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