Life, 1909-10-14 · page 29 of 36
Life — October 14, 1909 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page primarily contains **advertisements and satirical narrative content** rather than political cartoons. The main feature is "An Unconvincing Narrative"—a mock-heroic poem in Cockney dialect claiming yet another explorer has reached the North Pole. The satire mocks the early 20th-century "Pole race" craze, where multiple explorers claimed discovery. The narrator's absurd account (compass spinning wildly, casual attitude, companions named "Etukishook" and "Gaukrodger") ridicules both the proliferation of dubious polar claims and sensationalist explorer narratives. The poem's working-class voice and exaggerated dialect humorously deflate the glamorous explorer mythology. The advertisements—Mobiloil, Evans' Ale, and Pears' Soap—are straightforward commercial pitches typical of the era, with Pears' Soap notably marketing beauty as medical science ("Doctor's Point of View").
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE* The Oil that Turns Minutes to Miles m MOBILOIL relieves your automobile of d friction, and leaves it free to wrestle with ites and the miles, It makes perfect lubri- scientific certainty, and saves paying for jents and accidents, disguised as repairs. VACUUM OBILOIL ade in six different grades for various kinds biles, One of these grades is the one of which guarantees it to be exactly ne requirements Of your car. perimest. Write for free booklet, listing every obite made and showing grade of MOBILOILneces~ 1 lor its perfect iudrication. Alsocontains track records 19 date and other facts of vital interest to motorists. in harrelsand in cans with patent pouring Uyuralerseverswhere, Manufactured Ly VACUUM Oil CO., Rochester, N. Victorious Even Unto Death As most of . P. T. Barnum died but a few nths af npetitor in the “ show’ Jan Forepaugh, wh Well, Pete, I got ahead of you this —Coming Soon.”* Good Business mercial traveler) Quite overstocked me at least show Can't you my Spare yourself the trouble. 1 allow me to look at weeks since I have n will you is. three ny Pictorial | JTS the quality of the malt, the | ata oh che Bathe of the ‘pring water a owing a EVANS’ ALE ‘the de i, hearty beverage which it is. Leading Dealers and Places. 123 years that make ‘ious, health- An Unconvincing Narrative We and must request {Yet a third claimant to the Pole has arisen. print his statement with reserve, our readers to await the necessary scientific proof be fore giving credence to his story. ] . gather around, my and listen a while to me, For I ‘ave a yarn to spin you, a yarn of the carties, Nail ukishook, Sir Fortescue Merry del Val It was all of a ath of March. When I put on a hextry weskit and made for he Marble Arch by to my country, “ Lunnon,”” : re Road AX loo! And I up and strode down the Ed, r. J.C. Cl and the Cardin rky morning that wunnerful a-thirsting 10 see it rough. Followed by Sir cue Flannery Merry del Val I ‘adn't no tadn’t_ no polar besr ming gum-drops. [ a t no sextant neither, but 1 thinks to myself, “Oo cares?” led my h-chain jaunty, which weled in every hole “T can always steer by my cu to the shook straight said Etw S annery, and the Cardinal Merry del Val for the of that morning, then I to myself, “Old son. ere is a dash-for-the-Pole like darn litie dash y So I enters a I walke sez This and it’s. ve do} andy. sta and I sez tot t ion, first-return u Ah, and five third singles for Etukishook, Gauk rodger, J. C. Clegg, Sir Fortescue F nery, and the Cardinal Merry del We sailed from Wick to the northward for ‘undreds of days nights, Till we came at last to the ice-floes and fol- lowed Northern lights, The Horroreo-boreo-balis, which it turned us all ‘orrible And I sez to + ‘o-morrow and then we shall 1 5 t Big Nail.”* “*Ooray! Saukrodger, J. C. Clegg, Sir Fortescue Flannery, and the Cardinal Merry del Val. Twas the cumpas as went and found it—it seemed to have turned its head; It would spin like mad for a minute and then it would lay like dead; It took on just like a wild thing, you'd almost ‘a’ sworn it cried, Till at last it shot through the glass and got right up on its end and die prooves it,"’ cried Etukishook, Gauk- rodger, J. C. Clegg. Sir Fortescue Flan- nery, and the Cardinal Merry del Val. “That We gave three cheers for ole England and we up with the Union Jack, And we plugged our pipes and we smoked ‘em and we thought about getting back; (Continued on page 531) al) Beaut from the Doctor’s Point of View Doctors regard beauty from the point of view of health, and tel] you that a good natural Lom- . plexion and a fair, soft skin are necessary essen- tials of beauty. They never disagree about that, nor do they disa- gree about the merits of Pears Soap which is the most per- fect beautifying agent known, being pure in every particle and pos- sessing those special and unique qualities which render the skin pure, and of exquisite softness. The beauties of six gen- erations have acknowl- edged PEARS’ to be The Best Aid to Beauty comicbooks.com