TeX - 172

\def\s{teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{The eigh\s rum.

nine\s fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.

TeX - 169

\def\s{teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{The eigh\s rum.

nine\s fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.

plainTeX - 172

\def\s{teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{The eigh\s rum.

nine\s fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.

TeX - 172

\def\s{teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{The eigh\s rum.

nine\s fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.

plainTeX - 175 (invalid)

Note: I just realized this contains #1 twice. Unfortunately I have no idea how to get rid of those, so that makes this answer invalid for now.

\def\s#1{The #1teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{\s{eigh}rum.

\s{nine}fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.

plainTeX - 172

\def\s{teen-hundreds were a time for }\def\p{The eigh\s rum.

nine\s fun.

The two-thousands are a time to run

a civilized classroom.

}\def\m{\p\p\p\p\p}\m\m\m\m\m\bye

Note that the blank lines are intentional and actually required for the output to be properly formatted.