Re: (erielack) Re: Antique Rail-Car BIDET on EBAY

[Njricky2_@_aol.com]

If you've ever spent time in Quebec, a bidet is normal and yes, it is for  
cleaning one's private parts and is very much a bathroom fixture. Not  
necessarily in liew of a shower or a bath, it's just one more thing to help  keep you 
"clean". Without getting graphic, women use it for one purpose and men  use if 
for another.
 
While a bidet may have been a luxury in Europe, it's just a regular piece  of 
bathroom equipment in Quebec. Not everyone has one these days but overall, it 
 is the norm.
 
I'm also very curious to know why DL&W provided such a nice service. I  
certainly would think that D&H would have as via their subsidiary, D&H  provided 
direct service to Montreal. 
 
Regarding bidet service for passengers, my guess is that the railroads  
perhaps in the "Acadian" areas of Maine or New Brunswick or in the midwest part  of 
the continent, Wisconsin in particular, are the places where such service was 
 provided because of the numbers of French immigrants who arrived in North  
America and because of their arrival, it just became the normal thing to  have.
 
This is as much as I know. Can anyone add to this? 
 
Rick
 
In a message dated 4/6/2007 7:43:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
eljefe3126_@_netscape.net writes:

Well,  that's not exactly true.  A bidet, then and now, is a piece of 
"bathroom"  furniture used for washing one's private area, in lieu of taking a 
complete  bath or shower.  Modern versions are fixed in place and plumbed for hot  
and cold water, and also drainage.

I find it somewhat dubious that the  DL&W would provide such a convenience on 
its passenger trains, since  bidets were primarily a European convenience, 
and were and are considered  something of a luxury on this side of the Atlantic. 
 I mean that only the  very wealthy would be inclined to desire such a thing, 
and that even most  first-class passenger would consider such a thing 
frivolous or  "high-faluting".

Can anyone on this list provide a more definitive  answer to the question?  
Would the DL&W (or any other contemporary US  railroad) have provided the use 
of a bidet for its passengers?

Jeff  Larson
ELHS #2683

- -----Original Message-----
From:  laurellines_@_gmail.com
To: erielack_@_lists.elhts.org
Sent: Fri, 6 Apr 2007  5:51 PM
Subject: Re: (erielack) Re: Antique Rail-Car BIDET on  EBAY


thanks!  Neil

On 4/6/07, toddsyr  <toddsyr_@_twcny.rr.com> wrote:
>
> Early version of the  toilet. A French word too.
>
> Todd K. Stearns
>
>  ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Neil Weinberg"  <laurellines_@_gmail.com>
> To: "EL Mail List"  <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 6:00  PM
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Re: Antique Rail-Car BIDET on  EBAY
>
>
> > What is a bidet?  Neil Weinberg
>  >
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