Enter the stagnant pond.
Railroad accidents, gun fights, stomach ulcers, drowning, accidental poisonings – in 1901, these were all pretty common ways men and women kicked the bucket and headed into the afterlife on online game . And let’s be honest: We’ve all got a dose of morbid curiosity (how else can we explain the popularity of shows like “Dexter” and “The Walking Dead”?). So we wondered, if we all lived in 1901 – a wild and dangerous time, without modern medicine – how would your odds stack up? What would be your likely fate? Pulling some of the oldest census data available, we compiled the information and calculated the odds of dying from the most common diseases and tragedies of that time. We then compared the top fatalities in 1901 with the top fatalities today. We also looked at death by age group and the most common accidental deaths in 1901. Want to know the most dangerous body part in the early 20th century? Curious to know how you would die if you had been alive in 1901? Read on to find out. Y