[sinanju]

Jeez, you are a downer.

And I’m sure half the children you see in the clip died of whooping cough or scarlet fever or measles or polio or tuberculosis before they made it to eighteen.

There, feel better?

[The_Media_never_lie]

What struck me as most interesting was that many of the people in the film seemed to be smiling. This is in contrast to the people photographed in the south around that time period.

I was told by an elderly gentleman years ago that the reason was that if you were photographed smiling, it was thought the people would think you were a fool.

[ExGeeEye]

I prefer to think that most of them, except war caualties, lived long, productive, even happy lives. The film captures a moment so long ago that anyone over five years old was born in the nineteenth century, and to expect them to last into the 21st would be wishful thinking at best.

Historical perspective is a dish best seasoned with truth, sweet and bitter.