sure of all these.