Life 100 years ago

The days hundred years before were very different from now. We might believe they were nicer with less stress. In fact, they were absolutely miserable.

The problems of a century ago included pollution, traffic congestion, poor diet and disease.

Today millions of cars emit gases which we all think bring about pollution and plenty of accidents. Was it much better hundred years before? The answer is no. It seems amazing that only one hundred years ago the automobile industry was still in it’s infancy, and the majority of transport was carried out by using horse drawn vehicles. Horses which ran away were common that killed countless numbers of people. The horse-associated fatality rate was ten times today’s car-associated rate. Over three million horses were used in American cities and every horse produced about 25 pounds of manure each day. In addition to horses motorcars started to appear but the number back then was less than 20,000 motorcars in the whole world, a lot of them being electric cars. Today, there are more cars manufactured than their is demand for it. There are around 1 billion cars and trucks on the road, half of them in the United States.

Food was terrible. For example, to enhance the color of milk from diseased cattle, added plaster of Paris was used. Bakers preserved their dough with alum and sulphur of copper. Customers were continually enraged to explore pieces of foreign matter in their bread such as oven ash and grit. At the beginning of 19th century majority of the working class lived on a dreary diet of bread, butter, potatoes and bacon. Butcher’s meat was a luxury. Nevertheless things significantly improved at the end of 19th century.

Given these horrid conditions it is not surprising that illness was common. Five leading causes of demise were pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea and heart disease. It is genuinely amazing to see that the official cause of death has changed dramatically over the last 100 years owing to the discovery of what really kills people. Cancer is a leading example of this.

Building contractors had a freehand to build as they wanted. revenue became the primary motivator for builders. They understood that those arriving in the cities needed a job and somewhere to live. As a result, a house was put up quickly and cheaply. None of these homes was built with a bathroom, toilet or running water. Cooking was a huge task what is more laundry was physically punishment.

The next time anybody wants to complaining about how hard things are now, stop and recall what it was like just 100 short years before. We have such a lot of things to be thankful for and very few of us have any reason to feel like we are living in the ancient times just mainly because we do not own the newest cellular phone or LCD television.

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