Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
SpinTech: February 12, 2000
Mencken, the Bathtub, and War
by Wendy McElroy
On December 28, 1917, the iconoclastic journalist H.L. Mencken published "A Neglected Anniversary" in the New York Evening Mail. The article was so titled because, as Mencken declared, America had neglected to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the invention of the modern bathtub which had occurred on December 20, 1842 in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Not a plumber fired a salute or hung out a flag. Not a governor proclaimed a day of prayer," Mencken lamented, then proceeded to offer an informal history of the bathtub in the United States. He provided political context. For example, President Millard Fillmore had installed the first bathtub in the White House in 1851. This had been a brave act on Fillmore's part, since the health risks of using a bathtub had been the subject of great controversy within the medical establishment. Indeed, Mencken observed, "Boston early in 1845 made bathing unlawful except upon medical advice, but the ordinance was never enforced and in 1862, it was repealed."
"A Neglected Anniversary" was the direct result of the anti-German propaganda that dominated newsprint in the years before and during America's involvement in World War I (1914- 1918). Mencken was an established and respected newspaper man. He had started his career as a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper in 1899, then became the city editor in 1904. Yet, during America's anti-German period, he could not get material on World War I published because of his pro-German views which sprang from a love of the culture rather than from politics. Mencken was enraged by the popular portrayal of Germans as 'barbarous Huns' who committed atrocities such as the widely-reported bayoneting of Belgian babies. (Although the latter accusation had been absolutely accepted by the American people, it was later proven to be pure Allied propaganda.)
Mencken had attempted to infuse some real-world perspective on the war into American newspapers. Near the end of 1916, he had traveled as a reporter to the eastern front to cover the hostilities but the break down of diplomatic relations between Germany and America forced him to return. At home, Mencken discovered to his horror that most of his dispatches had not been published. Edward A. Martin writes in H.L. Mencken and the Debunkers, "It was 1917; Mencken, passionately pro-German, felt muzzled by the excesses of patriotism that dominated the attitude of Americans. The 'Free Lance' column [Mencken's daily column in the Baltimore Evening Sun] had been a casualty, in 1915, of his unpopular views of the war. The war and all of its ramifications were excluded from his writing until after 1919..." (81)
Thus, Mencken -- a political animal to the core -- turned to non-political writing in order to publish. A book of Prefaces, a book of literary criticism, appeared in 1917. His book on the position of women in society, In Defense of Women, issued in 1918. And the first edition of Mencken's magnum opus, The American Language, emerged in 1918. His articles either appeared in the literary magazine he co-edited with George Nathan, Smart Set, or he addressed such controversial matters as the American bathtub.
But Mencken was far from sanguine about having his political views suppressed. He complained to Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly whose pages were also closed to him: "It is, in fact, out of the question for a man of my training and sympathies to avoid the war... How can I preach upon the dangerous hysterias of democracy without citing the super-obvious spy scare with its typical putting of public credulity to political and personal uses." (as quoted in H.L. Mencken Revisited, 50)
His restless frustration found vent in "A Neglected Anniversary." Like so much of Mencken's writing, the article was not quite what it seemed to be on the surface. It had levels of meaning. "A Neglected Anniversary" was a satire destined to become a classic of this genre of literature in much the same manner as Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" which satirized English policy in Ireland. In the article, Mencken spoke in an eloquent tone of mock-reason, which was supported by bogus citations and manufactured statistics. In short, his history of the bathtub was an utter hoax set within the framework of real historical fact. The modern bathtub had not been invented in Cincinnati. Fillmore had not introduced the first instance of it into the White House. The anti-bathtub laws Mencken cited were, to use one of his favorite words, "buncombe."
Calling the hoax "an amazing mixture of obvious fact and hard to refute fiction," the author of An Un-neglected History P.J. Wingate observed, "The story said that Millard Fillmore became President in 1850. True. It was easy to look that up. Also it said, obliquely, that Gen. Charles M. Conrad was Secretary of War under Fillmore. True again..." As for the "hard to refute fiction," Wingate continued: "Mencken set a couple of very carefully hidden traps. He quoted from The Western Medical Repository of April 23, 1843, and the Christian Register of July 17, 1857. No editor or scholar in the land could find these imaginary journals but they had plausible names..." (An Un-Neglected Anniversary, p.48-49) Moreover, Mencken's citation of specific dates lent credibility to the quotations so that researchers might well assume that their own archives were incomplete.
