Life, 1913-04-10 · page 35 of 48
Life — April 10, 1913 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a commercial advertisement, not satire or editorial content. It promotes the Peerless Motor Car Company's delivery truck, positioned as an economical alternative to horse-drawn wagons. The ad emphasizes that despite modest daily mileage (twenty-five miles), the truck's large cargo capacity and reliability make it cost-effective compared to maintaining four two-horse teams. The illustrated truck carries cargo for "Rumford Baking Powder" and "Rumford Chemical Works," serving as a real-world example of commercial application. The advertisement targets business owners considering motorized transport, highlighting practical advantages—convenience, certainty of operation, and nationwide service stations—rather than speed. This reflects early automotive marketing strategy when trucks were still competing directly with animal-powered delivery systems.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE MONEY SAVING PEERLESS "Ts Peerless is profitable on short hauls —an uncommon assertion for a heavy duty truck. On trips of less than three quarters of a mile each it travels only about twenty-five miles a day, but its large carrying capacity and ease and certainty of operation compensate in convenience for its comparatively low mileage. It replaced four two-horse teams and shows a large economy in real money compared with horse delivery under the same conditions. Peerless Service Stations in all prominent cities insure unin- terrupted operation. Send for a copy of “Steel, Science, and Service.” BY The Peerless Motor Car Co., Cleveland Makers also of Peerless Passenger Cars comicbooks.com