Life, 1901-04-25 · page 18 of 22
Life — April 25, 1901 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page consists primarily of **advertisements** interspersed with one cartoon. The main cartoon depicts a **shop-walker (store employee) addressing a grieving customer** at what appears to be a department store's "Mitigation Grief Department." The customer, wearing mourning clothes, asks about the deceased's relation to him. The joke satirizes the **commercialization of grief**—even in their sorrow, customers are directed to a specialized department, suggesting retailers exploit every human emotion for profit. The advertisements feature Pabst beer ("always pure"), Hotel Earlington, and Eastman Kodak's folding pocket camera. These ads represent typical early-20th-century consumer products marketed to middle and upper-class readers. The satire critiques how **American commerce infiltrates even intimate, solemn moments** like mourning, reducing human experience to consumer transactions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
NEVER HESITATE if ff \ a § eer So Naber = : LS) mark of @ l | BALLANTINE BREW. IS Indla Pale Ale, XXX Canada Malt Ale, Old Burton Ale, Porter, Brown Stout, Half and Half, Hea, On Draught or tn Bott! P. Ballantine @ Sons, Newark, N. J. 134 Cedar St., cor Washington, New York, Hotel Earlington Like one’s purse, a 27th Street, West, near Broadw: Folding , Pocket KODA Kix may be carried in the hand without incon- venience, ani eing covered with fine seal grain leather it is dainty and incon- Being made of Aluminum they are stron, and light. Having superb lenses an accurate shutters they are capable of the best photographic work. $10.00 to $17.50. EASTMAN KODAK CO. ree at phe Rochester, N. Y.