The journalist's purpose was not 'good clean fun,' though it is certain Mencken enjoyed the hoax. "An Neglected Anniversary" was an act of merry contempt directed at journalists who blithely reported fiction as fact and at readers who were so gullible as to believe blatantly false reports without question. As he later wrote, "One recalls the gaudy days of 1914-1918. How much that was then devoured by the newspaper readers of the world was actually true? Probably not one per cent. Ever since the war ended learned and laborious men have been at work examining and exposing its fictions." Through his hoax, Mencken demonstrated to himself and to selected friends that the American public would believe any absurdity, as long as it appealed to their imagination or emotions. They would even believe a non-existent inventor in Cincinnati, Adam Thompson, had hired blacks to haul water "from the Ohio river in buckets" to his bathtub because the city then lacked running water.
Content with his private joke, Mencken remained silent about the hoax until a follow-up article "Melancholy Reflections" appeared in the Chicago Tribune on May 23, 1926, some eight years later. The article was Mencken's confession. It was also an appeal for reason to the American public. His hoax was a joke gone bad. "A Neglected Anniversary" had been printed and reprinted hundreds of times in the intervening years. Mencken had been receiving letters of corroboration from some readers and requests for more details from others. His history of bathtub had been cited repeatedly by other writers and was starting to find its way into reference works. As Mencken noted in "Melancholy Reflections," his 'facts' "began to be used by chiropractors and other such quacks as evidence of the stupidity of medical men. They began to be cited by medical men as proof of the progress of public hygiene." And, because Fillmore's presidency had been so uneventful, on the date of his birthday calendars often included the only interesting tidbit of information they could find: Fillmore had introduced the bathtub into the White House. (Even the later scholarly disclosure that Andrew Jackson had a bathtub installed there in 1834 -- years before Mencken claimed it was even invented -- did not diminish America's conviction that Fillmore was responsible.)
Mencken speculated on the probable response to his confession, "The Cincinnati boomer, who have made much of the boast that the bathtub industry, now running to $200,000,000 a year, was started in their town, will charge me with spreading lies against them. The chiropractors will damn me for blowing up their ammunition. The medical gents, having swallowed my quackery will denounce me as a quack for exposing them." He wondered whether disclosing the truth about bathtub would lead to a renewed cry for his deportation to Russia as a bolshevik.
One can only speculate on whether the actual response to "Melancholy Reflections" surprised Mencken, who was a practiced cynic by then. The response: many people believed that his confession, and not the original article, was the hoax. Mencken felt impelled to pen a second follow-up appeal entitled "Hymn to the Truth." Writing in the Chicago Tribune of July 25, 1926, Mencken commented, "The Herald printed my article ["Melancholy Reflections"] on page 7 of its editorial section... with a two column cartoon labeled satirically, 'The American public will swallow anything.' And then on June 13, three weeks later, in the same editorial section but promoted to page 1, this same Herald reprinted my 10 year old fake -- soberly and as a piece of news!" Mencken's history of the American bathtub had been so graceful and charmingly constructed that people simply wished to believe it.
Since then, curious researchers have thoroughly discredited Mencken's bathtub 'facts.' Books such as The Bathtub Hoax have explored the scam in depth. Biographies of Mencken frequently feature the hoax he had played so well that even he could not debunk it. Yet, as of the present moment, standard histories of the presidents ascribe the first bathtub in the White House to Fillmore, as do many calendars and the public school system.
It is easy to laugh and, so, lose sight of the motive behind "A Neglected Anniversary." Mencken wished to demonstrate the dramatic inaccuracies of many newspaper accounts, which are too often swallowed whole by uncritical readers. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in periods of war when great public efforts are made to stir emotions so that the public unquestioningly supports governmental policies. When reading accounts of war, it is valuable to consider Mencken's expressed opinion: "probably not one per cent" of it is true.
Copyright 2000 Wendy McElroy.
I take it that you are trying to make me believe that there were not more than 2 billion Albanians killed by the Serbs.
My favorite Mencken quote is:
"Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, then A is a scoundrel."
sort of describes today's do-good liberals to a tee. Don't you think?
