Life, 1912-11-21 · page 6 of 44
Life — November 21, 1912 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **Packard automobile advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes the Packard "38" luxury car, emphasizing driver convenience features for the era: left-hand drive, electric self-starter, electric lighting, and centralized controls on a dashboard. The headline "Ask the man who owns one" appears at the top—a famous Packard advertising slogan. The ad targets wealthy buyers by highlighting technological sophistication: the electric starter eliminated hand-cranking (dangerous and difficult), and consolidated controls meant drivers could operate the vehicle "from driving position" without leaving their seat. This reflects early 1910s automotive marketing, when such features were novel luxuries signaling both engineering prowess and owner status. There is no cartoon or political content on this page.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Packard “38” Means Mastery of Your Car from Driver’s Seat In the smaller six-cylinder Packard, left drive avoids the necessity of stepping into the road. It is coupled with electric self-starter, electric lighting and centralized control Electric cranking device operated easily and simply from driving position The Packard control board isa compact arrangement at the finger tips. Starting, lighting, ignition and carburetor controls operated with the slightest effort A separate high tension system of dual ignition The Packard “38” has more exclusive features appealing directly to the user and driver than ever before have been gathered into any vehicle COLOR CATALOG ON REQUEST Packard Motor Car Company, Detroit comicbooks-com