Life, 1899-09-21 · page 20 of 20
Life — September 21, 1899 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an **advertising page** with one satirical cartoon at the top. The cartoon, titled "Early English Inventions: The Excursion Boat," depicts an absurdly oversized boat or vessel launched from a medieval fortification, with crowds of people aboard. The satire mocks primitive or ridiculous historical innovations—suggesting that early English engineering produced impractical contraptions. The humor lies in the exaggerated scale and implied futility of the invention. The page is otherwise dominated by product advertisements typical of 1909: Pears' soap (emphasizing purity and lack of alkali), Libby's mince meat, Lea & Perrins sauce, Martell brandy, Whitman's chocolates, Johnson's Digestive Tablets (claiming 88% cure rate), and H.B. Kirk whiskey. These ads reflect early 20th-century consumer goods marketed with health and quality claims, many (particularly the digestive tablets) making dubious medical promises that would be illegal today.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| GAME | 1S MANY TIMES T00 GAM’ TO GIVE THE NICEST SAGE TO ALL GAME USE ie heemosant cs an ess | PE ses SAUCE The Original & Genuine Worcestershire. IF YOUR GROCER ATTEMPTS TO SUBSTITUTE AN IMITATION SEND ITBACK NONE SO GOOD. John Duncan's Sons, Agents, _ NEW YORK. r EARLY ENGLISH INVENTIONS. “THR EXCURSION BOAT.” What is wanted of soap for the skin is to wash it clean and not hurt it. Pure soap does that. This is why we want pure soap; and when we say pure, we mean without alkali. E Candy connoisseurs hold up Pears’ is pure; no free Fresh and fruity. Made from | i ] s 9 : the pick of the choicest beef— alkali. There are a thou- deliciously seasoned. Put up in | hitman S | i * thi convenient packages, hf | } sand virtues of soap; this two big lea ——- } Chocolates and Confections one is enough. You can Drop postal for book, “How to Make Good ts the highest standard of candy excellence, trust a soap that has no Things to Eat.” | Whitman's Instantancous Chocolate ie Cua he Libby, Motel & Ly, Chicago biting alkali in it. a0 All sorts of stores sell it, especially druggists; all sorts of people use it. equal to Hand-Made Sour Mash. Any honest Ken- tucky distiller will admit | it, even if he makes sweet Dyspeptics made a report - mash himself. It’s like old- | after using oDow] fashioned “ riz-bread ;” it’s JOHNSON’S DIGESTIVE far more wholesome than TABLETS. the new-fungled, quick 88% Cured or relieved : "q vising bread. ipatapiatiate tte H. B. KIRK & CO., New York. PRESS OF THE J. W. PRATT CO., NEW YORE, comicbooks.com