Judge, 1904-02-13 · page 13 of 20
Judge — February 13, 1904 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Schlitz beer advertisement** disguised as editorial content in Judge magazine. The illustration shows two men in conversation—one appearing to be a distinguished doctor, the other a patient—discussing beer's medicinal and health properties. The "satire" here is actually advertising propaganda. During this era (likely early 1900s), beer was marketed with pseudo-scientific health claims. The doctor endorses Schlitz specifically by praising its purity, sterility, and aging process, while claiming beer aids digestion and supplies necessary body fluids. He even addresses potential objections (biliousness) by blaming inferior "green" beers rather than the product itself. The ornate art nouveau border with hops imagery reinforces the beer brand. This represents an era when alcohol advertising heavily leveraged medical authority to promote consumption, before such claims became regulated. The "Doctor's Reasons" framing lends false credibility to marketing claims modern readers would recognize as exaggerated health propaganda.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Doctor’s Reasons Patient: “Whv do you say Schlitz beer? Isn't any other beer as good?” Doctor: “Perhaps; but I don’t know it. that Schlitz beer is pure.” I do know Patient: “What do you mean by pure?” Doctor: “I mean free from germs. Impurity means bacilli; and in a saccharine product like beer bacilli multiply rapidly. I do not recommend a beer that may contain them.” Patient: is pure?” Doctor: “I have seen it brewed. Cleanliness is carried to extremes in that brewery. The beer is cooled in plate glass rooms, in filtered air, The beer is then “How do you know that Schlitz beer filtered. Yet, after all these precautions, every bottle is sterilized—by Pasteur’s process—after it is sealed. I know that beer treated in that way is pure.” Patient: “And is pure beer good for me?” Doctor: “It is good for anybody. The hops form a tonic; the barley a food. The trifle of alcohol is an aid to digestion. And the custom of drinking beer supplies the body with fluid to wash out the waste. People who don’t drink beer seldom drink enough fluid of any kind A great deal of ill-health is caused by the lack of it.” Patient: “But doesn’t beer cause biliousness?” Doctor: “Not Schlitz Beer. Biliousness is caused by ‘green’ beer—beer that is insufficiently aged. But Schlitz beer is always aged for months before it is marketed.” Ask for the brewery bottling. THE BEER THAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS