BEAN TOWN



RHHDAS defines "Beantown" as Boston, Massachusetts and has 1901 as the

earliest citation. However, Boston's baseball team was known as the

Beaneaters much before this.

Actually, Boston stole Beantown! This is from the New-York Commercial

Advertiser, 11 September 1871, pg. 1, col. 1.:



A Bean Town.

Beverly, Massachusetts, says a correspondent, is know as "Bean Town."

(Boston is not mentioned!--ed.) No virtuous citizen of that place thinks of

passing Sunday morning without baked pork and beans for breakfast. Formerly

they went to the different bakeries Saturday nights, each man with his bean

pot. Each pot was numbered with a check as received and the number given to

the owner, and crowds would gather around the bakery door, Sunday morning,

each man calling his number and receiving his pot. But now they have a

pottery in the town, and each householder has had his bean pot made to order,

with his name or initials baked into the sides, and the plan works

beautifully. The bakers charge six cents for baking beans, and it is no mean

source of revenue.



(There it is--a thirty year antedate of American Speech. Not on the

Dictionary Society of America's list. Right here on ADS-L! H. L. Mencken

would be proud! For those who don't want to read this type of thing, think

again about the above--where this would be in its own section.)



------------------------------------------------