et
Zoom
submittedThe hardships of those supposedly "good old days" are chronicled in a magnificent book titled "The Good Old Days -- They Were Terrible!" by Otto L.
Page 2 of 4 - Horace Greeley, a prominent newspaper publisher and a nondrinker, claimed that in New Hampshire, a family of six to eight consumed a barrel of cider a week. "The transition from cider to more potent stimulants was ready and natural so that whole families eventually died drunkards and vagabond paupers ..."
Drinking milk had its own pitfalls. It was common knowledge that it was diluted. "A water shortage would put the milkman out of business," was a common joke. To improve its color since it came from diseased cattle, it was common to add molasses, chalk or plaster of Paris. Believe it or not, some cows were so enfeebled from tuberculosis that they were milked while raised on a hoist to remain "milk-able." Some cows were fed mash and whiskey slops, which made babies tipsy and often sick.
Sweatshops: How many times have you heard someone describe where they work as a "sweatshop?" Compared with the real sweatshops of the past, it is a misnomer. The term goes back to the Gilded Age, years before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, when an owner/manager - called a "sweater" - lorded over factory-size halls where men and women slaved under oppressive supervision.
Cosmopolitan magazine called sewing in a sweatshop "the most grinding oppression that can be practiced on a woman." A even worse fate for a woman was to work in soap packing plants. The caustic soda they were exposed to turned their nails yellow and ate away at their fingers. Flower-making factories used arsenic to provide bright colors which caused sores, swelling of the limbs, and, sometimes, complete debility.
The use of child labor was widespread because they were a bargain at $1.50 to $2.50 a week. The Puritan Work Ethic warned against the "sloth of children, their idleness by which they are corrupted." Poor parents were seduced by the small increase in family income.
One photo shows a "spindle boy" in a Georgia cotton mill standing on a box to reach the dangerous whirling spool machine. If you complained, the answer was: "Get out!" In 1842, Massachusetts passed a law restricting children under age 12 from working more than 10 hours a day. Finally, in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was formed and began to curtail child labor.
Job loss: Losing a job could mean ruin. In the depression of 1893-98, one out of five workers were unemployed. Many families had to sleep in police stations. If you worked in a company town, you were paid in script, redeemable at the company store at inflated prices. If you complained, you were not only fired but also kicked out of the company-owned home where you lived.
"Apartment" living: Apartments were, as today, greatly in demand, especially lower-rent apartment buildings for the middle class - but they were little more than "glorified tenements." Families were housed in layers, sharing a floor that was divided into several apartments with no insulation from the sounds and cooking smells of neighbors. A fire would turn the apartments into deathtraps. Between 1870 and 1906, four American cities - Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco - burned to the ground. Boston's yearly fire damage was between $1 and $1.5 million - 10 times greater than that of a European city of the same size.
Read more: The good old days were terrible for many in America - News - Smyrna/Clayton Sun-Times - Smyrna, DE etc etc
After 30 years of Reaganism, we're back to it lol....see sig paragraph 1.
http://www.scsuntimes.com/article/20101126/News/311269974#311269974/?tag=3
Zoom
submittedThe hardships of those supposedly "good old days" are chronicled in a magnificent book titled "The Good Old Days -- They Were Terrible!" by Otto L.
Page 2 of 4 - Horace Greeley, a prominent newspaper publisher and a nondrinker, claimed that in New Hampshire, a family of six to eight consumed a barrel of cider a week. "The transition from cider to more potent stimulants was ready and natural so that whole families eventually died drunkards and vagabond paupers ..."
Drinking milk had its own pitfalls. It was common knowledge that it was diluted. "A water shortage would put the milkman out of business," was a common joke. To improve its color since it came from diseased cattle, it was common to add molasses, chalk or plaster of Paris. Believe it or not, some cows were so enfeebled from tuberculosis that they were milked while raised on a hoist to remain "milk-able." Some cows were fed mash and whiskey slops, which made babies tipsy and often sick.
Sweatshops: How many times have you heard someone describe where they work as a "sweatshop?" Compared with the real sweatshops of the past, it is a misnomer. The term goes back to the Gilded Age, years before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, when an owner/manager - called a "sweater" - lorded over factory-size halls where men and women slaved under oppressive supervision.
Cosmopolitan magazine called sewing in a sweatshop "the most grinding oppression that can be practiced on a woman." A even worse fate for a woman was to work in soap packing plants. The caustic soda they were exposed to turned their nails yellow and ate away at their fingers. Flower-making factories used arsenic to provide bright colors which caused sores, swelling of the limbs, and, sometimes, complete debility.
The use of child labor was widespread because they were a bargain at $1.50 to $2.50 a week. The Puritan Work Ethic warned against the "sloth of children, their idleness by which they are corrupted." Poor parents were seduced by the small increase in family income.
One photo shows a "spindle boy" in a Georgia cotton mill standing on a box to reach the dangerous whirling spool machine. If you complained, the answer was: "Get out!" In 1842, Massachusetts passed a law restricting children under age 12 from working more than 10 hours a day. Finally, in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was formed and began to curtail child labor.
Job loss: Losing a job could mean ruin. In the depression of 1893-98, one out of five workers were unemployed. Many families had to sleep in police stations. If you worked in a company town, you were paid in script, redeemable at the company store at inflated prices. If you complained, you were not only fired but also kicked out of the company-owned home where you lived.
"Apartment" living: Apartments were, as today, greatly in demand, especially lower-rent apartment buildings for the middle class - but they were little more than "glorified tenements." Families were housed in layers, sharing a floor that was divided into several apartments with no insulation from the sounds and cooking smells of neighbors. A fire would turn the apartments into deathtraps. Between 1870 and 1906, four American cities - Chicago, Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco - burned to the ground. Boston's yearly fire damage was between $1 and $1.5 million - 10 times greater than that of a European city of the same size.
Read more: The good old days were terrible for many in America - News - Smyrna/Clayton Sun-Times - Smyrna, DE etc etc
After 30 years of Reaganism, we're back to it lol....see sig paragraph 1.
http://www.scsuntimes.com/article/20101126/News/311269974#311269974/?tag=3
Last edited:
