Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. You probably already know this, but there are
Speaker 1: plenty of examples throughout history of questionable medical practices that
Speaker 1: somehow work their way into being common knowledge. For instance,
Speaker 1: drilling holes into the skull to alleviate headaches, or selling
Speaker 1: heroin over the counter, even to children just to treat
Speaker 1: a cough, or using ketchup for well many symptoms not
Speaker 1: involving French fries. Let's just say that. So to hear
Speaker 1: that the Romans had similarly questionable methods of dental hygiene
Speaker 1: in the heyday of their empire shouldn't be all that surprising.
Speaker 1: It began right around the year one a d, though
Speaker 1: the actual point of origin isn't known, and perhaps it's
Speaker 1: one of those things best left unknown. One of those
Speaker 1: who was the first to do it questions that we
Speaker 1: don't really want to know the answer to. But around
Speaker 1: that time, Romans started figuring out the cleansing qualities of
Speaker 1: decomposing urine. You see, when urine, human or otherwise by
Speaker 1: the way, decomposes, it becomes ammonia, which has some pretty
Speaker 1: intense cleansing qualities. It's an industrial stain remover, after all,
Speaker 1: and has been used to treat stains of all kinds,
Speaker 1: from clothing to well teeth. This practice became so commonplace
Speaker 1: that Roman authors like Catalysts, freely attested to how his
Speaker 1: teeth retained such whiteness from regular application of both human
Speaker 1: and animal urine. As they say, if you've got it
Speaker 1: flaunted right, as long as you don't care exactly how
Speaker 1: you got it. I guess you would think that such
Speaker 1: a product would be easy enough to come by in
Speaker 1: most densely populated places on the planets at the time,
Speaker 1: and for the most part it was easy enough for one.
Speaker 1: Throughout Rome, there were public jars where citizens could relieve themselves,
Speaker 1: and those jars would then be collected until fully decomposed
Speaker 1: into ammonia, at which point it would be resold to
Speaker 1: the Roman public as a tool for better dental hygiene. Apparently, though,
Speaker 1: that wasn't enough urine for the high society of Romans
Speaker 1: eager to keep their teeth white and shining. During the
Speaker 1: reign of Emperor Nero, Rome began to import jars of
Speaker 1: urine from the Portuguese, because nothing says culture like imported
Speaker 1: jars a p In fact, it was such a popular
Speaker 1: import that Nero placed attacks on all jars, requiring citizens
Speaker 1: to chalk up a little extra for Caesar if they
Speaker 1: wanted to indulge in the cleansing benefits of what they
Speaker 1: could just produce in jar themselves. While Nero is known
Speaker 1: for his share of atrocities and his wide regarded as
Speaker 1: one of the worst Roman emperors of all time, perhaps
Speaker 1: the strangest addendum to his resume is being the first
Speaker 1: Roman emperor to put attacks on p It didn't take
Speaker 1: long for anyone boasting pearly white teeth to bear the
Speaker 1: insults of the common folk. Thus began the saying you're
Speaker 1: full of piss, because well, there was only one way
Speaker 1: to get such white teeth at the time, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't through laser whitening or bleaching, at least not bleaching
Speaker 1: as we know it. And let's take a moment to
Speaker 1: mention that these jars were often watered down with either
Speaker 1: water or goat's milk, So the density of urine might
Speaker 1: not have been that high, but that doesn't take the
Speaker 1: primary cleaning ingredients out of it, and we all know
Speaker 1: by now what that ingredient was. This wasn't a fad.
Speaker 1: The Romans gave us all kinds of lasting inventions, the aqueduct,
Speaker 1: for instance, or the postal service, but being the first
Speaker 1: to discover the cleansing quality of urine didn't end in
Speaker 1: the Roman days. Urine was a mainstay in mouthwash for
Speaker 1: almost twenty more century, only being phased out in the Sevres.
