Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (38 page)

Of Pennsylvania's 22 native snakes, timber rattlers are the largest. They can grow to more than five feet long, and are one of the most venomous (and dangerous) snakes in North America.

These crustaceans grow to be about three inches long, have powerful pincers, and live in wet, marshy, or grassy regions, where they dig burrows about six feet deep. Wondering if you have burrowing crayfish near your home? Check the edges of nearby streams or ponds and look for their burrows, which have a distinct hardened “chimney” made of mud.

Twenty-two species of salamanders call Pennsylvania home; one of those is the eastern hellbender, which live entirely in water. They're a splotchy olive-brown color, with flaps and folds of skin hanging from their sides—and can grow to be more than
two feet long, making them the third-largest aquatic salamander in the world. Another remarkable feature: their lifespan—one raised in captivity lived for 29 years.

These turtles are among the smallest in the world; they grow only to about four inches in length. But they can live for up to 30 years. With their black or deep-brown shells and yellow/ orange splotches behind their ears, they're easy to spot.

The turtles get their name from the fact that every fall, usually in September, they bury themselves in mud at the bottom of a bog and hibernate for about six months. Like many turtles, they manage to get oxygen during hibernation not by breathing, but through specialized skin cells on their necks and at the base of their tails that extract oxygen from the water.

 

 

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader salutes the great state of Pennsylvania . . . alphabet-style
.

P
. . . is for PENSYLVANIA, which is how the state's name was spelled on the U.S. Constitution's list of signatories. (Earlier in the document—in Article I, Section II—it's spelled correctly.) It's also spelled with one “n” on one of the most famous state symbols . . . the Liberty Bell. (And “P” is for “Pennsylvania,” the only state that starts with the letter P.)

E
. . . is for ERCILDOUN, a Quaker hamlet in the far southeast corner of the state. The name was taken from a poem by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott.

N
. . . is for NORTH SIDE, the part of Pittsburgh just north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. North Side is home to Heinz Field, where the Pittsburgh Steelers play football. It was also the location of the first modern baseball World Series, in which the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three. The proper pronunciation of “North Side”: “Nahth Side.”

N
. . . is also for Joe NAMATH, a.k.a., Broadway Joe, quarterback of the New York Jets from 1965 to 1976. Namath, a Pennsylvania sports legend, was born in Beaver Falls in 1943. His Hungarian grandfather had settled in Pittsburgh to work in the steel mills, and the spelling of the family name back then was Nemeth. What does that mean in Hungarian? “German.”

S
. . . is for STEAGLES. In 1943, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles merged because the military draft during World War II had depleted the number of men available to play. The team was officially known as the “Eagles–Steelers” but became unofficially known as the “Steagles.” Most memorable moment: During the third game of the season, against the New York Giants, the Steagles fumbled a record 10 times. More memorable: they still won, 28–14.

Y
. . . is for YODEL, which many music historians believe arrived in the United States with German-speaking immigrants, many of whom settled Pennsylvania in the 1600s. (The word “yodel” comes from the German
jödeln
and first appeared in the United States in the 1820s.)

L
. . . is for LAST. Pennsylvania was one of the last states to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. (Prohibition passed on February 26, 1919.) Pennsylvania was also the last state to make winemaking legal again after Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

V
. . . is for VETCH, as in Penngift Crownvetch, Pennsylvania's official “beautification and conservation plant.” The general assembly gave the plant (with its white and lavender flowers) its special distinction in 1982.

A
. . . is for ABOLITION. Pennsylvania was the first state to abolish slavery—all the way back in 1780—before the Revolutionary War was even over.

N
. . . is for N AGAIN. Pennsylvania is the only state with three Ns in its name.

I
. . . is for INDEPENDENCE. It's everywhere: Pennsylvania is officially known as the “State of Independence.” Historical items are kept in Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, there's a town called Independence, and thousands of businesses in the state have “Independence” in their names, including Independence Blue Cross, Independence Answering Service, Independence Biofuels, and Independence Communications—the state's largest provider of Muzak.

