September 22, 2020 • 9 mins
Everyone wants to be first. The first to achieve something, or discover something new. How that might transform that person's life, though, depends on the details of their story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Some people are destined for greatness from the beginning.
They either spend their lives working towards a specific goal,
or they are born with the privilege they need to ascend. Others,
like William Shakespeare once said, have greatness thrust upon them.
(00:51):
Take Susannah for example. She was born in eighteen sixty
to a humble family of Ohio farmers, but her parents
eventually moved the family to Silver Lake, Kansas when she
was about twelve. Susannah was smart, too, very smart. She
had taken several college level classes while still in high school,
allowing her to skip her freshman year at Kansas State
Agricultural College and become a sophomore, and it was during
(01:14):
her time there when she met the man she would
one day marry, Louis Psalter. Louis had come from an
important political family in Kansas and was working on getting
his degree in law. Sadly, Susannah had no choice but
to drop out of college several weeks before graduation after
coming down with the serious illness. She and Louis got
married after she finished school, and together they moved to
(01:35):
the brand new city of Argonia, Kansas. It was so
new that Susannah not only gave birth to their first
child there, but also to the first baby born in town.
Susannah made waves in other ways as well. She joined
the Women's Christian Temperance Union and evangelical organization dedicated to
helping women and girls through the adoption of social moral
(01:55):
policy reforms. Two areas of intense focus for the group
where pro ambition and women's suffrage. Though not everyone agreed
with their beliefs or their tactics, the group worked tirelessly
to get women the right to vote. Susannah also carried
her passion for the group's work to the Prohibition Party,
where she advocated for the legal abolition of alcohol, believing
(02:16):
it to be the foundation of society's ills. Amidst all
her activism, though Susannah and Lewis continued to grow their
family as well as its political cash Argonia was incorporated
in eighteen eighty five, and her father was elected shortly
after as its first mayor. Her husband joined him as
city clerk. Two years later, women in Kansas were given
(02:38):
the right to vote, but only in municipal elections. The
Women's Christian Temperance Union was thrilled. A few men in town.
On the other hand, we're not. The time had come
to elect a new mayor, and for the first time anywhere,
a woman was on the ballot. Susanna Assaulter had suddenly
become a player in local politics, much to the surprise
(02:58):
of everyone. On election day, she found herself with the
full support of the w c t U and the
local Republican Party, all of whom voted for her. Those
votes were then counted that night. Susannah, the farm girl
from Ohio had just made history as the first female
mayor in the United States and possibly in the world.
(03:20):
There was just one problem. She had no idea she
was even running. At the time, it was not a
requirement for the full list of candidates to be published
ahead of time. The w c t U had even
backed a completely different person in the race until it
found out about Susannah's candidacy. It turns out that several
men in town had put her on the ballot as
(03:40):
a joke, expecting her to lose. They had wanted to
send a message to all other women with dreams of
going into politics, don't Instead, their little prank backfired. Upon
discovering the last minute edition, the city officials asked Susannah
if she would accept the position if elected. She agreed
(04:00):
to serve pending the outcome of the election. The Women's
Christian Temperance Union immediately pulled their endorsements of their original
candidate to support her instead. Not much happened in the
years Susannah Salter served as mayor of Argonia. The rest
of the country, however, made her single term a perpetual
top story. Papers from places as far away as Sweden
(04:22):
wrote about how wonderfully she dressed and how surprised they
were at the skillful way she conducted herself in office. Unfortunately,
journalism today hasn't changed much when it comes to covering
women in positions of power. But one thing's for sure.
If you're going to pull a prank, you better make
sure it doesn't push back. Everyone's looking for a quick fix,
(04:57):
a pill or a potion to cure what ails them.
The ancient Egyptians made medicines from willow and fig worked
was a plant used across the UK to treat leg wounds. Unfortunately,
not all remedies were so helpful or natural. In Europe
during the Middle Ages, entertainers traveling from town to town
would often find themselves with nowhere to perform. Theaters might
(05:20):
be shut down, so live performances, such as circuses or
those that were put on by acting troops, had to
find other ways to make ends meet. Many pivoted to
selling cure alls to the crowd. These medicine shows would
roll into town, glass bottles rattling in the backs of
their wagons. Those with the knack for salesmanship would hawk
miracle elixirs, which promised everything from hairy growth to curing sianica.
(05:45):
As the practice matured and made its way to America,
entrepreneurs got bolder and more creative. Perhaps the most famous
of them was snake oil liniments. It was said to
cure anyone who drank it of rheumatism, toothaches, spraying, and frostbite,
among countless other ailments. In reality, these concoctions were made
with drugs like opium, cocaine, and alcohol. They didn't cure anything,
(06:10):
and in many cases made a person feel even worse.
As a result. It gave rise to a brand new term,
the snake oil salesman, a moniker that has come to
describe anyone peddling fake medicines to hapless buyers. But one
man claimed to have found a miracle herb in his travels.
