Is this the kind of thing the conservative element wants us to go back
to?  :-)  I'd much rather shoot myself...

Trisha Cummings wrote:
>
> 100 years ago
>
> Excerpts from a book called "WHEN MY GRANDMOTHER WAS A CHILD" by  Leigh =
> W. Rutledge, which begins....
>
>  "In the summer of 1900, when my grandmother was a child..." The average =
> life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven.
>
>  Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.
>
>  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.
>
>  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 U.S. and only 144 miles of paved =
> roads.
>
>  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 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."  (Hmmmmmm - sounds =
> like modern medicine to me!!)
>
>  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; and (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 were an ongoing problem-in which teenage boys =
> galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting a =
> houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy-in Denver =
> and other cities in the West.=20
> ( Gee - something never change -hmmmmmmmmm)
>
>  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.
>
>  One in ten U.S. adults couldn't read or write.  Only 6 percent of all =
> Americans had graduated from high school.
>
>  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. ( Just no escaping them!! =
> LOL)
>
>  Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one =
> full-time servant or domestic.
>
>  There were 230 reported murders in the U.S. annually.