Life, 1920-08-19 · page 31 of 40
Life — August 19, 1920 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward automobile advertisement for the Lafayette, manufactured by Lafayette Motors Company in Indianapolis. The page features a large oval photograph of a Lafayette automobile on a country road, framed decoratively with a small portrait medallion (likely the company founder or notable figure). The text is a earnest sales pitch emphasizing the car's superior engineering, smooth operation, and reliable performance. The copy targets affluent motorists by contrasting Lafayette's mechanical advantages ("surety and effortlessness") against competitors, claiming features like superior suspension, responsive braking, and stability at high speeds. This represents early automotive marketing strategy: positioning a mid-range car as engineered excellence rather than competing on price alone. The advertisement assumes readers are already car owners considering upgrades.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-LIFE- It is of course scarcely reasonable to expect that LaFaverre’s performance should con- spicuously eclipse that of every other fine car. Automobile building has reached a state where quiet, smooth and reliable mechanical action is not the private possession of any one manufacturer. The accustomed motorist will, however, find in LaFaverre certain superiorities of behavior that he has not enjoyed in other cars he has owned. He will find, for example, a surety and effort- lessness of operation, a resistance to depreci- ation and fatigue, such as are new to his experience. Driving the car, he will feel an uncommon security as he takes the corners and abrupt curves, even at great speed, without sway, pitch or roll. He will note that the wheels follow the un- dulations of the road without bouncing, while the body rides poised as in flight above the sensitive springs. On hill or level he will enjoy, in every duty to which he puts the car, an instant, invariable and strainless response to his commands. Braking hard or softly, he will feel the car float to a gentle stop without chattering of brake-bands or the familiar drum of rear wheels on the earth. Every element in the competent action of LaFayette is a natural consequent of the expert engineering that produced the car. Howagreeably this engineering translates it- self into actual performance, you will know when first your LaFayerre moves forward under your control. LAFAYETTE MOTORS COMPANY at Wars fill Inpianapous comicbooks.com