Life, 1913-06-19 · page 42 of 52
Life — June 19, 1913 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains advertisements and editorial commentary typical of early 20th-century Life magazine. The **main advertisement** promotes Schlitz beer, citing a scientific statement claiming beer exposed to sunlight for 3-5 minutes becomes undrinkable due to odor development. Schlitz argues that brown bottles—not light ones—protect beer quality from brewery to consumer. This addresses a real brewing concern: light exposure causes chemical degradation (now called "skunky" flavor). The **opening editorial** satirizes merchants who advertise products beautifully but hide prices until the last moment, frustrating customers who've already imagined owning the item. **Secondary advertisements** include a "Head Light Glare Remover" (amber windshield attachment) and an anecdote about astronomical instrument makers pricing a "perfect straight edge." The **cartoon at bottom** is captioned "It Speaks Badly for Her," though the specific context is unclear from this page fragment. The magazine critiques both deceptive advertising practices and product quality standards of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
+ LIFE™ Why, Indeed? always so reluctant to let you know their prices? W': are those people who send you catalogs and who advertise their products We suppose this is due to some convention which makes them believe that by withholding t! We fail to see this method of reasoning. you are looking heir price until the last moment they can secure more customers. Can anything be more exasperating when for an article, to see it pictured in beautiful proportions and described in glowing language—in fact to get your imagination all worked up, and then not to know how much it is going to cost you? To a methodical and well ordered mind this attitude is so exasperating that you feel as if you would not buy the thing at all—no matter how much you may want it or necd it. ] eer Exposed to Light for 5 Minutes Becomes Vndrinkable This is not our statement, but the deliberate opinion of one of the most renowned scientists in the world. Read the entire statement: “We have tested beers repeatedly, placing the bottles in the direct sunlight, and testing the same after one, two, three and five minutes exposure, found that the beer with three and five minutes exposure became undrinkable on account of the peculiar odor developed. The detrimental effect of light upon beer can be successfully coupter- acted by the employment of brown or dark colored glass bottles, and such bottles, are therefore, recom- mendable.”’—Wahl - Henius Insti- tute of Fermentology. It is not enough that beer be brewed pure, it must be kept pure. Many Americans prefer beer in a light bottle. Most brewers follow the course of least resistance. Z Light starts decay even in pure beer. Dark glass is gives the best protection against light. Schlitz is sold in Brown Bottles to protect its purity from the brewery to your glass. See that crown or cork is branded “* Schlitz.”” HEAD LIGHT GLARE REMOVER attaches to the Wind Shield Patented April 22, 1913 ‘MAKES NIGHT DRIVING SAFE The amber colored glass removes the blinding glare. from approaching headlights, giving 2 fal Elear view of the road and car. Danger to pa Sengers and the public avoided.” Can be to middie bar when top shield is down or to top bar when top shield is up. Easily attached to any windshield, having round tube, square frame oF plain glass’ edge. f hot carried. by United States, prepai our dealer, mailed in the on receipt’ of $2.00. High Price for Straightness One of the most difficult problems in practical mechanics is to make a straight edge. How difficult it is may be judged from an incident that occurred in the shop of a celebrated astronomical instru- ‘ment maker. A patron asked what would be the price of “a perfect straight edge of glass thirty-six inches long.” “It cannot be made perfect,” said the instrument maker; “but it could prob- ably be made with a limit of error amounting to only a fraction of a wave length of light.” “How much would that cost?” “ About forty thousand dollars.” It turned out that the customer wanted the straight edge for a scraper, and that an error of one sixty-fourth of an inch would not bother him. —New York Tribune. “Tue realist, if he is an artist, will endeavor not to show us a commonplace photograph of life, but to give us a pre- sentment of it which shall be mure complete, more striking, more cogent than reality itself.” —Guy de Maupassant. “IT SPEAKS BADLY FOR HER” comicbooks.com