Life, 1910-11-03 · page 7 of 72
Life — November 3, 1910 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **commercial advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Thomas Closed Cars, an early automobile manufactured by E.R. Thomas Motor Co. in Buffalo, New York. The page emphasizes luxury features targeting wealthy customers: exclusive design, delicate fabrics, easy entry/exit for social visits, and smooth operation. The decorative illustrations along the margins show women in fashionable dress using the vehicles for shopping and theater—depicting automobiles as status symbols for affluent leisure activities. Key selling points include a six-cylinder engine, glass windows, and quiet operation. The advertisement positions closed cars as superior to open vehicles, particularly appealing to women concerned with maintaining appearance during outings. This reflects early 1910s automobile marketing, when cars were luxury goods for the wealthy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The electric I) cigar lighter is a dome lamp 4 Ghomas Glosed Gars |The most distinctive creation of | Ya the Automobile builder’s craft’ } —is one of many complimentary comments we ] have heard from automobile owners on the | q They are unapproached in exclusive design, in attrac- tive lines, in complete appointments, in artistic interior finish, in easy riding qualities and smooth, noiseless running. q An infinite care has been exercised to obtain exclusive fabrics of delicate design and tasteful color and to har- monize perfectly every detail of furnishing. The French Emboutti shape, the square-roof standards, the side glass protection, the patent glass front, are all distingue features. q Easy of ingress and egress, they are pre-eminently the cars for shopping, for the theatre, for calling, or other social functions—indeed for all town or suburban work. @ Thomas Closed Cars drift along through congested traffic as slowly as two miles per hour without changing gears—avoiding the jerks and jars and rasping noises due to changing to low gear necessary in all other cars. 6-40, T-passenger Landaulet, $5100 6-40, Z-passenger Limousine, $5000 | soft light | x HH The electric an- nunciator is an in- valuable accessory. book saves many an annoying oversight. Deep upholstery gives a delicious sense of luxury. improvementas the change from two to four cylinders. Cc ves Wear ars Alone Employ the Long- Stroke, Large-Valve, Six-Cylinder Motor The long-stroke, large-valve motor is adopted gener- ally abroad, It materially increases power. Com- conserves = bined with six cylinders it constitutes as great an G bist ye mechanism and tires, and removes those barriers to we comfortable riding that have formerly distressed many. It assures smooth, silent runring, reduces motor and tear on Branches :: New York, Boston, Chicago — ES | comicbooks.com