Life, 1910-12-01 · page 71 of 108
Life — December 1, 1910 — page 71: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **full-page advertisement**, not satire. It promotes Londonderry Lithia Spring Water from Nashua, New Hampshire. The ad makes health claims typical of early 20th-century patent medicines and mineral waters: the water's "alkaline properties" and "medicinal virtues" supposedly aid health. Such claims were common before the FDA strictly regulated advertising. The imagery shows an elegant dinner scene with well-dressed diners, suggesting the product's sophistication and suitability for refined tables. A hand pours the sparkling water into a glass, emphasizing its effervescence. The text emphasizes dual appeal—pleasure (purity, exhilarating quality) and health benefit—a marketing strategy common in this era when mineral waters were marketed as both luxuries and medicines. The specific mention of lithia (lithium) reflects genuine period belief that lithium salts had therapeutic properties.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
oe lei w Table Water that not only delights but benefits O*E of the greatest pleasures of dining, because of its purity and exhilarating quality One of the most valuable aids to health because of its alkaline properties and other medicinal virtues The most delightful of all Lithia Waters ‘The sparkling (effer- vescent) in the usual three sizes. Thestill (plain) in half-gallon bottles. ‘ Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Co., Nashua, N. H.