Life, 1920-09-02 · page 10 of 52
Life — September 2, 1920 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an **advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The page promotes the Mercer automobile, manufactured by Mercer Motors Company in New York City (operating under Hare's Motors, Inc.). The ad features a photograph of a Mercer car driving through a natural rock archway or tunnel, framed by trees and landscape. The text uses poetic language to link the car's elegant design to nature's beauty ("adds a note of harmony to the charm of the September landscape"). The marketing emphasizes that while Mercer cars are "rugged, dependable, comfortable and fast," their true distinction lies in superior engineering standards and design quality set by Hare's Motors—appealing to consumers who valued craftsmanship alongside performance. This represents early-20th-century automotive advertising's strategy of associating products with natural beauty and aspirational lifestyle.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MERCER MOTORS COMPANY 16 West 61st Street New York City Operated by HARE’S MOTORS, INc. We shall + keep + faith ERCER adds a note of harmony to the charm of the September landscape. Its low graceful lines sweep easily off into and blend with nature’s background. Goldenrod and asters bow in friendly fashion to its passing rush, conscious apparently that its beauty supplements their own— That MERCER is rugged, dependable, comfortable and fast is well enough so far as it goes, but those qualities alone would never meet the requirements of its makers. The engineers of Hare’s Motors rate distinction of appear- ance as one of the fundamental elements of sound design and Hare’s Motors products are built to a standard that allows no comparison so far as fundamentals are concerned. comicbooks.