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Email of the Week for September 16
The year 1909
The year is 1909 - one hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes. Here are some statistics for the Year 1909:
• The average life expectancy was 47 years.
• Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub.
• Only eight percent of 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¢ per hour.
• The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 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 4¢ a pound.
• Eggs were 14¢ a dozen.
• Coffee was 15¢ 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.
• The five leading causes of death were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease, and stroke, in that order.
• The American flag had 45 stars.
• The population of Las Vegas was only 30!
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented.
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write.
• Only six percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the entire United States.
Interesting letter
There was an interesting letter in a recent edition of the Australian Shooter Magazine.
It read, “If you consider there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraqi theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
“The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than you are in Iraq.
“Conclusion:
The U.S. should pull out of Washington.”
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| Email of the Week for September 23 |
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Gene Douglas wrote on Sep 26, 2009 1:03 AM: