What a difference a century makes!

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Very few people will dispute the fact that the twentieth brought more changes than any century in our recorded past. It is only when we look at these changes however, that we come to realize just how astounding they really are. Let's go back one hundred years to 1908 and check some statistics. The average life expectancy is 47 years, only 14 percent of homes have a bathtub, 8 percent have a telephone, and there are only 8000 cars and 144 miles of paved road. The maximum speed limit in most cities is 10 MPH. The average wage is 22 cents an hour and the average worker makes between $200 and $400 per year. More than 95 per cent of all births take place at home. Sugar costs four cents a pound, eggs fourteen cents a dozen, and coffee sells for fifteen cents a pound. The three leading causes of death are (1) Pneumonia and influenza,(2)Tuberculosis and(3) Diarrhea. Two out of every ten adults can't read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans have graduated high school. At the end of the year, there have been only 230 reported murders in the entire USA! Oh, become I return to 2008, would you like me to bring you some coffee, and perhaps a little sugar?