Maybe this will boggle
your mind, I know it did mine! The year is 1905, just one hundred & ten years ago. What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for 1905:
- The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
- Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
- Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
- A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
- There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved
roads.
- The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
- Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated
than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the
21st most populous state in the Union.
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
- The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour. The average U.S. worker
made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to
earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500
and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
- More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home .
- Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they
attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the
government as "substandard".
- Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was
fifteen cents a pound.
- Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks
for shampoo.
- Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any
reason.
-The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke
- The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and
Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
- Two of 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.
- Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.
- Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner
drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion,
gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact,
a perfect guardian of health."
- Eighteen percent of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant
or domestic.
- There were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
- And I copied this from somewhere else without typing it myself, and posted in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another
100 years. It staggers the mind!!
ArcaMax
ArcaMax
For a little more nostalgia
One advantage to being old;
my supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size----fishducky
