Liebling’s opening paragraph about the undertaker portrays the undertaker as likable and yet mysterious to the reader. Everyone seems to be drawn to him for their daily digression. In the second paragraph he introduces an undertaker, Mayor Angelo Rizzo of Mulberry Street. Rizzo is not really a mayor, just like the undertaker is just a position that is understood by the neighborhood without a written agreement. Liebling refers to Rizzo as his friend and writes well about these undertakers.

Liebling does a good job capturing the character of the undertaker, the surrounding neighbors and their relationships with each other. Even the police are friendly with the neighbors on a personal level through the argument of how many times one must bathe in regard to superstition.

In this piece, Liebling uses the voices of the undertaker, Mrs. Aranciata, a police officer, restaurant man Al Gallichio, an elderly woman with a bag of zucchini  and his own voice by adding his questions as part of the dialogue. These quotes give the story different perspectives and different ideologies to the argument at hand, but there aren’t any people saying that the counting of times one has bathed is a hoax.

The second to last paragraph talks about how there used to be a bathhouse in the neighborhood where someone can shower for a nickel. That was the time when “old-timers” wouldn’t bother counting. Times have changed is the point Liebling is making. The bathhouse has been bought out by a church and new houses have not really been built since then, therefore leaving the old houses without a bathtub because old residents relied on the public shower. This plays as a “nut graf” in the story.

Liebling ends the story with a quote from the undertaker saying he just swims in a bathtub now to avoid drowning in the ocean and risking the number of times he goes into the water. The undertaker understands his neighborhood and everyone in it.