Life, 1904-01-28 · page 22 of 22
Life — January 28, 1904 — page 22: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Schlitz beer advertisement**, not political satire. Published January 29, 1904, it promotes beer as a health tonic—a common marketing claim in the early 1900s before modern food and drug regulations. The ad claims beer prevents nervousness, digestive problems, and weakness. It positions Schlitz as superior because it's "pure," implying competitors' beers contained harmful impurities. The argument that beer provides "nerve foods" (malt and hops) and flushes bodily waste reflects period pseudo-scientific health claims. The phrase "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" was Schlitz's actual slogan, reflecting Milwaukee's prominence in American brewing. **For modern readers**: This reveals how differently alcohol was marketed and perceived a century ago—as preventative medicine rather than a recreational beverage, before medical science debunked such claims.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Beer Keeps One Well It is a noticeable fact that those who brew beer, and who drink what they want of it, are usually healthy men. You find no dyspeptics among them, no nervcus ‘wrecks, no wasted, fatless men. And so in those countries where beer is the national beverage. The reason is that beer is healthful. The malt and the hops are nerve foods. And the habit of drinking it keeps the body supplied with fluid to flush out the waste. The weak, the nervous and sleepless must have it. Why isn’t it better to drink it now, and keep from becoming so? But drink pure beer—Schlitz beer. There isn’t enough good in impure beer to balance the harm in it. Ask for the Gelb brewery bottling. The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous'