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
were each 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 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
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 the pharmacist said,
"Heroin clears the
complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and
bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
(Shocking!)
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.
BEARTOWN HISTORIAN
