Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What Did People Use Before Toilet Paper?
Using the bathroom has come a long way from when ancient Greeks used stones and pieces of clay for personal hygiene. Toilet paper is one of those things that often gets taken for granted in modern times. This is definitely one of those unavoidable things in life, so through many centuries and in many cultures, everyone had their own method of staying clean. Here are the items used back then.
Stones / Ceramic
If you found yourself in Ancient Greece, you would have to use stones or pieces of your ceramic to wipe in the bathroom.
Occasionally, the ceramic fragments were engraved with the names of people hated by the community. If it were today, it would feel like cleaning up with toilet paper printed with the face of someone you dislike.
There are many reasons why using these materials were thought to be unhealthy. First, the stones did not clean properly. Next, the sharp edges on these materials cause diseases and irritation.
Sponge on a Stick
In Ancient Rome, people did not have the luxury American standard toilet in their homes. Instead, they use public bathrooms that were dirty and uncomfortable. There was also a lack of privacy because of the absence of toilet dividers.
At that time, people wiped with a sea sponge that was fixed to a stick. To use it, they had to push the device through a hole at the front of the toilet. After wiping, they clean it off with a dip in a basin filled with vinegar or saltwater.
Unfortunately, many Romans could not afford personal sponges, so it was a common practice for people to share a single one. However, due to so many sharing a single sponge, it became breeding places for germs and diseases.
Sand
This might sound more irritating, but people who stayed in arid areas of the world used powered brick to wipe their behinds. If this was not available, they handled this task with earth or sand, which was abundant in the deserts.
Water
People in parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia use water and their hands to wash their behinds. For this reason, it is considered an insult to offer the left hand for a handshake.
After cleanup, the hands are washed with water. Although some people might consider it unhealthy, it is more hygienic than toilet paper.
Sticks
In some parts of Ancient Asia, they used a thin stick or stake to wipe fecal matter after using an old latrine option.
These sticks were made from bamboo and were used with water. Also, some cultures usually place a rag or cloth on its tip before use. Unlike the first items mentioned in this article, the sticks were washable, reusable, and affordable.
Leaves and Moss
Today, sometimes camping enthusiasts use leaves from various plants to wipe their behinds. However, the Inuit and Native Americans used this material for thousands of years.
Although leaves can provide a proper cleanup, some of them were toxic. Examples of such plants include poison oak and poison ivy.
Shells
The Islanders used mussel shells back then to clean up their behinds. If this was not available, they used coconut husks.
Reusable Rags
If you wanted to use the loo in early America or Europe, you would need to wipe with a rag. If you were a peasant, you might have to use the sleeves on your clothing.
Compared to other options, this material was softer and gentler on the skin. They were even washable and reusable until they were dumped in the sewers.
Surprisingly, toilet rags are still in use today. However, the current models look like cloth diapers while having features that allow them to be washed and reused.
Although it is good for cleanups, it can spread diseases, especially if it is not cleaned well.
Corn Cobs
Although Early Americans who lived in rural communities used a straw, dried corn cobs were the most popular item for a cleanup.
There were many reasons why people preferred corn cobs. For instance, they were readily available and worked perfectly. They were easy to move in a single direction or rotated at a spot.
Furthermore, they felt soft on the skin. Due to its features, some people continued using corn cobs after the introduction of toilet paper.
Hemp
Wealthy people in the 15th and 16th century France used hemp to clean up after visiting the loo. Occasionally, they swapped this material for lace or wool.
During this period, the French king did not handle the cleanup. Instead, they had servants that were employed for this task.
Snow
For centuries, cultures such as the Inuit have used snow to wipe their lower ends. Today, it is suggested as a possible way to clean up on an outdoor trip. Although its snow might feel cold against your skin, it serves as one of the most refreshing ways to wipe your behind.
Ropes
17th-century sailors used tow rags to handle to clean up after using the toilet. Tow rags are long pieces of rope with frayed ends that dangles in the sea. Also, the rope is permanently fixed to the part of the ship that was used as a toilet.
Sailors use this item by lifting the rope out of the water, and then they use the frayed end to wipe their behind. After wiping, they would drop the rope into the water and leave it to clean itself as the boat drags across the sea.
The Sears Roebuck Catalog
In the 19th century America, you might have to use the pages of a Sear Roebuck catalog. People found this material as an ideal option because it was comfortable and had numerous pages for prolonged use. You could even get it free and fix it on the nail of your outhouse.
But some years later, the companies printed the catalog in glossy pages, which made wiping uncomfortable.
Other printed materials such as magazines and newspapers were also used during this period. One such magazine was the Farmer’s Almanac, which was so popular for toilet use that the printers inserted a hole on the edge of the magazine. This hole was used to hang the material on the customary nail found in the outhouse.
A Brief History of the Toilet Paper
The early Chinese discovered paper in the 2nd century as a wrapping and padding material. Some centuries later, a primitive form of toilet paper was widely used in China.
But the first modern styled paper was made in 1391. This model had perfumed sheets and was created for the Chinese Imperial family
America then became the new home of this product. In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty created the “Therapeutic Paper”. This material served as the first commercially packaged tissue paper in history. The product consisted of loose, flat sheets of paper with his name printed on them.
