Picture Perfect

somehow work their way into being common knowledge. For instance, drilling holes into the skull to alleviate headaches, or selling heroin over the counter, even to children just to treat a cough, or using ketchup for well many symptoms not involving French fries. Let's just say that. So to hear that the Romans had similarly questionable methods of dental hygiene in the heyday of their empire shouldn't be all that surprising.

It began right around the year one a d, though the actual point of origin isn't known, and perhaps it's one of those things best left unknown. One of those who was the first to do it questions that we don't really want to know the answer to. But around that time, Romans started figuring out the cleansing qualities of decomposing urine. You see, when urine, human or otherwise by the way, decomposes, it becomes ammonia, which has some pretty

intense cleansing qualities. It's an industrial stain remover, after all, and has been used to treat stains of all kinds, from clothing to well teeth. This practice became so commonplace that Roman authors like Catalysts, freely attested to how his teeth retained such whiteness from regular application of both human and animal urine. As they say, if you've got it flaunted right, as long as you don't care exactly how

you got it. I guess you would think that such a product would be easy enough to come by in most densely populated places on the planets at the time, and for the most part it was easy enough for one. Throughout Rome, there were public jars where citizens could relieve themselves, and those jars would then be collected until fully decomposed into ammonia, at which point it would be resold to

the Roman public as a tool for better dental hygiene. Apparently, though, that wasn't enough urine for the high society of Romans

eager to keep their teeth white and shining. During the reign of Emperor Nero, Rome began to import jars of urine from the Portuguese, because nothing says culture like imported jars a p In fact, it was such a popular import that Nero placed attacks on all jars, requiring citizens to chalk up a little extra for Caesar if they wanted to indulge in the cleansing benefits of what they

could just produce in jar themselves. While Nero is known for his share of atrocities and his wide regarded as one of the worst Roman emperors of all time, perhaps the strangest addendum to his resume is being the first Roman emperor to put attacks on p It didn't take long for anyone boasting pearly white teeth to bear the

insults of the common folk. Thus began the saying you're full of piss, because well, there was only one way to get such white teeth at the time, and it wasn't through laser whitening or bleaching, at least not bleaching as we know it. And let's take a moment to mention that these jars were often watered down with either water or goat's milk, So the density of urine might not have been that high, but that doesn't take the primary cleaning ingredients out of it, and we all know

by now what that ingredient was. This wasn't a fad. The Romans gave us all kinds of lasting inventions, the aqueduct, for instance, or the postal service, but being the first to discover the cleansing quality of urine didn't end in the Roman days. Urine was a mainstay in mouthwash for almost twenty more century, only being phased out in the Sevres. But hey, if decomposed urine isn't your thing, there have

been other bizarre things used as mouthwash as well. Maybe next time I'll tell you all about the many uses of tortoise blood. As a famous paranormal exterminator once said, call it fate, call it luck, call it karma. I believe everything happens for a reason to some being in the right place at the right time isn't a matter of happenstance. It was meant to be the direction we lead in life. They say, isn't by chance? Someone made it happen, Whether that be our own design or that

of a higher power. Whatever your belief, though, you have to admit that some things that occur just can't be explained, and when everything lines up just rights, the impossible often becomes possible. On the evening of April fourteenth of eighteen sixty five, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife arrived at Ford's Theater for a performance of a comedy play our

American cousin. Lincoln had an unsettling dream only days before in which the President had been killed by an assassin, and despite his own misgivings about attending the show, he chose to do so anyway. At ten fifteen pm, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box and fired a single shot at the back of Lincoln's head. The wound eventually killed him and sent the nation into mourning. Booth escaped after jumping from the box onto the stage.

He was apprehended weeks later. Meanwhile, arrangements had to be made for the president's funeral. Lincoln's body lay in states in the White House several days later, where the public could come and visit. A funeral was held on April nineteenth, and crowds gathered from all over to pay their respects, after which throngs of mournful Americans followed the casket to the Capitol. Finally, the late that it was loaded onto a funeral train bound for Oak Ridge Cemetery in Illinois.

Lincoln may have been born in Kentucky, but he had always considered Springfield, Illinois his home. However, before the train reached its destination, it had to make several stops hundreds in fact, to allow the grieving public along the way to pay their respects. It passed through Baltimore, Maryland, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on April, followed by a stop for a few days in Philadelphia. After that, New York City came next. Lincoln's casket was paraded down Broadway at around two pm

on August. Mounted police led the procession, with military generals close behind. Roughly eleven thousand American soldiers marched as well, while various local groups and organizations made up the crowds along the sidewalks. Mason's laborers, parents and children dressed in black clamored to get a view of Mr. Lincoln's coffin

as it made its way down the Avenue. Meanwhile, residents of the homes and mansions along Broadway leaned out of their windows to watch the event, including an elderly couple

and their grandchildren. A photo taken from a high vantage point beyond the parade managed to capture the occasion, preserving the image of the people marching down the street, as well as the sea of mourners on the sidelines, and in the top left of the photo, peeking out from a second story window of someone's home, the photographer coughts a curious onlooker, one of those rare right place, right

time moments I mentioned earlier. He was a small boy of only seven years old, the grandchild of an elderly couple who lived there. He had come with his brother for a visit and to witness the president's hearst go by. The boy was a native New Yorker, born on East twentieth Street in Manhattan to wealthy parents in eighteen fifty four. As that adventurous young man grew older, he joined the U. S. Army, then became a cattle rancher at West before returning to

New York to enter the world of politics. He worked his way up through the New York State Assembly, to the Board of Police Commissioners, the governorship, until finally becoming the twenty five President of the United States. Yes, the little boy who watched Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession from a New York City window was none other than Theodore Roosevelt. Like I said, right place, right time, and for one brief moment, two presidents were within feet of each other

under the most surreal of circumstances. Coincidence perhaps, but at the very least it was more than a little curious. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah h