H.L. Mencken’s A Neglected Anniversary
The power of a piece of fake news to survive and thrive has probably never been demonstrated more effectively than it was by H.L. Mencken. In 1917 Mencken was at the height of his considerable powers as a writer, satirist, and journalist. In December of that year, writing for the New York Evening Mail, Mencken presented a piece which noted the recently passed unobserved anniversary of the introduction of the bathtub to America.
According to Mencken’s story the first bathtub in America was installed in Cincinnati Ohio on December 20, 1842. Mencken created a non-existent address as the location where the first tub, made of mahogany, was installed and described the local (to Cincinnati) fame it immediately acquired. Mencken reported that many other wealthy Cincinnatians were quickly installing their own custom built bathtubs, and that a backlash against their use was soon generated.
The story went on to discuss legislation in several states over bathtubs, health concerns by informed doctors over excessive bathing (Philadelphia failed to pass an ordinance prohibiting bathing between November and March by two votes) and Virginia imposing a $30 tax on bathtubs. Boston made bathing in tubs illegal, but seldom if ever imposed penalties for violating the law. Millard Fillmore, as the Vice-President, bathed in the original tub in Cincinnati while visiting that city and later as President had one installed in the White House in 1851, despite political opposition pointing out that no earlier President had needed a bathtub installed at public expense.
Mencken’s story ended by having George McClellan bringing the first bathtub to the US Army during the Civil War in 1862, and its installation in prisons in the United States commencing in 1870. Throughout the article Mencken produced statements which could be easily refuted. It was entirely fiction, and was received as being entirely fact. It was reprinted and reported on nationwide, including in Cincinnati where the described house and address was non-existent. Today it is known as a hoax, but occasionally still arises as a source for questionable facts.
Mencken was astonished that anyone could read the piece and believe it to be true, even thirty years later. During that time the story was quoted as a factual source in newspapers, magazines, medical tomes and even some encyclopedias. “Scarcely a month goes by,” wrote Mencken in 1949, “that I do not find the substance of it reprinted, not as foolishness but as fact, and not only in newspapers but in official documents and other works of the highest pretensions.”