Life, 1916-07-13 · page 6 of 40
Life — July 13, 1916 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **product advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It advertises Weed Anti-Skid Chains for car tires. The advertisement uses fear-based messaging common to early 20th-century marketing. The illustration depicts a driver's anxious vision of a car skidding dangerously on a slippery road toward pedestrians and schoolchildren. The text emphasizes the mental anguish of imagining such an accident. The rhetorical strategy exploits parental anxiety: by vividly depicting the catastrophic consequences of unequipped tires on winter roads, the ad pressures readers to purchase safety chains "for your own peace of mind fully." The product itself—tire chains for winter traction—was genuinely practical for the era before modern tire technology, making this an earnest safety appeal rather than satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
your car, eh skidding on the slippery turn ahead= y ou have neglected to put on Weed Chains. view the slippery turn ahead and have a mental picture of your car skidding into the school children. Stop nursing anxiety and coaxing calamity. For Safety's sake— for your own peace of mind fully equip your car today with Weed You anxiously Anti-skia Chains The Only Real Safeguard Against Skidding Safety demands that all tires be equipped with Weed Chains. It doesn’t require the gift of second sight to see why this is true. Rubber slips— never grips. Rubber will agree to anything the road has to offer. It is the weaker element. It slides on wet pavements like a cake of soap rubbed on the moistened hands. Rubber lacks the bite- and-hang-on ability to prevent skidding. Weed Chains are diamond hard—many times harder than their épposing element—the pavement or road. Wheels equipped with Weed Chains automatically lay their own traction surface. The! gtip without grinding—hold without binding. () matter how muddy or. icy the road, they hold on like a bull-dog, prevent side-skid and drive-slip. Sold for ALL Tires by Dealers Everywhere American Chain Company, Inc. Bridgeport, 6 Connecticut Sole Manufacturers of Weed Anti-Skid Chains Manufactured for Canada by DOMINION CHAIN COMPANY, LIMITED, NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO, CANADA comicbooks.com