Life, 1912-04-04 · page 49 of 80
Life — April 4, 1912 — page 49: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement**, not political satire. The page promotes O'Sullivan's brand rubber heels, priced at 50 cents. The "magic carpet" is a metaphor: just as a magic carpet would make travel effortless, O'Sullivan's rubber heels promise to make walking easy and youthful. The illustration shows figures standing on a rolled carpet (resembling a magic carpet) to visualize this concept. The ad uses **Easter timing** as a marketing hook, encouraging readers to wear the heeled shoes in the Easter Parade—a real social tradition where people displayed new spring fashions. The language emphasizes comfort ("easy," "graceful," "elastic") and renewed vigor ("feel new energy," "perpetual youth"), selling the product through aspirational lifestyle messaging. This reflects early 20th-century advertising that blended whimsy with product benefits.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The Magic Carpet Of course you would like to walk on a magic carpet through life, thus making every step an easy, graceful, elastic one—the step of perpetual youth. There is no real ‘‘magic’’ about it after all. You can walk on just such a resilient surface when you have O’Sullivan’s HEELS OF NEW LIVE RUBBER attached to your shoes, because a pad of the finest quality rubber will then be placed under each heel, and you will walk with great ease and pleasure—and feel new energy at every stride. Join the Easter Parade with a pair attached to your new Spring shoes. You will walk with a light, easy step—a confident stride—and a light heart. Be a little ahead of the procession, get the Shack absorbers that make life worth living. Start with your Easter shoes well heeled. Say ‘‘O’Sullivan’s "’ to your shoemaker. 50c Attached comicbooks.com