Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-12
DID YOU KNOW MAIN LINE
IN COS? READ AND LEARN
ia Euer Hear of Kissng Station " isar caring Red
Flannel Shirt Dinner Party? Then Hark for Moment

When wistar Eyes sir, a Wistar,
spelled with an "a'') wore a red HAN
mel shirt to a dinner party
And when Johnny Converse and
Randall Williams were regular cut
ups
And patrician Main Liners took only
one bath a winter, because it was SO
cold
And when there was no "Laoli Po-
cal'' from Philadelphia out the line
between 6 p. m. and midnight
And when now dignified Haverford
was dubbed the kissing Station -
Those were the days. They must
have been.
And they are all described most de.
Iightfully and with delicious disregard
for the feelings of aristocratic Main
Line ghosts in an amusing little book
written by A. n. Onymous.
1t is gravely charged that the author
is John w. Townsend, and no other. but
In the preface of the merry little book
there is this one paragraph:
''These meanderings of an old man S
memories were ,jottcd down principally
for his amusement, but memories con
tinued to run away with the pen until
they have gone beyond reasonable
bounds. They do not pretend to ac-
curacy, in which memory often fails,
but wide margin will allow the reader
to make corrections as desired.
Thus, Mr.. A. n. Onymous provides
a graceful little loophole he permits
choleric old shades to make corrections
IL corrections are in order. or II the
shades think they are in order. 1t was
the writer's bad memory, they will
explode.
WHO Knows?
Perhaps Mr.. Wistar didn't wear a
red flannel shirt to dinner party,
after ALL 1t may have been a blue
flannel shirt. Maybe the old time
Main Liners were wronged in regard to
Z taken one every Washington's Birth =
day. Who knows?
This intimate little history is called
personal "reminiscences of the Main
Line in the Sixties and Seventies
1t tells briefly, near its beginning
how thriving communities got their
start. Narberth the author states,
started life as Elm. ''Brakemen
then called it El lum.' 1t had the same
infantile diseases that early Bryn Mawr
suffered with--ponds and sloppy places.
30 that commuters beyond dubbed one
side Ponds Extract and the other side
Slippery Elm
Wealthy Philadelphians early began
to purchase large farms outside the
Bryn Mawr tract. 'Among the first to
purchase was Mr.. George w. Childs,
editor of the PUBLIC LEDGER, who took
up large property on the new road
that had just been laid out southward
from White Hall, called Bryn Mawr
avenue.
.'In these same early days Mr. Childs
l,l fria Mr q
founded the town of Wayne, as a real
estate operation.
''Mr. Childs was asked one day why
they built their new town so far up the
road when there were numerous prop
critics Just as available nearer the city
he quickly replied with his character
istic humor that it was in order to give
the new settlers more time to read the
PUBLIC LEDGER on the trains.
Lewis Wistar is the worthy who
wore red shirt at dinner parties. As
"a. n. Onymus'' quantity observed :
''Next to Owen Jones lived old Lewis
Wistar, wealthy and blue blooded, but
he used to shock his neighbors by ap-
pearing at their dinner parties in red
flannel shirt. Some of the best peo
pie then had primitive habits
4 Patience Was a Requisite
ILlVluE On Tue IN thp'N
days was matter of patience and en- =
durance when it came to transporta-
ton.
''The Pennsylvania Railroad did not
cater much to commuters in the six
ties" the book says. There were
only six trains day each way. If
the p. nj. was missed there was moth =
ing doing till the Immigrant at mid
night. Old FOUNDERS could not wander
out on any old train asking for the
.Paoli local gate.
J. A contrast is drawn between the ac
cepted luxuries of today and the rigor
Gus simplicity of half century back.
'It really seems as if bathing is
more of an esthetic pleasure than a
sanitary necessity, modern theories
Notwithstanding, the book observes
"Our sturdy old colonial ancestors
probably never bathed all winter. How
could they with no heat in their house
except an open wood fire and an occa
sional iron stove in the living room?
Fifty years ago the best city houses
had only one tin lined bathtub ant
part of the spring housekeeping wa
to have its insides painted. especial,
to obliterate what Mrs. Gump,' of th