Speaking of subjunctives… There are lots of old jokes about proper prim Bostonians. Maybe they’re right.
Motor Age in 1909 has some pretty pictures of the motoring conditions around President Taft’s “summer capital” in Beverly.
Nice Stickley typography. I’d say the summer capital is almost large enough to hold Taft.
Alongside this picture:
the article says:
In the view where the Cameron car stands at the side a small sign can be seen on the right hand side of the road. The sign reads, “Danger, go slowly.”
Enoughly shall have been spoken.
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Here’s an account of Taft’s summer capital by the Beverly Hist Soc. The Taft family owned a summer mansion on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario. (I knew two rich families in Ohio who owned private islands in Canada; it must have been an Ohio tradition!) (And I knew two other rich Ohioans whose ancestors were close associates of Taft.)
After Taft was president, he realized it would be unseemly to vacation in Canada, so he rented this “cottage” from a friend in Beverly, and also rented an office in an ordinary downtown building, next to dentists and fortune tellers and stock traders. Presidents in those days weren’t encased in a Potemkin Nation of fake cities and fake houses and fake trees built and unbuilt by the Secret Service. They had direct contact with actual Americans.
Random: The lower picture might be the first dashcam shot. The photographer was clearly in a car. You can see cowl lamps at the sides, just as you see windshield wipers in modern dashcam shots.
Polistra's Mill 