Speaker 1: But hey, if decomposed urine isn't your thing, there have
Speaker 1: been other bizarre things used as mouthwash as well. Maybe
Speaker 1: next time I'll tell you all about the many uses
Speaker 1: of tortoise blood. As a famous paranormal exterminator once said,
Speaker 1: call it fate, call it luck, call it karma. I
Speaker 1: believe everything happens for a reason to some being in
Speaker 1: the right place at the right time isn't a matter
Speaker 1: of happenstance. It was meant to be the direction we
Speaker 1: lead in life. They say, isn't by chance? Someone made
Speaker 1: it happen, Whether that be our own design or that
Speaker 1: of a higher power. Whatever your belief, though, you have
Speaker 1: to admit that some things that occur just can't be explained,
Speaker 1: and when everything lines up just rights, the impossible often
Speaker 1: becomes possible. On the evening of April fourteenth of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife arrived at
Speaker 1: Ford's Theater for a performance of a comedy play our
Speaker 1: American cousin. Lincoln had an unsettling dream only days before
Speaker 1: in which the President had been killed by an assassin,
Speaker 1: and despite his own misgivings about attending the show, he
Speaker 1: chose to do so anyway. At ten fifteen pm, actor
Speaker 1: and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box
Speaker 1: and fired a single shot at the back of Lincoln's head.
Speaker 1: The wound eventually killed him and sent the nation into mourning.
Speaker 1: Booth escaped after jumping from the box onto the stage.
Speaker 1: He was apprehended weeks later. Meanwhile, arrangements had to be
Speaker 1: made for the president's funeral. Lincoln's body lay in states
Speaker 1: in the White House several days later, where the public
Speaker 1: could come and visit. A funeral was held on April nineteenth,
Speaker 1: and crowds gathered from all over to pay their respects,
Speaker 1: after which throngs of mournful Americans followed the casket to
Speaker 1: the Capitol. Finally, the late that it was loaded onto
Speaker 1: a funeral train bound for Oak Ridge Cemetery in Illinois.
Speaker 1: Lincoln may have been born in Kentucky, but he had
Speaker 1: always considered Springfield, Illinois his home. However, before the train
Speaker 1: reached its destination, it had to make several stops hundreds
Speaker 1: in fact, to allow the grieving public along the way
Speaker 1: to pay their respects. It passed through Baltimore, Maryland, and Harrisburg,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania on April, followed by a stop for a few
Speaker 1: days in Philadelphia. After that, New York City came next.
Speaker 1: Lincoln's casket was paraded down Broadway at around two pm
Speaker 1: on August. Mounted police led the procession, with military generals
Speaker 1: close behind. Roughly eleven thousand American soldiers marched as well,
Speaker 1: while various local groups and organizations made up the crowds
Speaker 1: along the sidewalks. Mason's laborers, parents and children dressed in
Speaker 1: black clamored to get a view of Mr. Lincoln's coffin
Speaker 1: as it made its way down the Avenue. Meanwhile, residents
Speaker 1: of the homes and mansions along Broadway leaned out of
Speaker 1: their windows to watch the event, including an elderly couple
Speaker 1: and their grandchildren. A photo taken from a high vantage
Speaker 1: point beyond the parade managed to capture the occasion, preserving
Speaker 1: the image of the people marching down the street, as
Speaker 1: well as the sea of mourners on the sidelines, and
Speaker 1: in the top left of the photo, peeking out from
Speaker 1: a second story window of someone's home, the photographer coughts
Speaker 1: a curious onlooker, one of those rare right place, right
Speaker 1: time moments I mentioned earlier. He was a small boy
Speaker 1: of only seven years old, the grandchild of an elderly
Speaker 1: couple who lived there. He had come with his brother
Speaker 1: for a visit and to witness the president's hearst go by.
Speaker 1: The boy was a native New Yorker, born on East
Speaker 1: twentieth Street in Manhattan to wealthy parents in eighteen fifty four.
Speaker 1: As that adventurous young man grew older, he joined the U. S. Army,
Speaker 1: then became a cattle rancher at West before returning to
Speaker 1: New York to enter the world of politics. He worked
Speaker 1: his way up through the New York State Assembly, to
Speaker 1: the Board of Police Commissioners, the governorship, until finally becoming
Speaker 1: the twenty five President of the United States. Yes, the
Speaker 1: little boy who watched Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession from a
Speaker 1: New York City window was none other than Theodore Roosevelt.
Speaker 1: Like I said, right place, right time, and for one
Speaker 1: brief moment, two presidents were within feet of each other
Speaker 1: under the most surreal of circumstances. Coincidence perhaps, but at
Speaker 1: the very least it was more than a little curious.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Speaker 1: Yeah h