Life, 1897-10-28 · page 19 of 22
Life — October 28, 1897 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising and a reader contest**, not political satire. The main content features a large advertisement for **The Prudential Insurance Company**, prominently displaying the company's 1896 financial statistics (assets, income, surplus, policies in force) and claiming "the Largest Increase in Income of any Life Insurance Company in the United States." This represents Gilded Age corporate boasting about financial success. Below is an **interactive contest** asking readers to identify a Longfellow poem line illustrated by a Longfellow painting depicting a frontier or military scene. Readers submit guesses for a chance to win $100—a substantial prize for 1897. The page also carries side advertisements for consumer goods: **Sozodont tooth powder/soap** and **Beeman's Pepsin Gum**, typical patent medicines and products of the era. There is **no political cartoon or satire** visible—the page reflects commercial Life magazine content from the 1890s.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE: 3 PODOODOGEOCDOODQOQOOQOODODOOS) f : z a A TRIUMPH OF ° ‘ 2S FINANCIAL PROGRESSION AN OFFER PRUDENTIAL SS TH E odon sed bis : STRENGTH oF ¢ cely as "La AND SOZODERMA SOAP OR EXPRESS, Your Druggist should have both. Faifing to get them, nod if} send 75 cents for Sozodont or 3 9 S 7 Had for 1896 the $1.00 for both—cash or stamps “ten eesees Largest Increase in Income of any Life —to the Bropetetors ling on . * Hall & Ruckel Insurance Company in the United States 7.0. Box 247,New York City saiioe: Assets Income Surplus Policies in force, Insurance in Claims paid, Lenton 46 Noone Nese EG __. er $19,544,827 $14,158,445 $4,034,146 2,500,000 $320,000,000 $28,000,000 It bit CHEN \dmira- Send for Information. “| THE PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE CO. OF AMERICA Saelsiecan lome Office : Je TOHN F. DRYDEN, Pri . oo eoeonng ee DOODDGGOODHHOGOPOHDOOOGQOOS a PEPSIN 1 a | GUM HOTEL VENDOME, BOSTON i 8y;e.insuess pe AD) Others are Imitatiens. \ BEEMAN’S 206 jar m will te given One Hundred Dollars. Shou'd there be others whose All envelopes received will be opened December Ist, 1897, in the will y trace er day presence of witnesses, To the person whose envelope contains the correct guess Title of Poem The line or lines guesses are correct, the One Hundred Dollars will be divided among | them. Mlustrated by this picture ) Name and address of sender... Fill out and return above to “Pegasus,” care of Life, New York. comicbooks.com