A better 2014?

Is life getting better or worse.  The signs of it getting worse are everywhere.  Drones are used in warfare, millions of people actually spend time with “Duck Dynasty,” teenagers have the attention span of gerbils, terrorism is routine in parts of the world--you can make your own list.

On the other hand, if I had been born in 1842 instead of 1942, I would have died at least twice and maybe four of five times by my current age.  The 20th century was the first century in which the average U.S. life span exceeded 50 years.  I’m reprinting a small portion of the causes of death in the Catasauqua area.  The prevalence of train injuries immediately jumps out, but many of those injuries would not be fatal today.  

Causes of Death--Reported in the Catasauqua Dispatch--1882

jumped from train platform, legs cut off

ate wild parsnip

pneumonia

inflammatory rheumatism

foot crushed between train bumpers

ulceration of the stomach

hit by train, leg amputated

landslide at Wharton’s ore mines

stroke of apoplexy

shot himself in hand with toy blank cartridge

fell under train cars

drunk, fell from train platform between moving cars

hit by passenger train

fell through opening in hay loft, hit head

hit by passenger train

shot himself with toy pistol, lockjaw set in

thrown off spring wagon, hit head, congestion of the brain

run over by train

fell under train, legs crushed

dropped dead in harvest field

suicide, poison-paris green

suicide, hanging

run over by train

possible epileptic fit, found dead in outhouse

Be glad you are living in 2014.  Happy New Year!