Life — December 10, 1914 — page 40: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **full-page advertisement**, not a political cartoon. It promotes the Rauch & Lang Electric Carriage Company, based in Cleveland. The ad emphasizes the exclusivity and luxury of electric automobiles—a technology that competed with gasoline cars in the early 1900s. Key selling points include silence, safety, comfort, and refinement. The phrase "faster than the law allows" is a humorous boast about performance. The bottom illustration shows an early electric vehicle on display at what appears to be a public exhibition or fair, with well-dressed spectators examining it. This reflects how electric cars were marketed as sophisticated, upscale products for affluent buyers—particularly appealing to women, since they required no hand-crank starting and were cleaner than gasoline vehicles. The extensive branch listings indicate Rauch & Lang's national reach during this period of automotive competition, before gasoline engines ultimately dominated the market.