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America: A Hundred Years Ago
~ Excerpted from a book called
WHEN MY GRANDMOTHER WAS A CHILD by Leigh W. Rutledge, which begins, "In
the summer of 1900, when my grandmother was a child..." ~
- The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven.
- Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States 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 US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
- The maximum speed limit in most cities was ten mph.
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
- The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two 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 $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
- More than 95 percent of all births in the United States 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 cost fifteen cents a pound.
- The five leading causes of death in
the U.S. were:
Pneumonia and influenza
Tuberculosis
Diarrhea
Heart disease
Stroke - The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
- Drive-by-shootings -- in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy -- were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
- Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
- There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
- One in ten U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
- Some medical authorities warned that professional seamstresses were apt to become sexually aroused by the steady rhythm, hour after hour, of the sewing machine's foot pedals. They recommended slipping bromide -- which was thought to diminish sexual desire -- into the woman's drinking water.
- 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 the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.
- Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine.
- Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
- There were about 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.
How things have changed! Some things
for the better and some things for the worse. In a lot of ways, the present are
the “good old days”, too!
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LIFE IS AWESOME!!!
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Note: In addition to writing my own blogs / stories, I also like to search for stories and other inspiring / motivating / encouraging things from around the World Wide Web. If you see an article or story that you have written and want it removed, please feel free to let me know. I do try to give credit to the people and/or web sites that I find the information when I can.
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