Did you know that here in the United States:

On average, you can expect to live to be forty seven years old?
Fourteen percent of our homes actually have bathtubs?

Eight percent of our homes have telephones?

If you live in Denver, you can talk to someone in New York City

for three minutes for only eleven dollars?

Average wages have risen to $.22 per hour?

The average worker makes between $200 and $400 per year?
A competent accountant can expect to earn $2000 per year,

a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year,

anda mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year?
Eighteen percent of our households have at least one full-time servant or domestic.

Twenty percent of our adults can read and write?

Six percent of our citizens have graduated from high school?
Sugar costs four cents a pound; eggs, fourteen cents a dozen?
Coffee is fifteen cents a pound?
Most women wash their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo?

Almost five percent of all births are no longer at home?
Ten percent of all physicians have college educations?
Ninety percent of all physicians have attended medical schools,

many of which have been condemned in the press and by the

government as "substandard?"
You can get marijuana, heroin, and morphine over the counter
at corner drugstores? (According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to  the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.")

There were about 230 reported murders?
The five leading causes of death are:
     1. Pneumonia and influenza
     2. Tuberculosis
     3. Diarrhea
     4. Heart disease
     5. Stroke

The American flag has 45 stars?

We have 8,000 cars, and believe it or not, 144 miles of paved road?

You can travel at up to ten miles per hour in most cities?

California, with 1.4 million residents, is the 21st most populous state in the Union. Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee are each more heavily populated than California.

Las Vegas, Nevada, has 30 people living within its city limits?
Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska are U. S. territories?

And on the international scene:

Canada doesn’t allow poor people to enter the country for any reason – that’s the law?
The Eiffel Tower is the tallest structure in the world?

But in this year of 1904 we can expect the coming century to be ever more interesting and pleasant. What a great time to be alive! Some of the interesting things to watch for: Crossword puzzles, canned beer, iced tea, Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Note: This is Internet stuff, edited and rewritten to change the tense and perspective, but is not my original work. 

R. Leland Waldrip