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50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: White Flight, Hypnotic Snakes and Treasure Ship

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OCTOBER 1957
METROPOLITAN SEGREGATION— “The white and non-white citizens of the U.S. are being sorted out in a new pattern of segregation. In each of the major urban centers the story is the same: the better-off white families are moving out of the central cities into the suburbs; the ranks of the poor who remain are being swelled by Negroes from the South. These population shifts bring with them profound economic consequences. Of first importance is a decline of parts of the central cities’ business activity. In almost every city the big downtown department stores are losing trade to the suburban shopping centers. Retail sales in the central business district of Chicago fell 5 per cent between 1948 and 1954 while sales in the suburbs increased 53 per cent.”

OCTOBER 1907
RAISIN FAN— “It is to be regretted that an economical and valuable article of food, in the shape of the dried currant, should be so much neglected. The dietetic value of the fruit is misunderstood and the prejudice against it entirely unjustified. Properly prepared, the currant might form an every-day item in
the meals of the people, who seem to choose their food
and arrange their dishes with an ignorance the extent of which is appalling. Let us make an interesting compar­ison, one that should be quite clear to the average intelligence: There is 54.87 per cent more total nutriment in currants than in lean beef.—Sir Francis Henry Laking, M.D., physician to the King of England [Edward VII]”

OCTOBER 1857
GOLDEN SHIP— “It is stated by many of the Central America’s surviving passengers, that there were very few on the ship whose immediate wealth did not amount to hundreds, while numbers reckoned their gold by the thousands of dollars. The greater portion of the passengers were returning miners [from California]; some coming hither in hopes of a life of greater ease, and others to get their families and return to go to the land of gold. But as the storm continued to rage, less and less of gold was thought of, and when, on Saturday, it became evident that they were likely at any moment to be buried beneath the waves, the wealthy men divested themselves of their treasure belts and scattered the gold upon the cabin floors, telling those to take who dared to test its weight—as a few ounces might carry them to death.”

Scientific American Magazine Vol 297 Issue 4This article was published with the title “'White Flight'--Hypnotic Snakes--Treasure Ship” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 297 No. 4 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican102007-3GfJNgDGyyDmTEIOr36wM7

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