Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1889. The Journal's water pail

The Journal published this ode to its water bucket on May 6, 1889:

Below "is a correct representation of an institution coeval with the Journal and inextricably identified with its existence. Filled with pellucid water, cooled and chastened with crystal ice, it has slaked the thirst of generations of Rhode Island statesmen . . . sweetened the draughts of victory and consoled the pangs of defeat of candidates for every office in the gift of the people, and been ever fresh and full like the contents of the newspaper of which it is the emblem and adjunct. Like the Journal itself, while undergoing changes, it has been ever the same. Editors have died or resigned and been succeeded by others; publishers have passed away and others have taken their places; but the newspaper has been perennial. So the hoops of one bucket have been gnawed by the tooth of time or the bottom fallen out from structural weakness; so one cocoanut dipper has been cracked or parted company with the handle. But others have been supplied and the fountain has never failed . . . "