Life, 1896-12-17 · page 19 of 20
Life — December 17, 1896 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising masquerading as editorial content**. The dominant image shows the Prudential Insurance Company's Newark office building framed within an arch, with accompanying text promoting the company and its president, John F. Dryden. The caption compares the building's strength to the Rock of Gibraltar—a common advertising metaphor for corporate stability and trustworthiness. The page also contains advertisements for patent medicines (Blair's Pills for gout/rheumatism), cologne, and saddles, interspersed with an editorial message from Life's editors promising the magazine will remain "frank, fearless, and judiciously frivolous" while maintaining "wholesome contempt of all fraud and humbug." **The irony**: Life positions itself as a critic of fraudulent schemes, yet this very page is filled with dubious patent medicine ads—precisely the kind of medical quackery satire magazines typically mocked. This suggests either the magazine's economic dependence on such advertising, or the era's general acceptance of these products.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
‘Copyrighted 1896 by the Prudential Insurance Co.” The Massive Building Pictured Above is Owned and Occupied by The Prudential INSURANCE COMPANY, OF AMERICA, As its Home Office, at Newark, New Jersey, From which {s conducted its vast business of Life Insurance for Men, Women and Children JOHN F. DRYDEN, President. The label of every bottle of genuine Farina Cologne bears the word ** Gegeniiber.”’ See that this label is on the bottle you buy. Send for free pamphlets to Gchietfetin & Co., Sole Agents, New York, SAPE, SU | | “Bias Pi s Pills, ¢@! | Great English Remedy MS f GOUT and RHEUMATISM. filam St, New York ne 0900000000000 000 Don't dodge—face this bi- sycesiadin soeetion eke 3 Seat 0 Our book” SADDLE 3 8 Saddle? samursrnest 00000000 $000000000000060066. +4 PURITY US EEBVOR _UNEXCELLE: a3 RRGADWAY —g 29 Rese aasst en were Ov 1 OF EXPRESS "| | HOR Goma wece Vereeeney ATTENTION LIFE TO HIS READERS. | Gorn greeting, gentle reader, 2 have patience to step aside moment, and learn that among all the blessings of the coming year, not the least will be the joys of LIFE, If LIFE in the past has been frank, fear- less, and judi sly frivolous, do not hesitate to believe that LIFE in the future will breathe the same spirit as heretofore. But it will be something more to you than this. It will be bigger, brighter, and better. It will contain new features to amuse, to interest, and to charm. It will take on an added wisdom and sprightliness, while of malice or uncharitableness there will be found among its pages no trace; rather, as in the past, a wholesome contempt of all fraud and humbug, for you will have read it in vain if you have failed to detect the true spirit of its being. Those who know LIFE well will have no cause to complain, The old contributors, and many new ones, will be there to cheer the way, gladden the eye, and dwarf the spirit of dull care. But e will also be fresh departures and constant surprises to satisfy the wants of all. LIFE will contain the best, in whatever line. Its pictures will be made by the first artists, and will not be cheap repro- ductions of popular photographs, They will depict flesh and blood ideas, and the lover of art, the student of humanity, and even the jaded reader who wishes only to be amused, will all be satisfied. Its writers will be the best writers, and in its warfare against all that is cruel, and unjust, and wrong, the shafts of its wit will not lose their potency. Every line of LIFE during the coming year will be worth reading. comicbooks.com