The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-02
Copyright, 1909, by P. S. Ridsdale,
for Samuel Gompe-s.)

v L JUL, - ny w"
All Americans who travel in Eu-
rope become r~eyolutionists. They re-
volt in spirit and in words at least
against the almost general
against plain water and WITHIN Iour
walls, against pure air, against the
universal tipping system, gains the
European theatre, and against the
colossal blunder, from start to hnlsh,
Of the European railroad. In his IN
dictment Of European conditions the
American citizen, imbued with the
teachines of the fathers OF u Re-
public, may have a series of further
counts, but on those just enumerated
ever the half Europeanized travelling
Americans l happened to meet SEEM
ed al to agree.
The absence Of the common use Of
water results from a conspiracy OF
publicans, from landlords, from a
tack OF plumbers supplies, from a
misconception Of the word bath"
and from pure ignorance, since none
Of these causes are In operation IN
his own country; the American has
had opportunity afforded to exercise
a reasonable liberty in drinking, wash
ing, swimming n bathing.
There really was something Of d
revolution in England twenty-five
years ago which brought about the
establishment Of a public water sup
ply in many municipalities and small
towns where previously there existed
either an insufficient company service
or the Old-faShiOned wells. To accom-
ISh this change required much agita-
ton including q vast deal Of radical
writin" Some of the booklets Of the
Fabian socialists dealt with the idea
Of a public water supply as if it must
be linked up with socialism, and when
subsequently town after town estab-
Iished its own water department the
Eabians hailed the work as a step
forward to their ideal state. But in
asmuch as we in America had long
been accustomed to look on city
water as merely a feature Of our
common sanitation. its socialism was
no more obvious to us than are our
public schools. When London abol-
iShed it's old parochial and borough
systems and centralized the supply in
q water board. it began doing what
New York had done for nearly a CEN
fury.
However, England's water revolu-
ton is incomplete. Many Of its towns
having from five to ten thousand in
habitants have today no public sys-
tenn in the American sense. Running
water on tap from pipes is rare as
compared with America Questioned
on this point, an English fellOW-paS-
senger. pointing out from the car win
dow whole farm villages, asserted that
not one of them has a Water-piping
system. Many American tourists and
some Englishmen have assured me
that they had never seen running
water in an English hotel or boarding
house bedroom. More than one bath
tub in a London lodging and board
residence" establishment is rarely to
be looked for. Only the new hotels,
except those Of luxurious appoint
mentS, nave more than one bath
room on a floor, though there may
be several bathtub compartments in
one big room. Being told that "even
the workingman" nowadays wants a
bathtub on moving into a new cot
tage or apartment, On visiting some
of the municipal or building society
dwellings, 1 naturally looked for the
counterpart of the neat, convenient,
and Well-fitted-up bathroom to which
most of our own Wage-earners are
accustomed everywhere when living
at the American standard, and what
was shown me was, in some places a
tub sunk in the kitchen flooring, Gov
cred with q %trapdoor, and in others a
sort Of closet with a c~old-Water faucet
near the ceiling for a shower, the ce-
ment f1Oring answering for a tub. In
a small number of instances there was
a real bathroom. Usually, the bath
was mentioned as an innovation, a
matter of public pride, a harbinger
of a dawning civilization among the
working people. 1t was a fact, it was
said, that in old parts of London there
was not a single bathtub in an area
Of blocks.
In the scarcity of bathtubs q new
Hight is thrown on the familiar picture
Of the well-to-do Englishman travel
ing with his portable tin tub. It is
evidence not that the English have
the bathing habit, but that as a ma
ton hey lack the habit. A travelling
American would as soon think Of
carrying with him a bed as a bathtub;
he is sure to find either at any hotel
or boarding house.
On the continent the American
tourists one meets " a fund OF
amusino stories to relate on the sub
tect Of the elusive bath. One man ]
met was able to sum up the general
facts Of the subject from the position