His name was Thomas Harriet, an English astronomer and translator
(06:32):
who graduated from Oxford University in the late sixteenth century.
Harriet had studied maritime navigation, focusing on how to traverse
the Atlantic Ocean in order to reach the New World
using the stars as a guide. He also had a
passion for languages, specifically those of the indigenous tribes of America.
In fact, with the help of two members of the
(06:52):
Roanoke tribe, he was able to translate their Carolina Algonquin language.
They had come to England from Roanoke Island off the
cost of North Carolina at the request of Sir Walter Riley.
Riley had asked them to describe the area and what
future explorers would face once they arrived. In the early
fifteen eighties, Riley had begun preparations for another expedition to Roanoke,
(07:14):
and he needed help. He turned to Harriet, who came
on board Riley's team as a math tutor, navigational expert, accountant,
and a translator. Harriet made the journey in five He
wrote about his experiences on the island a few years later,
describing the miraculous herb he had encountered, called upp a Walk.
He titled his essay A Brief and True Report on
(07:37):
the newfound Land of Virginia. According to Harriet, up a walk,
when breathed in by the Roanoke tribes members cleansed their bodies.
It opened their pores and purged their airways of mucus,
preventing them from catching diseases. The Roanoke also believed their
gods favored the herb. They would dry it out and
grind it into a fine powder before tossing it into
(07:58):
the air, hoping to appeal is the deities watching over them.
If a storm approached the island, the tribe members would
throw the upp a Walk in the air and the water,
then hold hands, chant and dance to pacify the gods
they believed were responsible. But the most common practice regarding
upp a walk was in burning it and inhaling the smoke.
(08:18):
The roanoke had crafted pipes out of clay through which
they would let the smoke flow throughout their bodies. It
seemed to make them superhumanly healthy, which intrigued the English settlers,
who had traveled such a long way and only grown sicker.
It took roughly another century, but by sevent hundred the
herb Thomas Harriet had praised so poetically in his correspondence
(08:39):
became a major cash crop for Europe. It then found
its way to places like Cuba and the Caribbean, where
it's spurred entire industries. Lots of people still enjoy up
a walk today, but we're far more aware of the
hazards it can pose. It doesn't make our skin clearer
or fend off diseases. In fact, it tends to make
(09:00):
us worse. Harriets himself died from cancer, which many historians
believe he contracted from over using it, the miracle cure
he had fallen in love with tobacco. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
(09:20):
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
(09:41):
dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye
Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. Some people are destined for greatness from the beginning.
They either spend their lives working towards a specific goal,
or they are born with the privilege they need to ascend. Others,
like William Shakespeare once said, have greatness thrust upon them.
(00:51):
Take Susannah for example. She was born in eighteen sixty
to a humble family of Ohio farmers, but her parents
eventually moved the family to Silver Lake, Kansas when she
was about twelve. Susannah was smart, too, very smart. She
had taken several college level classes while still in high school,
allowing her to skip her freshman year at Kansas State
Agricultural College and become a sophomore, and it was during
(01:14):
her time there when she met the man she would
one day marry, Louis Psalter. Louis had come from an
important political family in Kansas and was working on getting
his degree in law. Sadly, Susannah had no choice but
to drop out of college several weeks before graduation after
coming down with the serious illness. She and Louis got
married after she finished school, and together they moved to
(01:35):
the brand new city of Argonia, Kansas. It was so
new that Susannah not only gave birth to their first
child there, but also to the first baby born in town.
Susannah made waves in other ways as well. She joined
the Women's Christian Temperance Union and evangelical organization dedicated to
helping women and girls through the adoption of social moral
(01:55):
policy reforms. Two areas of intense focus for the group
where pro ambition and women's suffrage. Though not everyone agreed
with their beliefs or their tactics, the group worked tirelessly
to get women the right to vote. Susannah also carried
her passion for the group's work to the Prohibition Party,
where she advocated for the legal abolition of alcohol, believing
(02:16):
it to be the foundation of society's ills. Amidst all
her activism, though Susannah and Lewis continued to grow their
family as well as its political cash Argonia was incorporated
in eighteen eighty five, and her father was elected shortly
after as its first mayor. Her husband joined him as
city clerk. Two years later, women in Kansas were given
(02:38):
the right to vote, but only in municipal elections. The
Women's Christian Temperance Union was thrilled. A few men in town.
On the other hand, we're not. The time had come
to elect a new mayor, and for the first time anywhere,
a woman was on the ballot. Susanna Assaulter had suddenly
become a player in local politics, much to the surprise
(02:58):
of everyone. On election day, she found herself with the
full support of the w c t U and the
local Republican Party, all of whom voted for her. Those
votes were then counted that night. Susannah, the farm girl
from Ohio had just made history as the first female
mayor in the United States and possibly in the world.
