Jerkwater Town

[Garson O'Toole]

Evan Morris wrote:
>
> An interesting and plausible alternate explanation for the phrase, at
> odds with the OED.
>
> http://verbmall.blogspot.com/2008/05/jerkwater-town.html

The Google News Archive apparently has a match for the article Michael
Sheehan mentions in the Baltimore Sun on March 7, 1941 that includes
the phrase "jerked water". The article should be available in
ProQuest, but I only have access to a limited set of ProQuest
newspapers, so I cannot retrieve it without paying a fee. Perhaps some
other list member could obtain the article. (I have not altered the
defective OCR results below, so others can use it for matching if
needed.)

Down The Spillway
Pay-Per-View -
The Sun - Mar 7, 1941
Every train crew carried a leather bucket on a long rope with which
they "jerked water" from the streams nlong their track. As locomo-
tives increased in ...


Here is the abstract information:

Down The Spillway
The Sun (1837-1985) - Baltimore, Md.
Author:         JOHN O'REN
Date:   Mar 7, 1941
Start Page:     14
Pages:  1
Text Word Count:        1026

Abstract (Document Summary)
THE MODERN WORLD, or at least such part of it as is represented of the
State of Maryland, is plainly in need of A new trade, occupation, or
profession, to wit, the age guesser. The miserable failure of a
committee of State Senators to guess the nges of fire boys suddenly
presented to them, at a hearing on a bill requiring

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