Mystery Soap

“Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub.” For some reason that piece of a nursery rhyme seemed to fit nicely to the rhythmic motions of drying the shampooed heads of my little boys after bath time. And strangely enough, that ties in with another enigmatic fragment of a story from our local newspaper dated May 14, 1914.

According to this particular  article, a Judge Castle received a letter from a soap company in Marseilles, France requesting a sample of the natural soap found south of town. The article doesn’t state this, but one would suppose the Judge was the one who supposedly sent this firm a sample of this substance which they had not yet received, but were eager to see.

Judging by the newspaper article, this “natural soap” was just “found.” The phrasing leads the reader to wonder if it was found lying on the ground, waiting to be picked up or had some enterprising housewife or camp cook concocted a recipe?

When I researched soap making a bit, lye was mentioned as well as various oils. Our barren landscape has plenty of outcroppings of alkali and sagebrush is certainly plentiful in these parts so both of these items could furnish possible ingredients for soap.But how this “natural soap” came to be created is a fascinating mystery.

Whether anything ever came of a possible business transaction between Judge Castle with his “natural soap” and the French soap company is unknown, but I’m guessing no business deal was contracted (particularly if the mail service didn’t improve). As I write that, I realize that Europe was heating up for World War I although I doubt that conflagration would interrupt intercontinental mail as early as May 1914.

If any local Elkoans know anything about this interesting little tidbit, please post a comment on FB. I would love to know more about this story.

After doing the small amount of research related to this topic, it makes me think I either need to purchase natural soaps (some of which are available locally) or I need to learn how to make my own as there are “recipes”  to be found free of charge on the Net. Why? Because the additives in commercial soaps are downright scary.

Until next week, think about what kind of cleansing substance you’re using on your skin. Happy scrubbingJ