(03:20):
There was just one problem. She had no idea she
was even running. At the time, it was not a
requirement for the full list of candidates to be published
ahead of time. The w c t U had even
backed a completely different person in the race until it
found out about Susannah's candidacy. It turns out that several
men in town had put her on the ballot as
(03:40):
a joke, expecting her to lose. They had wanted to
send a message to all other women with dreams of
going into politics, don't Instead, their little prank backfired. Upon
discovering the last minute edition, the city officials asked Susannah
if she would accept the position if elected. She agreed
(04:00):
to serve pending the outcome of the election. The Women's
Christian Temperance Union immediately pulled their endorsements of their original
candidate to support her instead. Not much happened in the
years Susannah Salter served as mayor of Argonia. The rest
of the country, however, made her single term a perpetual
top story. Papers from places as far away as Sweden
(04:22):
wrote about how wonderfully she dressed and how surprised they
were at the skillful way she conducted herself in office. Unfortunately,
journalism today hasn't changed much when it comes to covering
women in positions of power. But one thing's for sure.
If you're going to pull a prank, you better make
sure it doesn't push back. Everyone's looking for a quick fix,
(04:57):
a pill or a potion to cure what ails them.
The ancient Egyptians made medicines from willow and fig worked
was a plant used across the UK to treat leg wounds. Unfortunately,
not all remedies were so helpful or natural. In Europe
during the Middle Ages, entertainers traveling from town to town
would often find themselves with nowhere to perform. Theaters might
(05:20):
be shut down, so live performances, such as circuses or
those that were put on by acting troops, had to
find other ways to make ends meet. Many pivoted to
selling cure alls to the crowd. These medicine shows would
roll into town, glass bottles rattling in the backs of
their wagons. Those with the knack for salesmanship would hawk
miracle elixirs, which promised everything from hairy growth to curing sianica.
(05:45):
As the practice matured and made its way to America,
entrepreneurs got bolder and more creative. Perhaps the most famous
of them was snake oil liniments. It was said to
cure anyone who drank it of rheumatism, toothaches, spraying, and frostbite,
among countless other ailments. In reality, these concoctions were made
with drugs like opium, cocaine, and alcohol. They didn't cure anything,
(06:10):
and in many cases made a person feel even worse.
As a result. It gave rise to a brand new term,
the snake oil salesman, a moniker that has come to
describe anyone peddling fake medicines to hapless buyers. But one
man claimed to have found a miracle herb in his travels.
His name was Thomas Harriet, an English astronomer and translator
(06:32):
who graduated from Oxford University in the late sixteenth century.
Harriet had studied maritime navigation, focusing on how to traverse
the Atlantic Ocean in order to reach the New World
using the stars as a guide. He also had a
passion for languages, specifically those of the indigenous tribes of America.
In fact, with the help of two members of the
(06:52):
Roanoke tribe, he was able to translate their Carolina Algonquin language.
They had come to England from Roanoke Island off the
cost of North Carolina at the request of Sir Walter Riley.
Riley had asked them to describe the area and what
future explorers would face once they arrived. In the early
fifteen eighties, Riley had begun preparations for another expedition to Roanoke,
(07:14):
and he needed help. He turned to Harriet, who came
on board Riley's team as a math tutor, navigational expert, accountant,
and a translator. Harriet made the journey in five He
wrote about his experiences on the island a few years later,
describing the miraculous herb he had encountered, called upp a Walk.
He titled his essay A Brief and True Report on
(07:37):
the newfound Land of Virginia. According to Harriet, up a walk,
when breathed in by the Roanoke tribes members cleansed their bodies.
It opened their pores and purged their airways of mucus,
preventing them from catching diseases. The Roanoke also believed their
gods favored the herb. They would dry it out and
grind it into a fine powder before tossing it into
(07:58):
the air, hoping to appeal is the deities watching over them.
If a storm approached the island, the tribe members would
throw the upp a Walk in the air and the water,
then hold hands, chant and dance to pacify the gods
they believed were responsible. But the most common practice regarding
upp a walk was in burning it and inhaling the smoke.
(08:18):
The roanoke had crafted pipes out of clay through which
they would let the smoke flow throughout their bodies. It
seemed to make them superhumanly healthy, which intrigued the English settlers,
who had traveled such a long way and only grown sicker.
It took roughly another century, but by sevent hundred the
herb Thomas Harriet had praised so poetically in his correspondence
(08:39):
became a major cash crop for Europe. It then found
its way to places like Cuba and the Caribbean, where
it's spurred entire industries. Lots of people still enjoy up
a walk today, but we're far more aware of the
hazards it can pose. It doesn't make our skin clearer
or fend off diseases. In fact, it tends to make
(09:00):
us worse. Harriets himself died from cancer, which many historians
believe he contracted from over using it, the miracle cure
he had fallen in love with tobacco. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
(09:20):
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
(09:41):
dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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