The Year 1909 Ah, the good old days. Life was simpler and... The year is 1909, one hundred years ago. Here are some statistics for the year 1909 (from an anonymous author) : 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. 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 earned $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 the 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. (I suspect there were more but many were never reported to any national data collection organization)