One-Night Stands with American History by Richard Shenkman

Author:Richard Shenkman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

An advertisement from 1892. (Edgar R. Jones, Those Were the Good Old Days [New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959], p. 56.)

AN OLD STORY: WARNINGS AGAINST SMOKING

WEIRD WHITE HOUSE RULES

A few of the rules and maxims appearing in the 1887 edition of the official White House book of etiquette:

• “A gentleman should not bow from a window to a lady, but if a lady recognizes him from a window, he should return the salutation. It is best, however, for a lady to avoid such recognitions. It is not in the best taste for her to sit sufficiently near her windows to recognize and be recognized by those passing on the street.”

• “Cleanliness is the outward sign of inward purity. It is not to be supposed that a lady washes to become clean but simply to remain clean.”

• For men: “Do not indulge in long hair, thinking it gives you an artistic look. Except in painters and poets, flowing locks are a ridiculous affectation.”

SOURCE: Janet Halliday Ervin, The White House Cookbook (1887; rpt. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1964), passim.

CLEVELAND THE EXECUTIONER

Before he became president, Grover Cleveland served as sheriff of Erie County, New York. Twice during his tenure the future president was called upon to hang convicted criminals. Cleveland, who would be president only fourteen years after accepting the job as sheriff, actually placed the noose around the necks of the convicted men, tightened the rope, and sprang the trapdoor.

SOURCE: Joseph Kane, Facts about the Presidents, 2d ed. (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1968), p. 151.

THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET OPERATION

On the evening of June 30, 1893, the President of the United States quietly slipped on board a yacht anchored at Pier A on the East River in New York City. Mystery surrounded his appearance. The crew had been told the President would be having two teeth pulled the next day, but the extreme measures taken to keep his presence a secret seemed strange.

Some time earlier Grover Cleveland had complained about a rough spot on the roof of his mouth. His doctors had examined it and found it to be cancerous. They had advised that he have an operation to have it removed. Part of his jaw would have to be cut out, but within a few weeks Cleveland would be fully recuperated. There would be no sign of an operation, since the surgery would all be done from the inside of his mouth.

The operation took place on July 1 and went smoothly. The upper part of the jaw was removed, and within two days Cleveland was up and about. But he could not speak well, and after the cotton that had been placed in the excavated area had been taken out, his speech became completely unintelligible. He recovered quickly, however, though a second operation had to be performed on a remaining area of cancer.

The public was not told about the operation, since Cleveland believed news of his illness might lead to uncertainty and worsen the financial crisis that was then developing. Congress was about to begin debate on the repeal of the Sherman Silver Act and nerves on Wall Street were tense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.