C'mon Aussie C'mon

C’mon Aussie C’mon, we are through to the soccer world cup,
our cricket team is back on track, BUT will you look at the
sidebar, I have more readers in the USA than Australia,
you locals are just scraping in ahead of Nepal,
(thank you to all the loyal readers in Nepal by the way).

I don’t want to have to resort to taking out ads in the dailies
folks, c’mon tell your friends about the joy that abounds here
and get Oz back on top Pleeeease, where is our national pride?

I have borrowed this article on US statistics from a blogging
friend “kenju” and I guess it would be fair to assume conditions
here in Australia would have been similar, there are certainly
some shocks there though!!

I would be surprised, (but not to the point of disputing it)
if we didn’t have a better than 8 out of 10 adults reading and
writing by 1905, as just one example, what do you think?
And can you back it up?

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1905 :

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. 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 U.S., and only 144 miles
of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more
heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the
21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. 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 in the U.S. took place at home .

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education.

Instead, they attended so-called 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 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 in the U.S. 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.

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 U.S. adults couldn't read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over
the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then
pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives
buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels,
and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."

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

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

And I forwarded this from someone else without typing
it myself, and posted it on the blog in a matter of seconds!
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.
It staggers the mind.