# If you woke up in the year 1900? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684 "2006-03-24T04:38:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/41 "2006-03-24T20:48:04Z")
A negro male in 1900? I’ll pass. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/42 "2006-03-24T20:49:46Z")
[QUOTE=Dorjän] A negro male in 1900? I’ll pass. [/QUOTE] You know, I hadn’t even considered this. Think that I could get a good engineering job as a hispanic male in 1900? Hm…maybe I better pass as well… -XT ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/43 "2006-03-24T23:48:24Z")
I’d masquerade as a man and move to California where I would revolutionize the filmmaking industry. Imagine dolly shots in the first films ever made. If the man thing didn’t work, I’d sleep with someone to get my ideas listened to. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/44 "2006-03-25T00:56:13Z")
I’d head to one of the dozen or so newspapers in New York and get myself a job as a theater correspondent (there were plenty of women doing that back then). I could interview, in person, Anna Held! Weber and Fields! Maurice Barrymore! Lillian Russell! _Bliss_. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/45 "2006-03-25T01:36:10Z")
I’ve sometimes speculated that the crash of 1929 was caused partially or entirely by unscrupulous money-hungry time travelers. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/46 "2006-03-25T02:41:08Z")
[QUOTE=dwalin] I’ve sometimes speculated that the crash of 1929 was caused partially or entirely by unscrupulous money-hungry time travelers. [/QUOTE] If you knew what was coming and what would happen you could make a mint. Not only that, but you could buy up stock dirt cheap of companies you know will survive the crash and do well in the future. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/47 "2006-03-25T05:01:04Z")
I think it goes without saying I’d be the kind of trouble stirring Negro that would get his ass lynched within a few years. BUT – I could make a very good living as a teacher, and could set new journalistic standards revolutionizing print media. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/48 "2006-03-25T05:26:34Z")
I would opt for the 1920’s. I would work hard and steadily bet on the Yankees building up a large nest egg. At the crash I would start making long term investment and if some random easy to cure today disease didn’t kill me I would quietly become filthy rich. Work wise, I would try for a good job with Con Ed, Start as an electrician and try to get into circuit design using my Computer Training. Jim ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/49 "2006-03-25T06:58:50Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] I’d head to one of the dozen or so newspapers in New York and get myself a job as a theater correspondent (there were plenty of women doing that back then). I could interview, in person, Anna Held! Weber and Fields! Maurice Barrymore! Lillian Russell! _Bliss_. [/QUOTE] So, you would waste the opportunity? I’m sure that said interviews would give you pleasure, but the OP, and conventional wisdom, says that one would take _financial_ advantage of the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/50 "2006-03-25T07:37:58Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] I think it goes without saying I’d be the kind of trouble stirring Negro that would get his ass lynched within a few years. [/QUOTE] I’d be burned as a witch. (Yeah, I know, but I think they’d make an exception in my case.) ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2006, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/51 "2006-03-25T12:45:09Z")
I’d patent the Haber process for making ammonia, and be rich. I’d go and win a couple Nobel prizes just by knowing what today is high school chemistry. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/52 "2006-03-26T01:18:15Z")
I’m a pretty good photographer, and while technology has changed drastically, I could adapt to a 1900s camera pretty quickly, and could do a decent job at that for a living. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/53 "2006-03-26T01:41:31Z")
Being female it might be more difficult to be taken seriously so I would probably go back a little farther than 1900 and get a job as a cook at a rich family’s house. I would introduce them to pizza, ice cream cones, hamburgers, chips, and all sorts of yummy stuff that wasn’t popular yet. I would convince them to start a restaurant or two, with me having the secret recipies. Also It goes withou saying that during the depression I would have a plan to save my investments and all that jazz. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684/54 "2006-03-26T05:33:44Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] No preparation either. Presumably just the clothes on your back and whatever is in your head at the time. If I’m given a few weeks to prepare I could definitely make an early killing (just have to memorize a map of unfound resources up to 1900…or hell, the exact location of the Atocha (sp?) or other treasure ships/lost hordes of gold :)). Without that prep time though the best bet would be to use your ‘modern’ skills to get a job, get enough of a stake to make some investments, and then work your way up from there. -XT [/QUOTE] I reckon I could remember enough of the salient points of some of the early 20th century’s important works of literature to ensure a tidy income from either writing them years before their original authors, or suing the original authors for stealing my ideas when they do publish the “original” work… Although I’d have to invent the Aeroplane before I could write the Biggles adventures… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-woke-up-in-the-year-1900/349684.md?page=2)