Life, 1919-03-06 · page 6 of 42
Life — March 6, 1919 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **straightforward advertisement**, not satire. It promotes Beeman's Pepsin Chewing Gum as a digestive aid, featuring a bearded man (likely the product's founder or namesake) in an oval portrait. The ad claims pepsin gum relieves indigestion—described as "the great American ailment"—by stimulating saliva production and aiding digestion. It recommends chewing for 10-20 minutes after meals. This reflects early 20th-century medical marketing when digestive remedies (often containing questionable ingredients) were heavily advertised. The appeal to "thousands" of satisfied users is typical promotional language. The page appears to be a paid advertisement rather than editorial content from Life magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
GHENVING The great American ailment is indigestion APID eating, keeping the brain constantly at work during meal time, and bad cookery—these lay the foundation for the conditions that nine out of every ten Americans suffer trom. The food is imperfectly masticated, there is an insufficient flow of saliva, and the inevitable result is seen in the various mild forms of indigestion with which we are all familiar. To relieve these conditions there is nothing better than the routine use of my original pepsin chewing gum. It stimulates the salivary glands, insures sufficient saliva, relaxes nerve ten- sion, and aids the digestive processes. Thousands have obtained relief from their digestive troubles by the stmple expedient of chewing Beeman’s Pepsin Gum for ten to twenty minutes after each meal. AMERICAN CHICLE COMPANY Cleveland Chicago Kansas City San Francisco comicbooks.com