Life, 1918-09-12 · page 29 of 34
Life — September 12, 1918 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines satirical road signs with advertising for DuPont industries. ## "Sign-Posts on the Road of Life" The left column presents humorous roadside-style signs marking life's journey toward marriage and old age. Titles like "Twenty-One Miles to Matrimony," "Danger! Temptation Ahead," and "Death's Turnpike" mock conventional life milestones using automotive metaphors—a modern, somewhat irreverent approach for the era. The humor treats serious life events (marriage, aging, death) as comic highway stages, with warnings about "Bluffer's Garage" and "Second Childhood Inn" poking fun at human pretension and inevitable decline. ## Advertising Content The right side features DuPont advertisements for dynamite and industrial products, alongside a cigar ad and a Kiwanis Club joke. The main pitch argues that improved roads (built with DuPont explosives for construction/blasting) benefit railways and commerce. The page reflects 1920s American attitudes: satirical toward marriage and aging, promotional of industrial progress, and casually inclusive of commercial messaging within editorial space.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Sign-Posts on the Road baal Hi DU PONT AMERICAN I NDUSTRIES of Life —™ NTY-ONE MILES TO MAT- RIMONY. TWENTY-FIVE MILES T INT) cEP TO THE RIGHT. \OUTH & VIGOR, INC. {1EALTH GASOLINE 'D mes ATION “CROSSING, ARE NOW ENTERING MATRIMONY. SLOW DOW ASIEEP CLIMB—NARROW. iF Highways Feed Railways DF TOUR TO AVOID POOR- Never hefore have our roads been so important HOUS store subjcet that ier. | The tremendous tonnage of freight and express re aa Peers: wanes ee 1 for national work has turned all main roads WATCH OUT FOR ROUGH ests you and Mail This SPOTS. ‘Coupon to 1 fs nd sid s into feeders. Heavy E 1. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. motor truck trattic di etter roads. Don't let them deteriorate. Advertising Division Wil lure] Delaware BLUFFER'’S GARAGE. FREE AIR. Ww = Industrial Dynamites all D Nee oO ee 5 | | Blasting Powder TAKE IT EASY. | Blasting Supplies s-lin Toilet Goods . SECOND FLING SPEEDWAY “ha Red Cross Dynamite CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. Ry. & Marine BEAR TO RIGHT. | Motor Fabrik: is a powerful first aid in road construction, improve- t and main c. It replaces much labor « ams and machinery an PF SHAKP CURVE OF MIDDLE AGE, SLIPPERY—LOOK OUT! TEEN MILES TO DEATH'S | By-raciin Enamels TURNPIKE | iain sale in th ‘a rk.” We ‘ill meen full in- cae ag URNEIRE cane : ing illustrated hook on road DOWN GRADE ALL THE WAY } | Name... + | construction and maintenance by all modern methods. asses E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. Established 1802 M.D. MENDERMAN. STOP FOR REPAIRS. RIDICULE AHEAD! | cameainitiia Wilmington DETOUR T TO STRETCH f OF OBSCURITY. S$! COND CHILDHOOD INN SWEET MEMORY REFRESH- — MENTS. FOR _g MEN OF BRAINS DEATH'S TURNPIKE IGARS “T CROSS my heart and hope to die STOP AT TOLL GAT If I should ever, ever buy Edmund J. Kiefer. “MADE AT KEY WEST— Another thing on which 1 sec The trade-mark, “ Made in Germany.” From dinner card at Kiwanis Club, St. Paul, Minn Ess. Never crosses a bridge till he comes to it, I suppose? Hardly—waits for the bridge to come to him, and then ducks under it! comicbooks.com