The Scott brothers launched the Scott Paper Company in 1879. This company is credited with being the first company to sell toilet paper in rolls. But, Albany Perforated Company sold the earliest standard perforated toilet paper on a roll.
In 1928, Hans Klenk became the first toilet paper rolls seller in Europe. In the 20th century, Hans Klenk sold the first toilet paper rolls in Europe. In 1942, St Andrew’s Paper mill in England made a softer variant of the toilet paper roll, which got huge sales turnout.
Sunrise Specialty / Wikipedia / Encyclopædia Britannica /
Mental Floss / Quora / Farmers Almanac /
What Did People Use Before Toilet Paper? (YouTube) 
Where Did That Saying Come From?
“A woman's place is in the home:”
Meaning: Literal meaning.
History: This notion has been expressed in a variety of forms by numerous people over the ages, all of them men of course. The proper proverbial place for a woman is usually expressed as 'the home' but is and has been also said to be 'the family' and 'the kitchen'.
The ancient Greeks got in there first. The playwright Aeschylus, in Seven Against Thebes, 467 B.C., wrote:
“Let women stay at home and hold their peace.”
Of course, Aeschylus wrote in Greek and the above is a much later translation. The unambiguous nature of the thought being expressed doesn't leave much room for interpretation and we can be assured that the English version means pretty much what the Greek dramatist originally said.
Moving into sources written in English, we find Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, 1732:
“A Woman is to be from her House three times: when she is Christened, Married and Buried.”
Again, rather an unequivocal view of where women should spend their time. It isn't until the 19th century that we begin to see examples of the form 'A woman's place...'. The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, Volume 97, 1825 had a 'family' version:
“A woman's place is in the bosom of her family; her thoughts ought seldom to emerge from it.”
In 1832, The New Sporting Magazine, Volume 3, included the earliest example of 'a woman's place is in the home' that I can find in print:
“A woman's place is her own home, and not her husband's countinghouse.”
A 'kitchen' variant is found in Hetty Morrison's early feminist tract My Summer in the Kitchen, 1878:
“Accepting ourselves at the valuation of such men as these, that woman's place is in the kitchen, or, to word it more ambitiously, that 'woman is the queen of the home', the right I ask for is that we be allowed to reign undisputed there.”
Times they a change and with them our proverbs. In November 1970, Time magazine printed a piece titled Newcomers in the House. Bella Abzug campaigned for office in the US Congress using the slogan
“his woman’s place is in the House... the House of Representatives.”
Phrases.org.uk
Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good - real news story)
Florida lizard breaks world poop record, dies constipated
The elephants weren't drunk, just sleepy.
A photo that circulated widely on Twitter in March allegedly showed a pair of Asian elephants in rural southwestern China that had blissfully “passed out” in a tea garden after raiding a village and drinking too much human-made alcohol.
But sometimes, internet stories that seem too good to be true really are too good to be true.
Live Science wrote about the elephants, referencing a tweet by Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Forest Service officer, who said that the elephants "somehow found wine" and were sleeping off their boozy revel. But his tweets about the elephants have since been deleted, and further details about the elephants and the accompanying photos indicate that the story, while charming, was false.
Tweets about the elephants included two images: The photo on the left showed a group of elephants standing in a field, and the photo on the right showed two elephants splayed on their sides, surrounded by tea plants.
The story (and photos) of elephants raiding a remote village in Yunnan province and getting drunk, first surfaced on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging platform, Chinese news outlet Xinhua News reported.
A group of 14 elephants did, in fact, enter several villages in Yunnan province's Menghai County on March 11, damaging roofs and overturning wine jars, according to official reports.
But did the elephants get drunk?
“It was difficult to confirm”, if the elephants drank any of the alcohol that they spilled, said Long Yunhai, deputy director of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Menghai County, according to Xinhua News.
One more elephant incident took place; nine elephants entered another village, also in Menghai County, where they damaged several buildings and broke solar energy structures. But the viral photos of the so-called drunken elephants were not taken during any of the recent “raids”, Yunhai said. In fact, the photo of the elephants in the field previously appeared online in an article about elephant management in China.
“The photo was credited to the Yunnan Province Elephant Management Bureau, which researches elephants. There’s no mention of the elephants being drunk”, AP News reported.
That image also accompanied an article published online in December 2019 by the news outlet Huanbao World, about the opening of an Asian elephant research center in Kunming, which is also in Yunnan province.
The photo of the snoozing elephant pair appears to be a still image taken from a drone video; vegetation around the elephants matches that in the photo of the standing group, AP News says. Markings on the “drunk” elephants also match those in the larger group, suggesting that this image was captured at the same time, and does not represent the marauding elephants that were reported in Menghai County in March, according to AP News.
Forestry officials in Yunnan province said that the elephants in the footage were resting, but were not drunk, Xinhua News reported.
This isn't the first curly-tailed lizard with pervasive poop problems; Claunch and her colleagues have found three other individuals with fecal masses that were 30% or more of their body weight.
“We had actually found a curly-tailed lizard similar to this one the year prior, near the same location, with a fecal mass nearly 40% of its total body mass - However, it's unclear how long it may take these sand-packed masses to accumulate in a lizard's gut.”
“There is no good way to tell because we don’t have studies on 'normal' digestion in the species to compare to, yet”, Claunch said.
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Live Science (05/09/2020)
