L
O
O
K
I
N
G

B
A
C
K

What was the country like the last time people were waiting for the calendar to turn to a new century? What was it like to live in America on New Year's eve 1899, and what was on the minds of people as they waited to welcome 1900?

December 31, 1899, was a snowy Sunday night in New York City, but that couldn't put a chill on the optimism and eagerness many residents felt as they anticipated the new century. Times were good. Prosperity had returned to the country after the election of President William McKinley of Ohio in 1896. Even the government was prosperous with the Treasury showing a $46 million surplus of income over expenditures. Thus, the period came to be referred to variously as the Age of Optimism, the Age of Confidence, and the Age of Innocence. There were 45 states, and the population of the nation was 76 million and growing rapidly. America was already becoming the "melting pot" with one-third of its residents foreign born or children of foreign born. The center of the country was still definitely eastward with nearly 3,500,000 people living in New York. San Francisco had only 342,700 residents and Los Angeles had 102,000. Portland was not far behind with 90,400. Seattle and Salt Lake City boasted populations of 80,700 and 53,500, respectively.

An editorial in the January 1, 1900, New York Times proclaimed, "The year 1899 was a year of wonders...in business and production. It would be easy to speak of the 12 months just passed as the banner year were we not already confident that the distinction of highest records must presently pass to the year 1900....The outlook on the threshold of the new year is extremely bright."

The view into the 20th century from the West Coast was equally hopeful. The San Francisco Chronicle, in its December 31, 1899, issue, reported, "The financial strength and stability of San Francisco, the money center of the Pacific Coast, are seen to be better than ever before. The banks have increased their resources wonderfully, the gain in the last four months being over $8,800,000."

Most people -- more than 60 percent -- lived on farms or in rural areas. But the move both to the cities and westward was underway. Although most workers were still employed in agriculture, manufacturing employment was increasing quickly. In 1898, for the first time the U.S. exported more manufactured goods than it imported. "Big business" was beginning as smaller companies were being acquired by industry giants such as Amalgamated Copper, and U.S. Steel.

There were vast differences in lifestyle between those on the farm and those in the city. And it wasn't easy to travel between the two. Few were adventuresome or wealthy enough to spend about $1,500 for an automobile. The bus and truck were not yet invented. The railroad and the horse and wagon were still the main forms of transportation. Some 193,000 miles of railroad track crisscrossed the country while there were only about 150 miles of paved highway. A town not on the railroad was virtually remote. City dwellers could take the electric trolley, which expanded the radius of the city to outlying residential areas and made its center somewhat more accessible.

If you wanted to ride a subway, you would have to go to Boston, while New York and Chicago offered elevated railroads. Once you got to the city, you might see some incandescent lights, but, most likely, gas street lights, and city homes of only the most wealthy were electrified. The tallest building in the country was the Ivins Syndicate Building in New York, rising 29 stories. New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia each had more than a million residents.

In addition to the disparity between rural and city life, there were vast differences between the wealthy and the poor, and social problems such as child labor, slums, and disease were emerging as industry and immigration boomed. The average American worker earned 22 cents an hour -- less than $500 a year. But you could buy eggs for 12 cents a dozen, a sirloin steak for 24 cents a pound, and stop by the soda fountain for a 5-cent root beer float, 10-cent sundae, or 5-cent lemon phosphate.

Medical problems were a great concern. Influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and typhoid were among the leading causes of death. The average life expectancy for men was 46.3 years and for women, 48.3 years. Wealthy people in the heart of a city might have running water, but those outside probably did not. The American diet suffered since transportation of fresh food was highly impractical. Most people were without fresh fruit and vegetables during the winter months. Railroads had refrigerator cars, but the home electric refrigerator was yet to be invented.

Public education was becoming more available, especially through the high school level. Nearly all states outside the South had compulsory education laws by 1900, and the national rate of illiteracy had declined from 20 percent in 1870 to 10.7 percent in 1900. Wages for the average teacher were $325 per year.

Communication was difficult. The telephone was not yet in widespread use, typewriters were scarce, and there was no such thing as a radio. Magazines and newspapers comprised what then served as mass communication. There were about 5,000 magazines, most with small circulation. But the daily circulation of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World newspaper regularly exceeded one million. Traveling lecturers and Chautauquas -- camp-like centers for education and entertainment -- were popular sources of learning, as were libraries. By 1900 there were more than 1,700 libraries in the United States with collections of more than 5,000 volumes.

At the dawn of the 20th century, most Americans were filled with optimism, delight, and fascination with the new inventions that opened worlds and made tasks easier, and confidence that opportunities for success would continue to be offered. In the words of New York Senator Chauncey Depew, "There is not a man here who does not feel 400 percent bigger in 1900 than he did in 1896, bigger intellectually, bigger hopefully, bigger patriotically."