Judge, 1904-03-12 · page 11 of 16
Judge — March 12, 1904 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Schlitz beer advertisement**, not a political cartoon or satire. The page features a full-page ad from the Schlitz brewery promoting their product's purity and manufacturing standards. The ad's argument is straightforward: Schlitz claims to double production costs through extensive cleanliness measures—washing bottles four times, drilling 1,400-foot wells for pure water, filtering air, sterilizing after sealing, and lengthy fermentation—yet maintains the same price as competitors. The implied message: consumers get superior quality at no premium cost. The decorative border elements appear to be stylized hops (the plant used in brewing). This represents early **20th-century consumer marketing**, where breweries competed on claims of scientific purity and hygiene—appeals particularly important after contamination scandals and emerging germ-theory awareness. The phrase "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" was Schlitz's actual historical slogan, establishing the brand's legitimacy as a major American brewer.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“Cw Ci é We Double the Cost of Our Brewing to Give You Pure Beer We spend fortunes on cleanliness. For instance, we wash every bottle four times, when one washing—done, as it is, by machinery —seems more than sufficient. We clean every tub, every boiling vat, tank or barrel, every pipe and pump, every time we use it. We bore wells down 1400 feet to rock for pure water. We cool the beer in filtered air. We filter the beer by machinery. We store Schlitz beer for months in refrigerating rooms until it is well fermented—until it cannot cause biliousness. We sterilize every bottle after it is sealed. All this doubles our necessary cost—an_ enor- mous item on our output—over one million barrels annually. Yet we pay it all—just to have Schlitz beer pure—just to have it healthful for you. Those who enjoy it pay none of this extra cost, for the price is the same as standard beers anywhere. Ask for the Brewery Bottling. The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous. comicbooks.com