Old Print Article: “Centipedes And Bugs Flow Into His Bathroom,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1902)

June 9, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Sorry to barge in unexpectedly, Judge, but I really had to use the can. (Image by Liza Phoenix.)

If the May 8, 1902 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is to be believed, the entire borough was being invaded by ominous sea monsters. That’s the impression you get from this hyperbolic article about a former New York Supreme Court Justice, whose home had strange things coming out of the bathroom faucets. Less than a year after this article was written, Justice Fredric A. Ward was found dead in his Remsen Street abode, but it was assumed he died from natural causes and not from being strangled by an octopus that crawled out of his toilet. An excerpt from the article subtitled, “No Uncommon Thing, He Has Ascertained, to Receive Visits From Sea Monsters”:

“Former Justice of the Supreme Court Frederic A. Ward has just moved to his new house, at 52 Remsen street. Now Mr. Ward is wishing that he hadn’t. He has found things in his new house not to his liking–not a bit. They are in his bathtubs.

In Justice Ward’s new house are two beautiful bathrooms. He was delighted with them the first day he saw them. That was before he took possession of the house. Now the former Supreme Court Justice is wondering if he was not deceived by the appearance of those bathrooms and of the exquisite bathtubs, done in mosaics, which looked so handsome and so inviting.

It is all because of the water. The first time Mr. Ward turned on the water in the bathtubs, there came flowing out of the pipe such a motley assemblage of sea monsters, garden truck, insects and discarded vegetables that he was for a moment taken back with astonishment. After ordering the servants to clean out the tub, Mr. Ward turned the pipe on again. Still the procession came and was still coming when Mr. Ward decided to bring the parade to a halt.

Judge Judy: A tarantula once stole my lip balm. (Image by Susan Roberts.)

The next day the former Supreme Court Justice determined to try again. He met with the same success. The sea monsters still continued to come, grass of many shades oozed out of the pipes, huge chunks of seaweed that looked as if they had done service in the Brooklyn water system for a number of years followed and the Justice threw up his hands in despair. Mr. Ward then called the attention of the previous tenant who had preceded him to the condition of the water. To his great surprise, Mr. Ward was informed that it was no unusual thing to receive visits periodically from the sea animals described by the former Justice. The latter, however, has determined to cut them short and has written a letter to Water Commissioner Dougherty calling the latter’s attention to the polluted condition of the water being supplied to his house.

Mr. Ward in his letter to the Water Commissioner says that not only is the water full of insects, moss and other disagreeable things, but it is of a muddy and filthy nature, making bathing an impossibility.”

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