What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1908:
- The average life expectancy was 47 years.
- 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 in the US
- The maximum speed limit in most US cities was 10 mph
- The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower
- The average wage was 22 cents per hour
- The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year
- An accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, dentist $2,500 per year, a vet 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
- 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 the country for any reason
- The American flag had 45 stars
- The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30
- Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced 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% of all Americans had graduated from high school
- Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores
- 18% percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help
- Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
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People died from diarrhea? Are you sure it wasn’t from embarrassment?
Hahaha! Good one! …Thanks I need that laugh-out-loud moment, really!
Same comment as Gillian. Man I can’t imagine dying from diarrhea.
Maybe ppl died not from actual diarrhea but sitting too long on the can and somehow fall into it?
Still a horrible way to died.
Tawcan’s last blog post: A typical day in the life of a banana loving Monkey
Maybe the diarrhea lead to dehydration.
Hehe! Probably, but diarrhea sounds funnier