Every tax, fee or loss of liberty is categorized as:
"It's for the children"
"It's for the poor"
"It's for the homeless"
"It's for education"
"It's for the environment"
etc. etc. etc.
If you can find it, his essay "Thorsten Veblen" is a classic on the Politically Correct and the Morally Improving.
Oh, no, didn't know that, sorry. Poor devils. I'm just glad we got in there in the nick of time and saved the rest. What's the population of Yogoslavia, anyway?
Oh, no, didn't know that, sorry. Poor devils. I'm just glad we got in there in the nick of time and saved the rest. What's the population of Yugoslavia, anyway?
Would you believe maybe 1.5 billion?......How about 1 billion?.....Well then what would you say to 10 KLA rebels and two goats?
Some more timeless quotes from Mencken:
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it."
"We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas."
"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights."
"They have convinced millions of the lazy lowly that the taxpayer owes them a living - that every cent he earns by hard labor is, and of a right ought to be, theirs. .... It will not be easy to dissipate such romantic notions. It will take a long time, and it may also require some rough stuff. But mainly it will take time, and while that time is running on the taxpayer will have a lot to think about.
Bump for some good quotes.
Quit it with that! I ain't in to numbers. The poor slobs.
I even heard about a redneck couple that got married in a bath tub.
THEY HAD A "DOUBLE RING CEREMONY" har har!
It is a trait of progress that everything becomes easier to do and more streamlined in the doing. Now it only takes one liar and one journalist, and Voila! a fact is born.
"Now it only takes one liar and one journalist, and Voila! a fact is born."
How seriously funny.
The tragedy is, once something like this becomes sufficiently widely distributed it becomes effectively impossible to correct 100%. Thus to this day I'll bet you find literature citing, and people who believe in, Mencken's hoax. I could offer many other examples of hoaxes and frauds (since discovered, acknowledged or exposed) that have become similarly embedded in public consciousness to the degree that I do not foresee them ever being fully uprooted. (Just look at the Urban legends phenomenom.)
Great Quotes but you missed the best one!
If 50,000 people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing! H.L. Menken
Don't you know that 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot?
Wish I could take credit for that one, but it is in one of the humor threads.
So, the old adage, believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, comes from?
What a fascinating thing. Thanks for your comments.
I even heard about a redneck couple that got married in a bath tub.
THEY HAD A "DOUBLE RING CEREMONY" har har!
Irate, my wife says she wouldn't leave a ring.
"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights."
White House Plumbing
President George Bush (this article was first published July 1989) can take modern conveniences for granted. The White House is like a super hotel that contains all the high-tech appliances available. It's part of the perks that go along with being the leader of the free world. And among the least of his worries is whether the plumbing works.
But the President's home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue hasn't always been a posh address. In fact many presidents had to tolerate primitive living conditions, including poor plumbing and heating.
The White House had a reputation for being behind the times in domestic improvements. Congress in part can be blamed for that situation, because although the White House is a private residence for the President and his family, it is public property, and appropriation decisions were made on Capitol Hill. Frequently, the necessary expenditures weren't allotted, and the building decayed rapidly in the first half of the 20th century. Before its major renovation during the Harry S. Truman administration in 1948, it was m such rough shape that officials discussed tearing it down and replacing it with a completely new building.
White House History:Every president except George Washington has lived in the White House. Although the "Father of Our Country” didn't reside there, he was instrumental in the location of the site as well as in the establishment of the Federal City in the District of Columbia, which would be named after him following his death in 1799. Originally named 'The President's House," it was known as such until the Civil War (1861-65), when it assumed the name, “Executive Mansion.- Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) established the title, "White House," by Executive Order.
The residence was built on a hill overlooking the Potomac River. A contest was held for the design of the building. Irish architect James Hoban who is called the first architect of the White House, won the $500 prize. The design is said to have been based on that of the Duke of Leiner's palace in Dublin.
