And if my memory serves me right, you, my love are older then me..... didn't you fight for the North? -----Original Message----- From: charles r. carter [mailto:cartercr@rma.edu] Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 8:09 AM To: KYNICHOL-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [KYNICHOL] tid-bits in the year 1900 And you remember every bit of it! At 04:27 PM 2/11/00 -0700, you wrote: >1900 Life > > >>>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 US was twenty-two cents an hour. The average US >>>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 US 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 US 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 US 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 women'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 US annually >