Consider, it could have been far worse. I could have included a brief, capsule history of toilet paper as well (which wasn't widely available out West until the post-Civil War era), which is to say, a history of all the alternatives thereto prior to.
An hygienic species the human animal was not throughout most of its checkered history. Nothing wrong with remembering that as we go about our research and recounting thereof, most of which is highly sanitized, at least when it comes to certain of our more private, domestic habits.
As Tom Horn is reputed to have once remarked, "If you really knew how dirty and raggedy-ass the Old West was, you wouldn't want any part of it."
...squeamish. When working cattle with my husband years ago I did learn that a wadded up bunch of dried grasses was as comfortable as you were going to get sometimes. We all survived quite well without... more
...on the matter but then people like me feel that there is a limit to how much chemicals we want punched into our bodies; especially when we don't always know exactle what they consist of. To each hi... more
I'm glad you understand my feelings, Joyce, but personally,I often suspect them of not being entirely on my side. So far as toxins go, it may be prudent to assume that we're already walking time bombs... more