100 years ago

Back from a family reunion, and it actually turned out OK. Shockingly OK. I'm guessing that they probably didn't have too many family reunions 100 years ago, because most people never moved away from their families.

Finally back home, on the internets I noticed a news item with a headline, "Nominee cut alfalfa during last Denver convention." OK, I'm hooked. Some interesting bits about life 100 years ago, such as

• By 1908, the United States had been occupying the Phillipines for 10 years (Iraq, anyone?)
  
• The Democratic Convention of 1908 was held in Denver, Colorado (check)
  
• the city's elite drove electric cars (electric cars? phooey!)
  
• only three states allowed women to vote (and all now regret it)
• the all-but-certain nominee, William Jennings Bryan, stayed home on his Nebraska farm cutting alfalfa (not buckwheat?)
  
• the 1908 election came a year after a financial panic and a record 1.3 million immigrants had entered the United States (always taking our jobs!)
• there were 89 documented lynchings that year
  

Link to the whole story is here, but this chart below, showing the number of lynchings over time in the U.S., is not from the story.