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Baths

About This Item

  • Title: Baths
  • Date: 16 July 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01062
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 16 July 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Cassandra Jannel Simms Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Baths." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01062.xml (TEI)
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BATHS.—

The late fatal accident to Mr. Weimer,1 in the East River, should teach those who desire to bathe, but cannot swim, the propriety of going to the baths. It is surely cheaper to pay a shilling or two than to risk one's life. Sam Lewis,2 at the Odeon, has Ridgewood water baths, and Hoeft, foot of South 11th, warm and cold salt water baths; and every one that can afford a shilling or two, and has not baths at home, should patronise these men. If you have no shilling, why then, sooner than abstain from bathing, you may run the risk of being drowned in the River—there is no alternative.

Notes:

1. John Weimer was a Brooklyn jeweler, who drowned in the East River, near Greenpoint, on July 14, 1859, supposedly following a cramp. His body was never recovered [back]

2. Samuel Lewis (1824–1898) was the proprietor at the Odeon and managed it for three seasons, beginning in 1858. [back]

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