I can vouch, at a minimum, for the historicity of corncobs. The WC at the 1890s farm I used to work at was well-stocked with corncobs, with the enticing promise that if you were lucky you might find a white corncob (instead of a red one) so you could better appreciate the streaks you left behind. (But both guests and we interpreters actually used the modern toilets with TP.)
A friend of mine wrote in:
I can vouch, at a minimum, for the historicity of corncobs. The WC at the 1890s farm I used to work at was well-stocked with corncobs, with the enticing promise that if you were lucky you might find a white corncob (instead of a red one) so you could better appreciate the streaks you left behind. (But both guests and we interpreters actually used the modern toilets with TP.)