The cornerstone of the White House was laid on Oct.12,1792 - the 300th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Western Hemisphere. But it wasn't until November 1800 that second President John Adams (1797-1801) and his wife Abigail moved in. When the Adamses arrived, much of the house was disheveled from ongoing construction - most notably the East Room. Since there was no plumbing of any sort, servants had to lug water into the house from a spring in Franklin Park, five city blocks away. There were no bathrooms, and an agitated Mrs. Adams complained that "we had not the least fence, yard or other convenience without, and the great unfinished audience room, I made a drying room of - nor were there enough lusters or lamps, so candles were stuck here and there for light - neither the chief staircase nor the outer steps were completed, so the family had to enter the house by temporary wooden stairs and platform."
When the British raided Washington on Aug. 24, 1814, they torched the White House, and the blaze gutted the interior and damaged part of the exterior. Dolly Madison was able to salvage some items, including the Declaration of Independence and the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.
Reconstruction commenced in the spring of 1815, again under Hoban's guidance. Except for the East Room and the North and South Porticoes, restoration was finished in December 1817.
There have been several alterations since the White House was rebuilt after the 1814 fire. The first significant alteration was a $500,000 project in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt administration. The principal innovation was the construction of the West Wing, where the executive offices were moved and where they remain today. Separating the residence and business quarters, allowed for the second floor to be used solely as a domicile.
Because there was a restricted amount of money available for this renovation, as well as limited time and the crude equipment of 1902, it was impossible to do all of the work that needed to be done. Nevertheless, plumbing was a central part of the plan, as bathrooms were installed and pipes and electrical wiring replaced as part of the first floor refurbishment. In order to safeguard the attic from fire, workers installed a new standpipe with fire hose that ascended into the attic and out to a place where the city fire department could easily use it in case of fire.
The ensuing report explained, "In the house proper, more than one half of the lower floors is given up to dressing rooms, with toilet rooms attached, conveniences heretofore entirely lacking. The removal of the pipes from the corridor gives a spacious passageway dignified by the fine architectural features constructed by Hoban."
In 1927, a new steel-trussed roof and fire-resistant third floor were installed during the Calvin Coolidge administration (1923-29). However, these improvements provided only temporary relief and the house had deteriorated rapidly by the time Truman authorized major reconstruction in 1948. One account notes that the President's decision was prompted by his noticing that his bathtub was settling into the floor.
Reconstruction 1948-52: By 1948, it was apparent that the weary White House was in serious disrepair and that if it didn't get a much-needed facelift, it would have to be demolished. So President Truman (1945-1953) authorized the formation of a committee to oversee the rebuilding process.
The Commission on Renovation of the Executive Mansion was faced with the immediate responsibility of deciding between several possible plans for reconstruction - none of them simple, all of them costly and all requiring much time. Comprising the committee were R. E. Dougherty, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Douglas W. Orr, president of the American Institute of Architects; and W. E. Reynolds, commissioner of Public Buildings. Lorenzo S. Wilson, White House architect, and Howell G. Crim, chief White House usher, acted as advisors. John MacShain was the general contractor for the project. During the renovation, the Trumans lived at the government - owned Blair House across the street. It took nearly all of Truman's second term in office to complete the work.
The $5.7 million project was the most extensive the building had undergone in the 150 years it had been in existence. Architectural Digest noted in a pre-construction article that had there not been the addition of so many pipes and wires through the years, the structure would have been in satisfactory condition. "Today there is scarcely a beam in the entire building that has not been bored or cut through dozens of times to accommodate water and sewer pipes, gas pipes, heating pipes, electric and telephone wires, automatic fire alarm and guard signal systems, elevators, a fire extinguishing systems and other mechanical innovations. In the very structure of the building itself, generations of architects and builders have concealed the completed mechanical equipment of a modem office building, none of which was provided or even contemplated by the original builders."
A commission survey recommended revealed that the plumbing system was "largely makeshift by modern standards [and] unsanitary," and recommended that it be abandoned "except to such extent as a few of the fixtures may be found suitable for reinstallation in areas of subordinate importance."
< The preservation of existing mechanical, electrical and communications facilities were described as "impracticable," and recommendations for the plumbing system were outlined. The new system included new piping and fixtures, except those fixtures found to be in good condition.
After the reconstruction, the mechanical area was enlarged to 160,000 cubic feet and included a transformer room, an electrical repair shop, a carpenter shop, and compressor rooms for the air-conditioning system. In the basement are storage rooms, laundry, engineers' offices, dentist's office, control room, water softener, men's and women's locker rooms and lavatories, incinerator and elevator machinery.
