Two old sayings

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist 

There is so much in this world that I do not know. It seems as though just about every day I learn something that has tickled the back of my mind, but I have never bothered to delve into. Take these two wonderful sayings as examples. The first is "crazy as a mad hatter," and the second is "Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

This past week, I started a new adventure, serving as a docent at General Ulysses S. Grant's boyhood home, located in Georgetown, the small town just a few miles up the road from our farm. As soon as I stepped through the door, I realized how little I knew about the man who led the Union Army to victory in 1865, and went on to become the 18th president of the United States.

The brick home, now over 200 years old, not only stands solid, but has been carefully restored to its original simple beauty. It even contains many of the Grant family's original furnishings and is further fitted with period-appropriate pieces.

Young Ulysses lived in the home from the time his father built it in 1823 until he left for West Point in 1839 at the age of 17. As I walked through the rooms, I imagined a child growing up there and becoming a man, having no inkling that he would one day have such an important role in shaping American history. Its six rooms have so much to share, not just about the man, but about the times, and this brings me to the two saying noted above.

Who today does not know the story of "Alice in Wonderland" and Lewis Carroll's character, The Mad Hatter. What I did not know, was the reason for the Hatter's madness.

In the front foyer of the Grant home is a small hallway table, and on it sits a felted beaver fur hat from the 1800s. The tophat's sleek black felt is a bit worn, but it has lasted far longer than any of my farm hats ever will, no doubt due in part to the fact that the fur was felted with mercury to both cure and preserve it. During the process, the mercury was heated and released vapors that the hatters inhaled. They then worked the mercury-laden felt with their bare hands, to form the desired top hat shape. Thus, they not only inhaled mercury vapors, but also absorbed it through their skin, resulted in mercury poisoning. This was manifest by physical tremors, loss of their hair and teeth, and early onset dementia. Hence the saying "mad as a hatter."

This I had not known.

I learned about the second saying on the second floor of Grant's home. There, three bedrooms are filled with beds, as the home at one time housed as many as 16 people, Ulysses' parents and his five younger siblings, a widowed aunt and her three children, as well as young men who worked at Ulysses' father's tannery across the street.

Atop the lumpy straw or feather-filled mattresses sat a curious device, a large wooden key type of tool that was used to tighten the ropes strung across the beds' wooden frame. The ropes supported the mattresses. 

Every so often the ropes would need tightening so the sleeping occupants would not sag to the floor. Thus, the goodnight saying "sleep tight," referred to sleeping on a tightly strung bed. My mother always tucked me into bed as she said "sleep tight," and I had simply imagined she said this because of the way she tightly drew the bed covers up around me. Now, I know better.

Then as to the bit about bed bugs, well ... I grew up in New York City in the 1950s, a time when bed bugs were a real concern to urban dwellers. What I did not know as a child was that mattresses in the 1800s were stuffed with either chicken feathers, that can carry chicken mites, or straw that was likely inhabited by untold numbers of field bugs. These creatures I have encountered during our farm life here in the creek valley, but now I know that "don't let the bed bugs bite" refers to these likely inhabitants of the feather- and straw-filled mattresses of the 1800s.

So, while these two sayings, about the mad hatter and a good night's sleep, have always been a part of my life, their true meaning was not. When I first stepped through the front door to General Ulysses S. Grant's boyhood home, I thought that I would be doing a good thing to guide folks through an important part of our nation's history. It now seems that the home's history is teaching me a good thing or two.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in Ohio south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com. 

* * *

••• Publisher's note: A free press is critical to having well-informed voters and citizens. While some news organizations opt for paid websites or costly paywalls, The Highland County Press has maintained a free newspaper and website for the last 25 years for our community. If you would like to contribute to this service, it would be greatly appreciated. Donations may be made to: The Highland County Press, P.O. Box 849, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133. Please include "for website" on the memo line.