What A Difference 100 Years Makes!

[clbevilacqua]

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! (of course, that isn't saying much

The year is 1905. One hundred years ago.

What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 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 each were more heavily populated than

California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, 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 per 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. doctors had no college education. Instead, they attended so-called 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 that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

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 only 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska

hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

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 U.S. 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 in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

And I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

Disclaimer: Interesting Statistics, Assumed Factual, Not Verified.

[Nantzie]

Just reminds me of a report I did in Jr. High on George Washington. He died of "chronic diarrhea" and had wooden teeth.

Hmm...

Nancy

[CarlaB]

Just reminds me of a report I did in Jr. High on George Washington. He died of "chronic diarrhea" and had wooden teeth.

Hmm...

Nancy

Bad teeth and bad tummy ... hmmm, glad we live today!!

[2kids4me]

and one more...

insulin hadnt been discovered yet.

Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) was terminal and meant certain death

[clbevilacqua]

I wonder if George had celiac????

[elye]

I wouldn't doubt it--along with all the thousands of others who were dying of the puzzling, wasting illness they simply called "consumption"!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Also: African-Americans were given few (if any) real rights.

Women were not allowed to vote.

Asian-Americans were not allowed to purchase land.

[corinne]

Consumption is tuberculosis. Most cases of diarrhea were because of dysentry, cholera and other microbial water-borne illnesses. I'm glad to be living in a country/century where water treatment is almost universal.

[elye]

...Perhaps much of the diarrhea was due to gluten intolerence, too...After all, a lot of it nowadays is likely due to undiagnosed celiac, and we KNOW about the disease!