Really Interesting Reading

• Date: 26.10.2009
• Book: The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible!
• Author: plappen

Review

The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!, Otto L. Bettmann, Random House, 1974


In these days of AIDS, the Internet and nuclear weapons, it is very tempting to look back to a simpler age in American history. "The Good Old Days" lasted from approximately 1865 to 1900. This book takes a very clear-eyed look at just how "good" those days really were.

In New York City, garbage (including horse manure) was piled high on city sidewalks. In the rain, those garbage piles turned into slime beds. Western towns were dirty, with horses creating fly-infested cesspools around the hitching posts. People risked their lives attempting to cross major streets like Broadway, because there were no traffic laws. In the winter, horse-drawn snowplows did not do much more than move the snow a few feet. Keeping the streets semi-clear for horse-drawn trolleys was most important. Frequently, the snowplows became stuck in the snow, making a bad traffic problem that much worse.

Milk was diluted with water, and everyone knew it. To improve the color of milk taken from diseased cows, dairymen frequently added chalk, molasses or plaster of Paris. Butter was often rancid, and contained bleach, calcium, hog fat or mashed potatoes. Adulteration of food was commonplace; loaves of bread frequently contained ash from the baker’s oven and grit from his machinery.

Alcoholic children were not uncommon, as a result of many trips to the local bar to fill a pitcher of "beer for father." Most medical schools were run by people more interested in tuition fees than standards, thereby graduating many who knew nothing about medicine. Hospitals, with non-existent standards of hygiene, were basically deathtraps.

This book also explores the reality behind housing (tenements), work (child labor and sweatshops) and education (corporal punishment and very unqualified teachers). For anyone who thinks that those days were like the American equivalent of a Jane Austen novel, read this book. It’s really interesting.