A farmer quit the farm and went to selling hammers.

He bought hammers by the boxcar load for $1.00 a piece sold them for 95 cents each..

A friend objected, "You can't make any money that way."

"Beats farming," the man said, simply.

By the way, I would dispute that 100 years ago our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We did however have 'poor farms' and were not long past debtors' prisons.