Re: Why are people emerging from dungeons often clean shaven ?

michael adams wrote:
"John Dean" <john-dean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7o9ro9F3m7retU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What with them all in Deadwood having perfect teeth,

Why not? They didn't rot their teeth with sweeties. Hell, even
Doc Holliday was a dentist in his day job and he spent a year or
so in Deadwood.
Here's Deadwood's main drag in 1876 - see the sign for the
Dentist?
http://www.dakotaexperience.org/cvfrontier/wild_deadwood.html


That's faked. Trust me.

Ah - I forgot about your Doctorate in 19th century photography and
American history.

You just stick to your colour (sic) postcards. I'll stick with the
facts.

<quote>

In early 1876, frontiersman Charlie Utter and his brother Steve led
a wagon train to Deadwood containing what were deemed to be needed
commodities to bolster business, including gamblers and prostitutes,
which proved to be
a profitable venture. Demand for women was high, and the business of
prostitution proved to be a good market. Madam Dora DuFran would
eventually become the most profitable brothel owner in Deadwood,
closely followed by Madam Mollie Johnson. Businessman Tom Miller
opened the Bella Union
Saloon in September of that year.

Another saloon was the Gem Variety Theater, opened April 7, 1877 by
Al Swearengen who also controlled the opium trade in the town.

</quote>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood,_South_Dakota

OH! It's in WIKIPEDIA! *Those* facts. Well, that knocks all those
twattish historians on their arses.


Which historians are claiming there were no brothels in Deadwood then
?

None of them are claiming that. It's just that most of them acknowledge that
there were medical services, including dentistry, in the early days of the
town.



Mind you, it also says there "As the economy changed from gold rush
to steady mining, Deadwood lost its rough and rowdy character and
settled down into a prosperous town."

But the postcard definitely says 1876, the year Deadwood was
supposedly founded.

You may think it was founded in 1876. No-one else does.

As to the pile of logs to shore up subsidence in
the main street,
how come in this "first year" they decided to build the town\camp
along the line of this long mineshaft which somehow already existed ?

It wasn't the first year. Deadwood was settled from 1875 . It was laid out
in early 1876 and was incorporated in that year. Here's another 1876 pic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deadwood13.jpg
Swearengen opened The Gem in summer 1876 and the town newspaper started
publishing on June 8 1876. Seth Bullock was elected fire warden on August
19 - furhter indication that there was substantial building work done.
Subsidence? Miners were entitled to follow gold seams wherever they led. So
they didn't build the town on the mine, they mined gold under the town. The
newspaer The Pioneer had its office on stilts. Here's an extract from the
Pioneer of Sep 23 1876:

"By the law of the community, a gold placer or ledge could be followed
anywhere, regardless of other property rights; in consequence of this, the
office of "The Pioneer" (newspaper) was on stilts, being kept in countenance
by a Chinese laundryman whose establishment was in the same predicament.
Miners were at work under them, and it looked as if it would be come
economical to establish one's self in a balloon in the first place.
Then followed a reception in the "Deadwood Theatre and Academy of
Music," built one-half of boards and the other half of canvas. After the
reception, there was a performance by "Miller's Grand Combination Troupe,
with the Following Array of Stars." It was the usual variety show of the
mining towns and villages, but much of it was quite good; one of the saddest
interpolations was the vocalization by Miss Viola de Montmorency, the Queen
of Song, prior to her departure for Europe to sing before the crowned heads.
....
We left...to walk along the main street and look upon the stores, which were
filled with all articles desirable in a mining district...Clothing, heavy
and light, hardware, tinware, mess-pans, camp-kettles, blankets, saddlery,
harness, rifles, cartridges, wagon-grease and blasting powder, india-rubber
boots and garden seeds, dried and canned fruits, sardines, and yeast
powders, loaded down the shelves; the medium of exchange was gold dust; each
counter displayed a pair of delicate scales, and every miner carried a
buckskin pouch containing the golden grains required for daily use.
Greenbacks were not in circulation, and already commanded a premium of
five percent, on account of their portability. Gaming hells flourished, and
all kinds of games of chance were to be found--three card monte, keno, faro,
roulette and poker. Close by were the "hurdy-gurdies," where the music from
asthmatic pianos timed the dancing of painted, padded and leering Aspasias,
too hideous to hope for a livelihood in any village less remote from
civilization."
....
..."the general tone of the place was one of good order and law, to
which vice and immorality must bow.

1876 - theatre, stores, saloons - all in place, all flourishing.


And how comes the faces on the people are all blurrred, but all the
signs and even the clockface are relatively clear ? Lets not hope
they added bits when they colured it in, eh ?

You are obviously totally ignorant of 19th century photography. The plates
were exposed for a short period. Anything that stayed still was clear.
Anything that moved was blurred.




Not only was there no NHS in Deadwood in 1876 - there isn't one even
now,
but even if there had been, there were no readily available plastics
and other synthetics, from which to make the dentures.


So how do you account for the fact that George Washington wore
dentures 100 years before Deadwood was founded?
--

As with getting clean shaves, dentures were available for the
better-off.
With the plates carved out of stuff like wood and ivory and sometimes
real teeth being used often taken out of corpses.
"Waterloo teeth" were a notorious example of this, with the teeth
supposedly taken out of battlefield corpses.
Such dentures were often used for appearance only and needed to be
taken out for eating.

And being "for appearance" only they'd look quite good. Which was your
original problem.
Since you like Wikipedia, have a butchers at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentures#History

"The first porcelain dentures were made around 1770 by Alexis Duchâteau. In
1791 the first British patent was granted to Nicholas Dubois De Chemant,
previous assistant to Duchateau, for "De Chemant's Specification", "a
composition for the purpose of making of artificial teeth either single
double or in rows or in complete sets and also springs for fastening or
affixing the same in a more easy and effectual manner than any hitherto
discovered which said teeth may be made of any shade or colour, which they
will retain for any length of time and will consequently more perfectly
resemble the natural teeth." He began selling his wares in 1792 with most of
his porcelain paste supplied by Wedgwood.[citation needed] Perhaps the most
famous early denture user was George Washington. He was fitted with them no
later than 1764. President Washington's dentures are part of a new display
on exhibit at Mount Vernon. Despite the rumors, the famous dentures aren't
made of wood, they're made of hippopotamus ivory.

In London in 1820, Claudius Ash, a goldsmith by trade, began manufacturing
high-quality porcelain dentures mounted on 18-carat gold plates. Later
dentures were made of Vulcanite from the 1850s on, a form of hardened rubber
(Claudius Ash's company was the leading European manufacturer of dental
Vulcanite) into which porcelain teeth were set ..."
--
John Dean
Oxford


.

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