"comfort station" antedating

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has this euphemism from 1923, labeled "U.S. Genteelism."  Here's a much earlier ex.:

  1897 _Report on Public Baths and Public Comfort Stations_ (N.Y.: Mayor's Committee) 24: Regarding both baths and public comfort stations the Committee would recommend: 1. That a certain part of each bath and station should be free in order that necessitous cases may be relieved.

  The Mayor's Committee was appointed in 1894. It seems to me that "genteelism" may not be quite accurate, as the report employs the phrase as a term of art.  A 1938 publication, findable at Google Books, distinguishes between "comfort stations" and public "privies," the former being furnished with a flush toilet.

  Note too the perhaps "early" use in 1897 of the deferential "would."

  Google Books also reveals the recent adaptation of "comfort station" to refer to the former Japanese military brothels occupied by "comfort women."

  JL


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