While the exterior and much of the interior of the White House was constructed of materials which are expected to last for 300 years, the plumbing fixtures were installed with the idea that they could be replaced without major reconstruction in about 20 years. This was on the theory that the plumbing fixtures are constantly being improved in appearance and mechanical operation.
The plumbing fixtures are of high-quality standard construction. Because all piping above the basement is concealed in places where its renewal would be difficult and expensive durable brass pipe was used to minimize the necessity for repairs. All hot and cold water lines are red brass while the heating, vent and waste lines are brass and copper tube.
The hardware is solid brass and bronze. Since there were "objections to flushing valve water closets due to noise in flushing," low noise flushing valve outfits were installed. Drainage piping below the basement floor is extra-heavy cast iron.
Lavatories are of vitreous china with combination supply fixtures. Those on the second floor are fitted with drinking water faucets combined with the supply fixtures. Showers are provided in the bathrooms on the second and third floors. The second floor showers are in separate enclosures; those on the third floor are over the bathtubs. Each shower fixture is fitted with an automatic water temperature regulator.
The bathrooms were fitted with shower cabinets as well as bathtubs. The shower cabinets have glass doors as well as bathtubs. Before the renovation, no connected with the guest rooms, and overnight visitors had to walk across a hall. Now all guest rooms have adjoining baths and separate baths have been provided for the servants.
Andrew Tully described the Truman bathroom in the May 1952 issue of The Plumbing News: "If they offered me any room in the house, I'd take Mr. Truman's bathroom. In the first place, it's big-a spacious grotto of cool, gleaming, green and white tile, where a guy could set up housekeeping if things get tough. Then there are the fixtures all white ... and a tribute to 20th century plumbing. Take the bathtub, for instance. None of those squat little bushel-basket-like jobs you see in some modem homes. Our President's tub is a good seven feet long - the kind in which a man can stretch out in when he comes home from the office, all tired out from working over a hot Republican."
"A good seven or eight feet away on the opposite wall is the widest wash basin I ever saw. My four kids could all wash their hands there and never rub elbows. In the middle of the two water faucets is a third tap - for ice water. Of course, there's a shower stall with a glass door. This is a couple blocks across the room in another direction. All around the room are little sets of tile shelves."
The Great Bathtub Debate: The question of which President was the first to introduce a bathtub into the White House has produced several answers, most of which could probably be construed as correct, depending on your viewpoint. Most often given credit for the first tub is President Millford Fillmore (1850-53), widely believed to have had it installed in 1851. At the core of the debate surrounding Fillmore is a story by prominent journalist H.L Mencken which appeared in the Dec. 28, 1917, edition of The New York Evening Mail. Mencken recanted the Fillmore tub tale as fiction 10 years later when it was being hyped and embellished in newspapers, journals and reference books.
The story related the origin of a mahogany and sheet lead tub built in 1842 by Adam Thompson of Cincinnati, Ohio. Fillmore was said to have inspected the tub while stumping through town as Vice President in 1850, and was so impressed that he ordered it for the White House after succeeding Zachary Taylor to the Presidency later that year.
Mencken later explained that he concocted the tale as a diversion for a country that was suffering the horrors of World War 1. That admission led to the story being subsequently referred to as "The Mencken Hoax." However, the article continued to be printed as fact long after the author's confession.
Tapping The White House: The early White House lacked running water. The idea was conceived during the Madison administration before the house burned, but water wasn't actually piped in until the Jackson administration. In 1829 (when Jackson took office), the Committee on Public Buildings had decided not to pipe running water to the White House, opting to concentrate funds on the North Portico. During that period, most hotels and private mansions had indoor plumbing, particularly in the bathrooms and kitchens. Springs, cisterns and wells fed the system.
By 183 1, the Commissioner of Public Buildings purchased a bubbling spring at Franklin Square in order to pipe water up to the White House in trunks or wooden pipes made of drilled-out logs. As the ponds were dug and the laying of pipe got under way, the engineer decided to substitute iron pipe for the wooden . This was for fire protection, not convenience to the household. A fire engine, purchased by Monroe, was kept with the White House coaches.
