LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS-L Archives

From: Betty Hearst <>
Subject: [LDR] Re: For Your Information
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 10:41:49 -0700
In-Reply-To: <200003302247.OAA20668@bl-14.rootsweb.com>

I got this from a fellow family member who is also working on genealogy,
and thought those on the list might enjoy it. Just passing it along.

> March,2000
>
> It May Be Hard to Believe That A Scant 100 Years Ago...
>
> 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.
>
> Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily
> populated
> than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only
> the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.
>
> 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.
>
> 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, either as travelers or immigrants.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early
> predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the
> government to help compile the 1900 census.
>
> 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.

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• [LDR] Re: For Your Information by Betty Hearst <>