A
. . . is for AMERICAN ALPHABET. Of the many things Benjamin Franklin invented, one of the oddest was an alphabet that he thought more accurately reflected American English. It was phonetic, which Franklin believed would make it easier for children and foreigners to learn. Franklin's alphabet consisted of 26 letters, but six of them—C, J, Q, W, X, and Y—were replaced with new ones he invented. Franklin tried to get the new alphabet accepted for decades, but it never caught on.

 

 

1.
Legend.
The bell traveled on a ship called the
Hibernia
, which was known to have transported dry goods and passengers to the colonies from England and Ireland. Historians do not believe it was a slave ship.

2.
A little of both.
The bell arrived in Pennsylvania in 1752 and was set up in Independence Square to be tested before it was hung in the State House steeple. On its very first ring, the bell did crack—its metal was so brittle that it broke at the stroke of the clapper. But the ringing and cracking occurred in March 1753, not on the Fourth of July.

3.
Fact.
Government officials tried to return the broken bell
to England, but there wasn't enough room on the ship so the captain left it on the dock. Next, the bell went to John Pass and John Stow, Philadelphia foundry workers who broke it down and recast it, adding more copper to the bell's metal alloy. Pass and Snow's bell was stronger, but its tone was poor (the result of too much copper), so they recast it again, using silver and other metals to sweeten its sound.

That second casting rang in the key of E flat, but some people (particularly Pennsylvania assembly speaker Isaac Norris) still didn't like the sound. So Norris commissioned a whole new bell from Whitechapel. When that one arrived, though, it sounded no different from the original. So the Pass/Snow bell remained in the State House steeple and was rung to call the assembly to order or to signal important announcements. Today it's known as the Liberty Bell. It's 3 feet high, with a circumference of 12 feet at the lip, and is composed of about 70 percent copper, 25 percent tin, 2 percent lead, 1 percent zinc, 0.25 percent arsenic, and 0.2 percent silver, with trace amounts of gold, magnesium, and nickel. The other bell found a home, too: the Pennsylvania government hung it in a cupola at the State House.

4.
Legend.
The Declaration of Independence went to the printer on July 4, 1776, and was read publicly on July 8. Other bells did toll in Philadelphia on that day, but the State House belfry was so dilapidated that the Liberty Bell couldn't be rung—people worried that the tower would collapse.

The legend of the Liberty Bell and the Declaration came from an 1847 short story by George Lippard that was published in the
Saturday Currier
. In Lippard's story, the State House bellman rang the Liberty Bell when his grandson came running with news of independence, shouting, “Ring, Grandfather! Ring!”
Over time, that fictional story became accepted as historical fact.

The Liberty Bell did ring for other important events leading up to the American Revolution, including the 1757 and 1764 meetings of the Pennsylvania assembly that sent Benjamin Franklin to England to redress colonial grievances. In 1771, the Liberty Bell called the assembly together to petition King George for a repeal of tea taxes, and in April 1775, it pealed to proclaim the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

5.
Fact.
In September 1777, the British attacked General George Washington's troops at the battle of Brandywine. The Brits won that battle and marched toward Philadelphia. The Americans, afraid the British would capture the bell and melt it down, had the Liberty Bell removed from its steeple, and Colonel Thomas Polk, along with 200 militiamen, escorted the bell to Allentown. Today, visitors to Allentown can see where the bell was hidden under the floor of the Zion Reformed Church.

6.
Fact.
After the British were defeated, the Liberty Bell was brought back to Philadelphia, but the State House steeple was still too unstable for the bell to be rehung. It wasn't until 1785 that the steeple was rebuilt and the bell rehung. In 1788, it rang to celebrate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. It also rang to celebrate patriotic occasions such as the inauguration of John Adams and to mourn the deaths of famous Americans like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton.

7.
Legend.
The first known use of the name “Liberty Bell” dates to 1835. An abolitionist publication called the
Anti-Slavery Record
noted that the “liberty bell” was rung to celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July even though “one sixth of all inhabitants of the country” were in “abject slavery.” Abolitionists took up the name,
and in 1839, an abolitionist poem entitled “Liberty Bell” caught the public's attention. Eventually, Americans came to call Philadelphia's bell by that name.