Life, 1917-03-08 · page 35 of 42
Life — March 8, 1917 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **tobacco advertisement** for Velvet brand pipe tobacco, not a political cartoon. The dark illustration shows several men in an interior setting examining tobacco, but it functions as product imagery rather than satire. The ad's rhetorical strategy uses a pseudo-humorous appeal: it frames tobacco quality through a personified "Mother Nature," suggesting that Velvet represents nature's perfection and that competing brands cannot improve upon it. The phrase "Let's put that in our pipes an' smoke it" is a colloquial expression meaning "let's accept this idea." **For modern readers:** This reflects early 20th-century advertising norms that normalized smoking and made health-unrelated quality claims. The "two years' patient ageing in wooden hogsheads" appeal to natural processes was a common marketing tactic. This advertisement would be illegal today due to tobacco marketing restrictions. The page appears to be from Life magazine's advertising section rather than its editorial/satirical content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“LIFE” ee FRIENDS, Mother Nature is a woman, so mere man might as well let her have the last word. Velvet is Nature’s last word in tobacco. Let’s put that in our pipes an’ smoke it. €, Nature Has Done Her Best in VELVET— Only Nature Could Have Done So Well If your taste is anything like that of most pipe smokers we know, you won’t wat a better tobacco than Velvet. To get a better—someone must invent a better variety of pipe tobacco than Kentucky Burley. That hasn’t been done. Someone must beat Nature at Nature’s own method—mellowing this tobacco by two years’ patient ageing in wooden hogsheads. That’s not likely to happen. Put Velvet to any test you think will prove its quality. And make the test today. 10¢ Tins, Se Bags Liggett Myers Tobacco Cx One Pound Glass Humidors comicbooks.com