Life, 1926-01-07 · page 7 of 40
Life — January 7, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes automobile salesmanship and the used-car market. The main cartoon depicts a salesman pitching a worn vehicle to a customer, with dialogue emphasizing the car's durability despite obvious wear ("thirty thousand miles," "every bolt as tight as the day it came out of the shop"). The humor lies in the disconnect between the salesman's enthusiastic claims and the car's actual condition. The caption "Tough Luck" refers to a hitchhiker who hiked from Frisco to New York in eight days but had to walk the final ten miles—suggesting the vehicle ultimately fails despite assurances. The accompanying text mockingly catalogs sales-pitch clichés used to convince buyers that old cars are still valuable. This reflects 1920s consumer skepticism about automobile dealers' reliability and honesty.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WANT to tell you this car of mine is some boat! She'll road sixty-five Start her on high at the foot of Dyck- man Street Hill And she'll be breezing thirty Over the top. quict as twenty She's got more than speed, too. I want to tell you this car is some tough baby This car is built right. The maker put his money into the ma chinery, The place where it does the most good Why, she wasn't broken in till she'd gone five thousand. Carbon? Oh, sh may knock a little every ten thousand or That's all. Listen to that motor, will you At the Dealer's Sweet as candy, huh? Thirty thousand miles she’s been turn ing over, though Never s it, woul tle in her me chassis, /'mi s. Every bolt as t out of the you where, either ing. as the day it came I'm telling ye This one is te Cast your eye over that paint job: Ten years old and looks like new I'l leave it to you if it isn't I'm te The R-1-T-E I'm telling you Why, this on 1 wouldn't t ing you— make a car rig ight ! good for ten years yet half what I paid for her on a trade-in right now! TOUGH LUCK “SO YOU HIKED FROM "FRISCO TO NEW YORK IN FIC It wouldn’ Cheaper to ri This car will still be on the r a couple like that Tir ing Are ready for the junk heap. What ? You'll allow two hundred ! Two HUNDRED TWO hundred !? Well, when can you del One-Man Show Dicky Ms an Elk Micky: Gee! Wot does it ¢ UT pays! “YES. 1 SHOULD HAVE MADE IT IN SEVEN, BUT I HAD TO WALK TEN MILES comicbooks.com