One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1909 :
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The average life expectancy was 47years.
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour.
The average 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 took place at HOME.
Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND 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 that prohibited poor people from Entering into their country for any reason.
Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school...
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, '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 had at least
One full-time servant or domestic help.
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE !U.S.A. !
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6 comments:
1909 sounds like it was a great time to be a drug addict, but there was no Internet. Therefore, I could not have survived.
I have seen similar lists before...don't know if they are totally accurate (but everyone I do know for sure is right) and the thing that strikes me is how things that we think have always been are really quite new. Mother's Day and Father's Day didn't even exist.
To the list of those things that haven't always been I would add our National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner became the anthem in 1931) and "Under God" was not in the pledge.
I wouldn't have liked the lack of bathing.... not good! Can you imagine dying from diarrhea? Now that would be a nasty bout!
And my late father was one year old!
Yeah, kk, dying from diarrhea caught my eye, too. Geez, they probably had all sorts of intestinal parasites. One of those pics SER posted from that era showed an ad for tapeworms as dieting aids.
Orbs........
In one of their museums at the House on the Rocks, they have original bottles of tapeworms people would sell and buy to swallow for diets.
Oh man are they disgusting looking.
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