This has been circulated very widely as a bit of internet humor, but most of it
is doubtful.

Vito wrote:

Consider the year is 1903, one hundred years ago...

Sorry, that would be 101 years ago




There were only 8,000 CARS in the US and only 144 miles of paved ROADS.

I doubt that, although many roads were paved with logs and many paved highways
were brick or flagstone. Shucks, there's more than 144 miles of brick-paved
Colonial Post Highway in NC. As for the number of automobiles, since there
weren't licenses, how would anybody know?



The speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Intended as much to keep galloping horses from splattering manure on
pedestrians as anything else.




The average wage in the US was $0.22/hour, the average US worker made
between $200-$400/year. A accountant could expect to earn $2000/year, a
dentist $2,500 a veterinarian between $1,500-$4,000, and a mechanical
engineer about $5,000/year.

Sugar cost $0.04/pound. Eggs were $0.14/dozen. Coffee cost $0.15/pound.

One thing to bear in mind about wages and prices back then. It was before the
current Federal Reserve system. Much of the paper money in circulation was
privately printed by banks. Banks panics were common and led to local or
regional, very short-term, bursts of super inflation. Rather than relatively
steady inflation, such as we are used to, the national economy went through a
series of booms and busts.





95% of all BIRTHS in the US took place at HOME.

90% of all US physicians had NO COLLEGE education. Instead, they
attended medical schools, .....

Both of these percentages are probably on the low side. However, the system of
state licensing of doctors was in place, and was taken very seriously. But due
to the slowness & inaccuracy of communications, forged licenses were not
uncommon.

Also, it was very common for people to accept that 1- medical treatment could
not help them... 2- doctor's care cost money and might be beyond their
financial means. Nowadays everybody expects that anything at all can be cured,
and that wether or not you can afford it should never be a consideration.



The American flag had 45 stars.

The Pledge of Allegiance didn't mention God.

Not only that, we had just finished a war of outright conquest & exploitation
in the Philippines, and there was quite a lot of high public feeling on that
issue. The recent takeover of the Panama Canal Zone was another hot topic.



Only 6% of Americans had graduated from HIGH SCHOOL but 90% of US adults
could read and write.

I wonder where this statistic could have come from.



U.S. Citizens could mail order and guns they wanted, including machine guns
and artillery.

Sure, if you could afford it. But not many people had the money to waste on
expensive hobbies. And there weren't many machine guns commerciallt available
either. The Maxim, maybe?



Citizens had a right to treat any unwarranted arrest as a kidnapping and
defend themselves accordingly, including the use of deadly force.

Bull****. Resisting a law officer was always very low on the scale... but it
might be looked on without the prejudice common today, once you got into a
Federal court.



There were only about 230 MURDERS reported in the entire US.

And tens of thousands of murders went unreported.

Anyway, it certainly was a different world.