The Year 1906

[Wolf333]

I received this from a family member today. I cleaned up SOME of the odd formatting, but I was shortly overwhelmed. The original subject of the email was "The year .......19.....Ooh....6."

?? THE YEAR 1906??

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1906.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for the Year 1906 :
************************************

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 1906 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 $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 into their 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 DUH! )

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.A. !

Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing
it myself, and sent it to you and others all over the United States ,& Canada
possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS THE MIND, EH .?

[DarkDan]

Bookachow! from 2002. The years change, the information stays the same.

[Magpye]

The best part is the utter lack of context on almost every item - life expectancy where? Miles of roads where? Graduated from what level of school and with what sort of certificate?

Ah, the good old USA, center of the universe... although I see Canada gets a sort of sympathy mention... they can only bask in our glory.

Oh, and what is with the "ice tea" thing? I'm seeing it everywhere. ICED tea, people, ICED. As in CHILLED. Why is this so hard? It's not like the tea is made out of ice...

(The prescriptive grammarian rears its ugly head.)

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by Magpye

...Oh, and what is with the "ice tea" thing? I'm seeing it everywhere. ICED tea, people, ICED. As in CHILLED. Why is this so hard? It's not like the tea is made out of ice...
....

I beg your pardon, but in these parts ice tea is the pure and natural state of tea. Iced tea is tea that has had an unnatural act performed upon it.

[incubus]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Iced tea is tea that has had an unnatural act performed upon it.

Ok, that has put a really unwelcome image in my head, thank you.

J

[Wolf333]

Originally Posted by DarkDan

Bookachow! from 2002. The years change, the information stays the same.

Thanks for the chow. I knew I had seen it somewhere, but kept looking for variations on 1906.

[Mint Crisps]

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza

I thought that was in 1918, not 1906 that it was the biggest killer.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
entering into their country for any reason.

Even just for passing through?

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

This was Mother's Day:
--Housekeeping
--Minding the kids
--Washing laundry
--Gossiping with their friends
--Minding the kids
--Watering the garden
--Cooking
--And, of course, making more babies.
--And, did I mention, making more babies?

This was Father's Day:
--Work.
--Work.
--Make sure wife stays in house.
--Work.

And it wasn't just one day either. It was everyday. 365 days of the year (366 ocassionally).

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Is that running, walking, bicycling or horse and cart? And what if it was an emergency?

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

I don't want to dwell on the future too much, thank you. It may not be good for my health

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Wolf333

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !

I guess they added an exclamation point here because otherwise no one would know that this is such an "staggering" fact. At 324 meters, the Eiffel Tower is still very tall. The tallest structure in the world -- like most of the structures taller than the Eiffel tower, a broadcasting tower -- is slightly less than twice its height. So what's so amazing? More amazing that such a tall structure was built a hundred and eighteen years ago.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Wolf333

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !

Too! Many! Exclamations!

[Johnny Slick]

Begging! The! Question! As! Well! The key there would be "reported".

[MapleLeaf]

Five leading causes of death were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

I'll bet heart disease is still waay up there, 100 years later.

Is that running, walking, bicycling or horse and cart? And what if it was an emergency?

Same as if there is an emergency today. You might get stopped, but you probably won't get in trouble if you explain what the emergency is. And I imagine the speed limit refered to cars.

ETA: From Wikipedia's top 10 causes of death in developed countries list:

Ischaemic heart disease
Stroke
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Lower respiratory infections
Lung cancer
Car accident
Stomach cancer
High blood pressure
Tuberculosis
Suicide

Heart Disease, Stroke, and TB, and Pneumonia are all still up there.

Wow. So, stuff was different in the past? We didn't always have cars? People have built taller structures?

The mind boggles, indeed.

[Johnny Slick]

Brad from Georgia needs to post that response he made where in 1802 the average person was -9 years old. That was classic.

[Quantum Leap2]

Eighteen percent of households had at least
one full-time servant or domestic help.

Now WE are our own full-time servants and domestic help, I ask you is this an improvement?