Life, 1893-01-05 · page 44 of 60
Life — January 5, 1893 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **bicycle advertisement**, not satire. The illustrated scene shows three figures (two men and a woman) with a bicycle beneath trees, promoting Columbia brand bicycles by Pope Manufacturing Company. The ad conflates romantic love with cycling, arguing that outdoor exercise represents "the noblest of healthful happiness." It emphasizes that cycling provides natural health benefits ("drugless Nature builds her sanatorium") away from indoor confinement, and presents the Columbia bicycle as the superior product—"the world's best product of wheel building skill." The romanticized imagery and flowery language reflect late-19th/early-20th-century attitudes celebrating cycling as both a health practice and a social activity, particularly notable for its association with women's increasing mobility and independence during this era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Love, plus cycling, or cycling, plus love, equals the noblest of ee e healthful happiness—Womanly grace and beauty and manly vigor never were indoors brewed.—In the open—nearer to Nature's heart —where drugless Nature builds her sanatorium—unwalled., unroofed, e I | appl ness. uncontined—the cycler is blessed by Nature.—He rides through the atmosphere of Nature’s healthful) purity —The Columbia rider, happy in what cycling gives him, contident in the steed he rides—a guaranteed bicycle of highest grade— the world’s best product of wheel building skill, -All about Columbias in the finest eyeling booklet eyer printed, free, at Colnmbia agencies, by mail fer two 2-cent stamps. POPE MFG. CO., New York, Boston, Chicago. Pause of Wu. M. Hacstto, 39-43 Goo 81.) Ne Ye comicbooks.com