By the time ground was broken in the spring of 1833, water was still provided by two original wells located in the breezeways between the house and wings. Laborers dug three reservoirs: one at the Treasury, one at the State Department, and a third at the White House. At the reservoirs, stonemasons set bulky platforms or "pedestals" where the pipes came to the surface. Water flowed freely through the pipes, which by means of grading were kept on a decline to the pedestals, where the water formed spout-like fountains that shot directly into the pools. Situated on pedestals were pumps made of iron and trimmed with brass, protected by wood pumphouses.
The system was largely functional by the end of May 1833. The motion produced by the splashing fountains kept the water in the reservoirs from stagnating. A deep bed of clean sand was the filter through which the water passed in its movement within the pool. The pipes from the pools to the building were buried in the ground. Since the pipes had a to carry water to great heights inside in the entire building at the house, the hand pumps provided the necessary pressure. A pump attendant who took care of reservoirs worked the handles at intervals, filling the pipes as well as the small tin cisterns that had been installed to serve each hydrant.
These pipes were unearthed in 1928, as described in the Washington Sun: "Workmen engaged in street widening operations about Franklin Park have uncovered what engineers declare to be perhaps the last vestige of the original water supply system for the White House. A cistern with a tunnel leading toward the White House was uncovered near the comer of 13th and I Streets. The cistern was built of well-made brick masonry, with a subterranean tunnel leading down 13th Street."
During Van Buren's tenure, the shower baths in the East Wing were improved and several copper bathtubs were added to the two already put there under Jackson. Portable tubs had long been used for bathing in the bedrooms and dressing rooms upstairs. Servants carried the water in buckets up the little service stair from the water heaters in the kitchen. There would be no running water upstairs for many years to come. The bathing room below was spruced up with compartments and wardrobes in the interest of privacy and convenience. It was probably used only by the President and other men of the family, with the women continuing to use tin tubs in the bedrooms.
Declining the traditional President's bedroom to the south, Andrew Johnson (1865-69) chose a north side chamber on the opposite side of the guest room from his wife's. Between this and the guest room was a small room containing various bathtubs but no plumbing. Johnson had this made into a fully - equipped bathroom with a barber's chair. Records show that by 1876, water to several tubs and water closets was supplied by pipes connected to a 2000 - gallon water tank in the attic.
In April 1882, during the Arthur administration, plumbers began removing old pipes from within the walls and replacing them. New septic fields were created. The easternmost room of the West Wing was converted to a lounge for the use of men guests after dinner, and connected to the main conservatory by a small stair. Other bath and toilet rooms were remodeled with new tile, wallpaper and fixtures. In the family quarters there were two such rooms, one on the northwest and one large one on the north side that had been partitioned into various compartments opening into the service hall. The President's office had one, but another had been built off the attic stair landing for the use of the private secretary.
Only two bathrooms served Teddy Roosevelt's family quarters. One was for the Presidential bedchamber; the other, a "family bathroom" for everyone else, including guests, had three doors in addition to having partitions only head-high, making compartments for lavatories, toilets and bathtubs. All rooms of the second floor opened off the long hallway and each of the seven bedrooms had its own bath, complete with white ceramic tile and nickel plate.
President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson (I 913-21) used the two rooms of the Presidential Suite almost as a separate apartment. In the smaller of the rooms, the sitting room, they ate their breakfast and occasionally lunch or dinner. It was an awkward, crowded room, the bathroom and closet, added in the renovation of 1902, threw the mantelpiece off center.
A swimming pool, new bathrooms and a variety of other conveniences and improvements were continually added, as the third floor became increasingly important to the functioning of the second.
from : Plumbing and Mechanical, July 1989
The reader wishing even more information on this topic is referred to Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine.
If you read all this, we both need a life.
Mine, too. That's how I remember.
I wonder if this article is true, or if Ms. McElvoy made a lot of it up.
Ms. McElroy is an excellent writer, but unlike Mencken, I've never felt that she had much of a sense of humor.
That'll have to be good enough for me, as I'm way too lazy to go the library and look it up, even for a controversy of this magnitude. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
[
Top
|
Latest Posts
|
Latest Articles
|
Self Search
|
Add Bookmark
|
Post
|
Abuse
|
Help!
]
FreeRepublic , LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794 Forum Version 2.0a Copyright © 1999 Free Republic, LLC |