Life, 1893-01-05 · page 41 of 60
Life — January 5, 1893 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is not a political cartoon but rather a **advertisement/promotional article** for a major retail establishment. The page features an engraving of Stern Brothers' new department store building on Twenty-third Street in New York City. The text celebrates the store's modern amenities as markers of commercial progress: electric lighting in the vestibule, a central dome providing natural light to all floors, passenger elevators, and notably a pneumatic tube system for rapid cash transactions—innovations that solved practical problems for both customers and employees. The piece reflects **late 19th-century American values**: technological advancement, architectural grandeur, and commercial success as signs of civilization. By highlighting employee amenities (lunch rooms, toilets), it presents the store as enlightened and progressive. This is essentially advertorial content praising retail modernity and American business achievement, not satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
< ~ TPE NEL cs STERN BROTHERS’ NEW BUILDING. ctures erected in the city this year none su s the building of Messrs. Stern Brothers (an illustration of ty of design and adaptability for the purposes for which it was constructed. Some fifteen years ago, Messrs. ariBtera Brothers, foreseeing the great advantages of Twenty-third street as a bu: s thoroughfare, removed there from Sixth avenue, their build- My being the tirst di to trade on this street; and since then their constantly-increasing business has compelled them, from time to time, to a and imprevements to their edifice, so that now they have the largest and finest establishment in the country devoted ¢ 'y goods trade. Rates, terior needs no comment; its admirable proportions and beautiful lines speak for themselves; and I will only call attention to the |Pragnificent vestibule, framed in mahogany and with a tlooring of mosaic tiling. In the ceiling of this vestibule are placed electric lights which rilliantly iluminate night. A large and beautiful dome in the centre of the building furnishes abundant light to every floor, thus solving a problem which has long per- Plexed dry goods people, and which, by ob y of going near the door to match colors, will prove a great convenience to customers. ight commodious passenger elevators afford ready access to the different floors. Anothe! x which Messrs. Stern Brothers introduced some tme ago, and which they have perfected in their new building, is the Preumatic servi tem, for which they have had constructed the largest plant of this kind ever made, enabling them to have money sent to the cashiers and the change returned to customers with lightning rapidity, a boon which ladies will appreciate. Nor has the comfort of the dat. €mployees been forgotten ; cheerful and well-appointed lunch and toilet rooms being provided for them. ©"), One will be well repaid in a visit to this dry goods palace, both in studying the architectural arrangement and in looking over the marvelous Bssemblage of rich goods the house is noted for keeping. The Sight-Seer. ton comicbooks.com